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I've heard the debate of turning the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's name (UWM) into Wisconsin State University (WSU) described as the outcries of a forgotten middle child. Many see the name as being simply trying to remarket a school that feels caught up in the umbrage of the great University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW). When I recently talked about the issue with a friend that goes to Madison, she describes the idea as 'ridiculous' and 'whiny'. This just fanned my already strong desire to have the name changed.

In recent years, there has been an overhaul of the UWM internal structure and a move away from the old stigma of being a commuter school. For many years, the school was known as the college you went to when Madison didn't accept you. However, UWM is now poised to take over a new niche-that of Wisconsin's first cosmopolitan college. This debate cannot just be boiled down to a need to compete with UW, but rather as a way of moving away from the competition.

Let's be blunt, Madison is basically a college town. Sure it houses Wisconsin's legislature, but considering that one fifth of the population is students that qualifies as a college town. UWM is a much different experience. We are located in the 21st largest city in the United States, the fraternities present do not regulate life, and the tallest building Milwaukee has is not a dorm (excluding the capital in Madison). I am happy for the students who go to UW; however that is not the experience that I wanted. So I went to UWM.

But we are still left with the name of a satellite installation of UW. Their official name is University of Wisconsin-Madison, however I have yet to meet a person who calls it that. The unofficial moniker is University of Wisconsin, which clearly expresses the idea that they are the mecca of all the other Wisconsin system campuses. I think that does not accurately describe our place. Milwaukee has been constantly progressing forward and growing as a university, while Madison has been drifting downwards. UWM will never take over UW's position, and I don't think anyone wants that. But it should be regarded as an equal university able to offer a different kind of education.

Changing the name is not that radical of a step. When my parents-who both went to college at UWM-visit they describe the school as barely resembling the UWM they went to. When they hear about the programs I am involved in, they are shocked to hear that UWM is much more than that old commuter school they went to just so they wouldn't have to move.

But when my grandfather, who graduated from Madison in the 1930s describes his experience, it is similar to what my brother went through when he went there. Hell, my grandfather even lived in the same dorms that my brother did. UW-Milwaukee has a reason to change its name. It's just adapting a new name to a new school.

Some people argue that the new name Wisconsin State University will make people wonder why it isn't located in Madison since it has the state in the name. I think that people should only be able to use this argument if they can correctly name where Florida State and the University of Florida are located (Tallahassee and Gainesville, respectively). Considering most students in both Madison and Milwaukee are from in-state, I direly hope that if they got into college they wouldn't need help adapting to the new name.

I think it is about time that we all realized that in the future, when we are handing in our resumes, that we don't want our employers to think that we went to the second-rate UW-Madison. I want them to consider my school in a new light, and I will be proud of Wisconsin State University.

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