SUNY school name confusion . . . .
Binghamton, however, isn't concerned:"I go to SUNY Oswego. That is primarily what I've gotten into the habit of calling this school,” said Philip Grom, SUNY Oswego senior.
However, some students call the school by a different name.
"I call it Oswego State,” said Mike Toper, SUNY Oswego junior.
In Utica we seemed to have solved the State/SUNY, or SUNY/University conundrum in an entirely different way. . .At Binghamton University, also known as SUNY Binghamton, they don't care what you call the school just as long as you know where it is.
"I don't believe that there's confusion. The important part of any name and what you call it is the Binghamton part,” said Lois DeFleur, Binghamton University President.
"State University of New York Institute of Technology at Utica Rome" certainly was a mouthful. But "SUNY IT? " While it is short, may sound catchy, and we know where "IT" is, does anyone else? . . .In Utica, SUNY IT was called the State University of New York Institute of Technology at Utica Rome for about twenty years before the university shortened the name.
"Branding a college campus today is a complicated story and we feel the simpler the better and that's why all of our items, our website, our toll free number they all incorporate SUNY IT,” said John Swann, SUNY IT Spokesman.
Calling it "SUNY Utica" would not have been a "a complicated story" . . . except for us . . . here . . . in the "Mohawk Valley."
5 comments:
As an a Binghamton alum, the school was routinely known as SUNY Binghamton. Then DeFleur, while exploring the possibility of becoming a private institution, changed the name from SUNY Binghamton to Binghamton University. The Chancellor of the SUNY system was quoted as saying "Binghamton will go private over my dead body." Since then, Binghamton has stopped the push to go private, but holds itself out as Binghamton University. All the older crowd still refers to it as SUNY Binghamton. But the younger crowds refer to it as Binghamton University. I tend to refer to it as SUNY at Binghamton University, which is how most government websites have it listed. But there has been a push at Binghamton to refer to the school as Binghamton University and steer away from the SUNY affiliation.
At least they didn't shorten it SUNY University!
When I attended College I remember when SUNY IT was SUNY Upper Division College at Utica Rome. But today, for some reason, this area seems to be adamant with cutting the words “Utica and Rome” out of our identity. In the late sixties, SUNY Upper Division College at Utica Rome only instructed the third and forth years of College instruction. I remember when it was located in West Utica at the former Globe Mill Factory building? It was located on Court Street across from the FX Matt Brewery.
Hmmm. I went to Mohawk Valley Community College, then transferred to Utica College. At one point I even took a couple of classes at SUNY Tech, which I think is what they were calling it then. Anyway, I guess I've attended the 3 major local schools, got degrees from two of them, and got to enjoy being part of a school that had Mohawk Valley and Utica in the names! ;-)
I've been to nearly all of the SUNY campuses and Utica's is one of the finest in the system. But why can't seem to attract more students? Maybe it's because the name doesn't even suggest where the heck it is. And it also suggests that it is exclusively a Tech school, which it clearly is NOT. Again, another example of the failures of our local leaders over the years. They are their own worst enemies. And they have such enlarged egos that they will never admit that they were wrong...so we will continue on the wrong path.
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