The first time District 37 Rep. Andy Boyd heard the name “Mississippi Brightwell University,” he said it did not set off any fireworks for him.
Then it started to grow on him.
“I got up this morning thinking, ‘You know, I kind of like it,’” Boyd, R-Columbus, told The Dispatch on Tuesday.
Mississippi Brightwell University was announced Monday as the proposed new name for the Mississippi University for Women. The announcement capped a two-year process to choose a name that is more reflective of the school’s co-ed student body with hopes it will boost enrollment numbers.
The new name needs legislative approval to become effective in July. While a bill has yet to be filed, members of at least Lowndes County’s delegation said they are united in seeing it through.
“Our legislative delegation has met with the administration of the W, and we did make a commitment to support this,” District 39 Rep. Dana McLean, R-Columbus, said Wednesday. “My personal views on the name are not important, but it’s, ‘What can I do to help the university?’ and, ‘How can I help the university move forward into the future?’”
McLean said she began receiving calls and messages on Monday with concerns about the new name, but she acknowledged the task force that helped select the name had a difficult job. Since MUW began accepting male students in 1982, she said a name change has been a long time coming.
District 41 Rep. Kabir Karriem, D-Columbus, agreed, though he shared a similar reaction as Boyd to the name.
“When I first heard the name, I had mixed feelings about it, but the name has grown on me over the period of time that we’ve been discussing it,” he said. “I’m excited about the possibilities.”
Sen. Chuck Younger, R-Lowndes County who represents District 17, plans to sponsor the bill in his chamber to change MUW’s name. He likened the effort to the legislature changing the state flag in 2021, retiring the version that included the Confederate battle emblem in its canton.
“It will be more inclusive to change the name, and we should’ve done it a while back,” he told The Dispatch. “You’re going to have your naysayers, but change is good sometimes. I feel like this change will be good for the W.
The new name is not based on a historical name or the school’s location. The “bright” in Brightwell refers to the university’s literary society motto – “we study for light to bless with light” – as well as several traditions like passing a torch during commencement each year to the newest members of the school. The “well” in Brightwell is a reference to the university’s largest degree programs in the Bill and Jo-Ann Vandergriff College of Nursing and Health Sciences.
Younger hinted the Brightwell name might not be the final version, however.
“The name we’ve got right now, it’s not set in stone,” Younger said. “It could be something else. But yes, I’m 100% behind them.”
Enrollment issues
When the university first announced the formation of the renaming task force in September 2022, President Nora Miller emphasized the challenges higher education institutions are facing with enrollment.
Due to many factors like the pandemic, inflation and public opinion, enrollment in higher education is declining, according to a report from the Chronicle of Higher Education. Reports from the Mississippi Department of Education show a similar decline across the state: out of 29,654 graduates from the class of 2022, only 52% enrolled in a four- or two-year institution. It was a major decline from 2015 when 68% of 29,320 graduates went on to enroll in higher education.
Decreasing enrollment is especially a concern for MUW. During the 2022-2023 academic year, university’s funding was 51% dependent on tuition for revenue, according to a report the university shared with The Dispatch.
The same report details that enrollment at MUW has been relatively flat for more than four decades.
From 1994 to 1998, enrollment topped 3,000 students. The university still had more than 2,900 in 2016. Since then, it has dropped to roughly 2,300 students.
Meanwhile, the number of first-time, full-time degree seeking freshmen has dropped 35% in the past five years, the report said.
Enrollment among male students has also remained stagnant. The university reported males made up 21% of the student population in 1992. Thirty years later, it was 22.1%.
The university has taken several measures to increase enrollment prior to a proposed name change. The school began using a customer relation management system called Slate in 2021 to strengthen the communication between its office of admissions and potential students, the report said.
Admissions counselors also receive more training on building relationships with future students.
MUW also acquires nearly 10,000 names from the ACT each year with a focus on counties and schools in Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee.
One goal of the new name, Miller told The Dispatch in September 2022, was to find a more gender-inclusive moniker, given the university has admitted men for more than 40 years.
While sharing his support for the name change in a phone interview, Boyd remembered when his own sons were considering schools to attend after high school.
“I think one of them went (to MUW) and took a course one summer and just never would have considered going to MUW just because of the name,” he said.
Miller was unavailable before press time Wednesday.
Social media response
Soon after announcing the proposed name on Facebook, the university’s page was flooded with concerns from community members, amassing more than 1,700 comments by press time. Some alumni expressed agreement with the need for the name change but regarded Brightwell as “generic” and “pathetic,” feeling that it does not accurately represent the university’s rich history of supporting quality education for women.
Many commenters called for those who oppose the name to contact their legislators to share their feelings. Others fueled the flame with screenshots of how the word Brightwell has been used differently across the internet, including as a name for psychiatric hospitals, childhood education apps and in an Urban Dictionary entry referencing “brightwell” as a slang term for sex addicts.
Urban Dictionary was founded by a college student in 1999 as a parody of Dictionary.com, according to the Library of Congress. The definitions on the website are crowdsourced meanings for slang words and phrases, and it is not considered a reputable source. The Brightwell entry has been removed from Urban Dictionary.
Monday, an MUW alumna started a Change.org petition opposing the proposed new name and urging “all stakeholders involved in the decision making process to reconsider their stance on the matter.” The petition has garnered more than 3,500 signatures as of press time.
McLean said she sympathizes with the concerns raised on social media.
“I realize change is very hard, and I really sympathize with the alumni who are so passionate about their school and … keeping history in the forefront and also remembering the traditions of the W,” she said. “I think that’s what makes it difficult for any change no matter what the name.”
McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.
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