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Names don't fool higher learners
(by Dave Lange - October 29, 2008)
COUNTY LINE, BY DAVE LANGE
Names don't fool higher learners
Michael Schwartz, the president of a large state university in a big city not far from here, wants to change the name of his institution of higher learning. How about THEEEEEE Cleveland State University?
But no, Dr. Schwartz wants to rename Cleveland State University as the (pronounced thuh) University of Cleveland. He told the daily paper that a name change is needed because of the perception that Cleveland State is a community college, like Columbus State and Cincinnati State.
Earth to Dr. Schwartz, the official names of those schools are Columbus State Community College and Cincinnati State Technical and Community College. With names like that, it's easy to see why people would perceive them to be community colleges.
But with a name like Cleveland State University, it would have to take some contrived ignorance to perceive it as a community college. And you have to wonder why the president of CSU wants to reach out to would-be students, tuition payers or even professors who would contrive ignorance in such fashion. You would think he might be more interested in those with the capability of understanding that an institution that's officially named a university is not a community college.
Dr. Schwartz could cause a lot less trouble, not to mention a lot less senseless expense, merely by calling his school THEEEEEE Cleveland State University. Then he wouldn't have to drag everybody else along with his impulsiveness. Not only that, it would be truthful, because there is only one state university in Cleveland.
That is not the case with the one state university in Columbus, which some years ago decided to stick a deceptive THEEEEEE in front of a perfectly good name. There actually are 13 Ohio state universities.
And aside from the one in Columbus and the one in Cleveland, none of them seem to have identity issues. When people refer to Kent State, Youngstown State, Wright State or Central State, nobody thinks they're community colleges. Shawnee State University may not have the name recognition of those other fine schools, but you don't hear its president calling for a name change to the University of Shawnee.
CSU's president may be yearning to be more like the University of Akron, the University of Cincinnati and the University of Toledo, but they were city-operated universities prior to being taken over by the Ohio Board of Regents. Cleveland State is the successor to Fenn College, which was a private institution. The University of Fenn has a nice ring to it.
One student questioned by the Cleveland paper thought that the name change to the University of Cleveland would sound more like a private school and might give it more prestige. A faculty member indicated that such a change could be an "outward expression of new directions." Is there some embarrassment about the university's past?
A former president of Kent State University didn't seek a name change to the University of Kent, but he wanted people to refer to it as just plain Kent. He thought that would sound kind of like Yale or Harvard and give his university more prestige. But the students didn't have Ivy League illusions. They just wanted a decent education.
Last year, there was some idle talk about a new vision for higher education in Northeast Ohio by merging Cleveland State and Akron universities. Now that we have some even newer vision from Dr. Schwartz, they might call it the University of Akron-Cleveland.
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