College Begins New Era With Name Change

At its June 21 meeting, the University of Cincinnati's Board of Trustees approved renaming Raymond Walters College as UC Blue Ash College. According to a spokesperson for the College, the change is designed to "more effectively project the college's two major strengths: the UC brand and its Blue Ash location, both aspects most commonly cited by incoming students as reasons for enrolling at the school."

According to Dean Cady Short-Thompson, the college will continue to honor its original namesake, Dr. Raymond Walters, who was UC's longest serving President from 1932-1955, by renaming a building on campus after him. "Based on feedback we received throughout our comprehensive research into changing the college's name, our constituents overwhelmingly agreed with the renaming and understand that it behooves our continued growth," Dean Short-Thompson said. " They also were very clear in sharing their desire to ensure Dr. Walters would be recognized as we honor his legacy as the longest-tenured president of UC."

Short-Thompson noted that, with extremely few exceptions, all regional campuses and colleges of universities are named geographically following the university's name (such as UC Clermont College).   "This name will allow us to brand ourselves more closely with the University of Cincinnati, plus signal to our multiple constituencies that we are a strong regional campus with new programs and increasingly exciting offerings for our students," explains Short-Thompson.

"Our university colleagues, community partners, alumni, faculty, staff and students have received this name change positively and I'm confident that our new moniker will advance our college," she said. 

This academic year has been declared a transition year, as new signage, marketing and operational materials will change in a structured way from RWC to UCBA. Then, in the fall of 2012-13, the college will begin to use only the UC Blue Ash name, aligning the new positioning with the university's transition to semesters.

Also scheduled for this academic year is the unveiling of the renamed Science and Allied Health Building as Walters Hall. Notes Short-Thompson, "We're working with the university's architect office and with Dr. Walters' descendants to create a display inside the foyer to showcase his importance and accomplishments to UC and RWC. The name change will allow the college to reposition itself as we offer several new baccalaureate programs, greater open access admission, increase our fund-raising development potential and build our reputation and brand," she adds. "In so many ways, this change is beneficial to our students, our community and our corporate partners and we're excited to launch this new stage for UC Blue Ash."