Student survey says keep name

In an unscientific poll conducted by The Colonnade, there was no question about the student opinion on the name change of Georgia College & State University. Approximately 83 percent of 100 surveyed students did not favor a name change.

One of the reasons for the name change proposed by President Dorothy Leland was that the current name of the university is “conceptually confusing.” Seventy three percent of surveyed students disagreed.

Most of the students felt as though withholding “University” from the title diminishes the prestige of the name.

“I went to Gordon College in Barnsville, that’s a two year school,” said junior Lindsey Dykes. “I think that if you make it ‘Georgia College,’ it seems like a two year institution instead of a four year.”

Of the 27 percent who felt the university’s name can be confusing, less than half felt that it required a name change. Some of them, however, did.

Sophomore Rena Pruitte was a part of that minority.

“I would be fine with it going to Georgia College,” Pruitte said. “It’s very confusing [now] with Georgia Southern and Georgia State.”

At this point, there has still been no formal survey posed to students, staff and faculty. Dr. Leland posted a question and answer document on the InfoPage that addressed common questions on the issue shortly after the idea was proposed to the student government association.

SGA President Loman Martin is planning to hold a forum with Dr. Leland. The forum will be open to the pubic and will provide students with an opportunity to get their questions and concerns addressed.

“It’s going to be pretty much the president and I fielding questions about the name change,” Martin said.

Dr. Leland originally discussed the idea for a forum with SGA members in a meeting approximately three weeks ago. In the same meeting, she informed SGA that she had pitched the name change to the Board of Regents. At the time, there were less than two months to propose a solution to the Board.

Martin said that the forum is likely to be held in late November or early December. He also said that the original deadline of January might be extended by the Board of Regents, partly as a result of Leland’s Inauguration.

Director of University Communications Mitch Clarke is reportedly working on a name change survey that will be posted on the InfoPage. Despite repeated attempts, both Clarke and Leland were unavailable for comment.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Nov 12 2004. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry