University of North Texas librarians had no say in the decision to move Sycamore Library out of the 1930s building it has occupied for decades, the university's top librarian told the student newspaper, the North Texas Daily, in a story published Thursday.
The library and the anthropology, sociology and journalism departments are to leave Sycamore Hall by 2030 so the building can be renovated for the Anuradha and Vikas Sinha College of Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Analytics, the Daily reported.
"The decision making process for that took place above my head," Sian Brannon, university librarian and vice provost, told the Daily in an Oct. 27 interview. She said she had no role in placing the college in the building or in reorganizing the departments already there.
What the emails show
The Daily said emails it obtained trace how the plan reached the library. In December 2025, Brannon told faculty that Michael McPherson, then the provost, had said the library had no plans to move.
On Feb. 20, 2026, the day after a Board of Regents meeting where a facilities official first discussed the building's future, McPherson wrote that the renovation was "apparently now a 'go,'" according to the newspaper. He later wrote that he had missed an earlier email notifying him of the decision and that the delay in telling the library was his fault, the Daily reported.
Full-time library staff were told in April.
The university's case
UNT gave the Daily a written statement on Oct. 21 confirming the moves. The statement said Sycamore Hall was built in 1938, has not had major infrastructure work since the 1970s and is set to be renovated and modernized "to better serve student and faculty needs while aligning with the university's strategic priorities."
