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MUW to seek more alumni support after pausing on new name, again

One week after proposing a second new name in as many months, Mississippi University for Women has backtracked once again.

President Nora Miller released a statement Wednesday that the university was taking a “strategic pause” to examine its renaming process, engage alumni and build support with an eye to next year’s legislative session.

“Please note that we will always be The W,” she wrote. “It is our past, our present, and our future.”

It’s unclear what, exactly, led to the university to put the brakes on the name “Wynbridge State University of Mississippi.” The Commercial Dispatch reported the new name had a lack of legislative support and that a bill introduced by Rep. Donnie Scoggin, R-Ellisville, the chair of the House Colleges and Universities Committee and an MUW alumnus, had stalled, even though the deadline isn’t until next week.

As recently as Tuesday, the university was circulating among lawmakers a Feb. 19 letter of support for “Wynbridge” from the Institutions of Higher Learning commissioner, Alfred Rankins, which cited the looming drop in the number of Mississippi high school graduates going to college.

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MUW has struggled to move the needle on male enrollment since it was made coeducational in 1982 and is contending with increased competition from neighboring Mississippi State University and East Mississippi Community College.

“The enrollment challenges facing Mississippi’s public universities are real, and our univerisites are doing incredible work to grow and retain their student population,” Rankins wrote. “They need every tool available to successfully complete this work.”

Many alumni cheered the pause in the Facebook comments of Miller’s letter, calling it a wise choice and asking the university to consider the name “The W: A Mississippi University” instead of “Wynbridge.”

Read more: ‘Mississippi University for Women is betting its future on a new name. Will it work?’

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