OREM — Utah Valley State College chiefs are trying on for size new school names. And all end with the word "university."
Utah Valley State University, Utah Valley University and Central Utah University are three names school officials are discussing among themselves and with the community as they move toward their goal of turning the school into a university.
State lawmakers, if they decide to do so, would change the school's name at the same time they crown the school with university status.
Yet UVSC employees and members of the college's board of trustees want to present suggestions to the decisionmakers, said Val Hale, UVSC's vice president for institutional advancement and marketing.
"There's no topic that gets the public more interested and passionate than naming the institution," Hale said.
Higher education experts have estimated that $10 million is needed to transform the 23,000-student Orem college into a university. The money is necessary to pay for a host of campus and academic services, including graduate programs and more undergraduate degrees.
UVSC officials want the money to come from the state's coffers over the next three years.
But they believe the sooner they receive the money, the better.
"If (legislators) were to proceed this year (with a mission and name change), they would make that decision by the end of February," Hale said at a recent meeting with the college's trustee board.
Hale recruited seven trustees and the student body president to talk to Utah County residents about name preferences.
In October and November, UVSC's marketing and communications office interviewed students and people at the Provo-Orem Chamber of Commerce about the names UVSU, UVU and CUU, said Megan Laurie, the office's assistant director.
Several hundred people took an online survey through the alumni Web site, and those results were considered with the other surveys.
"This was very, very informal polling," said Laurie, stressing that the samples of people surveyed were not randomly chosen.
The school tallied 1,742 votes from the printed and online surveys and discovered the following results: UVU was the frontrunner, with 842 votes; UVSU received 787 votes; CUU received 113 votes.
Central Utah University was popular among people who want a name that isn't as geographically specific as the words "Utah Valley" imply.
A name with the words "Central Utah" has, in fact, been associated with the school for decades.
Local school districts ran the school in the 1930s when it opened; but by 1945 when state officials took control, it was named the Central Utah Vocational School.
The school has also been called Utah Trade Technical Institute, Utah Technical College at Provo and Utah Valley Community College before receiving its current moniker in 1993 when it began offering bachelor's degrees.
"It's funny because there are those who feel 'Utah Valley,' the name, is the way to go," Hale said. "There are others who feel 'Utah Valley' is too confining ... it tends to put too much of a geographic (focus) on the area of the school."
E-mail: lhancock@desnews.com