What happens when colleges change their names?

I've got an interesting question. When a college changes its name are you suppose to use the name of the school at the time you graduated, or to change it to the new name. The reason why I ask is when I reviewed the staff directory at a college, where the name was changed, the staff that graduated from the old school, all of the credentials (degrees) were listed with the new name, and I know that not all of the staff graduated from the new school. What is proper precedure and has anyone ever encountered this issue before?

 

This is a good question, I've had this happen twice already (Regents College to Excelsior, and Audrey Cohen College to Metropolitian College of New York).

 

I've seen it done three different ways;

1. Sangamon State University

2. Sangamon State University (now University of Illinois-Springfield)

3. University of Illinois-Springfield

Personally, I prefer the second.

 

The name of my college changed completely i.e. XYZ College to ZYX University. They gave us the option to keep the old name on our transcripts and diploma -- or send them 20 bucks for a new transcript and diploma with the new name. I had mine changed, so even though I graduated from the old college, my transcripts and diploma now reflect the new name.

 

There's something to be said for using the older name that's actually printed on the graduate's diploma. But using the newer name would probably be less confusing to employers, who would at least know which school to contact to verify graduation.

If the renamed school is still willing to verify old-timers as being its graduates, then it probably isn't all that misleading for the old grads to identify themselves as alums of whatever it's calling itself now.

But yeah, I'm with Bruce; the best thing to do is probably to provide both names with a note that the school changed its name.

Out here where I live, nearby 'California State University Hayward' changed its name to 'CSU East Bay' a few years ago. The change isn't very popular among the old alums and many of them still pointedly use the Hayward name. Some of the school's current students are doing the same thing and there's still a market for 'CSU Hayward' sweatshirts that express kind of a rebellious chic.

I graduated from 'San Francisco State University'. It was 'SF State College' for namy decades, but most of those increasingly senior-citizen graduates use the 'university' name. More pecularily, there was a short interregnum a year or two long when the school was officially 'CSU San Francisco'. That name was very unpopular at the time and the school soon became SFSU. But now and then I encounter some old-timers from that bygone era using the 'CSUSF' name which has finally acquired a certain distinction, at least in the sense of being unusual.

Bruce's own University of Massachusetts at Lowell used to be University of Lowell or something like that, once upon a time, as I recall. So what do old Lowell graduates typically do? Do they proudly stick with the old name or has 'U. Mass.' lured all of them over?

 

You're right,it was the University of Lowell at one time. There are also other schools that were folded into the University of Massachusetts system around the same time. My own opinion is that these schools benefitted from a closer association with the flagship campus in Amherst.

http://www.massachusetts.edu/institutions/institutions.html

 

I used to attended Troy State University, but when I graduated the name was changed into Troy University. In my resume, I put Troy University; however, when come to job interview..I mention Troy State University 'cause people know more about Troy State then Troy.

 

Correct, it was Lowell State College, University of Lowell, and now UMass-Lowell. I still hear many people refer to "ULowell", but no one says Lowell State College anymore.

 

In 1999, Scarecrow Press published The Encyclopedia of College and University Name Histories. It covers well over 1,000 name changes, back to the earliest days, when the College of New Jersey became Princeton University and King's College became Columbia University. It had, as I recall, a section on the protocol of referring to and using name changes. When I get home from my current trip, in a week or so, I'll try to find it and report on what it says, if no one else has done so before.

 

How about:

4. University Illinois Springfield (formerly Sangamon State University)?

 

What should one say on one's sig line if one graduates from City University (Mercer Island campus) and later City University (Bellevue campus) but the school later changes its name to City University of Seattle? I'm willing to submit to this august board's advice.

 

To me, that implies the person graduated from the University of Illinois-Springfield, with the Sangamon reference being historical.

I think that's such a minor change, either way would be fine.