Brian Wilson, Daily News Journal, March 20, 2016
The 600-pound bronze medallion that resembled Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest remained at Keathley University Center until 1989.
(Photo: MTSU Gore Center)
MURFREESBORO — As the debate about the name of Forrest Hall rages on in the Middle Tennessee State University community, the Army ROTC building is not on the university’s draft master plan for the next 10 to 15 years.
While the master plan envisions an open space in the place where Forrest Hall sits, the plan has not been finalized, said MTSU President Sidney McPhee.
“The Campus Master Plan is still in draft form and has not been formally accepted by the university,” said McPhee in an emailed response to questions about the plan.
Even if accepted in its current form, the master plan does not guarantee the direction of the MTSU campus.
No timeline for any change was included in the plan when the plan was shown to university students and faculty in February. The plan was not expected to be finalized until the summer, said Patti Miller, MTSU’s campus architect and assistant vice president for campus planning.
The plan has been described as a vision for how the university could physically serve an expanded student body in the next 10 to 15 years.
The draft master plan envisions an expanded Jones Hall to the west of the Forrest Hall lot. The area where Forrest Hall sits would be vacant, according to maps tied to the master plan.
The name of Forrest Hall has generated months of community debate since McPhee called for a discussion about the building in the summer of 2015.
The task force set to recommend whether to keep the name will have its final public meeting from 5-7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Keathley University Center theater. The panel will review feedback from only community organizations and groups during the meeting. The deadline to speak in front of the panel has already passed.
If the task force recommends a new name by the end of the semester, approval would still be required from McPhee, the Tennessee Board of Regents and the Tennessee Historic Commission before change could be implemented, said Derek Frisby, a global studies professor and chair of the Forrest Hall task force.
“The controversy will outlive the building,” Frisby said.
Forrest Hall was formally named after the controversial Confederate general in 1958, though parts of its building are older than that. A portion of the facility was originally an airplane hangar that existed more than 70 years ago during World War II, Frisby said.
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