Name change will be gradual

By Elliot Njus

Published Dec. 4, 2007

The UM system Board of Curators' decision to allow MU to call itself the University of Missouri takes effect immediately, but many of the visible changes will be gradual, university officials said.

MU spokeswoman Mary Jo Banken, who directs the university's news bureau, said the office has started to use the shortened name in news releases and online, but other changes won't happen right away. She said Chancellor Brady Deaton asked university employees not to update their stationery until current supplies are depleted, and signs across campus won't reflect the new changes immediately.

"As things become out of date, they will be updated with the new information," Banken said.

Banken said she and other university administrators have found MU is known nationally as the University of Missouri. She said she often had to correct national reporters who neglected to include the regional designation.

"No one nationally refers to us as the University of Missouri-Columbia because we're the flagship campus for the state," she said.

Chris Koukola, an assistant to the chancellor for university affairs, said the re-branding would be a gradual process.

"We felt that we could implement it without it costing money," she said.

Koukola said the change was reflected almost immediately on Web sites maintained by the University Affairs division.

"Those sites that changes were the ones that we manage," she said. "We think the rest will change gradually."

Koukola, whose office is responsible for implementing the shortened name, said the university didn't start developing new guidelines until after the curators announced they would allow MU to shorten its name. She said they didn't think it would have been appropriate to create a policy before they made a decision.

Banken said Koukola sent guidelines to the communications specialists in each school and college. She said it's up to each college or school to update its own Web site and other promotional materials.

But Banken said the main page for the university Web site was updated as soon as the university heard about the curators' decision.

"That Web site is the first Web site people see," she said. "That was updated almost immediately."

Koukola said her office is in charge of developing guidelines for promotional material. She said they will work with staff across campus to make them aware of the policies and encourage them to comply.

At the Board of Curators regular meeting in November, when the board voted to allow MU to use the shortened name, board Chairman Don Walsworth said nine out of 10 MU schools' letterheads already called MU the University of Missouri.

Koukola said that the division encourages all university employees to meet their guidelines, but that it cold not ensure complete compliance.

"We have not as a division attempted to police all the Web sites at MU," she said.

But, she said, Web sites must meet those guidelines before they can link to the MU Web site.

Koukola said the slow changes will strengthen the MU's image nationally.

"Branding is really a process that involves building and maintaining relationships with your constituents," she said.

MU is still officially the University of Missouri-Columbia, and the school must include the regional designation in official correspondence, according to the university Collected Rules and Regulations.