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My fiancee is a Mount Union Alumni and received an e-mail the other day letting all Alumni and current students know about the plan to change the name of the school from Mount Union College to Mount Union University. Needless to say, TONS of alumni have voiced their displeasure for this move. It will be interesting to see if the Board of Trustees will reverse their decision.

It's not an uncommon move by colleges. "University" denotes a higher level of academic rigor and a broader range of programs to potential students. The change usually is made to show that a school has a greater number of graduate programs than a "mere college" which focuses more on undergraduate teaching. Administrators also feel that it sounds more prestigious. Findlay did this years ago and Longwood University in Virginia did it a few years ago while my wife was working there. Alumni will be annoyed but it won't really affect donations so the administration will go ahead with it.

Did people stop going to Anaheim hockey games because they changed the name from the Mighty Ducks to the Ducks? It's really a non-issue.

rood wrote:...and Longwood University in Virginia did it a few years ago while my wife was working there.

Husein Pistoljevic, FTW!

TG1996 wrote:

rood wrote:...and Longwood University in Virginia did it a few years ago while my wife was working there.

Husein Pistoljevic, FTW!

Wow, didn't expect anyone to recognize that reference.

rood wrote:It's not an uncommon move by colleges. "University" denotes a higher level of academic rigor and a broader range of programs to potential students. The change usually is made to show that a school has a greater number of graduate programs than a "mere college" which focuses more on undergraduate teaching. Administrators also feel that it sounds more prestigious. Findlay did this years ago and Longwood University in Virginia did it a few years ago while my wife was working there. Alumni will be annoyed but it won't really affect donations so the administration will go ahead with it.

Did people stop going to Anaheim hockey games because they changed the name from the Mighty Ducks to the Ducks? It's really a non-issue.

Sort of: Linky

Well, if you're going to compare Mount Union with Dartmouth I'm just going to quit now.

rood wrote:Did people stop going to Anaheim hockey games because they changed the name from the Mighty Ducks to the Ducks? It's really a non-issue.

Did people go to the Ducks games BEFORE they changed the name???

rood wrote:

TG1996 wrote:

rood wrote:...and Longwood University in Virginia did it a few years ago while my wife was working there.

Husein Pistoljevic, FTW!

Wow, didn't expect anyone to recognize that reference.

With a team name like "Longwood", I just had to pay attention. Also, former BG guard Michael Huger is/was an assistant coach there.

VDub26Falcon wrote:

rood wrote:Did people stop going to Anaheim hockey games because they changed the name from the Mighty Ducks to the Ducks? It's really a non-issue.

Did people go to the Ducks games BEFORE they changed the name???

touche!

It interests me to point out that BGSU was once Bowling Green Normal College. Wonder how alumni of BGNC felt about it becoming BGSU.

Who cares? I think most of them are dead.

Sorry...that was insensitive...now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Ydfalcon wrote:It interests me to point out that BGSU was once Bowling Green Normal College. Wonder how alumni of BGNC felt about it becoming BGSU.

I thought the same thing, but BG was a growing 35ish year old when that name changed happened. Mount Union has been around for 160 or so.

Either way, they should be glad they didn't go to Tri-State in Indiana, who renamed their school "Trine University" after a big donor who didn't even go to the school. Now THOSE are some unhappy campers.

TG1996 wrote:

Ydfalcon wrote:It interests me to point out that BGSU was once Bowling Green Normal College. Wonder how alumni of BGNC felt about it becoming BGSU.

I thought the same thing, but BG was a growing 35ish year old when that name changed happened. Mount Union has been around for 160 or so.

Either way, they should be glad they didn't go to Tri-State in Indiana, who renamed their school "Trine University" after a big donor who didn't even go to the school. Now THOSE are some unhappy campers.

Oh, yeah, I pretty much assumed it was an issue of Mount Union being much more established than BG was at the time we changed our name. I wasn't really saying it was a good or bad name change, but it would be interesting if we could hear from some BGNC alumni as to how they felt about our name change.

And as for the Tri-State/Trine issue... I would be very upset if I were an alumni there.

Ydfalcon wrote:

TG1996 wrote:

Ydfalcon wrote:It interests me to point out that BGSU was once Bowling Green Normal College. Wonder how alumni of BGNC felt about it becoming BGSU.

I thought the same thing, but BG was a growing 35ish year old when that name changed happened. Mount Union has been around for 160 or so.

Either way, they should be glad they didn't go to Tri-State in Indiana, who renamed their school "Trine University" after a big donor who didn't even go to the school. Now THOSE are some unhappy campers.

Oh, yeah, I pretty much assumed it was an issue of Mount Union being much more established than BG was at the time we changed our name. I wasn't really saying it was a good or bad name change, but it would be interesting if we could hear from some BGNC alumni as to how they felt about our name change.

And as for the Tri-State/Trine issue... I would be very upset if I were an alumni there.

I had a friend that went to Tri-State and people would actually ask him if Tri-State was that trucking driving school they saw on tv.