Is Now The Time To Drop ‘State’ From Middle Tennessee State University?

The prospect of overhauling the organizational structure for universities under the Tennessee Board of Regents has some asking if it’s time to make other changes, like dropping “state” from Middle Tennessee State University.

According to the
Daily News Journal, there has been some interest in transitioning to the “University of Middle Tennessee.” Student Monica Thomas says she’s heard of some employers who see “state” schools as second-class.

“I work really hard for my grades and what not,” Thomas says. “I definitely, definitely would not want to do all this work and work hard and then possibly be discriminated against because of the name of my school.”

The university’s sports teams already use “Middle Tennessee” as their primary branding and have for a long time. But student Adley Parriott says she cringes when she hears play-by-play announcers call her school “Middle Tennessee State.”

“To me, it made us sound like basically a community college. But I don’t think it’s worth the money to take the word ‘state’ out of the name,” Parriott says.

A campus-wide rebranding would cost millions of dollars, but other nearby schools have done it. In the mid-90s, Memphis State became the University of Memphis. And Western Kentucky used to be Western Kentucky State College.

Lauren Frederick contributed to this report.