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College of Education considers name change

The University of New Mexico College of Education is currently undergoing a self-evaluation process to determine if the name of the college accurately represents all of its departments and paths of study.

According to the College of Education Dean Hector Ochoa, this has been a lengthy process that began in 2012.

Dr. Tryphenia Peele-Eady, professor and an administrative fellow at the College of Education, is the Chair of the Naming Committee. Reevaluating the name of the college began as a part of the 2012 reimagination effort, Peele-Eady said.

“We recognize that the nuances of what the business of education looks like needs close examination,” Ochoa said.

According to Peele-Eady, the committee has a member from all of the departments in the college. This was intentional, she said — the College of Education wanted to include all of the various perspectives in the college.

These departments include: Department of Health, Exercise & Sport Sciences (HESS), Department of Individual, Family & Community Education (IFCE),

Department of Language, Literacy & Sociocultural Studies (LLSS), Department of Special Education (SPCD) and Department of Teacher Education, Education Leadership & Policy (TEELP).

This means that there are six COE professors on the committee. Additionally, the committee includes two COE alumni and one COE faculty member, Pelle-Eady said. The committee also includes two individuals from the COE friends board. According to Ochoa, one of the main driving factors in the renaming effort is student voice.

COE students had the opportunity to take a survey earlier this semester to voice their opinions on the possible renaming of the COE. Students were able to rank their choices in order of preference as well as leave additional comments, Peele-Eady said.

“We surveyed a total of 2,298 students (1,528 undergraduates and 770 graduates),” Peele-Eady said.

The three name changes proposed are College of Education and Human Sciences,

College of Education, Health and Human Development, College of Education, Cultural and Human Sciences. The other option is to leave the name as it is, Ochoa said.

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Students had a two week window to respond to the survey, Peele-Eady said. The next step in the evaluation process is to review the student survey results and conduct a faculty vote on what name they feel is most appropriate for the college.

Ochoa stated that each component of the names have been seriously examined. The committee examined what each individual word meant as a concept and as a descriptor. Each name was seriously vetted, Peele-Eady said.

Peele-Eady did significant research about the name changes. She examined data from universities across the country and what they have changed their college’s names to. Additionally, she researched what the results were for these colleges.

Universities across the country have changed the name of their colleges in an effort to better represent their student population and the schooling they pursue.

According to Ochoa one of the goals of the name change is enrollment levels in the COE. Two of the other reasons for name change is rebranding and enhancing student attraction, according to Peele-Eady. Ultimately, the goal is for the name to reflect the college as accurately and as inclusive as possible.

According to Lucas Cudia, an undergraduate student in the college, the name should be inclusive and represent all the fields of study offered in COE, not just teacher and principal preparation.

“College of Education may not be the most inclusive title, because there are so many other fields of study encompassed in the (college),” Cudia said.

Cudia said that changing the name would be beneficial given that the name is not so long that people cannot remember it. He added that students should feel proud of the college they belong to and that is a hard thing to do if the name does not reflect your field of interest.

Megan Holmen is a freelance news and culture reporter at the Daily Lobo. She can be contacted at news@dailylobo.com, culture@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @megan_holmen.

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