September 27, 2022
Dear Tulane Community:
Creating an inclusive university that is dedicated to equity, diversity, compassion, respect and opportunity for students, faculty and staff from all backgrounds is a core value of Tulane and the hallmark of any great university. Building such an academic community is a main pillar of Tulane’s strategic vision. This includes long-term university-wide commitments through the numerous initiatives of the Presidential Commission on Racial Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI). Two major components of the commission are A Plan for Now, which provides structure and direction for EDI initiatives already underway and A Strategy for Tomorrow, which will guide such initiatives across the university over the next five years.
In 2020, as part of our ongoing EDI efforts, we created the Building Naming Task Force, charging it with developing community-wide principles to inform decisions in naming or renaming Tulane buildings and prominent spaces. The Task Force was then asked to apply those guiding principles to provide a recommendation to the Board of Tulane, consistent with legal requirements, regarding the name of Hébert Hall. The Building Naming Task Force’s report and principles can be found here.
F. Edward Hébert Hall, which is home to several academic departments and programs, was named in 1979 following a gift from the F. Edward Hébert Foundation. Hébert was Louisiana’s longest-serving member in the U.S. House of Representatives, having represented southeastern Louisiana for 18 terms in Congress. As a member of Congress, he sponsored legislation that established the federal Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland, whose medical school bears his name.
A native New Orleanian, Hébert attended Tulane from 1920-1924, and had various endeavors in business and journalism before turning several high-profile investigative stories exposing government corruption into a successful run for Congress, where he served from 1941 to 1977. While in Congress, Hébert was a member of the Armed Services Committee, but was also known for his support of segregation.
Since the original naming of Hébert Hall, members of the Tulane community have called for its designation to be changed because of Hébert’s support for segregation throughout his lifetime and until his death in 1979. The gift documentation, which was signed by Tulane leadership at the time, requires that the building bear the name of F. Edward Hébert in perpetuity.
Last year, the Building Naming Task Force, which was made up of students, faculty, staff and alumni, recommended removing the Hébert name as the designation of the hall, if legally possible. Based on this recommendation, the Board of Tulane unanimously voted to authorize Tulane leadership to begin negotiations with the Hébert family as representatives of the F. Edward Hébert Foundation. However, following such discussions, Tulane was unable to reach an agreement to modify the legal requirement that Hébert’s name remain on the building. Throughout these discussions, we sought advice from our legal counsel as well as outside experts, including colleagues at other universities across the nation who are grappling with similar issues.
While the Hébert building and the F. Edward Hébert Center in Belle Chasse, home to the Tulane Biodiversity Research Institute, will retain the Hébert name, beginning this academic year, both will prominently feature contextual facts regarding the history of their naming. Such contextualization was a recommendation of the Task Force if negotiations with the family to remove the name failed.
Through the President’s Commission on Racial Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, plans are also underway to identify naming opportunities for programs and/or interior spaces within Hébert Hall that honor individuals from underrepresented communities who have played prominent roles in our university’s history. These steps are being taken in tandem with other ongoing measures to recognize the contributions of, and provide resources to, individuals from these communities. Many spaces throughout Tulane’s campuses have already been named in honor of such Tulanians through the Tulane Trailblazers program. This includes designating the residence halls on the corner of Willow Street and Janet Yulman Way in honor of the first African American undergraduates to earn degrees from Newcomb and Tulane, respectively: Dr. Deidre Dumas Labat and Reynold T. Décou, Sr. More information about the process for naming space within Hébert will be forthcoming later this semester.
The work of the Tulane History Project, a long-term effort to research and develop a detailed history of the university with respect to its racial history and founding, including the impacts from segregation and slavery, is also continuing. A search for an executive director for the History Project is currently underway.
We are grateful to the undergraduate student leaders and Students Organizing Against Racism (SOAR) for launching the conversation regarding the Hébert building name. Such engagement and passion are critical to making our university a more racially diverse, inclusive and supportive community. While we have much more work to do, we have made progress toward building a university community that we all desire and deserve – one that better reflects our community and welcomes, supports and values the contributions of all Tulanians.
Michael A. Fitts
President
Robin Forman
Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost
