First Posted: 3/14/2015
AKRON (AP) — The president of the University of Akron says changing the school’s name is among the ideas being considered in the school’s strategic planning.
Participants in planning sessions have brainstormed many ideas for the university, including a possible name change “to reflect its unique strengths in polytechnical and professional fields, along with career-focused applied learning,” President Scott Scarborough said in a statement this week. “This is only one of the many ideas that is being evaluated as part of ongoing strategic planning.”
Scarborough’s statement didn’t include potential new names, and he isn’t commenting further about the possibility.
Lawmakers would have to approve any name change because public university titles are established by Ohio statute, a spokesman for the Board of Regents told the Northeast Ohio Media Group.
The school began as Buchtel College in 1870 and has been known since the University of Akron since 1913, when it was transferred to the city. It has been a state university since 1965.
If it changed names again, it certainly wouldn’t be the first institute of higher education to consider such a move. Hundreds of colleges and universities in the U.S. have altered their names, and sometimes that upsets supporters or alumni.
In northeast Ohio, for example, there are lingering objections to the decisions nearly five decades ago that created Case Western Reserve University from the union of Case Institute of Technology and Western Reserve University, the media group said.
