What's in a Name? (Part One)

The current name of the college, The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, is one that developed over time.  It’s first incarnation was Stockton State College, but at some point along the way, I believe during Vera King Farris’s period as president, it was decided that the term “state” seemed a little déclassé, and that some advantage might come from associating more closely with Richard Stockton.  It might then almost seem as if the college had been founded by Richard Stockton himself, giving the college the appearance (even with the absence of any building dating back further than 1971) of being a much older institution than it is.    

This move was somewhat ironic, I think, given that the founding President, Bjork, had insisted upon the appellation “state” because he wanted it to be clear that Stockton would not just serve the communities in the southeastern tip of New Jersey, but that it would be trying to draw its students from across New Jersey.  This represented Bjork’s expansionist vision at the founding, and it was now under Farris being displaced by a somewhat different vision, which suggested that, even while the student body did in fact remain largely southern New Jersey in origin, that it was a college drawing on more select elements of New Jersey.        

The college's identification with the region is an interesting topic, one that may become an issue bearing more political freight in the coming years.  When the college was founded the southeastern part of New Jersey was certainly the most depressed region economically, the least populated, and harboring a population that was frequently the victim of stereotypes about “pineys” and the like.  The region had very little clout, if any, in the state as a whole, and it was dominated largely by a political machine that didn’t necessarily want to see the introduction of a college or university into the area.  Atlantic City at the time was a resort city that had seen better days, and the casinos were still not yet adopted as the mechanism for turning around the city’s decline.  So from Bjork’s perspective, while he may have felt that the college would help the area grow, it was certainly not a good move to attach the college too closely to the region through its name.   

But, in part owing to the growth of the casino industry and the partial recovery of Atlantic City (though that is an open question whether it can continue), and in part owing to the contributions the college has made to the region in helping it grow in significant ways, the region is now less one that needs to be held at a distance, and more one that might be embraced to help the college grow and sustain its reputation.  And with the declining political support for education from the State – such that different colleges and regions may have to fight for the financial support they get – it may be considered necessary to line up support from area politicians. And if these politicians believed that they were coming to the aid of “their” college, as opposed to one that seemed to want to maintain its distance (even in spite of what the college has done for the area and its clear commitment to serve the region), then they might be more willing to do so.  So clearly the name of the college itself is one that might be tinkered with in the future, just as it has been in the past.

This is my first discussion of the college’s name.  I intend to come back to this with another piece on the name Richard Stockton – the debates about who chose it, and why it was chosen instead of other names that might have been selected.

Rob