Last Monday, officials at the Mississippi University for Women caused a firestorm of controversy after they sent out a gung-ho announcement that the institution was changing its name to Mississippi Brightwell University.
While most critics were not against the rebranding itself – especially considering the university has been coeducational now for 41 years – the bulk of opposition found the proposed name to be an overall poor choice. Alumni hit social media, complaining about the name but also feeling left out of the conversation, citing a school-conducted survey that didn’t even include Mississippi Brightwell University as an option.
Nora Miller, the president of Mississippi University for Women, admitted her mistake during a recent episode of The Gallo Show. Displaying genuine candor, Miller has pushed Mississippi Brightwell aside for the time being and has called for the school’s naming task force to come up with a handful of options for the larger MUW community to choose from.
“Right now, we are taking a bit of a pause. We announced our proposed name last week, and we have been getting a lot of feedback – some that is very constructive feedback,” Miller said. “So, we have hit the pause button. We are listening and reflecting on the constructive feedback… We are going to gather more information and see what can be acceptable. And this time, we will share prospective names with the larger community and get more feedback on those.”
In the days following the initial announcement, Miller explained the task force’s decision not to use some of the top vote-getters from the survey, including the University of Northern Mississippi and Callaway State University. She, along with faculty and alumni, has stressed and continues to stress that compass points or historical names present potential problems for the university as it works to up an enrollment that has been declining for years.
“We set some parameters for a new name. One that we heard loud and clear from our alumni and faculty is that they did not want a regional or geographical name. The feeling was that just didn’t capture the unique qualities
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