"UNCC" "CPCC" - What's in a name?

[Richhamleigh, DC]

On a whim, I wonder...if having a major university in Charlotte is a name important? Do we already have the makings of two "major" institutions? Should these change their names to reflect their improved status and make them seem less like just "local" institutions? Would changing what we call these institutions give them more "credibility"? What impact would a change have? If yes, what should they be called?

Should UNC-C become Charlotte University; should CPCC become Charlotte College?

[Sabaidee]

I'm not too sure about CPCC becoming Charlotte College, but I do believe it should elevate itself into a accredited four years institutions. It's is one of the top three community college in the country and IMO it's better than some four years institutions. Just build some dorms, and change its charter and everything will be perfect. CPCC already has an enrollment of 15,000, that's bigger than most colleges in the UNC System and it would be right behind UNCC and above NC A&T.

I personally think UNCC should become University of Charlotte, UNCC doesn't have an identity because the name is so close to UNC Chapel Hill. The Student Senate voted to change to University of Charlotte, but it was veto by the SGA President because his views about the name change reflected upon the Chancellor's.

[Richhamleigh, DC]

I'm not too sure about CPCC becoming Charlotte College, but I do believe it should elevate itself into a accredited four years institution. It's is one of the top three community college in the country and IMO it's better than some four years institution. Just build some dorms, and change its charter and everything will be perfect. CPCC already has an enrollment of 15,000, that's bigger than most colleges in the UNC System and it would be after behind after UNCC and before NC A&T.

I personally think UNCC should become University of Charlotte, UNCC doesn't have an identity because the name is so close to UNC Chapel Hill. The Student Senate voted to change to University of Charlotte, but it was veto by the SGA President because his views about the name change reflected upon the Chancellor's.

Thanks for elaborating! Would a more public push to change the name help? Maybe a petition?

Would changing UNC-C lead to changes in Asheville, Greensboro, Wilmington???

[monsoon]

Prior to 1961, UNCC was known as Charlotte College. It would not be a good idea to now give that name to CPCC.

[dubone]

I think both schools would enhance their individual reputations by changing names. UNCC should change to Charlotte University or University of Charlotte. CPCC should seek accreditation, add dorms, and be Central Piedmont College or something like that.

[Richhamleigh, DC]

I think both schools would enhance their individual reputations by changing names. UNCC should change to Charlotte University or University of Charlotte. CPCC should seek accreditation, add dorms, and be Central Piedmont College or something like that.

Is there a "Piedmont College"?

Any plans on the part of CPCC to proceed as you mention?

[cinco]

I'm not too sure about CPCC becoming Charlotte College, but I do believe it should elevate itself into a accredited four years institution. It's is one of the top three community college in the country and IMO it's better than some four years institution. Just build some dorms, and change its charter and everything will be perfect. CPCC already has an enrollment of 15,000, that's bigger than most colleges in the UNC System and it would be after behind after UNCC and before NC A&T.

I personally think UNCC should become University of Charlotte, UNCC doesn't have an identity because the name is so close to UNC Chapel Hill. The Student Senate voted to change to University of Charlotte, but it was veto by the SGA President because his views about the name change reflected upon the Chancellor's.

.. wouldn't that 15,000 number be void, considering the requirements to get in a 4 year college, is a large reason a number of cpcc's students are there... not to mention the tution increase would be quite dramatic. all the same, i would love to see the uptown cpcc location go to a 4 year college. and since we know that there is a huge demand for community college... they could build a new.

cpcc has a great thing going and i doubt they would fix what isn't broken. but i'm just a caveman.

[monsoon]

CPCC's enrollment is 57,000, not 15,000. It is the largest 2 year university in NC.

[Richhamleigh, DC]

but i'm just a caveman.

Hardly! Your points are excellent. There is a need for (a significant) portion of what is CPCC to remain a community college. I'm sorry I didn't think of the implications...I'm the caveman!

[ngp]

UNCC should absolutely change its name. Apparantly McCrory likes the idea as well.

http://www.urbanplanet.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=1623

[DigitalSky]

CPCC's enrollment is 57,000, not 15,000. It is the largest 2 year university in NC.

Wow.. that is almost 1/10th of the city!

[voyager12]

I think UNCC changing its name could only lift its profile. The current name only reinforces the fact that the school is a satellite that will be forever in the shadow of the elite and highly ranked flagship. A new name would allow the school to stand on its own.

[Skyline49er]

I think both schools would enhance their individual reputations by changing names. UNCC should change to Charlotte University or University of Charlotte. CPCC should seek accreditation, add dorms, and be Central Piedmont College or something like that.

I agree with you Dubone, I think that UNCC should change its name to the Universtiy of Charlotte. I think that sounds good. Whenever people ask me where i go to college, i just say Charlotte because saying UNCC gets people confused with Chapel Hill. I wonder if this name change happens, seeing that we have a new chancellor?

[monsoon]

I tend to disagree myself. I think UNCC should remain identified with the UNC system. To me the University of North Carolina at Charlotte sounds much better than the University of Charlotte.

UCLA is a very well known institution. If they had called it Los Angeles University, I don't think it would sound as prestigious.

[queensguy06]

I don't think either school should change their name. That's what makes them that school. And CPCC is not going to change to a 4 yr. school - why would it? It is the second largest community college in the nation.

[dubone]

UCLA is well known because it is in one of the most populous cities and states in the country. Their basketball program during the Wooden era gave it national fame.

It could have been LAU and would be just as famous today.

Many other UC schools are hardly known.

I'd also say, as long as there is a UNC-Pembroke, there isn't much prestige to having the UNC prefix.

I think UNCC also needs to improve its campus, increase ties with uptown businesses, increase academic admissions standards, raise a billion+ endowment, and add graduated programs. The university is on track, but definitely has a lot to do as it is competing with universities that are centuries old.

[monsoon]

Well it is only 45 years old. UNC in comparison is the oldest public university in the USA.

[dubone]

UNCC is definitely doing very well for a school that has been around for only a couple generations.

Reputations, academic traditions, sporting traditions, endowments, incredible campuses, etc., seem to take many generations to take root.

All that is moot for this discussion. I just think University of Charlotte sounds much better, and gives more of an impression that the place stands on its own two feet.

If it stays UNCC, I'm sure things will be fine, and they'll continue to progress toward their goals. But my tuppence is that they should change the name to underscore their independence.

[voyager12]

A new name would be a nice change but I don't see it happening anytime soon. The bureaucracy of the UNC system will just dump the proposal into the black hole of other new and innovative ideas. Conversely, in SC years ago there was talk of merging The Citadel, Medical University of SC, and The College of Charleston into the University of Charleston are some variant of that name. There was so much uproar about the important maintaing individual school identity that the idea quickly died. It really all depends on one's perspective.

[monsoon]

Indeed it does. There are a lot of people still around that worked very hard to get a branch of the UNC system in Charlotte. They are not going to be too keen to give it up. And I think nationally, the UNC name along with Charlotte in the name is going to carry a lot more weight than just Charlotte alone. Don't forget there are still a lot of the people in the country that still are not sure what state Charlotte is located in.

Maybe in a few generations it might make more sense to change the name, but not now.

[rockhilljames]

Frankly, I'd love to see the name change. I think, for one, that the UNC before the Charlotte tends to give off the image of a lower-class or secondary campus apart from the main campus.

In South Carolina several of the regional campuses changed their name after they got to a certain size and wanted their own identity. Coastal Carolina used to be USC-Conway and Francis Marion University used to be USC-Florence. Both have benefitted from the name change. USC-Spartenburg will be the next to change, although they've now changed to the ungodly USC-Upstate, whatever the hell that's supposed to mean.

Changing the name to Charlotte University (like Cincinnatti, for example) shows a clear distinction between UNCC and UNC-Chapel Hill that doesn't exist right now.

[monsoon]

Coastal Carolina never had the name USC at Conway. It was known as the "University of South Carolina-Coastal Carolina College". It is now known simply as Coastal Carolina because it withdrew from the USC system and is now an independant university.

When I was growing up there in the 60s & 70s, it was simply referred to as "Coastal" by the locals.

Likewise, I have never known Francis Marion to be called anything else except for Francis Marion. It had that name in the 70s when several of my friends from High School went to school there.

[Creasy336]

Look at what a name change has done for the Univerisity of Memphis. It used to be Memphis State at one point. University of Charlotte and Charlotte Univeristy sound alot better than UNCC plus everyone will still recognize it as part of the UNC system.

[Richhamleigh, DC]

I tend to disagree myself. I think UNCC should remain identified with the UNC system. To me the University of North Carolina at Charlotte sounds much better than the University of Charlotte.

UCLA is a very well known institution. If they had called it Los Angeles University, I don't think it would sound as prestigious.

The UCLA analogy is a good one but the UC system isn't as historically dominated by one school the way the UNC system is dominated by Chapel Hill.

[AuLukey]

As for CPCC, I am impartial to it becoming a four year university. I like being able to say it is the second largest CC in the nation. What is the largest?

As for Charlotte, I am tired of people feeling like our school will have a lower reputation if we drop the NC out of UNCC. Charlotte is one of the top 25 largest cities in the country; people now know where it is. Fewer people knew Charlotte as a major city ten to twenty years ago, but it has drastically changed and has been given an identity. However, when you look at our school's sports teams, how often do you hear UNC Charlotte mistakenly said at games or on the rare ESPN mention? They are known as Charlotte and there is no question.

Sure, it would cost money to replace signs, yes, but you can spread it out over time. I'm sure nobody would discredit our school for having a few leftover stationary pads that include the words North Carolina on them.

As for the matter on UCLA, there is no major UCL or the like to mistake it as. UNC and UNCC are where people get confused. It's when somebody says "I go to UNCC" and the other person says "oh yea? The tar heels right?" By calling it The University of Charlotte, there can be NO mistake. Even the OLD name of Charlotte College (like Boston College) is better than the satellite-esk name "UNC Charlotte." I wish it could be an informed student body vote rather than just the senate. As for Joe Franco (the SB president,) I'm pretty sure he had it in his agenda to push for the name change as well... wonder what happened there.

I feel it is more than necessary to establish this school as a University with an identity of its own. Yes, we do need a football team, but that is a whole issue unrelated to this. And, if we did have a team, it would be called the CHARLOTTE 49er's, not the UNCC 49er's.

Bonnie Cone established this school as Charlotte College, I am unaware if she had a hand in the name changing to UNCC or if that was a UNC system decision when they took Charlotte into their arms. Changing the name will not discredit the quality of a diploma of UNCC's namesake. Did it discredit those of Charlotte College when it was changed to UNCC? No, it was a symbol of Charlotte's rise and part of its history. So then you would be able to say to your grandchildren "I graduated from Charlotte back when they used to call it The University of North Carolina at Charlotte." That's something to be proud of rather than be embarrassed about.

There are many issues to be resolved as the school molds itself into a NC powerhouse like the Triangle Four. Changing the name to The University of Charlotte will only help establish that identity. (I severely doubt UC will get confused with Cincinnati as few people call it UC as we would call ours Charlotte.) Chapel Hill's true name is UNCCH but I can't tell you the last time I heard it called that. It simply goes by UNC, Chapel Hill, or Carolina. Any of those names will be a direct hit if mentioned to a NCAA tournament fan or high school seniors applying to college country wide. Having Charlotte known as UNCC only hurts its reputation by putting it in a shadow.

As to whether people know if Charlotte is in NC or not, that's basically irrelevant because I don't automatically think "Illinois!" when I hear the name Chicago. That is mostly because Chicago's identity isn't placed with Illinois, just like Charlotte is practically independent of having a NC identity (not including NASCAR. The HOF may cause this to change a little.)

Until the day that you walk through the streets of downtown and people are talking about being from NC instead of being from Charlotte, I will continue to call UNCC "Charlotte" instead of "UNC Charlotte." Just go ahead and change the name already.