Ellington

The Mississippi Senate Universities and Colleges Committee failed to take action on a proposed name change for the Mississippi University for Women at its meeting this afternoon, effectively killing the effort in the Senate. The measure, Senate Bill 2702, would have allowed the state College Board to change the name of MUW, unofficially known as "the W." MUW President Claudia Limbert, who is retiring at the end of this school year, announced the university's preference for "Reneau University" in August.

Committee members listened to testimony from both supporters and opponents of a name change for an hour this afternoon before recessing because of conflicts with other meetings. When they reconvened around 5 p.m. today, the measure died for lack of a motion. A companion bill in the House, H.B. 243, is still alive in the House Universities and Colleges Committee, but it is not expected to survive Tuesday's deadline for committee action on general bills.

Previous Comments

ID

155683

Comment

As some MUW supporters heard it, the House bill, authored by Steve Holland, was not expected to go anywhere and was written to show how ludicrous the idea of changing the university's name is. I'm proud that common sense won out, and that the ONLY college in Mississippi with the mission of educating women and fostering their leadership ability is at least safe from that threat. There are still merger and closure threats to fight, but then MUW has only had to fight that battle three other times in the last 20 years. Guess we're due.

Author

lls32001

Date

2010-02-02T14:30:39-06:00