Home | Back

Its official: NEOUCOM to get new name: Northeast Ohio Medical University likely to become Rootstown college's new name

Share_print Print Story    |    Comments    |   

July 31, 2010

 

 

By Diane Smith | staff writer

Goodbye, NEOUCOM. Rootstown’s medical college is getting a shorter name.

The board of trustees at the Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy recently voted to go forward with the process of changing the university’s name.

The new proposed name is Northeast Ohio Medical University.

Cristine Boyd, NEOUCOM spokeswoman, said no decision has been made as to what acronym, if any, might be used to refer to the medical university once it’s renamed.

“That’s why we’ve been so careful with this process, because whatever we go with, we’ll be living with for quite some time,” she said.

In February, NEOUCOM President Dr. Jay A. Gershen gave his “State of the University” address, in which he said the institution had “outgrown” its wordy name. He cited the recent addition of the College of Pharmacy and the College of Graduate Studies since NEOUCOM’s founding in 1973.

“The current name no longer reflects who we are as a university,” Gershen said. “In addition to a College of Medicine and a College of Pharmacy, we also added a College of Graduate Studies last year. We are a strong institution with a health sciences curriculum, and we want a strong name that reflects who we are and who we serve.”

Since that speech, the university underwent a naming and branding review that included focus groups and surveys. Faculty, staff, students, alumni, partners and community leaders also were interviewed. The research results were presented to the NEOUCOM Board of Trustees, which approved going forward with the name change.

The name change now must be approved at the state level, including the Ohio legislature. 

“The new name being presented is one that is very close to NEOUCOM’s roots, and also pays respect to the geographic area that we serve and to our successful educational and research programs in medicine, pharmacy and community health,” Gershen said. “We look forward to getting this name approved by the legislature and further developing the brand as a premier medical university.”

Boyd said the process of renaming a university is an unusual one.

“Normally an institution receives a name and keeps it, but we’ve changed so much since we were founded,” she said. “We kind of joke and say we can’t continue to put ‘and this’ ‘and that’ on our name.”

 




Comments
By Posting to this site, you agree to our Terms of Service Be polite. Inappropriate posts may be removed. Recordpub.com doesn't necessarily condone the comments here, nor does it review every post.

Login above or Register to comment.
 2 Total Comments
2.
    Posted by DoWhatsRight August 1, 2010
I kind of like NOM-U but I agree it will cost a lot of money to do this. It seems that they want to change their name about every year or so. I think the last time they wanted to add Pharmacy to their name. It kind of reminds me of all the politicians that get elected change the letter head and everything so they can show how important they think they are.

Just think how much it will take to change all the business cards, the signs, the Letter Heads and of course all the advertisements.

1.
    Posted by vishmd1 August 1, 2010
I am quite disappointed and upset that NEOUCOM's Board of Trustees recently voted to change the school name to Northeast Ohio Medical University.

The name change alone will cost a large amount of time and money to be wasted. A few years ago, Medical College of Ohio in Toledo did a similar name change and it was estimated to cost over 300 thousand dollars for the entire process.

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20050429%2FNEWS32%2F504290370%2F0%2FNEWS13

Especially during tough economic times like this, I think almost everyone would agree that this is not a very wise use of funds. Instead, I would ask that these funds be used to improve the quality of education for current and future students of the school. NEOUCOM is already cutting millions of dollars from their budget and reducing their employee count; this name change will lead to even more cuts in staff and services at the school.

NEOUCOM has been around for over 30 years and now has an excellent reputation locally and nationally. I'm afraid that this name change will set us back and it will take another thirty years for people to realize what NOMU or NEOMU is.

Myself as well as many other students, alumni, faculty, and community members feel like nobody has listened to us during this process. Many of us would like to see the naming and branding review along with the full results of the recent online survey that was distributed to all alumni.

I can only hope that the Ohio legislature and Governor Strickland decide against changing NEOUCOM's name. I urge everyone with ties to NEOUCOM to voice their opinions on this matter as well.

Vishvas Hegde, M.D.
Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at NEOUCOM
908 South Water Street
Kent, OH 44240

Home | Back