Posted on: Sunday, September 2, 2001

UH plans change of campus names

By Jennifer Hiller
Advertiser Education Writer

The state's community colleges will go through a name change in October, ditching the community college title and branding themselves as University of Hawai'i campuses.

To prepare for the switch, campus leaders are busy compiling lists of everything that would need to reflect the UH name — from entrance signs and course catalogs to stationary and Web sites — to bring a proposal and cost estimate to the Board of Regents in October. A statewide marketing and advertising campaign would follow this fall, if the board approves the shift in policy.

The change for the first time would bring the entire 10-campus system under the umbrella of the University of Hawai'i name.

The idea started with UH President Evan Dobelle, who, since his first public speeches, has referred to the community colleges in terms of the University of Hawai'i-Kaua'i or the University of Hawai'i-Leeward instead of Kaua'i Community College and Leeward Community College.

Dobelle dropped the community college title, he has said, to emphasize the idea that UH is one system with campuses that should not be in competition.

Although course credits transfer between UH campuses, the various colleges have traditionally been pitted against one another to capture students and state financing.

Dobelle will bring the proposal to the UH Board of Regents for approval at their October meeting.

The campuses likely will go with the easiest name change, officials said, by simply dropping the words "community college." Hawai'i Community College would likely become University of Hawai'i-Hawai'i Island to avoid confusion with the four-year campus at UH-Hilo.

Community college provosts have been taking the idea of the name change to their students and faculty members for feedback. Several provosts said some professors initially balked at the switch because of concern that their campus would inherit a new mission along with a new name.

"We've always talked about the 'community' being our middle name," said Angela Meixell, interim provost of Windward Community College. "We're not changing who we are; we're just changing what we call ourselves."

The seven community colleges will remain open-access and keep the lower tuition rates.

"It is not going to change in any shape or form the basic open-door, affordable, accessible mission of the community colleges," said Joyce Tsunoda, UH senior vice president and chancellor of the community colleges.

To emphasize that point, Dan Ishii, the community colleges' vice chancellor for student and community affairs, said the campuses in marketing and ads will all carry the tagline, "Your community's college," to try to avoid confusion. "Our operating philosophy is the same," Ishii said.

The change could also provide a psychological boost to the community colleges.

"There's a lot of excitement about it," said Peggy Cha, provost at Kaua'i Community College. "I think for Neighbor Island campuses, this is very, very important, frankly. It is something we have been saying as a part of our marketing efforts. It's very important for communities like ours to know that as KCC we represent a bridge to the entire system. You are not second class; you are not disadvantaged because you come here."

Cha said the change should be relatively easy to make administratively. The seals of the community colleges are already uniform.

Things such as stationary usually can be changed on a computer, she said.

Some people have already made the switch in small ways. Meixell has altered the signature on her e-mail. When she writes memos, she now uses "University of Hawai'i-Windward."

A new stone entrance sign ordered for the campus was put on hold until the regents consider the name change.

Gloria Garvey, a partner in the O'ahu-based marketing firm The Brand Strategy Group, said she thinks uniting all UH campuses under the same name is the right idea because it would promote a common image and promise. But the university system must pull it off properly for the brand to stick. Otherwise, they run the risk of being poked fun at, she said.

"It's not sufficient to change their signs and change their stationary. They should devote some energy to promoting the reason why they are doing it," Garvey said. "If Kapi'olani Community College wants us to think of it as UH-Kapi'olani, they're going to have to work with the rest of us who have come to call the place KCC.

This would be the second name change for the community colleges.

In the 1960s, when the then-technical schools left the Department of Education for the University of Hawai'i and became community colleges, there was some lingering confusion.

"For the longest time, even when I was provost of Kapi'olani Community College, people would sometimes call it Kapi'olani Technical School," Tsunoda said. "In the last five to 10 years you haven't heard that. It takes some time."

UH's last major name change came in 2000, when the athletic teams partially buried the nickname "Rainbows" in favor of the "Warriors" and raised the curtain on a marketing and merchandising campaign that centers on a logo of a forest-green "H," kapa-trimmed in white, black and silver.

The change was a surprise to the community. UH's sports teams had been known as the "Rainbows" since 1923, when a rainbow appeared above a school football game at Mo'ili'ili Field.

School officials said the old logo was not easily identified with UH, though.

The rainbow was confused with Rev. Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Coalition organization. The nickname "Rainbow Warriors," used by the football team, also is the name of race car driver Jeff Gordon's team. And "UH" also is the acronym for the University of Houston.

But old habits die hard. Many persist in calling the football team the "Bows."

Garvis said the community colleges can avoid the same fate if there is a good marketing campaign that tells residents why the name needs to be changed.

"When June Jones did 'Warriors,' he wouldn't have had the resistance if he had had let everyone know about the change and had community buy in," she said. "It may have been different."

Reach Jennifer Hiller at jhiller@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8084.