Education

MSU-GF is now Great Falls College Montana State University

Posted: Jun 28, 2012 12:55 PM by David Sherman - MTN News

The MSU-Great Falls College of Technology has a new name: Great Falls College Montana State University.

The announcement was made in a press release on Thursday morning.

The press release says that Great Falls College Montana State University will be abbreviated as Great Falls College MSU, and that the implementation of the new name should be completed by June 30, 2013, when all use of the previous college names will cease.

It goes on to say that the implementation should include the creation of a task force that will create a final logo, brand guidelines, and roll-out strategy for the new name and brand.

(May 25, 2012) The Montana University System has been working on an initiative to re-brand Montana's two-year colleges, and on Friday, the Board of Regents voted in favor of the re-branding and renaming - but stopped short of renaming MSU-Great Falls at this point.

The proposed name for the MSU-Great Falls College of Technology is Great Falls College-MSU.

The Regents did vote to re-brand the MSU-Great Falls College of Technology, although the new name "remains under consideration."

The Regents asked that the new suggested name be re-evaluated due to recent concerns expressed by some members of the community of Great Falls.

A press release from the Board of Regents says that a final new name of the MSU-Great Falls College of Technology will be considered by the Regents for approval no later than June 29, 2012.

In an recent informal online poll on KRTV.com, an overwhelming number of respondents indicated that they preferred the existing name, MSU-Great Falls.

The new names approved on Friday by the Board of Regents are:

NAME, LOCATION

Bitterroot College University of Montana (Hamilton)

City College at Montana State University Billings (Billings)

Gallatin College Montana State University (Bozeman)

Helena College University of Montana (Helena)

Highlands College of Montana Tech (Butte)

Missoula College University of Montana (Missoula)

In the press release, John Cech, the deputy commissioner for two-year and community college education, said, "Today's vote will likely be remembered as a vote of significant impact for a number of reasons. The re-branding promises to help better communicate the new comprehensive mission to make two-year education in Montana better understood and better utilized across the state."

Cech said the Commissioner's Office will begin working immediately in Billings, Bozeman, Butte, Hamilton, Helena, and Missoula to start creating local task forces comprised of students, faculty, staff, and community members to plan for the transition to the new names which will begin in the summer 2013. During the course of the next year, new logos, brand characteristics and guidelines will be created for each institution.