The call for Roger Williams University to drop former Board of Trustees Chairman Ralph R. Papitto’s name from its law school intensified yesterday, as the law school’s faculty union announced it would hold an emergency meeting this week.

For the first time, a Roger Williams professor publicly demanded that Papitto’s name be removed from the law school. A group of minority legislators joined in the outcry, and 179 law students signed a petition calling for the name change.

Papitto, 80, the board’s chairman for 20 years, who has given $2.8 million to the school over the years, stepped down July 9, citing his age and desire to spend more time with his family. On Saturday, The Journal reported that Papitto had been forced off the board after using a racial slur during a May 2 meeting while discussing the need to add more women and minorities to the board. (Of the board’s 16 members, 14 were white men.)

Three trustees who called for Papitto to resign after he uttered the racial slur, including the board’s only two women, say they were wrongfully removed from the board in retaliation.

Yesterday, criticism mounted over the conduct of the trustees who did not speak out against the racial slur and who supported the ouster of Dr. Barbara H. Roberts, Sally E. Lapides and Joseph A. Caramadre.

“We felt this was an issue that was important to lawmakers and we believe his name should come down,” said Rep. Joseph S. Almeida, D-Providence, chairman of the Rhode Island Minority Legislator/Leadership Caucus. “In fact, having Mr. Papitto use the ‘N-word’ made us wonder if there is enough diversity in all the board of trustees at all the colleges, so that’s something else we may want to look into.”

Almeida said the lawmakers would also ask the Board of Trustees to reinstate the three ousted board members. He also said that the caucus would hold a news conference at the State House at 11 this morning.

“The minority caucus is also involved in civil rights and human rights, and shame on Roger Williams, specifically the board, for acting in a clandestine manner to push those members off the board,” he said. “We need to support those so-called whistle-blowers.”

FACULTY MEMBERS are expressing their concern about the controversy.

The law school faculty will meet within the next few days “to consider a resolution asking the governing board to restore the original name of the school,” said Prof. Carl T. Bogus. The school was originally named the Roger Williams University School of Law.

A writing professor, Melvyn A. Topf, also sent an e-mail to university President Roy J. Nirschel calling for the university to remove Papitto’s name from the law school — the only faculty member to publicly do so. Topf, who is president of the university’s faculty union, said he wrote as a “longtime faculty member” and a graduate of the law school. He said he was worried that the controversy would mar the reputation of the university, which has markedly improved under Nirschel.

“I am frankly embarrassed to have any building or school named after such a person as Mr. Papitto,” Topf said. He called on university officials to do more than make statements condemning racist speech and praising the need for diversity.

“The removal of Mr. Papitto’s name from the law school would be a concrete and meaningful gesture demonstrating that you are truly committed to rectifying the conditions that Mr. Papitto did so much to bring about.”

Student organizers began an online petition Monday, asking the law school’s 600 students to demand that Papitto’s name be removed. By 5 p.m. yesterday, 179 students, most of whom are on summer vacation, had signed the petition, which was submitted to Nirschel and David Logan, dean of the law school.

“Students are outraged at the reports that this was not an isolated incident, that the whistle-blowers were punished and that the Board of Trustees were apparently not following their by-laws for years on end,” said a statement from student organizers Matt Jerzyk, Majessire Smith and Kim Ahern. “The administration must hold Papitto accountable for his actions and ensure that our school does not condone racism and bigotry in our learning environment.”

Mike Doyle of the RDW Group, a public relations firm hired last week by the new Board of Trustees chairman, Richard L. Bready, said changing the name of the law school would require a simple vote of the board, which is expected to grow to more than 20 members for the 2007-’08 school year. Doyle said he expects the law school’s name to be discussed at the board’s August meeting.

CHANGING THE NAME of an academic building or program is not unprecedented, and usually happens because of a scandal.

In the 1980s, Villanova University, in Pennsylvania, accepted money from John du Pont, an heir to the chemical company fortune, for a new basketball arena, called du Pont Pavillion. But the university removed du Pont’s name in 1997 after his conviction for murder.

Two years ago, Seton Hall University, in New Jersey, removed the name of disgraced Tyco chief executive officer L. Dennis Koz-lowski from an academic building and library rotunda. Kozlowski had been convicted of stealing $150 million from Tyco.

And billionaire Wal-Mart heirs Nancy and Bill Laurie were forced to remove their daughter Paige’s name from the Paige Sports Arena at the University of Missouri in 2004, when allegations surfaced that Paige had paid her college roommate $20,000 to do her homework while she was a student at the University of Southern California. The Lauries had given Missouri $25 million for the arena.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the amount of money the Lauries' daughter paid her college roommate to do her homework.