Correction appended

Administrators at the University of Missouri-Columbia are beginning a push to drop the "Columbia" from its name.

‘It is important that the state realizes our university, our campus, is not a regional institution.’ — Brady Deaton, MU chancellor

MU campus Chancellor Brady Deaton said this morning the "Columbia" regional designation causes confusion and demeans the university’s mission.

"At a time when regionalism has been so prevalent in the state of Missouri, it is important that the state realizes our university, our campus, is not a regional institution," Deaton said. "To have any designation that tends to localize it or suggest that it’s not the statewide institution is, in a sense, demeaning to the most significant statewide university in the state."

University leaders are billing the change as a "name restoration." The Columbia campus had been known as the "University of Missouri" until the university system was established in 1963.

Deaton said the school is now seeking input from faculty, staff and student government before taking the proposal to the University of Missouri system Board of Curators. The curators will make the final decision on any name change, which Deaton hopes will happen this fall.

Interim university system President Gordon Lamb "has been informed of the chancellor’s proposal, and he will be glad to have further discussion with the chancellor," university spokesman Scott Charton said this morning.

Deaton said the name change originally was proposed by university fundraisers. He said some donors had become upset about other Missouri schools changing their names. He also said there was a "feeling" among fundraisers that the regional connotation was hurting their efforts. In May, the For All We Call Mizzou National Campaign Steering Committee sent Deaton a letter requesting the change.

Missouri AT&T President Cindy Brinkley, co-chair of the steering committee, said the new name would clear any confusion among potential donors about whether MU is a regional school.

"I think it kind of cast a shadow in a sense of, ‘Are you a regional university?’ versus the flagship university of the state," Brinkley said.

The national Mizzou Alumni Association also has sent Deaton a letter asking for the change.

At Deaton’s request, Professor Rex Campbell proposed a resolution supporting the name change yesterday afternoon during an MU Faculty Council meeting. Campbell said the change was needed as state politicians and regional forces seem to be challenging MU’s dominant flagship role.

"We are in a territorial game. The two metropolitan universities have carved off their respective areas. We have a number of aggressive state universities, especially Missouri State University," Campbell said, referring to the institution formerly known as Southeast Missouri State University. "We have weakened ourselves through the system. I think we have lost ground through the naming of the system."

The faculty council could vote on the issue at its next meeting later this month.

The idea didn’t sit well with Eddie Adelstein, associate professor of pathology, who said "the administration has too much time on their hands."

"I think when you start pandering to people who donate money, then who do you pander to when the next two people decide they want another name?" he said.

The MU request follows a long and controversial trend of Missouri public universities changing their names. While many of the new names still indicate a regional status, Truman State University in Kirksville and Missouri State University in Springfield both dropped local connotations in changing their names. More recently, the University of Missouri-Rolla will do the same next year when it becomes Missouri University of Science and Technology.

"If it isn’t done and we wait long enough, we may be the only regional school left in the system," said Leona Rubin, associate professor of veterinary biomedical sciences.

Because of an editing error, a story yesterday incorrectly stated the former name of Missouri State University. The school used to be known as Southwest Missouri State University.

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