As Indiana University prepares to name an atrium after PBS host Tavis Smiley, another institution of higher learning has decided to remove his name from a building on its campus.
A long-brewing dispute between the broadcaster and Texas Southern University ended Friday when the school’s governing board agreed to take Smiley’s name off of its communication school.
According to the Houston Chronicle’s Chron.com, Smiley promised in 2004 to donate $1 million and to raise another $1 million for TSU. In turn, the school created the Tavis Smiley School of Communication in his honor.
As of today, Smiley has made one $50,000 donation in mid-2005 and raised $250,000 from three corporate donors. He said Friday that he had intended to fulfill his personal $1 million pledge, and that former university President Priscilla Slade offered to name the school for him before he pledged any money.
“I even made a joke, how much is this decision going to cost me?” he told Chron.com. “She said, ‘This decision has already been made.’”
“It doesn’t feel good,” Smiley said of the board’s decision. “My intentions were to help the students.”
TSU President John Rudley said talks broke down last month after more than a year of negotiations, and Rudley informed Smiley the deal was off.
“Because you did not fulfill your original commitment to our partnership, TSU plans to treat the partnership as being at an end,” Rudley wrote in a letter dated Sept. 28. “TSU will therefore remove your name from the School of Communication and the KTSU Radio facility to allow us to provide other major donors with the naming opportunity.”
Smiley responded in an e-mail to Rudley. “I understand your letter to say that you don’t want that gift,” he wrote. “I … will continue with my benevolence where it’s appreciated.”
Rudley says the move to drop Smiley’s name was strictly business and there are no hard feelings toward the journalist.
“He had his reasons for what he wasn’t doing,” he said. “But from the university’s standpoint, we had to move on. …We still like Tavis Smiley a lot.”
As previously reported, the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA) will name the atrium of its IU Bloomington building after Smiley during a ceremony scheduled for Friday, Oct. 30.
