Ch-changes

My alma mater is attempting to change its name, and you wouldn't believe how much controversy it is causing.

Some explanation is in order. Loyola College has, technically, been a university for a long time in terms of what it offers students. It has several different schools, as well as a graduate program. Despite this, the "college" moniker has stuck, and previous efforts to change the name to "university" have been shot down. As a result, the school has been in a unique position. It is the only Loyola College in the US - all other schools with the name are "Universities". We have the loyola.edu domain name. Compared to the others, we stand out quite well. With a good reputation and some improvements, the school could easily develop the same Cult of Personality that surrounds Boston College.

So what caused this vote to pan out differently? There are a few reasons, and it just goes to show how depressing our academic systems are becoming.

For one, the college is playing the same games that many other institutions are in order to improve their reputation. They strive to increase the numbers and stats that are important to attracting attention from other schools and prospective students, and they wish to grow in size at an "accepted" rate, regardless of how fast they can actually grow based on geography. It is a constant game of one-upsmanship, and it has not gone unnoticed. When Newsweek or others print their yearly handbooks for getting into college, there are often articles discussing this issue and others. Quite frankly, it is not hard to make the comparison here. This kind of competition is what you see from corporations.

This analogy to corporate culture goes further. This time around, Loyola is making its changes under the guidance of a marketing firm. This does not sit well with me. For one, I hate marketing folks because so many of them seem bad at their jobs, completely missing what their target audience wants and making a laughingstock out of their client. Two, the ones that are good have no room in their minds for truth and morality. The College insists they will not forget its history and goals in this push forward, but that is exactly what will happen. The marketers will tell them to push all the issues that Loyola makes half hearted attempts at fixing, such as their sad approach to diversity issues. I also doubt that the sciences and other smaller fields of study will be given much thought.

Sadly, since I saved this post as a draft, the vote has passed and the name change will carry on through. The only ones I know who agree with it are current students, and the reasons I have heard from them are so shallow as to be rendered moot. All we alum know is that we are going to have a diploma for a school that no longer exists, and in the future we will have to explain where we attended rather than it being (somewhat) plain as day.

I look forward to seeing how much further away from its white - upper middle class values it will go.