By Chris Cosci

How many university staff and faculty members does it take to change a school name?

This may sound like the setup to a bad joke. However, in the case of a recent name change at Boston University, it's a serious question with a curious answer.

Last year, the three subdivisions of Boston University's School for the Arts were renamed School of Music, School of Theater Arts, and School of Visual Arts. Upon recognizing these new and impressive designations, Jeffrey Babcock, Dean of the School for the Arts, saw a challenge laid in front of him. He felt that the name "School for the Arts" no longer accurately reflected the status of his organization.

In a recent letter sent out to School for the Arts alumni, Babcock stated that he was encouraged to change the School's identity to a College. To really understand this situation, I checked a copy of Webster's Dictionary of the English Language to find out what the subtle difference is between a "school" and a "college".

A school is "a place or institution for teaching and learning." A college is "an institution of higher learning granting degrees." Basically, this means that teaching is not actually required at a college, which suddenly makes things so much clearer.

Changing the name of an institution from a school to a college doesn't really seem like it would be all that difficult. In reality, according to the letter, the change "was achieved through a multi-stage process." Babcock explains how he "formed a committee of senior staff and faculty who considered a range of name options." So, what is this incredible, new name that was decided upon during this painstaking process?

College of Fine Arts. Yes, it took an entire staff of college faculty to come up with this name. Apparently, it beat out College for the Arts, College of Fairly Good Arts, and the controversial College of and/or Pertaining to Fine Arts.

While this top-notch staff was ready to celebrate the success of coming up with this marvelous new name after countless days of deliberation, there was more work to be done. After receiving formal approval from the Board of Trustees, they faced the daunting task of changing all of the official letterheads on their stationery.

Nonetheless, Babcock is very excited about this new name - too excited if you ask me. Turning philosophical, he addresses this change in the same way one would address achieving a higher level of spirituality through meditation. He mentions that this change reflects "a new era" of what he believes to be "an important time of reflection" for the now-College of Fine Arts. He then goes on to talk about meeting up with current students and expressing his excitement about what this means for the future of the college. I can only imagine the blank stares on the students' faces.

So, how many faculty members does it take to change a school name? Whatever the answer is, just don't ask them to change a light bulb.