Repeating the mistakes of others

Looks like the folks at Villa Julie don't heed warnings very well:

Villa Julie College officials today announced that the Baltimore County school will now be called Stevenson University.

The university's board of trustees unanimously approved the name change last night, ending a four-year process of research, debate and soul-searching on transforming the identity of what was founded as a two-year Catholic women's college. President Kevin Manning told a room packed with students, administrators and news media that the name change was necessary to end a persistent impression among prospective students and employers that Villa Julie was a women's college, despite it having gone co-ed many years ago.

Of course, my alma mater, the college formerly known as Western Maryland College, sold out changed its name six years ago. The school has achieved zero long-term benefit, and a lot of alumni such as myself refuse to give one red cent to the school based on the abandonment of tradition and the complete incomprehensibility of the need for a such a change. It was a major risk, and to this day college officials are still trying to play CYA with alumni because of it.

Looks like the folks at Villa Julie decided not to pick up on that basic lesson. True, Villa Julie is not flushing 135 years of history and tradition down the toilet like Western Maryland did, but the risks are pretty clear and the long-term benefit for the college is likely to be negligible, if the school benefits at all.