PITTSBURGH — Some of the signs are as tiny as business cards. Others are large enough to stamp on the exterior of classroom buildings or to grandly announce an entrance to these three institutions, each more than a century and a half old.
What those signs have in common is this: Each points to a state university in Western Pennsylvania that no longer exists.
That's why leaders of Pennsylvania Western University at California, Clarion and Edinboro are on a mission to find and remove "university" from all kinds of markers, online and on campus, adhering to July 1 mergers, while respecting the traditions of what were three member universities of the State System of Higher Education.
The rebranding — from billboards and TV commercials to bookstore merchandise like sweatshirts, ball caps and mugs — is likely to cost more than $1 million, say officials, and could be pivotal as the now-combined schools also known as PennWest look to begin rebuilding enrollment.
Of course, making one word go away is no small job.
The campuses encompass nearly 1,100 acres and 129 buildings from performance venues and multi-story classroom buildings to eateries and administrative offices, not to mention welcome centers and signs along the highways.
In the Northeast, Bloomsburg, Lock Haven and Mansfield are now under the umbrella of Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania, but for the near term, existing signage will stay including the word university.
"As our Commonwealth U brand evolves, signage items would be addressed in any campus master planning," said Commonwealth spokesman Thomas McGuire.
At what used to be promoted as Cal U, a sign at the Third Street entrance, with South and Dixon halls in the background, reads "California University of Pennsylvania." The sign with a clock tower impression that stretches between red brick columns is attractive but now out of date.
So is the "Edinboro University of Pennsylvania" sign on a red-brick mount at the corner of Meadville and Normal streets. Students have long mugged for photos there and Greek Life members, bundled in blankets, swing round the clock to benefit the Edinboro Food Pantry in an annual event, "Fulcrum for Food."
The rebranding will occur over multiple years to spread out costs and strategize priorities, said Angela Burrows, PennWest vice president for Brand Strategy and Marketing.
"It will be replaced at some point," she said of the Edinboro sign. Same for the Cal U marker.
"All expenditures will be prioritized based on their direct impact on students. Student needs will remain at the forefront even as we rebrand."
Thousands of web pages on the west campuses must be scoured, business cards for most of the 1,800 employees will have to be reordered, stationary updated, and admissions material redone. Viewbooks for the three campuses, for instance, will carry the PennWest brand on the cover, but also will include a reference to the campus there and in a spread of pages inside, Burrows said.
One thing that won't change is athletics, which will keep separate identities as the California Vulcans, Clarion Golden Eagles and Edinboro Fighting Scots.
A color guard captain with the Cal marching band, Aubrey Crenshaw, 24, of Uniontown, working on a second bachelor's degree, found it interesting at new student orientation last month that the band's chant "Cal U! Cal Who? Cal U!" was still being taught.
Changes so far do not seem dramatic, she said, though accessing library and other campus services through the PennWest website takes a click or two more, and some courses seemed to become unavailable more quickly, though it's not clear if that is related to a switch to common software systems this fall.
"I think freshmen coming in will be used to it after a year," she said of the rebranding. "Upper class members won't be used to it until after they graduate."
At Clarion, philosophy professor Jamie Phillips' faculty page and email address now say PennWest, as do banners hung around campus in July. Overall, though, physical changes on campus are less noticeable.
"It's still Clarion," he said.
The six universities being combined total 30% of enrollment system wide of nearly 89,000, down from about 120,000 in 2010.
Fewer high school graduates have lowered enrollments of other regional university systems and strained budgets. But in Pennsylvania, the financial impact appears to have been magnified by construction debt, spending and programmatic moves over two decades and the commonwealth's near last ranking among states in higher education subsidies.
The mergers themselves have been a complex and controversial process, criticized by groups including the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties as rushed but described by State System leadership including Chancellor Daniel Greenstein as the best hope to stabilize school finances and find new enrollment in a region with a shrinking 18- to 22-year old college market.
But combining campuses alone won't achieve that, nor will a new name, cautioned Bob Sevier, senior vice president of Stamats, an Iowa firm involved in higher education branding, marketing and research.
"PennWest," he said. "That sounds more like a railroad than a college. That's just me."
Still, he said, "demography is not destiny" if the combined schools have academic offerings that resonate with a shifting higher education market and are communicated to the public in a way that shows their value.
"Get ahead of the public conversation," he said. "Have stories cued up saying how this benefits students."
"If you don't fill the void," he added, "the naysayers will."
A 16-member team has worked on creative, marketing and digital communications aspects of the rebranding with input from consultants and students. They are preparing "outcomes pieces" to highlight the value of programs and return on investment to students, Burrows said.
The schools being rebranded and others across the State System are no stranger to name changes.
Take California. It was founded in 1852 as the California Academy and chartered as a normal school to train men and women to teach in Pennsylvania's public classrooms, according to the school's official history.
It was renamed South Western Normal College in 1875, California State Normal School in 1914 and California State Teachers College in 1928. It became California State College in 1959. In 1983, it became one of the 14 State System universities.
Each has deep traditions and devoted supporters.
In the west, there is the Edinboro fighting Scot — embodied by a 12-ton bronze statue of a bearded Scottish warrior next to the Pogue student center on the campus,110 miles by car north of Pittsburgh. It was gifted by the Alumni Association to honor students who call themselves "Fighting Scots."
The artist behind it, Jim Prokell, was a first-generation college student and Edinboro Class of 1972 who used a bachelor's degree to pursue his passion.
"Edinboro gave me this opportunity to really begin to explore a dream I wouldn't have had otherwise," Prokell, of Brentwood, told the Post-Gazette in 2020.
On the Mansfield campus, library employees donated so that North Hall, a Victorian-era building that was once a women's dorm and now houses the library, could install an elegant school seal on one of its floors. The gold-colored words "Mansfield University" and its founding "1857" are prominent.
In the west, a new style guide details nomenclature that is out.
"The following names should no longer be used in marketing or communications as of July 1, 2022," it states.
"California University, California University of Pennsylvania, Cal U; Clarion University, Clarion University of Pennsylvania and CU, Edinboro University, Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, EU, EUP."
Diplomas will read Pennsylvania West California, Pennsylvania West Clarion and Pennsylvania West Edinboro, with fully online degrees simply saying Pennsylvania West University.
Some popular descriptors seem to sidestep the issue, like "Boro" for Edinboro.
With the inaugural freshman class enrolled, and recruiting for next year closing in, the marketing of PennWest is evident, from billboards placed from Canonsburg to Erie, to TV and radio spots.
"Bring together expert faculty. Offer programs in high demand fields. Add in a few centuries of tradition," boasts one ad with sweeping aerial views of the three campuses. "You might call it the future of higher education, We're calling it Pennsylvania Western University."
Campus identity notwithstanding, Clarion chemistry professor Joyce Overly said she worries more about what could affect her students, such as course availability and glitches as Clarion switches to a student software system already used on the other two campuses. Overly, president of Clarion's APSCUF chapter, said she believes students also are more interested in the classroom.
"As long as the educational experience is there and the campus experience is there, it doesn't really matter what the name is," she said
But it could take some getting used to for those like California junior Daniel Kennedy, 20, of Holbrook, Greene County.
"Both," he said when asked which name he will identify years from now. "I would still say I'm from Cal, but my degree will say Penn West."
Bill Schackner: bschackner@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1977 and on Twitter: @Bschackner
