John Housel

The Northwest College board is rekindling the debate on whether or not to change the name of the college.

At Monday's board meeting Trustee John Housel presented a resolution from an ad hoc committee made up of himself, Trustee Mark Wurzel and Chair Tara Kuipers (in an ex-officio role) to change the name of the college to Yellowstone College.

While the resolution was presented as an action item and a first reading, no vote was taken. The topic will be back on the October agenda in some form, Kuipers said, whether as an action or informational item.

In the meantime, Housel asked the community to send in comments for and against a name change to give the committee a better idea as to whether to move forward.

"While we've had previous discussions about this proposal, it's never been on the agenda before," he said. "It's the desire of the committee there be full opportunity for comment before a decision is made, and opportunity for board members to review all comments before a decision made."

A name change has been thought about for years on and off. When before the board changed the institution’s name in 1990 — dropping Community from Northwest Community College — Yellowstone College was briefly considered as an option.

More recently, the college held a series of community input sessions in Cody, Powell and Meeteetse as part of a strategic visioning process in 2019-2020. During those discussions, a number of community members brought up a potential rebranding and a majority of those favored Yellowstone College.

The board held a special meeting on rebranding in 2021, where an expert estimated the cost, conservatively, at $50,000 to $100,000. But the discussion faded from public view until this week’s meeting.

Housel, who said he drafted the resolution himself, listed various reasons for the name change that have been raised over the years — including to make NWC stand out and eliminate confusion with other similarly named colleges.

Professor Astrid Northrup provided a prelude to the point during the meeting’s open forum. She relayed a recent encounter with a lecturer at the University of Wyoming, who mistakenly thought Northrup was from the Northern Wyoming Community College District, which operates Sheridan College.

“As a member of the Northwest College faculty, I regularly have to explain that NWC and I are not in Sheridan,” Northrup said.

In documents provided with the resolution, Housel said four colleges outside Wyoming are also often mistaken for Northwest College: North-West College in Los Angeles; Northwest College in North Saddle, Saskatchewan, Canada; Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa; and Northwest Mississippi Community College in Senatobia, Mississippi.

“We are at this point today because of the commonality of the name of the college,” Housel said. “There are other colleges that we are routinely confused with.”

However, the cost and the time associated with the effort were some of the reasons a couple of trustees cited in questioning the resolution.

Trustee R.J. Kost was prepared with a long statement sharing his concerns that a change wasn’t the best use of the college’s time. He also questioned spending the money at a time that the state Legislature has gotten more conservative and could cut funding — and when the college is still recovering from cuts made years ago.

“Our No. 1 goal and focus for this college should be our students,” Kost said. “And so what is it that makes the difference in the students that are going to come here? How do we address those needs? Changing a name to change a name is not going to take care of them.

“Our college needs to make sure that they're addressing the needs of the students and moving our college into the newer learning environment of the way these students work, learn and what they want to become,” he said.

Trustee Denise Laursen also questioned the need for a change and “Yellowstone College” would say about the institution being inclusive of the whole Big Horn Basin service area. She also raised concerns with the cost.

“You go out to the community and you hear over and over and over again about how people are strapped financially,” Laursen said.

As prices for food, utilities and housing continue to rise, “we've got adult learners that we need to be pulling in, and we're going to tell them we’re going to spend money on a name change when they're strapped,” Laursen said. “I think there might be a little bit of a backlash.”

In resurrecting the subject, Housel said his hope was to make a final decision on a name change at the November board meeting. But a few other board members questioned whether the process was too rushed, or if it was the right decision at all. Even Kuipers, who attended a couple of the ad hoc committee meetings, questioned moving right to a vote before more study and discussion to resolve questions about the process. 

“I’m really sitting at that point of tension,” she said.

While the resolution is “exciting,” Kuipers said bringing it up for a vote before more discussion conflicts with the less than 2-year-old strategic plan, which declared an intent to “explore” a possible name change.

“I find it hard for me to look at a resolution that in some ways, is in opposition to something that I already made a commitment to,” she said.

In an interview, committee member Wurzel said the intent is to provide as much time as needed for people to discuss and provide comment on the proposed name change.

“We didn’t want there to be any rush through it, and no appearance of rushing through it,” he said. “Our hope is people would have plenty of time to think about it.”

The next college board meeting is scheduled for Oct. 14 at 4 p.m. at the Yellowstone Building conference room.

To comment on the proposed change, visit https://nwc.edu/feedback.