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Formed in 1972, the North Harris Montgomery County College District was created by citizens served by the Aldine, Humble and Spring Independent School Districts to be a junior college district. Later, eight other school districts joined over the next 28 years. Unfortunately, the original name was no longer viable. The individual campuses were individually known as:
- Cy-Fair College
- Kingwood College
- Montgomery College
- North Harris College
- Tomball College
Several considerations regarding the new name were set forth by the "Name Review Committee." These criteria were as follows:- Must be shorter than the current name.
- Must be distinctive and unique.
- Must connect all colleges, communities, member school districts.
- Must support the mission, purpose of the institution.
- Must reflect a “system” of colleges, not a geographic “district.”
- Must have an appropriate, easy-to-say acronym.
- Must reflect the institution’s image as a successful, quality, inclusive, diverse, comprehensive college.
- May include a key descriptor of the region’s geography, history or location.
- Should be inspiring and forward-thinking, but not faddish.
- Must not be the name of an individual.
Stakeholders were invited to participate in the process and the Board of Trustees approved the Lone Star College System name on November 1, 2007. The name became official on January 1, 2008. On January 16, a new logo and a unified color scheme was unveiled to the public.
The New Name Information Site
Lone Star College System Rises as the New Name for NHMCCD
Lone Star College Unveils New Logo for New Name
I love the new logo and the name really makes sense. This was an excellent rebranding scenario and it appears to have gone very smoothly.
Here's one I found by accident last night and wish that it had been included in my dissertation. At Vermont's Middlebury College, students protested the change in institutional logos and did so via Facebook. While student activism has not been as successful in branding issues as have alumni efforts, here's one example of the power of the Internet and concerned students who forced the college's administration to cave on their original intent to rebrand the institution's seal.
See the article in the student weekly newspaper. Unfortunately, the Facebook group "Just Say No to the Middlebury Logo" is no longer available. A companion article explains that a variation of the new logo will be used — it just will not replace the original institutional seal.
While most administrators appear not to involve students in such decisions, there are times when these stakeholders may need to be consulted. In my research, student dissatisfaction was successful when coupled with alumni and other groups. This occurred at University of Mary Washington, Case-Western Reserve University, and California State University of Pennsylvania. With the exception of the Mary Washington rebranding, the student protests alone may not have been as successful. In other examples, the students were apathetic about what the institution was doing in regard to branding issues.
It is an interesting story and I find in noteworthy that students preferred a traditional logo than a streamlined, rectilinear, and contemporary style logo. Regarding other issues, the students appear to be very active and contemporary in thought rather than traditional in nature. To me this appears to be a dichotomy; however, not knowing this school (noted as "one of the nation's top liberal art colleges") nor the student body, I have no answer to this apparent conundrum. Some comments pro and con are found below the main article.
