Well, I think that is the school. The school gets to decide what to call itself unless it reports to a higher governing body like many state universities, then the Board of Governors or the equivalent gets to decide. If the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill decided to change their name to Tar Heel College they’d have to run that by the BOG first. But if a small private school like William Peace University decides to change their name from Peace College to William Peace then that is handled by the school and various committees appointed to discuss and decide.
And sometimes they put these things to a vote and give people a choice. I think the US Army took suggestions for the base renaming, didn’t they @ChoatieMom? They then picked the ones that they liked from the suggestions. (I still don’t love Fort Liberty.)
So just doing a little searching and came across a Wikipedia entry with a huge long list of colleges that have changed their names.
I had no idea that Cal Tech used to be Throop College. They changed their name and sounds like Amos Throop was a pretty nice guy (abolitionist for one thing).
There are lots of name changes that are just from “college” to “university” and some that are from “normal school” to “teacher’s college” to “college” to “university” but there are a few interesting ones in there too.
I don’t think there is a single “philosophy” on changing a name, just as there is no single philosophy on choosing a name. Context matters.
As @sweetgum pointed out, those who control the name “get to decide.” But that decision may well impact how others view the institution, and some may not want to be associated with an institution that chooses (or keeps) a name that they find deeply offensive.
A name can say a lot about what an institution values. Same for changing a name, or refusing to change a name.
I had no idea Yale was named after a slave trader - nor Amherst for that matter. I imagine it’s a whole lot easier to ignore the bad actor if it’s not an EXTREMELY well known name for the actual “bad history.” Robert E Lee isn’t just controversial due to being a slave owner or traitor, but is continued to be used by white supremacists today - that’s a whole lot harder to ignore. My old school (pre-university) changed their name. It’s kind of insane that it was named for a Spanish Conquistador and Conquistador was the actual mascot. Who in the world thought that was a good idea - especially for a majority minority school. Good riddance to bad rubbish.
The college (or other entity) itself, based on how it perceives the name for marketing purposes. While Elihu Yale and Jeffrey Amherst did some rather noxious actions, they and such actions do not seem to be well known enough to create a negative marketing effect for Yale University and Amherst College. Robert E. Lee, on the other hand, is well known to high school students in the US, so the negative marketing effect of his name on WLU is noticeable.
If high school students commonly start associating Elihu Yale with slave trading or Jeffrey Amherst with intentional spreading of smallpox and other acts against Native Americans, then the marketing problem for those colleges will likely be large enough to cause name change pressure.
Opening in 1912 as William Marsh Rice Institute for the Advancement of Letters, Science, and Art , it is known today as Rice University. In his will, Rice mandated that the university to bear his name would be for “the white men and women of Houston.” This request was eventually overruled, and Raymond L. Johnson — Rice University’s first black student — was admitted in 1964.
The Boards of Trustees (or Regents or whatever it is called by the applicable institution or system of institutions) decides on name changes among many other things, primarily endowment management, funding allocation, and fund raising, which are their primary tasks.
In my view and that of my Auburn grad who was one of the 12k who signed the Change. petition, it’s great that George Wallace changed his views on segregation later in life. It’s great that John Lewis forgave him. I don’t understand why they would name a building after him. I’m happy that Auburn is making progress in changing names of other buildings associated with Confederates and KKK members, but more work needs to be done. It is an issue that is facing nearly every college in our country. How do we come to terms with the history of racism in our nation and the role universities played in it? How do we remedy it?
The decision that was made and the proper due diligence that was followed. Also, the number of those who signed the petition (which appears anyone can sign) is less than half the school’s population.