As reported yesterday on KETR, the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents approved the change of the name of Texas A&M University-Commerce to East Texas A&M University at its regular meeting Thursday.
With the change, “East Texas” returns to the school’s name for the first time since 1996.
East Texas A&M University President Dr. Mark Rudin describes the process that led to the decision.
“We went through a number of discussions and open forums and those type of things and laid out what the vision was and asked the audience, what makes sense to you? What makes sense to you? Right? And collectively, the overwhelming sentiment was East Texas. Not only because of where it takes us, but where we've been and it moves us forward.”
Texas A&M University System regent Bill Mahomes says the return to “ET” should improve the university’s profile regionally and beyond.
“Visibility, identification … I mean people will certainly feel closer to it in the sense of knowing this university is a university for the region, but it's more than that. I mean, East Texas State has always been kind of a quiet giant in my opinion, I think this just adds, adds to it in the sense of people knowing more about it.”
The school known to many as “Old E.T.” was founded in 1889 as East Texas Normal College.
