Holden OKs name change for Joplin school

JOPLIN, Mo. -- Missouri Southern State College has won its long fight to gain university status.

On Aug. 28, the college will officially become Missouri Southern State University-Joplin, under a bill signed into law Saturday by Gov. Bob Holden.

The change is more than cosmetic.

As a university, Missouri Southern will be allowed to award graduate degrees in certain fields. Previously, students who took graduate-level classes at Missouri Southern received degrees in association with another university.

No public money will be spent to change the name of the school, which has about 6,000 students.

Opened in 1937 as Joplin Junior College, the school became Missouri Southern State College in 1967.

Efforts to elevate the school still further gathered steam in the mid-1980s, when college President Julio Leon asked then-state Sen. Richard Webster if the state would consider allowing the school to become a university. Webster told Leon to be patient and eventually it would happen.

Almost 20 years later, Holden signed the bill bestowing the new name during a ceremony Saturday attended by several hundred students, faculty members and others.

"This is truly an historic day indeed," said Sen. Gary Nodler, R-Joplin.

Lawmakers pushed for university status for Missouri Southern during the late 1990s, but their efforts were unsuccessful. Proposals to change the school's name were introduced again this year after term limits changed the face of the legislature. Newcomers Nodler, a Missouri Southern graduate, and Rep. Bryan Stevenson, R-Joplin, promoted bills in their chambers.

Holden, in his remarks Saturday, said the school's new designation created opportunities for the state. He challenged the Republican-led legislature to provide more money for higher education.

"This name change, along with more funding, will help this university compete on a global scale," Holden said

Stevenson has said the change would also help Missouri Southern compete with Pittsburg (Kan.) State University, about 30 miles west of the Joplin campus.

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Name change bill is SB55.

On the Net:

Missouri Legislature: http://www.moga.state.mo.us

Missouri Southern State College: http://www.mssc.edu