OWC now Northwest Florida State College

[SoWalSally]

http://www.nwfdailynews.com/news/college_9299___article.html/state_florida.html

Say farewell to Okaloosa-Walton College and hello to Northwest Florida State College.

To better reflect the school's evolving mission, the OWC district board of trustees voted Tuesday to rename the 44-year-old school.

"I'm darn glad it's done," OWC President Bob Richburg said after the vote.

Richburg said the name change won't affect school admissions or tuition, but it will reflect a program change as the college adds more bachelor's degree programs to its offerings.

In an effort to expand access to higher education in Florida, Gov. Charlie Crist signed a law last month that named OWC as one of nine colleges in the State College Pilot Project.

The Florida College System Legislation creates a Florida College System Task Force that will recommend a bachelor's degree program approval process and funding model for the new Florida College System.

The other eight colleges have been adding "state college" to their titles, such as Indian River State College.

However, "this is the most aggressive name change that has taken place in Florida," Richburg said.

Richburg said the college will phase in the new name and use up supplies such as stationery until it's time to reorder. However, December graduates will have the new name on their diplomas.

Trustees considered a couple of names before making the decision Tuesday.

Alumni and residents liked Okaloosa-Walton State College, but school officials said it didn't reflect the school's increased mission.

Trustee Dale Rice said he enjoyed the nod to tradition, "but if I were getting a 4-year degree, I'd like to get it to the next level," he said.

Other popular names included Coastal State College and Emerald Coast State College.

"In many ways (Emerald Coast State College) name belongs to the University of West Florida," Richburg said.

"I don't like Coastal," said board Chairman Wesley Wilkerson, "because I think, ?I coasted through Coastal.' "

After polling many of the school's bachelor's degree
students, OWC senior Vice President Jill White said they preferred Northwest Florida State College.

"They wanted it to change and they wanted to it change before they got their diplomas in December," she said.

 

[scooterbug44]

If they think changing the name on their degree makes that big of a difference, they didn't learn too much! :roll:

Okaloosa Walton has more character IMO!

 

[ckhagen]

I think it's a big fat waste of money and that's about it.
It had already been changed to OW College, with the "community" removed when they started giving 4 year degrees. Why change it again? Why replace all of those signs, the literature, the vehicle markings, etc...? Sounds to me like the trustees are bored and wanted to spend some money so they could say they were there when... From a taxpayer perspective, I think it's ridiculous.