UWT - The University of West Texas...sounds good!

[west-texan]

The University of West Texas: a member of the Texas A&M University System

Benefits would include:

• A more prestigious name for students and faculty and alumni and staff.
  
  
• Better name recognition in Texas and around the the rest of the country.
  
  
• Better name recognition on a resume for alumni.
  
  
• Would help WT become a better and larger regional university.
  
  
  • A more prestigious name to draw more donations.
    
    
  • A more prestigious name to draw more state funding.
    
    
  • A more prestigious name to draw more research funding.
    
    
  • A more prestigious name to draw more students and faculty.
    
    
  • A more prestigious name for better athletic recognition.
  
  
• Better name recognition to draw sponsorships from large national and regional corporations.
  
  
• Better name recognition for the Texas Panhandle and Amarillo.
  
  
• The name change would generate a burst of free news publicity throughout Texas and beyond.
  
  
• Keeps the beloved WT short acronym that everyone likes.
  
  
• Helps WT step beyond the directional school label.
  
  
• Keeps the A&M System connection.
  
  
• And would provide a worthy boost and ambitious new direction for WT's centennial year.
  

Drawbacks include:

No drawbacks.

Sign changes do not all have to occur immediately...and can be done over time.

And the name change costs would be negligible given all the benefits of the new UWT name.

[west-texan]

A lot of alumni would like WT to take a step away from the A&M - TAMU name.

And University of West Texas - A member of the Texas A&M University System

Would provide a good compromise to help WT grow regionally beyond the small town image.

Tarleton State has grown well under the A&M System while keeping its original name.

UWT would let WT still be WT and give the university and alumni and faculty more prestige.

[west-texan]

I saw this comment recently.

The WT brand name recognition has been slowly declining since the drop to D2.

Back in the 40's with great basketball teams and in the 50's and 60's with D1 football,

WT had more name recognition around the country, and the old sports illustrated coverage proves that.

The University of West Texas name and a move back to D1 will help WT a lot with name recognition.

It would mean some more students at WT, which would be very good for Amarillo.

Because Texas Tech has been a huge boost for the Lubbock economy.

There is no excuse for WT not being known throughout the state of Texas.

[saltfork]

I hated seeing WTSU change it's name to A&M and I would agree that tagging a university "A&M" tends to have a negative connotation.

But, I don't see that North Texas switching from NTSU to the University of ... did it any significant good. Maybe SWTSU moving to Texas State did something, but I have no evidence for it. Did UTEP gain anything from switching away from Texas Western?

Maybe I'm just an old stick-in-the-mud but I'd love to see the school go back to West Texas State.

[west-texan]

I graduated from West Texas State, and that would be preferable to sharing a name with A&M.

But I wonder if UWT might help with name recognition.

Because I want to see WT back on the national scene where it was for many years.

And I agree with you in really disliking the UT-hypenated school names like UTEP and UTA.

It takes away a lot of identity from a school like UT-Arlington.

WT is unique enough that at D1 it might possible to build a national presence like Boise has going.

Most WT grads have to go somewhere larger than Amarillo to find a good job.

So anything WT can do to spread its name farther around the country is good for the alumni.

[Old Rip]

University of West Texas has a more prestigious sounding title, like it belongs in a major FBS conference. The Big XII will be needing two more members so why not?

I like the idea as a strategic move for Amarillo's economy. I would like to see Amarillo give Lubbuttocks a run for its money. If Amarillo had an institution to compete with Texas Tech, it would outpace their population.

[west-texan]

Sounds like WT is going to start offering some more serious degrees like the big state universities.

An independent engineering school with its own building is exciting stuff.

Degrees like Electrical Engineering are serious degrees like you see expect to see at The University of.

250 engineering students enrolled right now at WT.

And if you add up the numbers, it looks like 15-20 new faculty members for engineering at WT.

With that many faculty, an engineering doctoral program might not be that far away.

From the Globe News article:

www.amarillo.com/stories/080610/new_news4.shtml

O'Brien announced the launch of WT's civil engineering program Thursday morning. Beginning this fall, WT will offer a bachelor's degree in civil engineering, and the new department will be part of a larger effort to expand the school's engineering disciplines.

WT was given the green light to begin offering civil engineering after the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board approved the school's request for the degree program on July 29.

WT started its engineering program in 2003 with the establishment of a mechanical engineering degree. The university is looking to add environmental and electrical engineering to its program offerings within the next three or four years.

O'Brien said the push to expand the engineering programs came, in large part, from the growing energy industry in the Texas Panhandle.

"Had it not been for the support that it received, that program would have not been established," he said. "This is a Panhandle-serving program."

Provost James Hallmark, WT's top academic official, said 79 students have graduated from the school's engineering program. He said 51 of those graduates are employed in the Panhandle. All of WT's engineering graduates have found employment.

"That's a tremendous benefit to the region," he said.

For the new program, WT will have three civil engineering professors. The school will expand the program by adding two more civil engineering professors during the next two years.

Because of the future addition of environmental and electrical engineering, WT will hire about 10 to 15 more engineering professors during the next four to five years.

"That's when we'll start getting serious about the school of engineering," Hallmark said about a plan to establish an independent engineering school at WT.

[west-texan]

Jul 28, 2010 6:33:25 GMT -5 Old Rip said:

University of West Texas has a more prestigious sounding title, like it belongs in a major FBS conference. The Big XII will be needing two more members so why not?

I like the idea as a strategic move for Amarillo's economy. I would like to see Amarillo give Lubbuttocks a run for its money. If Amarillo had an institution to compete with Texas Tech, it would outpace their population.

Division I schools attract more students which also means more faculty.

And I would think that most Amarillo businesses would support this upgrade completely.

More WT students and more WT faculty families would mean more money in the Amarillo economy.

And they say that every dollar spent in a local economy turns over like 6 to 8 times.

So the extra money spent would mean millions in extra money for Amarillo.

The Amarillo banks really need to get behind this.

Because upgrading WT would be an investment that would repay itself many times over.

A great return on investment if the Amarillo banks would pay for an upgrade at WT.

[west-texan]

I'm not the only one who knows that WT would be better off as The University of West Texas.

And the big reason former WT president Russell Long pissed off Boone Pickens.

Was to keep Boone from donating any money to WT.

Because right after Long did that...Pickens donated a HUGE sum of money to Oklahoma State.

Very interesting timing...and it was no coincidence.