Harvard itself is named after a benefactor. Same with Stanford and many other colleges and universities. This has not stopped those universities from “naming” certain schools or programs within the universities after benefactors or famous people. Presidents’ names figure in some cases, without implying that the president was a benefactor, though sometimes is an alumnus. For example, the “LBJ School” at the University of Texas (but LBJ is not a UofT alumnus). The “Kennedy School” at Harvard. The “Gerald Ford School” at the University of Michigan. The “Woodrow Wilson School” at Princeton. Business schools and public policy schools seem to seek out benefactors or the names of famous people.
In answer to the OP, I do think the naming gives some identity to the program or college. It may also be something of a statement and claim on resources WITHIN the university, not just externally.
I have at least heard of most of the business schools you listed, although I can’t connect them all with their college. Haven’t heard of a single one of the engineering schools named in the OP.
It depends. I have heard of some, but never of Tandon at NYU (and I live in the NYC suburbs). Engineering at NYU is what I have heard. It really depends on the nature of the school and the prestige of the program/school with the name.
We know someone (former boss) who donated enough to get his name on a new building at a UC. As a condition of the donation, he required that they get a waiver from the UC system to allow a larger name on the building than their maximum font size restriction normally permitted.
Unless it’s a name you know from memorizing presidents, it’s probably just about the money.
That’s understandable as NYU has only recently reacquired an engineering division after a long hiatus dating back sometime to the 1970’s when NYU had to sell off divisions/campuses* due to a severe financial crunch.
Tandon was a separate private engineering college known as Brooklyn Polytechnic. It was in 2008 that they merged with NYU. Also, one could say they’ve came full circle of sorts as when NYU was in the process of parceling out its engineering faculty across several NYC area colleges…Brooklyn Polytechnic happened to be one of the colleges which hired former NYU engineering faculty.
The current campus of Bronx Community college used to be NYU's Bronx based University Heights campus.
Well, um, I can say that Penn did suffer a bit. Lots of confusion with Penn State and just a general assumption that it is a public university. But in general, I agree. A good school is recognized as a good school.
In 2007, twenty-seven years after I got my MBA, the University of Washington business department changed its name to the Foster School of Business. This last spring, at the cost of $140,000, they sent all graduates new diplomas with the Foster School name. So they must think it is a coveted ‘brand’ to assume we were all upset that we had missed out on having the name attached to our degrees. I wondered what it had cost, as did lots of other alumni, from the coverage in the newspaper.
The new diploma got set on the kitchen counter while I pondered this, and my dog took the opportunity to chew it up.
I think it does add appeal to potential applicants based on the amount of name dropping that I hear. “I’m a business major” sounds way less interesting than “I received a direct admit to Foster”. The music major forum is all about brand names. Nobody ever auditions at Miami or Northwestern, it’s Miami (Frost) and Northwestern (Bienen) and Indiana (Jacobs) and NYU (Clive Davis) and Thornton (forget the USC).
Cobrat: And yet I knew about NYU acquiring Brooklyn Polytech to restart engineering. Just never heard it referred to as Tandon, which was given an example in the OP as possibly making a school more attractive.
These days, colleges know a lot more about branding than they used to. Once a name is changed, they’re a lot smarter about ensuring that all elements of the branding – buildings, stationery, websites, etc. - get changed and reflect uniform colors / fonts / branding. Saintfan, for your example of Bienen - that was changed only a few years ago; I knew it as simply Northwestern’s School of Music. I’ll have to ask my recent-grad son if he thinks of it as the music school or as Bienen in particular.
This is off-topic but @CaliCash you should read Outrage by Vincent Bugliosi (a lawyer who genuinely was incredible). Simpson’s team was incredibly incompetent - the only thing they did right was really just be better than the even more incompetent prosecution.
This is off-topic but @CaliCash you should read Outrage by Vincent Bugliosi (a lawyer who genuinely was incredible). Simpson’s team was incredibly incompetent - the only thing they did right was really just be better than the even more incompetent prosecution.
The NYU Tandon Engineering name change just happened last month and has been HIGHLY controversial. It’s a big topic in higher ed philanthropy circles, along with the planned name change of tiny Paul Smiths College in Upstate New York, which got overturned by a judge, resulting in the loss of the gift.
Seems to me that students are attracted to business programs or other programs at universities because of the quality/reputation of the program. Most do not care about the name–which is generally the result of someone giving large $$$ for naming rights. Most kids who apply to the Tisch School of Arts at NYU dont have a clue about the Tisch family or the many programs and buildings carrying the family name,e.g.,Tisch Library at Tufts or Tisch Hall at the University of Michigan or the Tisch Brain Tunor Center at Duke University.
NYU’s Polytechnic School of Engineering was recently renamed Tandon School of Engineering after a large donation. I recently saw a post, apparently from a student there, saying how much better it is now than before.
Count Saddam Hussein as one of those who thought naming the division made it seem more prestigious, as he had the “Nebuchadnezzer” Mechanized Division and the “Hammurabi” Armored Division…
My son is hacking at “Tandon” today. When he returns, I’ll ask him what the locals think of the name change. Several of the domains involved in the competition are still poly.edu, but changing all the infrastructure takes longer than slapping on a new logo.