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The bust of Ernest H. Hereford sits on the third floor of the Central Library on Sept. 22. The bust was recently relocated.<\/p>\n
Photo by Mabel Cruz<\/a><\/p>\n For years, the bronze bust of former UTA President Ernest H. Hereford sat just inside the south entrance of the University Center, a building named after him.<\/p>\n Not anymore.<\/p>\n A recent relocation caught students off guard, and some took their surprise to social media. For many years, students have shared a collective memory of rubbing the bust for good luck<\/a>. <\/p>\n The bust now rests inside a glass encasement on the third-floor staircase of the Central Library as part of the \u201cUTA: Growth and Transformation\u201d exhibit, which showcases 130 years of the university’s history and evolution. <\/p>\n The relocation marks Hereford\u2019s legacy within a broader historical context, said Joe Carpenter, UTA chief communications officer. <\/p>\n It\u2019s a decision long in the works; it comes after years of research, student activism and administrative deliberation \u2014 a slow, sometimes stalled process that ended only recently. <\/p>\n For about seven years, students held demonstrations and met with university leaders to bring up objections to alleged racist behaviors at the university during Hereford\u2019s tenure. <\/p>\n \u201cMy perspective was always that obviously he played a important role in shaping the university as it existed,\u201d said Dylan Buck, former Student Body vice president. \u201cHowever, that doesn\u2019t necessarily mean that we should honor his memory in a way that is without the context of that extra history that coincides with it.\u201d <\/p>\n In 2023, Buck authored Resolution 23-06, \u201cRemoval of E. H. Hereford\u2019s Bust from the UC,\u201d asking for it to be placed in the Central Library\u2019s Special Collections. He introduced it after a resolution calling for a referendum to both remove Hereford\u2019s namesake from the building and relocate the bust was killed twice during a Student Senate meeting. <\/p>\n Hereford served as president of UTA, then known as Arlington State College, from 1949 until his death in 1958. <\/p>\n