For those of you who were around for the Great Name Debate of the spring of 2006, you may recall the intense campaigning that went on for the few weeks leading up to the April student elections.

If you’re an underclassman or a transfer who wasn’t here for that heavily polarizing debate, here’s the background.

In spring 2006, a group of students and faculty members began campaigning to change the official name of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee to Wisconsin State University. They pointed out that most states have two public flagship institutions, and UWM would not be seen as different from the likes of UW-Oshkosh and UW-Stout with its current name.

In response, a smaller group (including myself) countered that a name change to WSU would keep the school a tier below big brother University of Wisconsin. Our contention was that schools like Illinois State, Indiana State and Minnesota State are all seen as second-tier compared to their University of State sister schools.

We campaigned for a separate name, the University of Milwaukee, a name that kept the city in the name and didn’t necessarily drop us below UW in terms of academic prestige; the University of Chicago is a great institution. However, our campaign only began during the week of elections, so we were not able to garner much attention and get the name we wanted.

In the end, the U of M name took votes away from Wisconsin State. UWM won convincingly with 1,286 votes over second place WSU’s 804. The University of Milwaukee gained 312 votes, most likely coming from former WSU supporters.

When the results were in and we finally had time to examine the situation, we realized that there was a lot of red tape to go through even if the students voted to become WSU or U of M.

The UW System Board of Regents would just be one group that had to approve the name change, something extremely unlikely. At the end of the semester, I happened upon my mother’s master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin.

It hit me like a brick.

The school doesn’t have to go through all the channels to be known as Milwaukee.

Back in 2005, following the magical run to the Sweet Sixteen, athletic director Bud Haidet announced a name change. The athletics program would no longer be known as UW-Milwaukee, but as the Milwaukee Panthers.

Confused? You should be, because UW-Milwaukee is still listed as an accepted term by the UWM athletic department.

The athletics name change of 2005 didn’t work. While those of us who are die-hards and our television and radio networks refer to the Panthers as Milwaukee or UWM, the vast majority of local and national media still refer to the school’s athletics teams as UW-Milwaukee or Wisconsin-Milwaukee, which is an unacceptable term for the athletic program.

Why does this continue to happen? Perhaps the school and athletic department didn’t put enough pressure on the media. Following the April elections, I contacted Judy Rose, director of athletics at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte.

For years, the athletics program took on the name of the university itself, UNC-Charlotte. Rose, among others, decided it was time for a change. The athletic department decided that they would, from then on, be referred to as the Charlotte 49ers, and UNC-Charlotte would no longer be an acceptable term for the athletics program.

Unlike UWM, however, Charlotte spent $50,000 working with a firm out of New York to create a brand identity. The school’s officials met monthly with consultants from the firm, and Rose kept in contact with national media outlets (CBS, ABC, and ESPN just to name a few) to ask for help in pushing their new brand identity. The school had more trouble with local media – old habits are hard to break.

Charlotte went on an intense campaign to brand the athletics program as such. They removed signage, uniforms, and scoreboard markers with the old UNCC name. They held a press conference where they announced the name change and gave members of the media notebooks and decals with the new marks. The 49ers even gave away t-shirts with the new logo to students, letting them embrace the “Charlotte” brand.

Fast forward two years. Hardly anyone refers to the school, let alone the athletics program, as UNC-Charlotte. The local and national media refer to the school and athletics program as Charlotte. Students on their campus refer to their school as such. All this effect, and they never had to change the name of the school.

We have a similar problem at this school. Despite the athletics name change, the school is still referred to as UW-Milwaukee and Wisconsin-Milwaukee by the Journal-Sentinel and local television channels.

While Wisconsin-Milwaukee is wrong, however, UW-Milwaukee is still an acceptable term to the athletic department. If we will ever refer to this school as Milwaukee and not UW-Milwaukee, however, the athletics team must remove UW-Milwaukee from the acceptable name usage column.

Hound the national and local media outlets to drop any name usage outside of Milwaukee and UWM, and it will come. Pressure the UWM Bookstore to stop making attire with the UW-Milwaukee name, and embrace the Milwaukee brand. UW-Milwaukee is just one small step away from Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and the ridiculous amount of hyphenated monikers that come with it.

What can you, John Q. Student, do to help? When you go elsewhere for spring break or the summer, be it home, Mexico, or Miami, always refer to this school as Milwaukee. Correct someone when they refer to us as Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Embrace Milwaukee, because it’s the best way to be perceived above the other hyphen schools in the UW System.

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