Fayetteville State University or UNC-Fayetteville?

[Eagle74]

Fayetteville State University or UNC-Fayetteville?

There seems to be a growing divide on whether to change the name of FSU (which has gone by other names over the years) to UNC-Fayetteville. North Carolina State Representative Garland Pierce, (a 69 year old Fatetteville State Alumni) is fighting in a bill to make sure Fayetteville State University's name can't be changed to UNC-Fayetteville. The State lawmaker recently filed North Carolina House Bill 113 that would prohibit renaming the historically black university (this has not been approved). However, when interviewed by the media about this proposed bill, younger FSU students / alumni stated that they have no problem with the name being changed.

“I don’t think it’ll change the love that happens on campus. So, I wouldn’t personally mind,” a FSU student said.

The FSU sophomore said a name change wouldn’t erase the rich HBCU culture and history on campus.

“I don’t think changing the name will change the foundation of who we are,” another student said.

I have family and friends who are FSU Alumni, and like the present day FSU Students, they wouldn't have any problem at all with the school's name being changed (much as it has been done over the years). Even if the name is changed to UNC-Fayetteville, it would still always remain as a HBCU.

Your thoughts?

[Inkblot]

Happened to Pembroke in 1996.

All of the public universities in North Carolina are officially UNC campuses even if they're not named that way.

[Eagle74]

Happened to Pembroke in 1996.

All of the public universities in North Carolina are officially UNC campuses even if they're not named that way.

You're right. Talked to my Ole Brave's Bud, and he too told me that in the begining a lot of the older Pembroke State Alumni were totally aginst it, but after the change, they grew to like it.

BTW, It's called the UNC System.

[canadarican]

Basically rinse and repeat but I agree with your assessment.

College/University name changes seldomly go over well, especially with the older alumni. Some people freak out over changing the name from "College" to "University." Much less changing the schools name like Fayetteville State is looking at. And it's not even a major change, like if two schools merged or something.

Repeating what you said, some will gripe till the day they die. Others will grow to like it or realize it's still the same place just a different name.

[LegalRam]

This comes up every few years for at least one of the schools in the system. I remember when I was in undergrad and there was the rumor they wanted to change us to UNCWS.

As it relates to FSU their website is www.uncfsu.edu, so for years they have somewhat embraced the UNC acronym.

[Eagle74]

This reminds me of the history of a school which started out in 1882 with the name Branch State Normal School. Alumni Bessie Bruington Burke (Normal School ’11), became the first African American to teach in local public schools, and later the city's first African American school principal. In 1914 the school's name was changed to - - State Normal School. In later years, the school's name was changed to The Southern Branch. Yet another name change came about later for what their Alumni now proudly call UCLA.

[LegalRam]

This reminds me of the history of a school which started out in 1882 with the name Branch State Normal School. Alumni Bessie Bruington Burke (Normal School ’11), became the first African American to teach in local public schools, and later the city's first African American school principal. In 1914 the school's name was changed to - - State Normal School. In later years, the school's name was changed to The Southern Branch. Yet another name change came about later for what their Alumni now proudly call UCLA.

I think the current system of how the schools are named works and is better then the naming conventions in SC and VA (all of the UNC system schools either have UNC, Carolina, or State in their name). If they want to go the UC system route and rename every school in the system UNC at ______ then that makes perfect sense to me (not sure what you'd do about UNCG and A&T though). However, I doubt NC State and ECU would be jumping at that opportunity. Also, UNC Charlotte seems to have dropped the UNC when it comes to sports. So, unless a school actually proposes a name change then there doesn't really need to be a push to change school names. At the end of the day I support FSU if they want to stay Fayetteville State or become UNC at Fayetteville.

[Eagle74]

I think the current system of how the schools are named works and is better then the naming conventions in SC and VA (all of the UNC system schools either have UNC, Carolina, or State in their name). If they want to go the UC system route and rename every school in the system UNC at ______ then that makes perfect sense to me (not sure what you'd do about UNCG and A&T though). However, I doubt NC State and ECU would be jumping at that opportunity. Also, UNC Charlotte seems to have dropped the UNC when it comes to sports. So, unless a school actually proposes a name change then there doesn't really need to be a push to change school names. At the end of the day I support FSU if they want to stay Fayetteville State or become UNC at Fayetteville.

It appears as though the younger Alumni and present day students at FSU have no problem with the name change, and would actually embrace it, while the older generations of Alumni would like to hold on to the older, existing name. As time goes on, I believe there will be less and less Alumni fighting against any change. That's the way some changes eventually shake about.

[VSUTrojans]

I get it. While you can say it doesn’t matter and they are/have always been part of the UNC system, like NCCU, A&T, Elizabeth City and others, a lot of people don’t know that. Most importantly, legislators in North Carolina didn’t want people to know since these schools were never treated equally in terms of resources and money (and still aren’t) compared to their white counterparts. So, keeping the Fayetteville State name matters a great deal, especially to Alumni and, hopefully, current students, especially in this day and age of HBCU Pride. Adding the UNC moniker, in my opinion, is simply about showing folks who ultimately has the control.

[Eagle74]

Yet another excellent reason to make the change for the current and future students. No matter what the name is, the school will always be known as an HBCU.

[LegalRam]

Yet another excellent reason to make the change for the current and future students. No matter what the name is, the school will always be known as an HBCU.

If there is an actual push by the majority of students, alums, and administration then sure have at it. But if a small room of people in Raleigh are trying to make the change then I would naturally be skeptical about why Fayetteville State was apparently randomly picked for a name change when there are eight other universities that don't carry the UNC moniker.

Maybe the goal is to have more people like the author of this article get confused into thinking they are attending the actual UNC.
https://www.sbnation.com/college-bas...ruined-my-life

[Eagle74]

Wrong again, been there done that. There would be zero confusion.

[LegalRam]

Wrong again, been there done that. There would be zero confusion.

Come on Eagle you are losing your touch if you can't tell I was being sarcastic, next time I'll make sure to put a smiley face or LOL so you don't get confused. No, I realistically don't think the UNC system would change a school's name for the purpose of confusing perspective students into applying thinking they were going to a UNC Chapel Hill satellite campus.

For you to say "wrong again" what have I been wrong about on this thread? I have just offered my opinion and support. Maybe I am wrong, maybe NC State and ECU would jump at the opportunity to change their names to UNC Raleigh and UNC Greenville....... LOL (this is sarcasm).

I think it's interesting that you avoided the rest of my comment. So straight to the point question, do you think the UNC system should change a school's name if there is not overwhelming support from the students, alum, and faculty/staff? And please don't bring up examples of schools that have changed names or building names due to controversial reasons (i.e. removing the name of a slave owner or confederate officer) because last I checked there is nothing controversial about the name "Fayetteville State University" (unless there is an issue with Marquis de Lafayette, but then you get into the sticky issue of renaming the city and I don't think anyone is going down that path) (this is sarcasm). And also, please don't try to bring up system wide changes because that's not what appears to be happening here. If it was a uniform system change with all schools going to UNC at ______ then that would make sense.

[Eagle74]

Sooo, let the students vote on if they would like a change or not, they are the future.

In this situation, I believe the older Alumni should step out of the way and give them the choice.

Like I said, I have both family and friends who attended FSU, and they have no problem with the potential new option.

[canadarican]

Apparently this topic came up a few years ago as well, whenever Senator Phil Berger put together a bill that would lower tuition at FSU by $500 for in-state students and $2,500 for out-of-state students. This was back in 2016. A name change to the aforementioned UNC Fayetteville was part of the bill. It seems republican lawmakers are the ones pushing for the name change based on multiple news articles.

According to articles from news stations then in 2016, there was a lot of alum and students who did not want a name change. Now, a few years later, it seems some folks are more open to it.

just goes to show how much an opinion can change in a few years when you have an entirely different student base!