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by William Davis

The Board of Trustees last week approved a resolution to change the name of the School of the Arts by adding “University” to the beginning, making it “The University of North Carolina School of the Arts.” The resolution is pending approval by the UNC Board of Governors and the NC General Assembly.

Click to read emails in their entirety pertaining to the name change.
The purpose of the name change, as explained by Chancellor Mauceri, is to raise the profile of the school as a public institution and part of the UNC System. Says Mauceri, “This is a great time for our school to move forward and be recognized for what it is: the professional school of the arts for the state of North Carolina and the UNC system.” Suzanne Hilser-Wiles, NCSA’s Chief Advancement Officer, pointed out that NCSA has been a University ever since it first launched its first graduate program in Design and Production in 1982. In an email she said, “A lot has changed since the name ‘School of the Arts’ was adopted as a revolutionary concept in education. For one thing, the name ‘School of the Arts’ was unique, while today it is a term most often applied to Arts Magnet Programs and High Schools.”

However, the issue has created a rift among people connected with the school, especially alumni. Several have voiced their opinions by sending emails to Chancellor Mauceri, and over 80 people have signed an online petition protesting the name change. Their objections range from distaste with the designation of the School as a University to worries about the effect on the School’s reputation and the challenges of rebranding the school.

When the proposal was first announced in mid-January the school asked for student input by providing NCSA students with an email address, proposednamechange@ncarts.edu, that people could send their comments to. “Dream Catchers” were established around campus where students could submit their thoughts and hopes for the school’s future, and an online survey was established. However, email from Zemo Trevathan, a marketing specialist the school has hired to help with the transition, noted the response rate was “very, very small: 15 dream catcher entries (less than 1%) and 34 survey responses (2.2%).” He added, “With such a low response rate, no significant themes or trends could be identified.” However, according to Ari Casper, an alumnus of the school, alumni were not informed until after the Board of Trustees passed their resolution, and the news sparked skepticism in some.

Click to see a timeline of major changes over the school's existence (PDF File)
Alexandra Sokol, CEO of the IMBrandGroup, Inc and Executive Producer of MemeStream Media, attended NCSA for three summers and two years of high school in the 1970s. In an email to Chancellor Mauceri Ms. Sokol emphasized the worldwide renown of the school that extends even outside the arts arena. “I found it remarkable that when I was dancing in Canada, England and France there was actually recognition of the name North Carolina School of the Arts,” said Sokol. “No matter where in the world I went, for the most part, people had heard of the school. I admit I was even shocked at times that people knew the name. Now I ask you this... What do you think the world recognition factor is of the University of North Carolina?... Not to demean the University of North Carolina in any way, but, from a global perspective, it [doesn’t have] Yale’s theatre department or UCLA’s film department.” In her letter Ms. Sokol asserts that NCSA would get lost under UNC’s larger and more diverse image, stating “It [UNC] is NOT North Carolina School of the Arts, or even known in any way as a university devoted to the arts. AND, what about the high school? Where does that leave that brand? Do you intend to abolish the program?”

According to Ms. Hilser-Wiles, the image of NCSA as a high school is one of the reasons for the name change. Says Hilser-Wiles, “We regularly hear from our admissions staff and faculty members that parents and prospective students, not to mention college guidance counselors, do not know that we are a college, despite the fact that this is by far the largest part of our program. The name which once set us apart is now a hindrance to our recruitment efforts” In order to compensate for the setback in identity for the high school Ms. Hilser-Wiles said the high school program will be incorporated into the new logo and that the advancement department will continue to promote the school through news stories to the media and outreach to NC high schools.

David Winslow, who received two degrees from NCSA and has served both as the student body president and the president of the alumni association, worries that identifying the school as a university would go against the vision of the school’s founding fathers. In an email he said “If one is familiar with the history of the search for the School’s location – and it was a highly competitive process – the main lesson one takes from [it] was that, even when offered an existing home and infrastructure in a university setting (in this case, UNCG), the founders walked away from it.... They instead chose the much harder road – that is, creating an institution from the ground up and on their own, non-university terms. At the outset (1965), the School was created as a stand-alone unit. It wasn’t until Governor Bob Scott’s educational reform act (c. 1971) during which the greater University of North Carolina system was organized, that the School was invited to become a part of the university system. There was considerable gnashing of teeth on the part of the School’s leaders at the time as to whether to accept this invitation. At best, it was viewed as almost a pact with the devil himself. The choice was either to continue as a standalone unit – and hence be subject to the beneficence of the General Assembly – or to gain some semblance of refuge and greater stability under the umbrella of the greater university.

“For the first decade or so of the School’s existence, the high school and the college divisions stood on equal footing. Actually, during that period, the high school division was inarguably the stronger of the two. As the School has moved inexorably toward a fuller embrace with the University system and culture, the high school has undeniably suffered. The adding of the word “university” to the School’s name does the high school division no favors. In any case, I have feared for some time that the School has already crossed the Rubicon – and I must conclude that if the School moves forward with this idea of the name change is more evidence that my worse fears are in fact reality.”

Chancellor Mauceri maintains that the proposal does not slight the high school and points to the language, which says “·the addition of the term “University” is intended solely to better define the School as a constituent campus of the UNC System and shall not affect its unique educational mission or culture or in any way imply a lack of respect or support for its high school component”. However, some alumni are still worried, and Skip Sherman, who started a mailing list to communicate with other alumni via email to discuss the change, said that the main issue is not the change itself, but the manner in which it has been carried out. “We want to be part of this,” he said, “We don’t want to fight about this.” But, he added, many are worried about the hastiness of the decision. The change is intended in part to help increase fundraising, but Mr. Sherman wants to know what assurances can be given that it will help. How much will it cost to change the name, he asked, noting that the school is not exactly “flush with money.” He also expressed concern that the board meeting was not actually a full board meeting, but instead a conference call with the Board of Trustees.

John Ehle, a founding father of the school, thinks the name change is a “tricky” situation. “It [NCSA] is not a university,” Mr. Ehle said in a phone interview. “If it is characterized as a university it will become the only university in the system that picks its students based on auditions and portfolios.” He went on to add, “The school has a dynamic chancellor and maybe he can make it work out, but I don’t know what will happen after he leaves.”

Joseph Genualdi is as qualified as anybody to be sentimental about the school’s name—he graduated from NCSA’s high school program in 1972, the seventh graduating class, and is now a violin professor here. He is optimistic about the change, and says that the school essentially became a university when it was absorbed into the UNC system in the 1970s, and thinks that acknowledging that in a name could eventually translate into features like rank and tenure. He acknowledged that the low pay at NCSA makes it hard for the school to be competitive with other schools in the country for teachers and therefore students, and hopes that a rank and tenure system would help fix that. He noted that NCSA is already structured like a university, especially since the school must answer to Erskine Bowles and the rest of the UNC System, and said that NCSA should reap as many benefits from the arrangement as possible.

The name change must be approved by the Board of Governors on May 9 before it is submitted to the NC General Assembly for a vote.

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