A question for state schoolers
 

Has your school ever changed names while you were attending or after you graduated? Has another school in your system changed names? Specifically, has any school (yours or another in your system) went from University of X-State at X-City to just University of X-State...or X-State University? How did you feel about this?

I guess a simple answer would be that whatever school decides to call themselves University of X-State will alienate the rest of the schools within the system. It kind of implies that they were the first established and/or the most important/prestigious university. Even if it is true (it pretty much is most of time), the other colleges within the system won't appreaciate the name change.

The above aside, what other advantages will a school gain if they change their name? What disadvantages will the name change effect the other schools within the system?

My alma mater went from Southwest Texas State University to Texas State University - San Marcos. I HATE IT. It has had some form of "Southwest Texas" in its name from the get-go (1899). The reasoning behind the name change was that "directional" school names don't have cachet. They alientated a great many alumni, including me, because the name change was seen as being at the behest of the athletic department, damn tradition. We were always "Southwest Texans". Now what are we - TSU-SM? S and M????? I don't wish to be "TSU" - in Texas, that is either Texas Southern University, a historically black school that has been plagued by a seemingly never-ending series of scandals, or Tarleton State University, the "cowboy" college. Both schools have produced some impressive alumni - but I don't wish to be associated with either. Southwest Texas was distinctive and unique. Texas State University - San Marcos already has to share the stage with Texas State University - Round Rock. We are reduced to being no better than a johnny come lately commuter school.
ARRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH.

Is this about that whole Southwest Missouri/Missouri State thing?

All the state schools in PA are [Town Name Where the School Is] University of PA...they started out as [Town Name] Normal School, to [Town Name] State Teachers College, to [Town Name] State College and now University.

A couple years ago, the president of California U of PA wanted to change their name to Eberly University (after a prominent donor) because he thought people got confused as to where the school was and it was "hurting their enrollment." Considering Indiana U of PA is the biggest school in the system, that was a really dumb argument.

He also talked about other names which would have made it, IMO, EVEN HARDER for people to understand where the school is.

http://www.postgazette.com/regionsta...erlyreg4p4.asp

Indiana U of PA mostly goes by IUP. I think they have it on their official stationary and such, rather than spelling it out. That's about as much of a "difference" as people are willing to put up with.

I can't see ANY of the state schools changing their name unless they completely leave the state system.

I totally agree with this and thought the name change was silly. You, however, are cracking me up with the "cowboy" college reference. Thank you for making me smile! :)

In the Commonwealth of Virginia sometime after we moved here in 2000, the College of Mary Washington became the University of Mary Washington in recognition of the number of graduate programs. There was much dissention about the decision.

Apparently GMU was originally named "George Mason College of the University of Virginia."

Longwood University was also founded under a different name as any member of the Farmville 4 would know. It was founded in 1839 as the Farmville Female Seminary Association, was designated as Farmville Female College in 1860. It became the State Normal School for Women in 1914, the State Teachers College at Farmville in 1924, and Longwood College in 1949.

IIRC, many of the old state teachers colleges in Massachusetts are now called UMass-Location.

Ohio State
 

The Ohio State University was founded in 1870 under the name of the Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College. In 1878, the college permanently changed its name to the now-familiar "The Ohio State University."

Texas State University
 

I don't know anyone who calls it TSU--everyone I know calls it Texas State or "That school in San Marcos". And we rarely reference Round Rock.

Laughing & remembering how frustrated my aunts were about me always confusing Pennsylvania State University and University of Pennsylvania as a kid - especially since two were professors at PSU!

More trivia:

The Normal School for Colored Girls was founded in 1851 in DC by Myrtilla Miner.
1861 - Became the Institution for Education of Colored Youth
1871 - Associated with Howard University as the Miner Normal School
1879 - Miner Normal School becomes part of the DC Public School system
1929 - accredited by congress as Miner Teacher's College
1955 - Merged with the all-white Wilson Teacher's College to become DC Teachers College
1977 - DC Teachers College merges with Federal City College and the Washington Technical Institute to become the University of the District of Columbia

I had teachers who went to the DC Teachers College.

I think TX State is clunky compared to SWTexas - but I'm biased. The school kept telling alumni "We won't be TSU "- and I guess they've been successful, but it seems to me a battle that didn't need to be fought.

Plus how would you yell "Who ya rootin' for - S W T ! Who are you - G Phi B!"???

And yes, TX State-Round Rock is hardly a blip on the radar, but if SOME had their way, we'd have TX State-Huntsville, TX State- Nacanowhere (you Texans know what I mean :)) , etc.

The change from college to university is different. That is more of a recognition of a change in degrees offered than a mere whim of the administration.

My alma mater started out as Alabama Girls' Industrial School in 1896, then became the Alabama Girls' Technical Institute in 1911, Alabama Girls' Technical Institute and State College in 1919 (it was previously just a high school/vo-tech school), Alabama College: The State College for Women in 1923, Alabama College in 1956 (after men were admitted), and finally the University of Montevallo in 1969.

Whew. :)

Yes, including Mizzou, UMR, and another school that I cannot remember right now. This is getting crazy.

My school is one of two in the system that is simply (city) State University The others are all Cali State UNiversity @ (city) I've heard this is because the first two were founded before the whole system was formalized into the California State University system. They also DID just change the name of California State University Hayward to "California State University East Bay"
I personally didn't really like this name change, but it was done to "better reflect the geographic location the students represent == shrugs==


All the University of California are University of California at (city) but that is a completely different system. =)

slightly off-topic, but i have this argument with my boss ALL THE TIME. are there levels of "prestige" within the UC system? For example, UCLA and Berkeley are pretty up there, and others are... not? My boss says theyre all the same cause theye state schools (to which i say, well they all have their own administration and student bodies). but then he says all the SUNY schools (NY's state school system) are different because theyre "in different locations."

clearly hes an idiot - but i will say, IMO, the SUNYs dont have much prestige amongst each other (though im sure Albany, Binghamton and Buffalo, Old West and Stonybrook get more play than say, SUNY Plattsburgh, Onieda and Potsdam)

side note: this is why it would piss me off when the actors on Felicity would refer to NYU as "University of NY," cause umm... NYU =/= SUNY.

Felicity and a million other shows use University of New York because of copyright issues of NYU.

Yes, there is a hierarchy among the UCs. Berekely, LA and SD are top three. Merced is brand new so I'd think it'd be at the bottom by default. SF is graduate only with a focus on medical so it doesn't really compare.

Berekely
LA/SD -> Lot's of debate over how much the LA D1 standing drives it's popularity over SD. Last year, I believe, SD got more applicants than LA.
Davis
Irvine
Santa Barbara/Riverside/Santa Cruz **
Merced

**Santa Barbara is hurt by a party reputation. Riverside suffers, IMO, from "red headed step child syndrome". Santa Cruz went too long before deciding to give grades in classes.

UF and FSU used to have different names a loooong time ago.

UF was a merger of the East Florida Seminary in Gainesville and the Florida Agricultural College in Lake City.

FSU was the Florida State College for Women, and it had even been the West Florida Seminary before that.

More recently, the New College of the University of South Florida was renamed the New College of Florida.

In Kansas, Pittsburg State Un, was Kansas State Normal College, then Kansas State Teachers College, Pittsburg State College, and finally PSU.

SWMo became Missouri State Un.

NEMo. became Truman State Un.
NWMo, Western Mo. changed from a Jr. College along with Southern Mo. to both being Mo. Western Un. and Mo. Southern Un.

UnMo Rolla is in the process of changing or trying to change their name as is UnMo.-Columbia and drop the Columbia.

Cal State Long Beach started out as "Los Angeles-Orange County State University" (maybe that's where they got the idea for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim?)

sometime in the 50's they renamed it Long Beach State College, and now its offcially CSU-Long Beach. But Long Beach State has always stuck. If yuu're from Long Beach or west Orange County, "State" means Long Beach State. In San Diego, "State" means San Diego State, which was once San Diego Normal School.
I don't think there was ever an effort to rename SDSU to CSU-San Diego. Maybe it was too confusing with UC-San Diego.

somewhere I read that if you qualify for admittance to the UC system, but you don't get your first or second choice campus, you are guaranteed admission at UC Riverside or Merced. I don't know anything about Merced but everyone I've ever met who actually went to UC Riverside loved it there!

Cal States? There are 5 of 23 which don't use the "CSU-City Name" and use "City Name State University" instead:

Humboldt State University
San Diego State University
San Francisco State University
San Jose State University
Sonoma State University

For what's it's worth, when I was an undergrad at CSU-Long Beach, there was a question brought before the students are to whether or not to officially change the name to "Long Beach State University". The measure was voted down. We did, however, officially vote in the 'previously unofficial' school colors of black and gold. :)

I don't know if things were different before or after I went there (mid-late 1990s), but I never heard anyone call CSULB "State" and I lived in Long Beach for 7 years. We called it "The Beach". Though, here in San Diego, "State" most definitely refers to SDSU.

Go Beach!

.....Kelly :)

My alma mater made an official name change about 3 years ago. When I was there, it was known as Troy State University. Before that it was Troy State College. Now, it's known as Troy University. The Board of Trustees decided to make the change since Troy is quickly becoming a major international university with lots of programs in Europe and China. They felt that saying Troy State University defined the boundaries and was too regional. Now we are TROY University.

It's kind of hard to get used to...I still call it Troy State, but also call it Troy. It's even harder for our alums from the 50's who are used to calling it Troy College.


I don't know exactly how many branches we have, but I do know just in Alabama and Florida we have

Troy U--Troy
Troy U--Montgomery
Troy U--Dothan
Troy U--NW Florida Region
Troy U--Tampa Region


That's not counting our branches on military bases and in China and Germany.

I think we're considered one of the fastest growing colleges now.

I think my dad's in the minority...
 

My dad got his masters from Sangamon State University in Illinois. In 1995 Sangamon State joined the U of IL system and his alma mater's name changed to the University of Illinois at Springfield. He was pretty jazzed about it, actually. "Nobody's ever heard of Sangamon State, but you say the University of Illinois and people know what you mean." He got a new degree certificate for his wall and changed his resume and everything.

The locals definitely call CSULB "State. " As opposed to City...y'know, the University of Carson&Clark?!!! I wondered when they officially changed the colors...there was a proposal in the 80's to change the mascot and the colors to something more "ocean" themed but nobody really liked the idea! I think they started selling all the "Beach State" stuff about that time but it took a little while to catch on...Kelly, do you know when the baseball team adopted Dirtbags as their nickname?

Oh yeah there's levels of prestige... I mean yeah they are all state schools, but Berkeley and UCLA are amongst the top "state" universities in the country, so they def. carry more prestige as they are harder to get into, and receive more applications.
I don't know how true this is anymore, but I know that Santa Cruz, and Riverside, and now I'm sure Merced are usually able to pretty much "guranantee" anyone UC eligble (meaning their GPA and SAT scores, are within range on a sliding scale like the Higher your SAT score the lower your GPA can be and vice versa, and you've taken the requesite HS courses) would get in.

There is also some hierarchy amongst the State University system as well, althogh not as pronounded I'd say, with Cal Poly San Luis Obispo leading the way there.


Navane,
I did forget about those other (city) state University Schools, I was just tryign to point out it's not the norm, as there are only 5 named that way out of like 22 or 23 campuses.

It's happened to me twice. When I started grad school, it was at Memphis State University. That summer they changed to University of Memphis. The reasoning: The Board of Trustees wanted the name to reflect that Memphis is an urban school

The second time was after I moved here to Texas. I started my second master's at East Texas State University. They switched systems and became Texas A&M -Commerce. Most people I know wish A&M had let them stay ETSU or switch to University of East Texas or Texas Eastern University. They feel like a satellite campus.

When I was growing up in Columbus, most people just called it Ohio State -- or just "State."

The "The" started a few years ago.

It think it sounds really pretentious.

While we don't use our "The," Ohio University was called The Ohio University when founded in 1804.

We're nice, though, and allow our younger sister to use it -- even though they tried to copyright the word "Ohio" a few years ago.

How crass.

The copywriting of "Ohio" was completely stupid in MHO. I was annoyed when they tried to tell all the sports writers to stop calling us "Ohio University" and just call us "Ohio".

And I think the "The" thing started when in the late 80s/early 90s Ohio State tried to get people to stop calling the school "OSU" becuase it caused confusion with other OSUs. So the school started to really push it's offical name. I remember getting brochures from them in high school and one year it had "OSU" on it and the next it was "The Ohio State University".

Younger sister who is bigger, better and has a far higher reputation than the party school in the hills.

The nice thing about Greek Chat is that you're allowed to make unsubstantiated claims.

Bigger does not necessarily equal better.

Oh, and I have no problem with parties.

I find the "party school" label really interesting. Most members of college administrations cringe when their school is called a "party school", however most alumni wear it as a badge of honor (and in some cases even vote online to make their alma mater win party school contests). This holds true for not just Ohio University, but Wisconsin, IU, Ball State and others (at least the alumni I know).

I have been to parties at both Ohio State and Ohio University and it is impossible to say one school parties any harder, it's just that OU students stay near campus while Ohio State students scatter throughout Columbus (which in my mind is much more dangerous in terms of drunk driving).

So if the fact that OU students love Athens enough to want to stay on the weekends and have a great time makes us a party school, then I proudly embrace the "Party School" label.

As for the "higher reputation", while I love Ohio State, I beg to differ. At least in 1992, OU's College of Communication (Now Scripps College of Communication) was ranked in the top 10 nationally for Telecommunications. I don't believe Ohio State even ranked.

I'm off my soapbox now.

I'll give OU their laurels on top 10 communications schools, but you guys make this too easy:


U.S. News & World Report’s widely read rankings of undergraduate colleges in America currently places Ohio State as the 19th best public university and 57th overall ranked university in America as well as the highest ranked public university in Ohio. China's Shanghai Jiao Tong University placed Ohio State as the 61st ranked university in the world in their 2007 Academic Ranking of World Universities
The Lombardi Program on Measuring University Performance at Arizona State University detailed analysis and rankings of American universities currently places Ohio State as the 25th ranked university in America, the 11th ranked public university in America and the top overall university in Ohio. Of their nine ranking criteria, Ohio State ranked in the top-25 in four categories and between 26-50 in an additional four categories. The Washington Monthly college rankings which seek to evaluate colleges' contributions to American society based on factors of social mobility, cutting edge research and service to the country by their graduates currently places Ohio State as 12th in the nation and 10th among public universities.
Ohio State is also the only public university in Ohio to which the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has given both its highest overall classification of Doctoral/Very High Research Activity and highest undergraduate admissions classification of more selective.
US News ranks the undergraduate program at Ohio State's Fisher College of Business 12th in America and the top undergraduate business school in Ohio. The graduate program of the Fisher College is ranked 22nd in America and the top graduate school of business in Ohio. The Economist ranked The Fisher College as the 29th ranked MBA program in the world in their 2005 "Which MBA?" issue. In 2006, The Public Accounting Report ranked Ohio State's accounting department 9th in the nation for undergraduate programs and 10th in the nation for graduate programs. In each case, the ranking was the highest among Ohio universities.The Ohio State law school is ranked by US News as the top law school in Ohio and 31st overall in America. Ohio State's medical school is ranked as the top public medical school in Ohio and 31st for research and 38th for primary care. US News ranks Ohio State's undergraduate engineering program as the 25th best program in America and the top undergraduate engineering program in Ohio. Its graduate program in engineering is ranked 26th in the country and highest in Ohio. Ohio State's College of Education was ranked 17th in America by US News and the highest in Ohio. The Counseling/Personnel Services graduate program at Ohio State is ranked 4th in America by the 2008 'US News & World Report'. In total, US News & World Report ranked 19 Ohio State graduate programs or specialties among the nation's top ten and 30 among the nation's top 25.
Ohio State's political science department is ranked thirteenth in the country by US News & World Report, with the American politics section 5th, international politics 12th and political methodology 10th. A study by The London School of Economics ranked it as the fourth best political science department in the world. Foreign Policy Magazine recently ranked it as the 15th best Ph.D. program in the world for the study of international relations while noting Professor Alexander Wendt as the third most influential scholar of international relations in the world.
Ohio State is one of a select few top American universities to offer multiple area studies programs under "Comprehensive National Resource Center" (often called "Title VI") funding from the U.S. Department of Education. The most notable of these is the Center for Slavic and East European Studies founded in 1965 by Professor Leon Twarog. Subsequently, Ohio State's Middle Eastern Studies Center and East Asian Studies Center also achieved Comprehensive National Resource Center status. The university is also home to the interdisciplinary Mershon Center for International Security Studies, which was founded in 1952 through a bequest of 7 million dollars (54.3 million in 2006 value) from alumnus Colonel Ralph D. Mershon. In 2003, it was decided by the United States Department of Homeland Security to base the National Academic Consortium for Homeland Security at The Mershon Center.
In a study by industry publication Dance Teacher, a survey of 100 dance department chairs in the United States and Canada ranked Ohio State's Department of Dance as the top ranked graduate program and the second ranked undergraduate program in North America.

OU does rank high in Sports Sciences, Journalism and Fine Arts.

I don't have a dog in this fight, but . . .

You might as well say U.S. News & World Report's widely read and equally widely ridiculed and criticized rankings of undergraduate colleges in America. Same goes for most other "rankings."

I'd bet students and grads of most other schools, including Ohio University, wouldn't have wasted their time putting together a post this long, with all those hyperlinks -- they'd know it just starts to read like something Charlie Brown's teacher would write.

Looks to me like someone is overcompensating. ;)

Really?

Hrm...that must be new as I've never heard it! Of course, I last lived in Long Beach in 2002!

LOL....we called it "Bunny State U"!

I wonder if they ever did get rid of all of the feral rabbits....


I don't know anything about "ocean colors"; but, I actually started noticing clothing and items which said "Beach" or "Go Beach" right around 1997-98 or so. We have former University President Dr. Robert Maxson to thank for that. :) He popularized the phrase, "Go Beach!"

1989. :)

"The unofficial nickname of Long Beach State 49er baseball team refers to the program’s style of play and success against higher profile programs. The moniker was first coined for Coach Snow’s first team in 1989 which was comprised of nearly all new players. Playing without a home field (LBCC, Cerritos JC and Blair Field), and practicing at a local all-dirt Pony Field, that team won its first 18 games and advanced to the 49ers first College World Series appearance. Then-infield coach Dave Malpass would take his infielders to the all-dirt field for their rigorous workout. The infielders would return to the regular practice field after their sessions covered in dirt. Thus the name “Dirtbags” was born. The name resurfaced again in 1993 when the 12-12 49ers rallied to win 34 of their next 41 games and finish three outs short of the National Championship game. The “Dirtbags” were once again a fan favorite at the 1998 College World Series as the country received a lesson in “Dirtbag” baseball."

http://www.longbeachstate.com/bbo/bb...agmeaning.html


.....Kelly :)