Mesa State College trustees vote unanimously to change school's name to Colorado Mesa University
The Denver Post
April 27, 2011
Mesa State College trustees this morning settled on the name Colorado Mesa University for the Grand Junction school and say the change will occur next month if the state legislature gives its approval.
The trustees today voted unanimously for the change.
They selected Colorado Mesa University over University of Western Colorado and Western Colorado University — two of the more popular names in a recent survey of faculty, students, alumni and community members — to avoid a battle with Western State College of Gunnison.
Metropolitan State College last week suspended its plants to rename itself Denver State University after the private University of Denver objected.
In their own discussion, trustees of the Grand Junction school agreed that a name that included "Mesa" would be better for branding and for preserving the heritage of the 86-year-old institution.
They also agreed it was time for the growing college of 8,300 students to become a university.
"For me, this is an emotional step. We've been talking about it for 10 to 12 years," said trustee Lena Elliott. "It is the time for us to be a university."
The new name was chosen after several hours of debate over a list of possible names that had been winnowed down from more than 60 to eight.
