More than 2200 people have signed an online petition urging Charles Sturt University not to change its name in a forthcoming ‘rebrand’.
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The university, which has a campus at Wagga, is considering changes to its brand, including a potential name change, ahead of the institution’s 30th anniversary in July.
Wagga’s Saba Nabi, who completed her PhD at CSU, said she had signed the petition and had seen the numbers of co-signers grow rapidly in the past 24 hours.
Dr Nabi said changing the name would create issues for graduates when potential employers checked their credentials online.
“When you graduate from a uni you have all the degrees under a previous name, so if they change the name I will have to change my degrees, so I want to avoid the extra hassle,” she said.
“And when you join a uni and you graduate you have an emotional attachment to the name of the uni.
“I think the emotional connection will be lost, frankly.”
A CSU spokeswoman said last week that the institution was “working on a refresh for our brand, to ensure we speak clearly and consistently to our students, staff and members of the public”.
“While awareness of CSU in our communities is strong, and we are appreciative of the goodwill our communities hold toward the university, it’s important to evolve our brand to meet the needs of the market and ensure we can continue sustainable growth in our student numbers,” she said.
“As part of this refresh, we are investigating the possibility of altering the name of the university.”
Dr Nabi said other universities had changed their brand and marketing without changing names.
“By changing the name of the uni, I don’t see how it will affect the reputation of the university,” she said.
“You can always rebrand by changing the types of courses you provide or sharing the stories of people who have graduated.
“You can always rebrand a uni without changing its name.”
A user calling themselves ‘CSU Alumni’ created the Change.org petition specifically in response to speculation that CSU might drop ‘Charles’ from its name.
“Changing the name from CSU to SU erodes the identity, tradition and history of the previous generations who have attended, studied and worked at Charles Sturt University,” the petition stated.
“This petition is for students, alumni and members of the public to stand up and oppose the impending name change.
“History and tradition must not be lost. We must keep the name and identity of our great university.”
It was not clear if the user who created the petition was or was not affiliated with CSU’s official alumni group.
The petition gained another 400 signatures on Sunday, taking it close to the 2500 goal.
The creators of the petition stated they would hand the signatures to the CSU’s public relations office.
Former CSU Wagga student Tayla Martin added a comment to the petition.
“I believe this is an unnecessary waste of money and can be better spent improving the education towards students learning,” she wrote on the petition website.
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