West Visayas State University

WVSU - Iloilo

The West Visayas State University is a premier institution of higher learning in Western Visayas Region of the Philippines. Its charter dictates the advancement of knowledge through instruction, research, extension, and production. It enjoys a Level IV recognition among State Universities and Colleges in the Philippines.

About

It has 67 programs offered in the baccalaureate, masterҀs, and doctorate levels in its main campuses. Among its programs, eight are awaiting Level III Accreditation; four has Level II Accreditation while the rest are preparing Level I accreditation visits by the Accrediting Agency for Chartered Colleges and Universities in the Philippines (AACCUP).

It maintains active and dynamic research activities with local, national and international collaborations. It has pioneering researches in cross-cultural science education, endangered wildlife species, Philippine native chicken, Philippine buffalo breeding and medical and nursing trends and issues.

History

The coming into being of the West Visayas State University (WVSU) dates back to 1924 when it became an independent and distinct teacher training institution known as the Iloilo Normal School (INS). However, its birth can be traced back as early as 1902 when it was opened as a tributary normal school with secondary school instruction.
In 1916, it was a secondary school complete with elementary and training departments. It was only, however, in 1924, with the completion of its main building (now Quezon Hall) and the laboratory school building when INS became a distinct educational institution itself. The year likewise, became a kick off point for a more established secondary normal school program, which eventually became a two-year collegiate training program and still later in 1952 a four year normal college course.

In 1954, through RepublicActNo. 375, the Bachelor of Science in Education major in Elementary Education was granted. It became a pioneer and premier teacher-training institution in Western Visayas, a prestige it continues to enjoy with academic programs catering to local and global needs. Truth to this is its being named Center of Excellence (1994) by the late Sen. Blas P. Ople and Center of Excellence for Teacher Education (1995) by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED).

The INS became the West Visayas State College by virtue of R.A. 4189 in 1965, and commenced the offering of the Bachelor of Science in Education for Elementary and Secondary teaching. Bachelor of Arts; and MasterҀs in Education. It was in the same year when the Graduate School and the School of Arts and Sciences were in place. The Secondary Laboratory School was opened in 1969. In September 1972, RA 6596 authorized the offering of University level courses in education, arts and sciences. The period from 1974, its Golden Jubilee year to the early 1980s was one of marked growth, witnessing the establishment of the School of Medicine (1 975), School ofҀ Agriculture (1976), and School of Nursing (1977). The doctoral program of the Graduate School was likewise, introduced in 1977. The B.S. Biological Science, AS Mass Communications, and B. S. Forestry programs took off in 1981. On January 27, 1986, PD. 2019 converted the College into the West Visayas State University, integrating the Iloilo National College of Agriculture (INCA) into its system. In 1987, the University acquired the Don Benito V. Lopez Memorial Hospital, which became the WVSU Hospital, a 150-bed tertiary, teaching and training hospital. The University further established in 1993, the Physical Education, Sports, Culture and Recreation Center which later became the degree-granting PESCAR Institute and later College of PESCAR in 2000. Strict observance of the trilogy of functions became evident in the University as early as 1986, when the Office of Research and Non-Formal Education was established followed by the Office of Extension in 1988. In 1993, the Department of Mass Communications became the degree granting Institute of Mass Communications, which was later converted into a College in 2000. The Diamond Jubilee in 1999 was ushered in by the offering of more academic programs: the Bachelor in Cooperatives Management (1997) and the Bachelor of Science in Information Management and Bachelor of Science in In formation Technology (1998). In 2000, the Higher Education Modernization Act (1997) integrated into the University four CHED supervised schools in Calinog, Janiuay, Lambunao, and Pototan. In 2001, the WVSU Board of Regents and the Department of Health (DOH) approved the conversion of the hospital to a 300-bed WVSU Medical Center that it is today. Likewise, in 2001, the Bachelor in Statistics and Research program was introduced. The University Distance Education program through the Diploma in Teaching (DlT) course began in Summer 2003. By the first semester of 2003 four new courses were commenced: Bachelor/n Hotel and Restaurant Management, Bachelor in Broadcasting, Bachelor in Journalism, and Bachelor of Science in Development Communication. In 2004, the University instituted its Verticalization Scheme in academic programs through the operations of the graduate schools in the College of Education and the College of Arts & Sciences.

PROGRAMS

COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

Bachelor of Arts in English
Bachelor of Arts in Political Science
Bachelor in Cooperatives Management Program
Bachelor of Science in Applied Mathematics
Bachelor of Science in Biology

Master of Arts in Social Science (Non-Thesis)
Master of Arts in Mathematics (Non-Thesis)
Master of Arts in English (Non-Thesis)
Master of Arts in Biology (Non-Thesis)
Master of Arts in Physics (Non-Thesis)
Master of Arts in Physics (Thesis Option)

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN SOCIAL SCIENCE (Ph.D.) Program

COLLEGE OF EDUCATION

Bachelor in Elementary Education
Bachelor in Secondary Education
Bachelor of Special Education

Master of Arts in Education
Master of Education (M.Ed.) Thesis and Non-Thesis

Doctor of Philosophy in Education (Ph. D. in Ed.)
Doctor in Mathematics/Science Education (D.M.Ed./D.S.Ed.)
Doctor of Philosophy in Science Education (Ph. D.)

Special Program in Early Childhood Education
Graduate Diploma in Special Education
Diploma in Teaching

COLLEGE OF MASS COMMUNICATIONS

Bachelor in Broadcasting
Bachelor in Journalism
Bachelor of Science in Development Communication

Master in Mass Communication

COLLEGE OF MEDICINE

Doctor of Medicine

COLLEGE OF NURSING

Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN)
Master of Arts in Nursing (MAN)
Major:
Nursing Education
Nursing Administration

COLLEGE OF PESCAR

Bachelor Of Physical Education (BPE)
Diploma in Physical Education (DPE)
Bachelor of Music Education (BME)
Diploma in Music (DM)
Sports Coaching and Officiating Proficiency Certificate

Master in Physical Education

INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY

Bachelor of Science in Information Technology (BSIT)
Bachelor of Science in Information Management

INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT

Bachelor in Cooperatives Management (BCM)

DISTANCE EDUCATION

Diploma in Teaching
Master in School Management
MS Agriculture. MS Forestry and Ph.D. Agriculture

Integrated Laboratory School

External Campuses

CAF - Lambunao Campus
Calinog Campus
Janiuay Campus
Lambunao East Campus
Pototan Campus

source: www.wvsu.edu.ph

Click here to get more information at www.wvsu.edu.ph

Random notes from the NACAC Listserv

1. I noticed as long ago as the 90s when I was on the admission committee at Amherst that we seemed sometimes to be asking prospective freshmen to be graduate students rather than serious inquirers interested in continuing their educations. It seems clear that this state of affairs has only intensified. I believe, although I have no empirical evidence, that this greater intensity can be connected to the increased amount of binge drinking, drug use, and so on that provide intense experience that stands in for actual involvement with life as it happens. (Self-advertising: See the current issue of the Journal of College Admission for an article I wrote as well as several others on college admission and adolescence.)

2. Several years ago I developed and proposed a "mechanism" based on the Lending Tree concept ("When banks compete, you win"). Students would put their applications into an online information "bank" and state what colleges they'd like to be accepted at; colleges would view those applications and make decisions. Students who didn't hear anything could lower their expectations and see what happens. There's more, but I think you get the idea. To my way of thinking this would put some of the control in the students' hands and enable them to focus on other things, but I know it's a lot more complicated than that. It would also take the fun of "selectivity" out of the process, of course...

3. Much of the frenzy is based, it seems to me, not on the issue of getting into college, but on getting into a particular college. The Amherst alum who called me in 1994 wanting to find a good school for his second grader so she could get into Amherst was trying to control an outcome far narrower than anyone can reasonably expect to control. (I don't know what finally happened to her--she may be at Amherst now.) If students, children, were being educated well and encouraged to make the most of their lives, instead of being molded to have particular lives, we might all be better off. (Incidentally, Jon R. mentioned AP Frank with the 17 APs-- his mother sat in the hall of their home watching him and his brother do their homework; she also couldn't understand why the HS didn't offer AP gym; and when Frank got to Harvard, he spent a great deal of his time trying to construct a social life that had been entirely missing from his life BH. An extreme tale but cautionary nonetheless.) Trying to engineer specific life results 15 or 10 or 5 or even 2 years into the future is where we go really, really wrong. That's why I've objected so strongly to recent books that have come out showing people how to do just that.

4. As colleges have increasingly become brands instead of institutions (and this is not a new phenomenon by any means--see Paul Fussell's book Class) and as the US has increasingly become a brand-name crazed country, the phenomena have merged to create the bizarre phenomenon we see before us. In this weekend's Chicago Tribune a front page story was about how pre-K and other elementary schools are harder to get into than Harvard, statistically speaking. This follows on well-known stories from New York City about similar phenomenon. And on NPR this morning a story about how schools, trying to bring unstructured time back into kids' lives (because it's critical for children to develop their own ways of working out problems and rules), are structuring ways to do it. All told without irony.

5. I'm going to let Shakespeare have the final lines here.

After hearing his daughters Regan and Goneril lavish fulsome praise on him (telling him exactly what he wants to hear) and granting them two thirds of his kingdom, Lear turns to his youngest daughter, Cordelia, and asks her how much she loves him. Her answer will determine her inheritance, as college applicants' answers determine their own "inheritance." Poor Cordelia only has what anyone with any sense would realize was the most essential love of all. And we all know what Regan and Goneril do with Lear once they have his power...

Act I, Scene i

Lear: ...what can you say to draw
a third more opulent than your sisters? Speak
Cordelia: Nothing, my lord.
Lear: Nothing?
Cordelia: Nothing.
Lear: Nothing will come of nothing. Speak again.
Cordelia: Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave
My heart into my mouth. I love your Majesty
According to my bond, no more nor less.
Lear: How, how, Cordelia? Mend your speech a little,
Lest you may mar your fortunes.
Cordelia: Good my lord,
You have begot me, bred me, loved me. I
Return those duties back as are right fit,
Obey you, love you, and most honor you.
Why have my sisters husbands if they say
They love you all? Haply, when I shall wed,
That lord whose hand must take my plight shall carry
Half my love with him, half my care and duty.
Sure I shall never marry like my sisters,
To love my father all.
Lear: But goes they heart with this?
Cordelia: Ay, my good lord.
Lear: So young, and so untender?
Cordelia: So young, my lord, and true.
Lear: Let it be so, thy truth then be thy dower!
For, by the sacred radiance of the sun,
The mysteries of Hecate and the night,
By all the operation of the orbs
From whom we do exist and cease to be,
Here I disclaim all my paternal care,
Propinquity and property of blood,
And as a stranger to my heart and me
Hold thee from this for ever.
...
I loved her most, and thought to set my rest
On her kind nursery.---
So be my grave my peace as here I give
Her father's heart from her!
...
Let pride, which she calls plainness, marry her.

Footsteps in the Hall: The College Admission Process as Existential Crisis

[NOTE: This essay was published in the Journal of College Admission, January, 2008)

The college admission process puts adolescents in a bind: it asks them to observe and evaluate themselves before theyҀve had a chance to develop a consistent sense of who they are. At a time when theyҀve been trying on personalities and exploring the world of adulthood in an effort to establish an identity, theyҀre suddenly asked to manufacture one to the vague yet compelling specifications that colleges impose upon them. They are evaluated, measured and sorted by mysterious strangers, and asked to be ӀauthenticԀ in an entirely inauthentic situation. Just as threatening, they are asked to submit to what Jean-Paul Sartre calls Ӏthe Gaze,Ԁ a pitiless stare that tears them out of themselves and forces them to ӀactԀ instead of Ӏbe.Ԁ As a result, adolescents now go through an existential crisis of identity well before theyҀre ready for it or even realize itҀs happening.

The existential moment may come for most of us in our forties or so. We have enough experience to look back at life and wonder if thereҀs been any purpose to it or if who weҀve become is the person we actually are. Usually married, well into a career, with children and possessions to anchor us, we may face a sudden death, loss of a job, or other crisis that forces us to confront how weҀve defined ourselves. We may feel directionless, hollow, and cynical, unable to hold on to the things we once thought important. The film American Beauty illustrates this condition particularly well. Kevin SpaceyҀs character, Lester Burnham, goes into free fall realizing that, although heҀs done everything according to the rules, heҀs Ӏlost something,Ԁ even though heҀs not sure what it is. He feels his life disintegrating: His marriage is cold, his job banal, and his daughter a stranger to him. The world has become artificial and he sees himself as simply an actor in a particularly bad play, not as a human being. The adolescent struggling with a college application hasnҀt even voted yet, but is being asked to be an actor before having become a fully integrated self.

Role Reversal
In the past, the college admission process was primarily functional and had little to do with identity development. It was simply the mechanism to reach the next step in oneҀs education. Through the seventies and early to mid-80s, even as the number of students applying to and attending college rose significantly, the procedure was relatively simple: Most colleges drew from their geographic regions, most students didnҀt go much farther than 250 miles or so from home, and there was less concern about competition to get into the ӀbestԀ colleges. Teens took their high school courses, took their tests, and took their chances, filing a few applications and going where they were accepted. The idea of planning years ahead so one could get into a particular type of college or even a particular college was little known. An application rose or fell on oneҀs history, the day-to-day decisions and activities pursued in high school. Choices were made on the basis of interests and needs that had to do with the studentҀs immediate concerns. Those choices were ӀauthenticԀ in a Sartrean sense: They were immediate and not calculated, essential to the adolescentҀs Ӏself.Ԁ Students participated fully in activities and developed their personalities and characters as they went along; college followed out of these choices.

The college process today turns adolescent development on its head, creating an existential dilemma well before high school students are prepared to handle it. Rather than resulting from authentic life decisions, it dictates them, forcing students into an ӀinauthenticityԀ that separates them from their own lives. They learn theyҀre supposed to take AP courses, be president of a winning Model U.N. club, and do significant community service, so thatҀs what they do, even if they have no genuine interest in those activities. (One current book even suggests that students who play the violin find time to play in nursing homes so they can look more compassionate.) They become cardboard cutouts and assume that others are as well.

ӀAuthenticityԀ as a Challenge
Up until this point, even in todayҀs competitive environment, adolescents (with many precocious exceptions, of course) may see their lives as confusing and chaotic but not necessarily Ӏinauthentic.Ԁ ThereҀs an immediacy to what they do even if itҀs a short-term commitment. They live essentially and for the moment. As adults we see this when our children do impulsive or reckless things: TheyҀre fully in the moment, not considering the long-term consequences of their behavior. The college application process, however, asks them to reach a conclusion before theyҀve had a chance to have a Ӏbeing.Ԁ TheyҀre asked to define themselves before theyҀre capable of doing so, bringing on a crisis that challenges their sense of who they are. When Lester Burnham is asked by a consultant to write out a job description (read Ӏcollege essayԀ) for himself he realizes his days at the magazine are numbered. Being forced to contemplate himself sends him over the edge. Asked to do so by colleges, adolescents struggle with the same angst and see the same blankness.

The college admission process tears adolescents out of an environment of relative certainty and throws them into a confusing arena that has no clear boundaries. They are suddenly asked to sum up their lives, to construct a consistent personhood they have yet to develop, and to consider themselves in the context of a larger world they have yet to fully understand. In the process they lose the authenticity of simply ӀbeingԀ who they are and become ӀperformersԀ of parts they have not yet fully developed. Like nearly all the characters in American Beauty, they must present artificially constructed lives to the world, rather than their own realities, in order to be ӀsuccessfulԀ: LesterҀs wife Carolyn is a real estate agent who has to psych herself up to meet clients (ӀI will sell this house today!Ԁ) and ӀperformԀ for her biggest rival; Ricky, the boy next door, pretends to be Ӏan upstanding young citizen with a respectable jobԀ so he can carry on his profitable drug dealing; RickyҀs father disguises his attraction to men with a brute military bearing; and so on. Even high school girl Angela (Mina Suvari), who seems in touch with her sexual power and even her reputation as the school ӀslutԀ is only playing a role to disguise her insecurity. (Anecdotally, IҀve noticed that college freshmen are often attracted to the works of Ayn Rand. I used to wonder about that until I realized that RandҀs exaltation of individual identity and fidelity to oneself is the perfect antidote to the Sartrean dilemma.)

The Dilemma of Being Looked At
All of these characters, like our adolescent college applicant, are caught in Ӏthe GazeԀ of others, another element of existential anxiety. Consciousness of the ӀOtherԀ prevents us from having genuine interactions, whether those others are potential home buyers or admission officers. Becoming subject to Ӏthe Gaze,Ԁ of the college admission process, adolescentsҀ ӀpersonhoodԀ is disfigured. No longer able to be Ӏauthentic,Ԁ they create a shell for those Others, becoming ӀobjectsԀ and not authentic persons.

Sartre illustrated this quandary in Being and Nothingness. He describes a man peering intently through a keyhole at some (presumably salacious) activity in the room beyond. His intense curiosity focuses his entire being on what heҀs doing׀he has no consciousness of his ӀselfԀ but simply is that self. For those moments he is entirely ӀauthenticԀ (think of how we feel when we are completely involved in an activity we love). Suddenly, however, the man hears footsteps in the hall. He becomes conscious of another person as well as himself spying on the roomҀs occupants and now sees himself acting as well as actually acting. He is embarrassed, aware of the implications of what heҀs doing, worried about the other personҀs reactions to what heҀs doing, and so on. He stumbles as he rises, straightens his clothes and tries to act ӀnormalԀ but has lost the ability to do so. Even the phrase Ӏtrying to act normalԀ implies that he canҀt really be his normal self. To the inadvertent observer (the Gaze), the man at the keyhole is Ӏacting,Ԁ not Ӏbeing.Ԁ His equilibrium has been upset and he cannot function as Ӏhimself.Ԁ He is torn from his personhood and left in a kind of purgatory of uncertainty.

Looking for the ӀGenuineԀ Applicant
The college admission process has become those footsteps, seriously undermining adolescentsҀ sense of self by demanding that they ӀactԀ instead of Ӏbe.Ԁ Students submit to the Gaze and twist themselves in knots under its power. It causes adolescents (and those with a stake in their success) to forsake their ӀauthenticԀ selves in order to create a persona that will be acceptable to those mysterious observers. This situation gives rise to a particularly poignant irony: Colleges, saying they want ӀgenuineԀ or ӀauthenticԀ students, guarantee that they will get exactly the opposite. The stage is set for the artificially enhanced super-student who feels compelled to do whatҀs necessary to gain admission to a particular school or group of schools instead of doing what engages him and insisting that colleges judge him accordingly. Their lives become ӀconstructedԀ instead of organic, less and less in touch with a reality they can readily recognize. By the time they are accepted to college theyҀre living a life like Lester and Carolyn BurnhamҀs, Ӏan advertisement for ourselves,Ԁ and not a reality.

Holding Yourself Together
High school students thus become ӀinauthenticԀ at an early age, a situation Sartre also calls living in Ӏbad faith.Ԁ They not only have to develop their identities, they have to be aware of themselves doing so. Appeals to Ӏlive in the momentԀ and Ӏenjoy what youҀre doingԀ in order to be accepted by a college fall on deaf ears because they know they need to do certain things and not others to Ӏsucceed.Ԁ Is it any wonder that cynicism and ironic detachment follow? Students have succumbed to the power of the Gaze and in doing so have sacrificed their authentic lives. Worse, adolescents often end up negating their own being and desires to achieve something that may or may not be in their best interests. This is more than just doing what oneҀs parents want, itҀs an active denial of oneҀs one authentic existence. Knowing all this on some level, they become like Lester at forty: cynical, sarcastic, and unable to inhabit themselves fully.
In the process of acting for others rather than being for themselves, adolescents also become dependent upon the Gaze because itҀs what holds them together. Applying to college implies that there is a meaning to what theyҀve done so far in life, yet dependence on the Gaze turns them into people who cannot embrace the freedom to explore, discover, and take chances. They become objects, subservient to the will of others, just as the servant at the keyhole is subservient to the one who discovers him, and therefore unable to truly Ӏbe themselves.Ԁ Lester BurnhamҀs slavish obsession with the adolescent AngelaҀs ӀGazeԀ is an adult case in point: His attraction to her and his consciousness of her consciousness of him permanently disables his ability to act rationally, leading to his death at the end of the film.

The Process and Its Products
Students going through this process think less about authenticity than they do about being accepted and looking good to admission deans. Yet it does several things that are antithetical to healthy adolescent development: It creates a situation where oneҀs ӀselfԀ must be defined before it has been truly developed. It also puts that ӀselfԀ at the mercy of others, forcing the adolescent to create an artificial rather than authentic self, leading to a feeling of acting rather than being.

We wonder why there seem to be more problems on college campuses with binge drinking, casual sex, studying, and relationships in general. While one canҀt blame the college admission process for what is largely part of a social and cultural phenomenon that crosses many boundaries, one can see the whole process as a shock to the system: Adolescents previously fully involved in creating their own being are suddenly asked to create a ӀbeingԀ that can be gazed at before theyҀre ready. This acute self-consciousness, like that of the man at the keyhole, deforms their ability to behave unselfconsciously. They arrive at college not having a sense of themselves as integrated individuals, but as constructs that hold together only as long as they are Ӏseen.Ԁ As a result, they look for ways to assert themselves meaningfully, to fill the emptiness of that construct. Unfortunately, that includes surrendering to the intensities of sex, drinking, drugs, and dangerous ӀextremeԀ behavior, all of which can be seen as attempts to re-experience a time when each moment was unique and for them alone. Thinking again about American Beauty, one can see how the sudden realization of emptiness, of having lived for the Gaze instead of for oneself, might put adolescents on the brink of despair. Deprived of a meaningful life in high school, they try to fill the void and reestablish that meaning, a situation Sartre and Lester Burnham understood all too well.

MSU-Bottineau Considering a Name Change

South Dakota's Minot State University-Bottineau is considering a rebrand makeover; however, a change in status and relationship is not forthcoming. Even if the MSU name is dropped, the school will still remain affiliated with Minot State University. One of the reasons for the proposed change is that there are too many schools with the abbreviation MSU. Another, as Joseph Marks reported in the Grand Forks Herald is that a "nondescript name" may be successful in drawing students. One suggestion was to retrobrand to its former name of the "School of Forestry." Other names considered included the following: Northern Lights University, Peace Garden State University-Bottineau, Four Seasons State College, and Bottineau State College.

Any change in names would need the approval of the institution's president, the North Dakota Board of Education, and the North Dakota Legislature. The soonest total approval could occur is 2009.

Utah Valley State's move to university status is progressing

As announced in this blog on January 6, Utah Valley State College will become Utah Valley University on July 1, 2008. Approved by the institutional trustees but pending approval of the state board of regents, several schools within Utah Valley State will also rebrand.

The School of Arts and Humanities will be split into two schools: the School of Arts and the College of Humanities. The School of Health Science will become the College of Health Science. The School of Technology and Computing will upgrade to college status. The School of General Academics will be repositioned as the University College.

The School of Education, the School of Continuing Education, and the Woodbury School of Business will not experience any name changes.

Typically the rebranding of schools within a university are listed in the HEP Higher Educational Directories (see Spencer, 2005) among institutional name changes. With the exception of the public outcry against the Welmark brand being applied to the University of Iowa's College of Public Health as blatant commercialism, these changes normally occur without any stakeholder furor or outcry.

See UVSC renaming academic schools to fit university model


For a historical perspective of a change that did not occur, see the following stories about the University of Iowa's failed plan to add sponsorship to a college within a university. Dateline 2007.

A College By Any Other Name
Philanthropy with Strings: Wellmark Pulls $15 Million Gift to UI
Wellmark Withdraws Offer of $15 Million Donation to University of Iowa

I thought the University of Iowa's story from 2007 was fascinating as it has some societal implications; however, I omitted it from my dissertation as it really didn't fit any of my main topics of consideration. Therefore, for a historical perspective, I have included it here.

Spencer, D. C. (2005). College and university name change: A study of perceived strategy
and goal achievement. (Doctoral dissertation, University of Virginia). UMI No. 3161630.
Spencer referred to these rebrandings as occurring in "sub-schools."

Malone College is becoming Malone University

On February 9, 2008, the Malone College board of trustees voted unanimously to rebrand as Malone University. According to an institutional press release, "The Board reaffirmed that mission and emphasized the potential for enhanced educational opportunities within the liberal arts context for the growing number of undergraduate students already studying in 90 different academic programs. The name change is also consistent with MaloneҀs desire to explore further graduate and continuing studies opportunities in Northeast Ohio and beyond."

Malone began offering graduate programs in 1990 and adopted a university structure in 1999. The official date of the name change has not yet been determined.

Press Release

New Hampshire Community and Technical Colleges all rebrand

Unlike the Lone Star Community College system which unified under a single brand, the New Hampshire Community and Technical Colleges divested themselves of the single brand in favor of individual brand identities. Signed into law in 2007, the new identities were announced on January 30, 2008. The name changes include the following:

• New Hampshire Community and Technical College-Berlin to White Mountains Community College
• New Hampshire Community and Technical College-Claremont to River Valley Community College
• New Hampshire Community and Technical College-Laconia to Lakes Region Community College
• New Hampshire Community and Technical College-Manchester to Manchester Community College
• New Hampshire Community and Technical College-Nashua to Nashua Community College
• New Hampshire Community and Technical College-Stratham/Portsmouth to Great Bay Community College
• New Hampshire Technical Institute to New Hampshire Technical Institute ր ConcordҀs Community College

The schools are governed under the auspices of the Community College System of New Hampshire.

Name changes approved for community colleges

Community college to change name

NHCTC to change name: Will become Great Bay Community College
NHTI name change reflects college's role

Lone Star College System - New Name; New Logo

Formed in 1972, the North Harris Montgomery County College District was created by citizens served by the Aldine, Humble and Spring Independent School Districts to be a junior college district. Later, eight other school districts joined over the next 28 years. Unfortunately, the original name was no longer viable. The individual campuses were individually known as:

• Cy-Fair College
• Kingwood College
• Montgomery College
• North Harris College
• Tomball College

Several considerations regarding the new name were set forth by the "Name Review Committee." These criteria were as follows:

• Must be shorter than the current name.
• Must be distinctive and unique.
• Must connect all colleges, communities, member school districts.
• Must support the mission, purpose of the institution.
• Must reflect a ӀsystemԀ of colleges, not a geographic Ӏdistrict.Ԁ
• Must have an appropriate, easy-to-say acronym.
• Must reflect the institutionҀs image as a successful, quality, inclusive, diverse, comprehensive college.
• May include a key descriptor of the regionҀs geography, history or location.
• Should be inspiring and forward-thinking, but not faddish.
• Must not be the name of an individual.

Stakeholders were invited to participate in the process and the Board of Trustees approved the Lone Star College System name on November 1, 2007. The name became official on January 1, 2008. On January 16, a new logo and a unified color scheme was unveiled to the public.

The New Name Information Site
Lone Star College System Rises as the New Name for NHMCCD
Lone Star College Unveils New Logo for New Name

I love the new logo and the name really makes sense. This was an excellent rebranding scenario and it appears to have gone very smoothly.

Ohio's Heidelberg College considering University Status

According to President F. Dominic Dottavio, Heidelberg College in Tiffin, Ohio is "considering changing the schoolҀs name back to ӀHeidelberg UniversityԀ ׀ not to be confused with the University of Heidelberg in Heidelberg, Germany ׀ because the scope of its programs is changing, and it offers a wider variety of professional programs."

While the president is considering a retrobranding tactic, The History of Heidelberg College by Williard (1879) indicates that the school was known as Heidelberg College since its 1850 inception. The school was chartered under this name in 1851 and was founded by the Reformed Church in the U.S. The school is currently under the auspices of the Reformed Church's successor denomination: the United Church of Christ.

Time will tell whether the school will make the leap of faith to university status.

'Berg defies "big-box' approach

Fort Hays State University not rebranding

As part of its strategic plan through 2020 announced in fall 2007, Fort Hays State University had considered changing its name to the University of Western Kansas. Part of the justification of the change was that it was unclear where the school was located, it was the only state institution in the western portion of Kansas, and Fort Hays (the namesake of the institution) had not been operational since 1889 and only had a historical connection to Hays, KS. Prior to the 1977 name change to Fort Hays State University, the school had Kansas as part of its previous names:

• 1902 - Western Branch of the Kansas Normal School
• 1914 - Fort Hays Kansas State Normal School
• 1923 - Kansas State Teachers College of Hays
• 1931 - Fort Hays Kansas State College
• 1977 - Fort Hays State University

The name change initiative was unpopular with a majority of students and some perspective donors. A Facebook group protesting the name change garnered support from over 1,000 individuals while a similar group promoting the new name only had three proponents.

On December 12, 2007, President Edward H. Hammond announced that the Fort Hays State name would remain.

Dare to Dream document that promoted the name change.

Name Change Causing a Stir
Dissension over FHSU Slogan: "Affordable Success"
Cost Outweighs Benefits, Name Doesn't Change
FHSU Staying That Way