News | 4/7/02

By one measure, five years is a relatively short period in the history of Towson University. By another measure, it's the University's entire life span.

Five years ago this month, the Maryland legislature passed a bill that changed Towson State University to Towson University, marking a drastic shift in the perception of the University and its goals.

"We'll know what the ramifications of the name change will be in five to 10 years," said Ellen Stokes, the Associate Vice President for University Marketing in April of 1997.

Five years later, Stokes said she thinks the name change and the image changes that went along with it have been successful.

"I think when you're looking at something dramatic like a name change, and more specifically, the manifestation of that change ... I think what you're going to start to see happening is the community begins to see Towson everywhere," Stokes said.

Towson State became Towson in part because then-President Dr. Hoke L. Smith wanted to eliminate the impression that Towson was entirely state supported rather than state assisted.

"They look at you and say 'state funds,' 'state supported' and the impression is that the state does a huge amount of your funding, which is not so," said Susanna Craine, assistant vice president for university relations. "Every year the percentage of funding we get from state percentage changes a little bit, but it's fairly low."

While Towson's percentage of state funding remained relatively steady in the five years since the name change, total state funding shot up from $46,627,878 to $58,797,522 in 2000, an increase of nearly 21 percent. However, Stokes said that the increase wasn't specifically because of the name change, but more a result of the many efforts the University was making at the time.

"These things didn't happen just because we changed our name, but because a lot of things came together at the same time," she said.

One of the biggest things that came together for Towson was the University's image. Prior to the name change, Towson State used a sketch of the Stephens Hall Bell Tower as its logo, and the logo was neither applied consistently throughout the campus, nor was it distinguishable among similar college logos throughout the nation.

However, in the fall of 1997, the new name was unveiled, along with the current "flags" or "swoosh" logo, and banners were placed around the campus, increasing the University's visibility.

"Along with the name change, we got 'branded,'" Craine said. "We did the new logo and we started into a program that very much began to create a template for print that came out of the university, so the publications program became a whole new program."

The name and logo change also kicked off a dramatically increased emphasis on alumni funding. Under the direction of former Vice President for Institutional Advancement Joanne Glasser, Towson's income from alumni gifts increased from $653,000 in 1997 to $935,000 in 1999, and despite recent hits to the economy, the level of giving is still above that in 1997.

Vesna Gjaja, associate vice president for development, said the impact Towson saw in alumni giving is common when schools change their name.

"It's kind of typical for schools to go through this," Gjaja said. "I came from the University at Albany, and the history almost parallels [Towson's]. ... [The new name] reflects more accurately what Towson has to offer."

The University's increased funding, both from the state and at private levels, has allowed Towson to keep tuition low relative to national increases. Tuition was $3,080 in 1997, when the name change was announced, and was $3,605 for the past fall, an increase of just 17 percent.

However, when the name change was announced, the talk surrounding the image of Towson University wasn't solely about financial figures. At the time, Towson officials spoke of increased enrollment, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels. And while the number of students seeking graduate degrees at Towson has grown from 2,158 in the fall of 1997, to 3,021 last semester, undergraduate enrollment has gone up a total of just 593 students. Towson's growth slowed following a recommendation made by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Deans in the spring of 1999, centering on Towson's lack of space and funding for undergraduate expansion.

Still, the total number of applications to Towson, a better measure of increased visibility at the high school level, has increased dramatically. For the Fall 1997 semester, there were 8,016 applicants. Last fall, there were 9,407 -- an increase of 17 percent -- and the University has already received a record 10,503 applications for next fall, which means that in a five-year span, the number of applications will have increased at least 31 percent. There is an increase in the number of college-age students, but Stokes said there's more to it than that.

"The [higher] number of people applying to Towson can't just be explained by the [higher] number of people who are going to college," Stokes said. "A good part of that is because Towson has become a more desirable institution."

Towson's name change was made at a time when many schools were changing their names to reflect a more upscale environment. The same year, Memphis State in Tennessee became Memphis University, and Towson's name change was actually passed at the same time a number of other name tweaks happened in the USM. The trend continued recently when Salisbury State became Salisbury University, in hopes of seeing some of the same success that Towson has had.

"Changes are happening. It happened at Salisbury this year," Craine said. "Does that do a magic trick? No, but it at least begins a take on yourself through your name, which is a little more accurate."

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