MST pays for name change

By Jedd Rosche

Published March 11, 2008

A word of caution before thinking a rose by any other name would smell as sweet: when the Missouri University for Science and Technology changed their name from the University of Missouri-Rolla, administrators estimated it would cost them between $100,000 and $250,000.

Add nearly $150,000 to their highest estimate, and the result would be the actual cost of obtaining a more “focused” title for a university campus.

Thursday, the MST student newspaper, The Missouri Miner, reported that the name change cost the university $396,135, which was paid for through private donations, according MST spokesman Andrew Careaga. The name change became official on Jan. 1.

The highest cost came from changing signs, which cost a total $163,000. Another charge was changing athletic and other uniforms, which cost $93,000. $31,000 was allocated to future changes for their sports fields. Other projects included recruitment material.

Careaga said no student fees or state funding went toward the project and that The Miner’s estimates did not include facilities that would have to be updated or changed regardless.

“Because of the time frame of the name change, it was an accelerated schedule,” Careaga said.

Careaga said the reason for the discrepancy between initial estimates and average cost was that the predictions were from early in the planning process.

“Our initial estimates were very preliminary,” Careaga said. “We were basing that on other university’s experiences.”

He said the university did not have a timeline for implementation of the change.

It’s too soon to judge whether the name change investment will pay off for MST. Careaga said the campus campaigned to change the name to showcase the specialties of the school’s academics.

“Since our founding, we’ve been primarily a technologically focused university — engineering, math, science,” he said.

Careaga said the previous name did not reflect those skills.

“With a name like UM-Rolla, it is not as clear as to what our mission is,” he said. “With a name like that, our mission could be anything.”

Careaga said one example of MST’s growing popularity is in the enrollment numbers, which read 6,167 students for Fall 2007, up 309 students from the previous year. Careaga said their goal is 6,650 students by 2011.

In November, the UM system Board of Curators approved limited use of University of Missouri for MU — a change from the University of Missouri-Columbia — in public relations functions, but the university will retain its demographic name in official correspondence. That change was a part of fundraising efforts from the For All We Call Mizzou Campaign Steering Committee.