The decision to change the name of Forrest Hall at Middle Tennessee State University has been passed on to the Tennessee Board of Regents.
MTSU President Sidney McPhee has accepted a task force's recommendation to change the name of Forrest Hall, the building that houses the university’s Army Reserve Officers Training Corps program.
The building’s namesake, Nathan Bedford Forrest, was a Confederate General and had early ties to the KKK.
McPhee said in a letter on Thursday:
“It is clear that there are many wide-ranging and contradicting views about the life and legacy of Confederate Lt. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest. I do not feel it is my role to discern the appropriateness or relevance of his actions prior, during or after the Civil War.
It is appropriate, however, for me to assess whether the decision made in the middle of the 20th Century to name the building for General Forrest remains in our best interest in the second decade of the 21st Century.”
Members of the panel were appointed last year to offer their recommendation. They held their final of five meetings in late April.
