Former KU Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little

The University of Kansas will name its new integrated science building after its previous chancellor, Bernadette Gray-Little.

At a meeting Wednesday night, the Kansas Board of Regents approved Chancellor Douglas Girod’s request to name the building after KU’s 17th chancellor. It will be called Gray-Little Hall.

“This naming is appropriate because without Chancellor Gray-Little’s chancellorship, certainly this building would not exist today,” Girod told the Regents. “The integrated science building, which I think you all have seen, is really the crown jewel of the Central District, but it’s most importantly 208,000 square feet of impressive research and teaching space.”

The roughly $350 million Central District project was one of the major capital projects undertaken at KU during Gray-Little’s time as chancellor and included the new science building, the Burge Union and student housing facilities, as the Journal-World has reported. The science building opened in 2018.

Gray-Little was both the first woman and the first African American to serve as KU’s chancellor. She served from 2009 to 2017.

At Wednesday’s meeting, Girod listed some of Gray-Little’s other accomplishments for the board, including the implementation of new admissions standards and a new undergraduate curriculum.

In addition to granting KU approval to name a building after Gray-Little, the board also approved KU’s request to name her chancellor emerita.

“Please join me in celebrating both of these honors, which are apt recognitions for a leader whose special dignity and grace made her a role model and an inspiration to students, faculty, staff, and alumni alike,” Girod said in a note to the university Wednesday afternoon.