Could "The W" Lose Its W?

Mississippi University for Women President Claudia Limbert smiles after hearing the proposed new names for the school

In March, the Mississippi University for Women will celebrate its one hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary. It may be the last birthday for the Columbus school under that name. MPB’s Cari Gervin reports.

Reneau University.

Waverly University.

Welty-Reneau University.

One of those three names could become the new name of the Mississippi University for Women if the school’s administration gets its way.

“I think all of them are possible. They really are very, very nice names.”

That’s Claudia Limbert, the president of the college most Mississippians know as “The W.” She says it is long past time for the coed university to reflect that in its name.

“This isn’t something we just jumped into because we had nothing else to do. This means the difference between our success and our failure as a campus. It’s not a whim. It’s something that probably should have been done 26 years ago when we began admitting men.”

Limbert created a 30-person committee last year to come up with possible new names. Last Friday the group narrowed down a list of more than one hundred suggestions to its top three.

But not everyone thinks a name change is needed. Betty Lou Jones graduated from the W in the 1960’s and doesn’t see a problem with the name.

“I do not feel like the right amount of research and investigation has necessarily been done regarding whether a name change is necessary.”

Jones is the former president of the formerly all-female Alumnae Association. The group was disaffiliated two years ago by Limbert, spurring a lengthy legal battle and a lot of bitter feelings. But that fight is not why Jones says she and many of her fellow alums oppose a name change.

“Reneau University or Welty-Reneau University or Waverly University – the first thing I would wonder as a prospective student is what does this name mean. You know, when you hear Mississippi University for Women, it tells you, number one, it’s a Mississippi school, it’s a university, and the prime mission is for women. That doesn’t mean that it is only for women, but it was begun as a woman’s college, and that tradition and history is something we need to maintain.”

The W is the oldest state school for women in the country. It has been coed since 1982. And not all alums feel like Jones. Sue Jolly Smith is the head of the W’s Education department and was the chair of the naming committee. Smith has a bachelor’s and a master’s degree from the W.

“We do now have a segment of our population who are men. And we need a name that is reflective of who we are at this point in time. This is not the only name that we have known, and this would just be another step. In fact, I was a student the last time, when our named changed the last time, from MSCW to Mississippi University for Women.”

Smith has a point. When the school was founded one hundred and twenty five years ago, it was called the Mississippi Industrial Institute and College at Columbus. It didn’t become the Mississippi State College for Women until 1920, and then it became the Mississippi University for Women in 1974.

Claudia Limbert says that the school’s name is hurting its enrollment.

“That is what we’ve seen from all the studies that we’ve had. Student are either electing – and I’m talking men and women – to not come here because of the name, or they leave after their sophomore year, when they can transfer all their credits, because they don’t want the name on their diploma.”

“I’m actually not embarrassed at all that the name of my school is Mississippi University for Women.”

Forest Marcy is a junior who just transferred to the W to study history education. He said he feels indifferent about the name change, and he doesn’t like any of the proposed names.

“It’s actually kind of unfortunate because I’m not sure that any of those names really have anything to do with the history here a whole lot. I understand that Eudora Welty did go here for a time, but I’m not really too fond of naming it after her, I guess.”

Eudora Welty is the W’s most famous alum, although she only attended the college for two years. Sallie Reneau was the founder of the school. And Waverley – well, that comes from the novel by Sir Walter Scott.

A Jackson marketing firm is now set to assess the branding possibilities of the three potential names. Senior administration will then choose the final name in a couple of months.

But the state legislature must also sign off on the name change in its next session in 2010, ensuring a battle for months to come.

For MPB News, I’m Cari Gervin in Oxford.