Renaming Southwest Missouri State University "Missouri State University"

(February 26, 2004)

Whereas, The University of Missouri-Columbia has historically been known as "Missouri State University" or "M.S.U.;" and

Whereas, The nickname for the University of Missouri appears to be the pronunciation of the initials "Old M.S.U." as "Old Mizzou" or simply "Mizzou" (or sometimes spelled 'Missou'); and

Whereas, The Constitution of the State of Missouri identifies the University of Missouri Columbia as the "state university" of Missouri and further obligates the Missouri General Assembly to appropriate adequate funding for the support of the University of Missouri before providing funding to other state institutions of public higher education; and

Whereas, This proposal has been placed before the state legislature without the advantage of discussion of the financial costs for Missouri citizens by taking this action and without discussion of the impact of this decision on the public funding and status of the University of Missouri-Columbia as well as other comparable state supported institutions of higher education (specifically Central Missouri State University, Northwest Missouri State University, Southeast Missouri State University, Truman State University, University of Missouri-Kansas City, University of Missouri-Rolla, and the University of Missouri-St. Louis.) and without consideration of the merits of this renaming by the Coordinating Board of Higher Education, therefore; be it