In Ben Wrobel’s editorial, “New name could boost fame,” he suggests we change the name of our school to Eastman University. While I can definitely understand his annoyance at people confusing UR with RIT (and even RPI, in my experience), the name is not the problem.
First, as a current grad student at Washington University (Mo), I must tell you that it’s not named after a founder, unless you mean the founder of the country. Washington University in St. Louis as an official name is actually quite an annoyance, considering the need to separate ourselves from George Washington University, University of Washington and others. However, we don’t change our name because we instead focus money on increasing the quality of the school, not publicity stunts that could destroy any sense of identity that the school has built over the last century and a half. Besides, how many EU puns do you know?
-David LuClass of 2007
