Over the last two weeks, we have posted stories about the push to change Lewis-Clark State College’s name to include the word “University”. We checked the Facebook comments and took your questions to the school. As it is with Facebook and social media in general, lots of comments aren’t worth repeating. Some seemed valid, but were actually wrong.
One comment mentioned that with the name change to “University”, the school will get more state and federal funding. LCSC Communications Director Logan Fowler says no, that’s not true. If it was, they probably should have done it a long time ago.
Another comment addressed a concern about major growth saying “I personally don’t want to live in a city with a big university.” Fowler says the college does not want to change the feel of LC State. “Some people do have questions about: does this change the institution? Does this change the scope of what we offer? The answer is ‘no’. What we believe this name change will do is help identify what we do offer.” He’s talking about the wrong idea some people have that the school is a community college that offers 2-year degrees, while LCSC offers 4-year and graduate programs.
Several people mentioned they expect an increase in tuition because of a name change. Fowler says there’s no plan to increase tuition because of it.
The name change is closer than ever with the approval from the State Board of Education, but still a long way off. Legislators still have to discuss and approve it before it can become final. Fowler says if that does happen, the feel and what people know of LC State will continue. He says “We’ve been proud to be a small college, and we’ll be very proud to be a small university.”
If you have more questions, LCSC has set up a web page with more information here: https://www.lcsc.edu/communications/university
