Socialist Texas professor calls for University of Houston to be renamed 'George Floyd University'
University of Houston professor David McNally proposed renaming his school to "
George Floyd University" and abolishing tuition and grades at the Socialism 2025 conference Saturday.
While wearing a keffiyeh, McNally spoke on a
panel in Chicago about what fighting the state would look like in the "context of growing an insurgent mass movement." Among McNally's ideas for the "de-stateification" of the University of Houston, which is a public university, included honoring Floyd after his highly publicized death in May 2020.
"We would open the university up in such a way that it becomes a resource of the broader community," McNally said. "And I can tell you with great confidence that in the Third Ward of Houston, that means that we will be renamed the George Floyd University."
He pointed out that Floyd grew up in the Third Ward and went to school close to the campus before moving to Minneapolis.
McNally also recounted his experience of watching the
George Floyd Black Lives Matter protests in June 2020, where he saw police officers being overwhelmed by protesters.
"All of a sudden you got a glimpse of what it means when we control the streets because the cops were backing off. They were completely outnumbered," McNally recalled. "You begin to sense what happens when the balance of social forces, even in one small situation, shifts and how the horizons of possibility change. For that period of time, that part of downtown Houston was not in their hands anymore. It was in our hands. It was in insurgent hands."
In the aftermath of Floyd’s death, the University of Houston hosted multiple courses and projects centered around racial oppression. This included 2022’s
Project on Race and Capitalism, which was directed by McNally.
McNally suggested that the "social insurgency" he's seen from the anti-Israel campus protests could be the next insurgent moment they would need to enact change if it could be "dramatically extended."
His other proposals were abolishing campus police and replacing them with "democratically constituted and elected safety committees," restoring the LGBTQ+ center, declaring the school a "sanctuary campus" from ICE officers and fighting to "abolish tuition and grades."
The University of Houston closed down its LGBTQ+ center in 2023 after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law Senate Bill 17,
which banned diversity, equity and inclusion offices in public schools.
In a statement to
Fox News Digital, a spokesperson for the school said that McNally’s comments did not "represent the views of the University of Houston." However, they added, while faculty members enjoy First Amendment rights, the "context, setting or other circumstances" of the comments could "impact those rights."
