Questions spread about whether name change is coming to FAMU-FSU College of Engineering

On the FAMU main campus, there are growing concerns that the behind-the-scenes changes to the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering aren’t done. Questions are spreading about whether the engineering college will soon get a new name.

The current name of the College of Engineering requires people to say “FAMU” first. But there is now talk about giving the college a “neutral” name that would supposedly help to increase cooperation between FAMU and Florida State University.

One possibility that is being floated is the option of replacing “FAMU-FSU” with “Florida.” Another is that a potential new name might include the word “Institute.” The program was originally called the “FAMU-FSU Institute for Engineering” back when it received its startup funds from the Florida Legislature during the 1982 session.

The Florida Flambeau described the program this way in a 1982 article: “It’s a little bit more than a college, and a little bit less than a university. It’s the Florida A&M/Florida State University Institute for Engineering, and if its proposed development guidelines are approved by the state Board of Regents at their meeting this weekend, it will be on its way to Tallahassee.”

The current name “FAMU-FSU College of Engineering” was approved by the Board of Regents a few years later.

No proposal for a name change has been submitted to the FAMU Board of Trustees. But lately a number of policy changes have been executed for the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering without the approval of the FAMU trustees.