Ken McConnellogue, the vice-president of the University of Colorado system, discussed the recent change from UC-Denver to CU-Denver. Apparently, there is quite a history of naming and renaming this school. Most recently, the university went through a rebranding process and decided to change their name. Prior to August 2011, the school had been known as UC-Denver. They have now changed their name to CU-Denver. Their web address is still www.ucdenver.edu.
Confused yet?
You can find a short history of the name change on a certain website. If you google "history of name cu denver," click on the first link. According to this site, there were two University of Colorado campuses in the city of Denver. They were merged to create one institution - University of Colorado - Denver, with a downtown campus and a medical center campus.
The city of Aurora was upset that the medical campus, located in Aurora, did not include the city in its name. Lawmakers asked the board of regents to change the name of the school to University of Colorado, Denver/Aurora. Kind of a long name.
In 2010, the board of regents decided the medical campus would be called: University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. According to this report, Aurora was happy to see "Denver" dropped from the title.
It's abbreviation is still CU-Denver. Ken McConnellogue said they're happy to go back to CU because it more closely associates them with CU-Boulder, a prestigious institution.
Since I have only lived in Colorado for 2.5 years, I have wondered about the University of Colorado schools being called CU. Ken McConnellogue says this is, in part, an attempt to distinguish this institution from the University of California system. He also said, many years ago, schools in the Big Ten/Big 12 conferences decided to put the state's name first. University of Oklahoma became OU, University of Kansas became KU, and so on. Since then, other schools have followed this tradition.
Just so we're all clear, the University of Colorado Springs will still be shortened as UCCS.
Right now, I'm glad to be at UNC, where things seem to be all clear for now.
What do you think?
I also heard the interview with Ken McConnelogue on NPR. Interesting to note - he used to work at UNC!
ReplyDeleteI haven't made up my mind totally about this but I do have a new appreciation for our campus staff engaged in campus communication and "branding". Until recently I haven't had much use for this idea of "branding". I've developed a nice relationship with our communications office and have learned a lot about their work. While seemingly petty - CU versus UC I do get why you'd want your system to be aligned and for students and other "consumers" to recognize the larger connection. Although you make an interesting point about UCCS being allowed to retain its acronym.
The recent issue for our campus was the sheer number of "organic" logos popping up all over the place - so many different logos that at times it was hard to tell whether the logo was associated with the school. So, we have given the logos a more seamless look and associated all of them with the college - and I have to say it makes sense. This is not my area of expertise but I do think our communication offices sometimes get a bad rap for these kinds of things - and let's face it - in today's economy colleges do need to market themselves.
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ReplyDeleteThis is so timely. This weekend I was working on a large community event with colleagues from CU-Denver (a co-sponsor) and the public. There were 2 times that I was asked by community members about the CU-Denver terminology… now I know! Although I didn’t have the history that Margaret included in this post, I was quick to point out that the University of Denver is also not “UD” as one might expect, so the reversal of the names and abbreviations isn’t unique to the large state public institutions either. As someone work works at an institution that’s had a bit of a spat with DU over names (see http://www.kdvr.com/news/kdvr-metro-name-change-txt,0,1474158.story) I can attest to the importance of institutional name—on the institution itself, the students, alumni, and the Colorado higher education community too. Sigh. Just think about the cost—to the state—or is it to the students??—of the re-branding initiatives—new logos, new attire, new building signage, new letterhead, new just about everything in the Admissions Office… the list goes on. That is a lot of money... whew!
ReplyDeleteIt may be, at least in part, because I've never worked at an institution that has changed its name, but I will confess that I am perplexed by CU-Denver's propensity to change its name.
ReplyDeleteAs an outsider looking in (and so I will fully confess that I do not know at all the inner workings of that institution, the politics at play, the opinion of employees of the institution, etc.), it seems that this institution is struggling with its identity. In my humble opinion, the frequency of name changes is only hindering the establishment of an identity.
Ahh, Margaret, you've hit a sore spot with us CU Denver folks. There are two of us in this class that work at CU Denver. We've been in the throws of an identity crisis for about 6 years. One of the names you missed in your blog is UCDHSC--University of Colorado Denver Health Sciences Center (that's right, add another name to the list).
ReplyDeleteWhen I started at CU Denver, it was CU Denver, black and gold. Two months later our "new and better" branding was announced and we became UC Denver, blue and gold. Last spring semester, we were told that the brand wasn't done being changed. April 2011 brought us a brand new unveiling of *drum roll rrrrrrrrrrr* CU Denver! Back to black and gold.
We still have no mascot, and we're not allowed to use the Buff.
I believe our branding changes have hurt the student experience because students cannot say what they're proud to be a part of--if they are at all. My department has spent a small fortune in getting brand-compliant business cards, clothing items for events, and soon we'll need to do letterhead and envelopes.
A lot of this is politically driven with the medical campus and the downtown campus being asked (or forced) to consolidate into one unit. It's hard being one entity when physically, we're 10 miles apart.
P.S. The current, correct terminology is:
CU Denver Downtown
CU Denver Anschutz Medical Campus
or just CU Denver
You can also say UCD
...just don't say UC Denver because it's not brand compliant...which makes my email address and the institution's official website non-brand compliant.
Hehehehehe.... this made my day! (As did many of the comments) It is also interesting to watch our colleagues at Metro State consider going down the path in the near future.
ReplyDeleteI pretty much started working at CU Denver the last time it was CU Denver in 2006. Since that time I have had to reorder business cards more times than I can count, and have a ton of shirts and name tags that are non-compliant with the brand. (See Jill's comment above) It is nice to finally have a name... even if it is the same name that we used to have. I also agree with Jill that it has hurt the student experience, and ultimately the school itself in terms of recruiting and marketing. In some ways these changes happened at the worst possible time... the time when students want an identity on our campus. 10 years ago student were content with an Auraria identity... now they are asking for a SCHOOL identity and spaces that separate the three schools on Campus. Not having an identity made it very challenging to create spaces for students to identify with. Hopefully we are on the path to an identity.
Here is the T-Shirt I want to design just for fun:
CU Denver (Crossed Out)
CU in the City (Crossed Out)
UC Denver (Crossed Out)
UCDHSC (Crossed Out)
UCD DDC (Crossed Out)
CU Buff - with no smoking symbol
CU Denver - Arrow back to the top and re-written.
I always find university name changes interesting. I assumed the reason they were changing the name back to CU Denver was so that it was again recognizable as a branch campus of CU Boulder, but then UCCS no longer makes sense. I would think that they are just trying to make it more recognizable and credible when students are searching for a school and they will fully understand that it is a branch of CU.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was studying abroad in Edinburgh, my university (Napier University at the time) went through a new branding while I was there. I started at Napier and ended up leaving Edinburgh Napier University. They paid several million dollars for a team to develop a new name and logo for the university, which ended up being Edinburgh Napier University with a red triangle and its shadow as the logo. I think I could have made the same suggestion. It was definitely a positive switch though. I never bought any sort of insignia from Napier because nothing about it made it recognizable to Scotland. I ended up buying my hoodie from the University of Edinburgh at the shop across the street.
Since moving to Colorado, the most common question I get from my friends and family back home, is the is the University of Colorado called CU? Now I have an answer for them, finally. Thank you for that.
ReplyDeleteBefore reading this I never realized how much politicking goes into naming a university. What cities want to be associated with institutions, what institutions what to be associated with one another, which institutions want to be distinguished from others, and this peer pressure to follow the format of other schools at the time. It seems as if the politicking begins early on with institutions of higher education, from the moment that the decision of what to call it is made.
Having worked in higher education in California I got so used to the two major 4 year public university systems that exist, the UC (University of California) that traditional refers to as the research intensive institutions and CS ( California State) systems.
ReplyDeleteOne just needed to add the name of the town or city where the campus was located and all made perfect sense. However, since I arrived to Colorado I was always very confused when people where alluding to UC-Denver or CU-Denver, I even thought that one was the public university and the other a private institution.
I am so relieved to learn that I was not the only one confused with the terminology.I now realize that there is a history about the renaming of CU Denver.
Based on your post the board of regents decided to call this institution University of Colarado even though its acronym continues to be CU-Denver. I agree, that at least at UNC things seem to be all clear for now.
Thanks for all of your comments! Jill, I think I saw the UCDHSC, but I was too confused with all the different names to keep up. One thing I think is interesting is how CU Denver isn't really transparent. I think the UNC site has a page in the "About Us" section that includes all the different names UNC has had. I know my alma mater, University of North Texas, had a similar page as well. CU-Denver seems to be covering up their marketing gaffs though.
ReplyDeleteWow, that is confusing. As I was reading this blog I kept thinking of UNC. We went through many name changes as well. When the school first opened it was called the State Normal School. "Normal", that always grinds my gears because what is "normal". Anyway, then it was renamed to Colorado State Teachers College. Okay, that's a little better but now it's only focus seems to be for teachers. Then as the graduate programs became more developed it was renamed to Colorado State College of Education. This better reflects the variety of programs offered. Then, finally, it was renamed the University of Northern Colorado. And so here we are. While the above name changes happened from 1889-1970, more recently there has been some discussion about using UNC to represent the University of Northern Colorado. As you are all aware there is another UNC, the University of North Carolina. This school is also known as UNC. In fact, even in Colorado when I say I go to UNC, people think I'm talking about North Carolina. I have no hard feelings because they are one of the nations oldest state universities, Michael Jordan played there, and their women's soccer team has won 20 out of 32 national championships. I am a little bitter about the last one but... anyway, now more frequently UNC (Northern Colorado) is beginning to use NC for their abbreviated name, at least for athletics, to avoid the confusion with North Carolina. I know this just adds to the confusion. Sorry!
ReplyDeleteAccording to an article I found, a name is more than just words for an institute of higher education. It conveys stature, tradition, geography, and inherent mission. No wonder this is such an issue. As already mentioned Metropolitan State College of Denver is also going through some issues involving name change. Metro's website explains that their name no longer reflects the institution as it is today. The word metropolitan reflects their legacy so here are some possible name changes,
ReplyDeleteDenver Metropolitan State University
Denver State Metropolitan University
Metropolitan Denver State University
Although no decisions have been made, a survey will be conducted to determine the best fit for the University.
Holly, you beat me to it! I (kinda) work at Metro, so I've been a part of the rebranding effort for the past year, at least. The college was looking at renaming the college for a variety of reasons:
ReplyDelete* Now that we are offering Masters programs, we are no longer just a college
* Many people, because of the word college in our name, thought we were a community college
* There was no sense of geographical place in our name - there is another Metropolitan State College in Minnesota
Originally, the name that we came up with, and proposed to the state legislature, was Denver State University. This posed a few problems:
* This is my own take, but the last time I checked, Denver wasn't a state
* The University of Denver was none too happy with our proposed name, as they felt it bled some of their prestige away
Eventually, as we just found out this week, there are three new names on the board, which Holly outlined above. Personally, every one of them is really clunky. I think we're trying too hard to please too many people. While I agree that branding is important to a school's image, sometimes, you can't be everything to everyone.
My personal proposal is University of Metro Denver, or UMD.
But Steve! there is a UMD in Minnesota! (University of Minnesota Duluth ya know!) none of us wants that! :)
ReplyDeleteI have to say that I have enjoyed all of these comments as well as the original blog. I especially like the t-shirt idea from "biglarcolo".
I am not a marketing expert. I know how to advertise a student event or residence hall activity or a timely warning for an emergency. But I have no idea why the CU Denver branding thing (as well as Metro) is such a DRAMA. Much like my feelings on APA regulations for writing, I understand the need for uniformity in branding. But to do that well, you need to find one brand and stick with it for a few years. If not, get over it anyway.
Wow. I didn't realize I had such a cranky opinion about this... :)
CU-G Colorado University Greeley? or CUNC Colorado University Northern Colorado?
ReplyDeleteI agree marketing presence is needed for recruitment however does the name change the quality of education or the quality of student recruited? I really don't think so. What builds quality is high standards with a focus on the student. By developing high standards and empower the student with the skills needed to succeed an institution will go much farther than a name change.
Ah forget it. I want to milk off of CU Boulders reputation instead of working to build UNC's.
GO CUG's!