The Mississippi University for Women is ditching the plan to change its name to Mississippi Brightwell University and intends to choose a new name by the end of January for the state legislature’s consideration.
But first, President Nora Miller apologized to university alumni and others for the process that produced the Brightwell name proposal in the first place.
The university invited past presidents of the alumni association, past chairs of the development foundation and the executive committee of the MUW Foundation to meet Thursday and discuss the next steps in the process with the naming committee and President Nora Miller.
Miller told The Dispatch on Friday the meeting was meant “to apologize to them that in seeking a more inclusive name for our students, our process for the last few months has not been as inclusive with our alumni, and acknowledging that their support is very important for us to be able to get this change through the legislature and to make it work and to ask for them to join with us moving forward.”
The naming committee met Friday to develop a timeline for a new proposal name. It will include reviewing an extensive list of names previously collected through surveys and listening sessions as well as newly recommended names.
“Members of the task force will then be able to talk with people from their areas getting feedback on those (names),” Miller said. “We’re trying to be as transparent as possible from this point forward.”
The task force will cull three final names from the list to present in a survey along with the rationale for how those names tie back to the university’s mission and history. The survey will be sent to various constituencies of the university Jan. 26, including alumni, students, faculty and staff.
The survey will close Jan. 29, and the committee will make a recommendation by Feb. 1 based on those findings. The name will be announced at some point before Feb. 14, Miller said.
State Sen. Chuck Younger, R-Lowndes County who represents District 17, will sponsor the bill introducing the name change in the legislature, filing it by the Feb. 15 deadline. Younger said he does not think recent backlash will hinder the overall name change.
“Most of the alumni that have texted me or emailed me are for a name change,” he said. “They just didn’t like (Brightwell).”
Miller said that by redoing this process, the university hopes to get more input and support from all its constituencies while being transparent.
“We had likened this to expectant parents are often advised not to share the names that they’re considering because everybody will tell them why they don’t like it,” she said. “That’s kind of how we went through this, but now we realize this isn’t only our baby. It belongs to a lot of people.”
The survey will allow members of the MUW community to give their direct input on the new name without it coming as a surprise, Miller said.
Founded in 1884 as the Mississippi Industrial Institute and College for the Education of White Girls, then later named Industrial Institute and College, Mississippi State College for Women (1920) and MUW (1974). It was the nation’s first dedicated women’s college.
MUW has accepted male students since 1982, but given a steady decrease in enrollment in recent years, the university developed a task force in September 2022 to choose a name that better represents the integrated student body. The naming process included surveying members of the community in October 2022 as well as holding focus groups and listening sessions to develop ideas.
After none of the names in the survey seemed to gain traction, the naming committee went back to square one, with Miller announcing Mississippi Brightwell University as the chosen proposal Jan. 8 at a spring convocation for faculty and staff. That name drew from the school’s literary society motto, “We study with light to bless with light,” as well as MUW’s largest degree programs in the Bill and Jo-Ann Vandergriff College of Nursing and Health Sciences.
Alumni and community members skewered the name, largely on social media, claiming it was not representative of the university’s history of providing quality education to women.
Miller said the administration has taken that feedback into account and hopes the process to choose a different name will allow alumni to voice their opinions.
“We do value constructive feedback, and we have been listening,” Miller said. “We do appreciate that. I think this is going to help us come up with a better name that we can all support.”
McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.
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