Naming survey opens to campus and community

COLUMBUS, Miss. (PRESS RELEASE) — Mississippi University for Women will continue to seek input with a public survey as the university explores a name change.

“We have received feedback and suggestions from our listening sessions, from emails, and from our conversations with others. The next step in our process is to build on that by engaging our stakeholders through this survey,” said President Nora Miller.

Through the survey, participants can rank the importance of various factors and themes, suggest names, and indicate a willingness to participate in a focus group. A link for focus group registration will be at the end of the survey in order to not associate personal information with the survey. All survey responses are anonymous. To take the survey, please visit naming.survey

Created and managed by Love Communications, a Salt Lake City-based firm, the university is partnering with for the naming process, the survey will be open until 12:00 a.m. Monday, October 31 CST. The market research firm also will randomly select participants for the focus groups.

Love Communications will provide a report detailing data, trends, and comments from the survey. The report will be available on the university’s naming process website. In November, the agency will facilitate focus groups comprised of faculty, staff, students, alumni, and community members to further research naming options and trends.

The Naming Taskforce will use the results of the survey and focus groups to move toward a consensus on a name. The selection will be presented to the university president. If more research and feedback are needed, additional focus groups will occur.

The task force is chaired by Amanda Clay Powers, dean of Library Services, and includes deans, provost, former provost Tom Richardson, executive director of University Relations, executive director of Alumni and Development, general counsel, director of the Student Success Center and representatives from Faculty Senate, Staff Council, Student Government Association, Alumni Association, and the Foundation Board.

To participate in the survey and learn more about the university’s name recommendation process, please visit muw.edu/name

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