BATON ROUGE, LA – In a 2 a.m. emergency session Sunday, LSU’s Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to remove the name Thomas Boyd Hall from the university’s main administrative building, citing “heightened sensitivity to weapon-related histories” after two consecutive weekends of campus shootings.
The decision follows the discovery of a long-forgotten faculty memo alleging that former LSU President Thomas D. Boyd once discharged a musket indoors after losing a poker game to colleagues in the 1920s. Though no one was injured and records suggest the weapon may have been decorative, board members said the incident “sends the wrong message during a time of ongoing gun violence.”
“LSU is committed to providing a safe environment,” said Interim President Dr. Elaine Roberts. “While we can’t control every act of modern violence, we can ensure no building honors someone who mishandled a 1900s firearm in frustration.”
The move mirrors LSU’s 2023 decision to strip Troy H. Middleton’s name from the university library, a precedent administrators said proved “the power of renaming to achieve absolutely nothing of substance.”
The university will announce a new name only after a full review confirms the nominee’s lifelong compliance with firearm-free living standards, including never having watched a single episode of The Rifleman, any Clint Eastwood movies or that episode of Andy Griffith where Barney actually loaded that one bullet into his revolver.
