The St. Thomas Board of Trustees approved new university principles on renaming last week, according to a Thursday morning email from President Julie Sullivan.

Sullivan created the Committee to Establish Principles on Renaming last November after her September email revealed that the namesake of the now-demolished Loras Hall, Bishop Mathias Loras, was found to have enslaved a woman for 16 years; now, the committee has a set of guidelines should similar events happen in the future.

“This committee of students, faculty, staff, trustees and alumni worked diligently over the last six months to bring forth ideas based on best-practices and relevant scholarship on renaming,” Sullivan wrote in her Thursday email.

The new principles emphasize that renaming “on account of values” should be a rare event.

“There is a strong presumption against renaming a University of St. Thomas asset on the basis of values associated with its namesake,” the principles read. “Such a renaming should be considered only in exceptional circumstances.”

The principles also outlined the process that St. Thomas community members can use to make a renaming request.

The email did not say if any current buildings will be renamed.

“The result of (the committee’s) work is a very thoughtful set of principles that will serve us well for decades to come,” Sullivan wrote.

Angeline Terry can be reached at terr2351@stthomas.edu.