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

[krazeeboi]

I don't understand why not.

[monsoon]

I don't understand why not.

[lukedog]

National employment recruiter looking at 500 resumes for a large company ...

Looks at resume with UNC at Charlotte on it. - put it in Pile A

Looks at resume with University of Charlotte, What?, never heard of it, what is it, NVM - put it in Pile B.

Maybe that clears it up for you.

[monsoon]

The reality if the situation is that is exactly how many companies pare down resumes. I've personally been involved in these things and there is no way that any recruiter, who is going to be overworked is going to know every school in this country. Someone dumps 500 resumes in their lap and is told to choose 50 out of it for further consideration, by tomorrow, there isn't going to be a lot of in depth study put into it.

I guess people can argue otherwise, but the bottom line is that UNCC is not going to give up on the UNC part of its name. For the vast number of people and alumni that have gone to this school, removing the UNC from the name isn't something they would support especially the majority who don't live in or near Charlotte.

[MZT]

I'd say it's a supportable point that UNCC might look like a community college to an employer 1000 miles from here. But it's not that big a deal. Spell it out. Surely there is enough room on a resume to do that.... (When I was job hunting, I always typed out North Carolina State University instead of just leaving it NCSU. I wasn't going to simply assume everyone knew what the acronym was.)

I have to agree with Metro though, the university just isn't going to sink money into a name change, when it could be spent on immediate needs.

This thread seems almost as futile to me, as the football one. People get an idea in their minds that "This would be better" -- no matter how many stairs it takes to climb to get there.

[monsoon]

Indeed. Never uses any school's acronym on a resume. Spell out the full name of the school unless you want it to be put into "pile b".

[Miesian Corners]

Never use acronyms on a resume, period.

[dubone]

How about:

'The University of Charlotte, a University of North Carolina University in Charlotte, North Carolina'

- Redundant Department of Redundancy

[InitialD]

I believe "The University of Charlotte" is by far the best name for the university; "Charlotte" for short.

First, this puts the school in the same standings as well known schools Pittsburgh, Louisville, Memphis, and Cincinnati.

Second, the sports teams are already know as "Charlotte 49'ers" when mentioned on ESPN, Fox Sports, etc. so the UNCC name only serves to add confusion.

Third, by being called Charlotte this can only help to elicit more support from the city. For example there are plenty of fans who support schools like Memphis by buying apparel and going to games simply because they feel Memphis represents their city.

Colleges are all about making money (re: sports) and branding is a huge part of that. How many sweatshirts at Wal-mart have UNC-CH on them? None, because UNC-CH realizes it can make more money if it purports to representing the state of North Carolina. I think the Charlotte populus would embrace Charlotte more if it dropped the useless UNC from its name.

[NcSc74]

I understand all of the points given here. However I have to back metro on this one. It is all about name recognition and for a school only 45 years old a name change now will only dilute the situation. So I say start an ad campaign..."UNCC=Charlotte". Just as most people in region refer to Chapel Hill as Carolina the same can be done to UNCC. I grant you the fact that the acronym is long and cumbersome so just use Charlotte as the catch all and UNCC is just that an acronym.

[peaceloveunderstanding]

Colleges are all about making money (re: sports) and branding is a huge part of that. How many sweatshirts at Wal-mart have UNC-CH on them? None, because UNC-CH realizes it can make more money if it purports to representing the state of North Carolina. I think the Charlotte populus would embrace Charlotte more if it dropped the useless UNC from its name.

[lukedog]

I hate getting off topic, but sports don't make money directly, in fact they almost always run at a loss. The sports programs [em]sometimes[/em] make money indirectly by increasing the undergraduate base; undergraduate dollars are where the big money is. UNC Charlotte doesn't have any trouble attracting undergrads, so no change on this front is necessary.

[monsoon]

Actually, two sports can make big money (Basketball/Football) and the bigger the conference that school is in the more money that school makes. If the team happens to make it into a bowl game or the NCAA tournament. For those schools, the further they make it the more money they get (Millions).

[Wookie]

The reality if the situation is that is exactly how many companies pare down resumes. I've personally been involved in these things and there is no way that any recruiter, who is going to be overworked is going to know every school in this country. Someone dumps 500 resumes in their lap and is told to choose 50 out of it for further consideration, by tomorrow, there isn't going to be a lot of in depth study put into it.

I guess people can argue otherwise, but the bottom line is that UNCC is not going to give up on the UNC part of its name. For the vast number of people and alumni that have gone to this school, removing the UNC from the name isn't something they would support especially the majority who don't live in or near Charlotte.

[atlrvr]

Now that I'm in the north, when I say I graduated from University of North Carolina Charlotte or UNC Charlotte, the #1 response I get is, oh, I love Chapel Hill. I usually just let them go with it, especially when it's a work superior.

While I like the name University of Charlotte, I think the UNC prefix carries a lot of weight elsewhere in the country, just because people don't know the difference, and must assume that UNC's flagship school is located in the state's biggest city.

[AuLukey]

I would love to see some statistics behind the idea that "UNC" either adds prestige or name recognition to the UNC Charlotte degree.

I do not want to hold off on a name change if the best reason we can come up with is that some lazy schmo in Idaho is going to put the one UNC Charlotte resume he gets in the "B" pile.

I graduate with an MBA in May, and I would be the first in line for that degree to read "University of Charlotte".

I guess University of Charlotte could be seen as University of Phoenix, but it could also be seen as University of Chicago, NYU, Boston College, or Pittsburgh. That's up to the university's efforts to market the school. Similarly, UNC Charlotte can be seen as a branch of UNC Chapel Hill, as it is now by many. I think everyone is just guessing, and some studies need to be done if they haven't been already, but I cannot believe that anyone thinks being a branch of the UNC system is such a benefit. The difference between a USC Columbia degree and a USC Upstate degree is pretty big in perception. UNC Charlotte suffers the same fate.

The city of Charlotte is growing in prestige. Now is the time for UNC Charlotte to leverage that affiliation and say goodbye to the UNC "benefit".

Of course, that's just my opinion.