Title
Naming of Lake on UF’s Campus as Liberty Pond (B)
Explanation
The U.S. Board on Geographic Names
(BGN) is responsible by law for standardizing geographic names for use by the Federal Government. The BGN accepts proposals to name or rename geographic features and makes decisions on proposals only after considering local opinion and recommendations. As a first step, the BGN asks staff to reach out to local governments who have been elected to represent their citizens and other entities that might have an interest in the proposal.
An individual associated with the University of Florida submitted a proposal to the BGN to officially name an unnamed lake on the UF campus as Liberty Pond. This name is already in use by the University and was chosen by the UF Board of Trustees in a 2013 resolution. The name refers to presence of the pond in the UF Veteran’s Memorial. The pond was formerly known as Green Pond and that name still appears in some sources. The pond has never been officially named on any Federal map.
The BGN accepts and votes on proposals as long as those proposals meet the BGN’s Principles and Policies . A proposal may be to apply a new name to a currently unnamed geographic feature, or to change an existing name, spelling, or location. The BGN is not part of the U.S. Geological Survey; the USGS is just one of many member agencies that have a vote on the BGN. The BGN is reactive; it does not initiate these proposals except in rare cases of obvious map labeling errors.
The BGN places importance on local opinion when it votes on any proposal. The BGN has no requirement on how a local government develops its recommendation, as long as it is provided to the BGN by the elected leaders or an office designated to speak for them. The BGN does not have the resources to contact every landowner that may be impacted by the proposal.
To make an informed decis...
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