Arrrrrrgggghh! (The Union Institute's New Name)

One has got to wonder what Union University, an RA liberal arts college in Jackson, Tennessee, thinks of all this.

My own institution, given the chance, ditched "Institute" for "University" in 1997 without a second thought.

Bruce in Hong Kong

 

There was also an alleged degree mill called Union University in Los Angeles.

 

Union University did indeed operate from Los Angeles under California's old 94310(c) "Authorized category. Targeting the Asian population (here and abroad), they awarded degrees in just about any area, without a discernable curriculum or faculty. During Dipscam, Union University awarded a doctorate to Congressman Claude Pepper (Florida) for a few book reports, making him "Dr. Pepper."

Rich Douglas

 

In January of this year, TUI president Sturnick was recommending simply "The Union Institute University."

 

Ah hah! I had seen references to Union University and "Dr. Pepper" but I didn't know the story. I had assumed that this was some kind of witticism about Union University being an Un-University, in the same way that Dr. Pepper (the drink) was once touted as the Un-Cola. Makes sense now...

 

A small silly footnote to this matter. I was meeting with the people of the California Bureau for Private Postsecondary...Education in Sacramento today. Union, as all non-Calif. schools operating in Calif., must have state approval under their correct name. The woman in charge of such matters, who reads DegreeInfo.com, learning of the name change, says Union did not make application to Calif. to change the name on their approval, so that technically the school with the new name is not approved in California this moment. Of course it will quickly be set right, but it is a loose end someone in Cincinnati should have thought of and dealt with, I think.

 

I hope Ohnalee (PM) doesn't tell Steve about this. One can only imagine what he would do if while driving through CA he suddenly realized that Union was not approved.

 

They put Enrique on it and....well....uh....

Rich Douglas

 

Gert mentioned, "...in the same way that Dr. Pepper (the drink) was once touted as the Un-Cola...'

Well actually 7-Up is the "uncola" while Dr. Pepper is "the friendly pepper-upper" (to be drunk--I've never understood this--at 10, 2, and 4).

Do you suppose they discuss distance degrees on www.ColaInfo.com?

 

According to a case study I did in my marketing management class in grad school, Dr. Pepper adopted that slogan to demonstrate that, unlike cola, their drink was good any time of the day. (I guess because of the prune taste.)

Rich Douglas, drinkin' Diet Coke at 6:30 AM.

 

Just for the record, there are no prune products in either Dr. Pepper or Diet Dr. Pepper, the latter being one of my favorites (although I really like the new Diet Pepsi Twist).


Bruce

 

I was just thinking....if someone now graduated from Vermont College, they would be a graduate of Vermont College of Union Institute & University. Is that the record for most mentions of institutional names in one school?


Bruce

 

There is an unusual twist in this situation, because the school from which Vermont College descended (Norwich U.) still exists; the change was in affiliation and management, not in name.

Therefore, graduates of V.C. during the days when it was part of Norwich are still graduates of Vermont College of Norwich University. Those who matriculated after V.C. was taken over by Union will be graduates of Vermont College of The Union Institute & University. Perons who matriculated before the official change but after the announcement (i.e., current students who started their programs before October 1, 2001) will have a choice of whether to graduate from V.C. of Norwich U. or V.C. of TUI.

The subject has been addressed in detail by Norwich U. at http://www.norwich.edu/vermontcollege/alumni.html - while the cover page simply deals with which mailing list(s) students and graduates prefer to be on, there is a "Transcripts" link that specifies the details.

FWIW, should there be any current V.C. students who matriculated before the transfer of ownership, my recommendation would be that they choose teh Norwich University option. So many V.C. students have gone onto the Ph.D. program at Union that it always looks better to have two separate institutions represented for the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees, and Norwich is still more of a traditional "brick and mortar" university than Union.

As for me, I am delghted to say that my academic resume still reads, and will continue to read, Vermont College of Norwich University, especially since any requests I make for my M.A. transcript must go to Norwich, not Union.

 

Just noticed that at least one good thing in this name change is that they've dropped the "The" as part of the name. They used to insist on use of the "The" which I, and more than a few other reference sources, really resisted. People would not look under "T" for Union Institute. So it either meant ignoring their wishes or cross-indexing.

 

Maybe now Touro University International can use the abbreviation TUI.

 

What's in a name? Well, in principle, I don't think it really matters what a school calls itself. But as a matter of personal preference, I don't think I'd relish hanging a degree in my office from The Union Institute and University. For that matter, I find the names Capella and Argosy equally unappealing. Walden is more tolerable - but barely so.

I'm sure these may be fine schools, but I still find the names unappealing. Perhaps I'm tied to the types of names found at traditional institutions. But then again, some traditional schools' names leave much to be desired as well. My undergrad work was done at the 100 year old southern school called Oakwood.

David

 

What's wrong with Oakwood? How about Beaver College (now Arcadia), Dyke College (now Myers), Morehead State, and Slippery Rock U. Or Uganda Martyrs University, reported by John Wetsch in this thread.

 

My rule of thumb in dealing with this sort of thing (because I've always hated stuff like "Great Gatsby, The"): Keep "The"/"A"/"An" at the front, but ignore it for classification purposes (so someone would ideally find "The Union Institute" between "Unholy College and University" and "Unique State University"). I can't remember who first suggested this, but it has solved no small number of problems for me (though it would play havoc with automated indexing, I think).


Cheers,

------------------
Tom Head
www.tomhead.net

co-author, Bears' Guide to the Best Education Degrees by Distance Learning (Ten Speed Press)
co-author, Get Your IT Degree and Get Ahead (Osborne/McGraw-Hill)

 

It seems that some students and alumni of Union Institute & University prefer to list their alma mater without "&". Some are listing it as Union Institute University, which of course sounds better. One example can be found at http://www.ualberta.ca/ST.STEPHENS/sc-facul.htm (Prof. Barnsley)

 

Don't be scorning Excelsior now, I might need to write one of their exams for credit by special assessment (formerly known as "Regent's Examinations")

Darren.