It’s expensive along the same lines that Belk Plaza is expensive -yet no academic funds were diverted. That’s simply not how our university operates. There are separate and distinct pots of money and you should explore the university’s budget to educate yourself on the process.
This is a straw man based on a factually unsupported scenario. There is absolutely no evidence to support name changes damaging academic reputations nor do they pose any risk to the operational budget.
The reality is our faculty have expressed concern over our name as evidenced by the 2007 study performed by Stamats. This view is echoed in an informal poll done by The First 49 wherein 79% of respondents supported an institutional name change.
And can someone who knows tell the rest of us what is involved in first getting a name change approved, and secondly, what all goes into it once the new name is approved?
Football was a yes/no - you either add football or you don’t. FJR was a yes/no - you either FJR or you don’t. With a name change, there’s more involved since you first have to agree to change it, then you have to decide what to change it to. I’ve already seen 2 or 3 variations suggested in this thread.
I’m all for it, it’s just more complicated than the previous 2 movements. I would like someone to acknowledge and inform on all these factors without everyone else biting their heads off.
VT and GT are two examples of schools who have technical names different than that which everyone identifies them to be. This is the path of least resistance and is basically just rebranding our image. Since we wouldn’t actually be changing our name I would assume it is a decision that we can make unilaterally at our campus level.
Now if we actually change our name formally, that has to be taken up by our BoT which then has to seek BoG approval.
The university at minimum should begin the process of changing the marketed name if the school to The University of Charlotte. SUNY Buffalo is known as the University at Buffalo. No reason why we can’t do something similar.
The branding autonomy of the SUNY system is a fantastic example. Also have Stony Brook University, Binghamton University and University at Albany. All excellent schools and no one is complaining that these naming conventions are an affront to the SUNY system.
Another piece of this - we aren’t going past the AAC with our name. Period. If you have dreams of the big leagues In the next 10 years or next 50 years you need to support the name change. Chancellors and presidents make the call on admitting schools and a name like our will be a huge roadblock.
It’s important to consider several things in this topic:
Dropping the “UNC” from the Official name of the school may potentially increase the student sense of ownership and their experience at the university…but it drops the schools recognizable branding as part of the UNC system. The reality is that the school is not known for its academic performance compared to other UNC
2.On that topic also consider that the “UNC” branding on the name carries weight when you apply for graduate school or jobs post graduation.
If you drop the “UNC” from the Official name, how does that affect the recruitment for the school for future students. We cannot ignore the fact that UNC Charlotte is not a recognizable university among the UNC system.
We are not recognized for having a high standard in academia. We are not known for our sports teams. We are known to some degree for our Engineering dept (in certain disciplines). We are known to some degree for our Computer Science dept (to some extent but mostly due to winning competitions against other schools). We are not a 1st choice for most students that attend the university, we are a commuter university that servers predominately students that are from NC, SC, GA, and VA. Honestly when comparing my time at UNCC, and comparing the classes at other universities we did not even come close to getting what we paid for/are paying for.
A name change is simple, but you cannot undertake something without considering potential consequences down the road.
So if we’re not recognized for our Athletics or Academics, that supports dropping the UNC because it clearly hasn’t done its job. Thanks for the unintended assist!
On the contrary, the experience was what I made it. My experience was different than most students since my goal was to finish with no loans. Not trolling either, but presenting a different view point from my experience post graduation. UNCC is special in some aspects, but its not at the level where a name change would benefit.
I am not saying that a name change would degrade the academic level (as it sits currently). What I am saying is that (as a university) we are not known for our academic program when compared to say UNC.
So if trying to create our own academic reputation, why would we want to be associated/confused with UNC? The point of the name change is to grow our own unique brand.
It is very disingenuous to try to trick faculty and students into thinking UNC Charlotte is something it is not. I want people to come to The University of Charlotte based on our own merits and appeals. Our academics have and will improve over time.