Houston Community College will be renamed Houston City College, holding onto the ‘HCC’ moniker yet marking a major shift for the 54-year-old institution as it seeks to provide broader educational opportunities.
The college system’s board of trustees approved the name change with a 6-3 vote at a Wednesday meeting. The decision came after almost a year of research, input and debate, including concerns over an estimated $2.8 million cost of rebranding.
The majority of trustees agreed that the name change would better reflect the college’s offerings, however. HCC graduated its first students this May with bachelor’s degrees in health care management and artificial intelligence and robotics, and college officials are exploring potential bachelor’s degrees in business management, networking and nursing. All three would need to be OKed by the board before going to state and accreditation officials for final approvals.
The new degrees — and the name change — don’t take away from HCC’s roots and its focus on workforce readiness, said Vice Chair and District IV Trustee Laolu Davies-Yemitan.
“There’s a persistent commitment to this college’s mission. This vote does not change that,” Davies-Yemitan said at the meeting. “To the Houston public, it’s essential to understand this is a further affirmation of hopefully what Houston Community College’s promise to this community has been and will be moving forward.”
Chancellor Margaret Ford Fisher was a leading voice in favor of the rebrand, viewing it as a responsibility to students with degrees that might not be reflected through the name “community college.” HCC also commissioned a survey where students and area employers said they viewed credentials as stronger from a “college” versus a community college.
Trustees chose Houston City College over the options Greater Houston College and Houston College. Dozens of junior colleges across Texas have changed their names in recent decades, including Lone Star College, which evolved from the North Harris Montgomery Community College District. Dallas Community College also became Dallas College in 2020.
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[Trustee Monica] Flores Richart said that she would prefer the money goes to students that might struggle to afford college.
“There’s no push to do this right now,” she said. “To change the name for two baccalaureate programs before we even had the discussion about how we as a board want to expand or don’t want to expand the baccalaureate program just doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.”
See here for the background. There’s certainly a good argument for not spending extra money on discretionary items at a time like now, when higher education and its funding sources are under attack from a malevolent federal government. I agree that this could have been delayed, but if the name change does help the school promote its new programs and add to its image, I’m okay with it. Ask me again after they’ve completed the rollout.