One of my areas of interest in recent months has been the naming of universities. It's an odd interest, but I find such things fascinating as universities evolve. I've learned quite a bit. Most universities have gone through a similar set of names:

John Smith Teachers School (most universities started out as teachers' college). John Smith Normal College (The words "Normal College" were about as prevalent as "State University" is today) John Smith State University, University of State at Smithville

Others have had different paths, but with rare exception (UT changed once, adding the "at Austin" and TAMU was once A&M College of Texas). Some of the name changes have been for the better (I don't think any university misses being referred to as a Normal School or Normal College), and many have been for the worse, in my view. Regardless, I find the subject itself fascinating - particularly the politics involve.

I was in Lafayette recently meeting Eel's family and got into a conversation with her father, a University of Louisiana at Lafayette professor. ULL (or ULaLa as it is sometimes glibly referred to as) was known as Southwestern Louisiana not long ago and I got some insight into much of the politics involved in university naming in Louisiana as well as in Texas. It's apparently serious business and very political.

ULL desperately wants to be the University of Louisiana. They've got the Louisiana.edu domain and, in fact, it was the University of Louisiana for about four days until LSU stepped in. Louisiana State University, the state's only top-tier institution, was apparently worried that people might get confused if there were both a Louisiana and an LSU.

Somehow Michigan and MSU, Oklahoma and OSU, Florida and FSU, and a dozen or two other states have managed to avoid this fate, but LSU is so confused as to Louisiana's intelligence that they worry. Or something. In any case, they got there way and ULL is hog-tied with the extra L.

Not that ULL has ceased its quest. A trip to Lafayette or the campus itself will demonstrate quite clearly how unwelcome the "Lafayette" is. They're actually quite clever about it with big giant UL's and a tiny, tiny "Lafayette" underneath. Even the green freeway signs, not generally known for creative layouts, have the "Lafayette" in small lettering. The professors have also apparently been instructed to refer to it a certain way to keep it from sounding like a junior university.

Texas's own southwestern designated university has also undergone a name change for similar reasons. Southwest Texas State is now Texas State University at San Marcos. They were gambling, in a way, that the "at San Marcos" would be dropped when people refer to it and, unlike ULL, they've largely succeeded.

Now that Southwest Texas State has dropped its regional designation, there aren't anymore Regional Texas State Universities. East Texas State is now Texas A&M at Commerce, West Texas State is now West Texas A&M, and North Texas State is now the University of North Texas. The Junior A&Ms and University of Louisiana ats bring to light the other trend in university names: University franchises.

Texas A&I is now Texas A&M-Kingsville, the University of Corpus Christi became Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Texas Western is the University of Texas at El Paso, and Northeastern Louisiana is now the University of Louisiana at Monroe (Southeastern Louisiana wanted to change its name, but LSU objected again on their exceptionally low opinion of their state's population).

In many ways, these name changes make a lot of sense. According to Professor Lafayette, a regional designation makes it harder to a university to be taken seriously by perspective students and grant issuers, among others. Being a latch-on to a bigger university also grants instant brand recognition. Whether it's College Station or Commerce, the degree says Texas A&M across the top either way.

But I wonder, to a degree, what's being sacrificed and what's really being gained. In the case of Southwest Texas State, maybe it made more sense because it's not actually in southwest Texas. They also got the coveted Texas State moniker once sought by Texas Tech and Texas Southern... for now. There's really not a whole lot to stop Tarleton State and Angelo State from doing the same thing if they get big enough. Texas State could become the same franchise name that Cal State presently is.

There are enough University of Texas ats and Texas A&M ats that the fact that the "at Kingsville" is not likely to be overlooked. If I was born and raised in East Texas, a name like East Texas State would represent me more than a state university name hundreds of miles away with a city itself fifty miles away tacked on to it. I would much rather go to Texas Western University than University of Texas at El Paso. I'd rather go to a school with a distinct identity (Texas A&I) than one whose claim to fame is by connection to some other university in some other place (Texas A&M at Kingsville).

I wish the University of Louisiana at Lafayette the best of luck, but even if they got the University of Louisiana moniker, it wouldn't make them any close in stature to Louisiana State any more than Ohio University is to Ohio State. I visited ULL while I was there and really liked the campus (especially the swamp!), but LSU it ain't.

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R. Alex Whitlock.