June 18, 2003

Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Board of Trustees approves new college name

Four campuses in northwest area now Minnesota State Community & Technical College

Contact: Linda Kohl, Public Affairs, (651) 296-9595 or Nancy Conner, (651) 296-0541

The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Board of Trustees today approved a new name - Minnesota State Community and Technical College - for the recently combined campuses of Fergus Falls Community College and the three Northwest Technical College sites at Detroit Lakes, Moorhead and Wadena.

The name change was requested by college President Ken Peeders, after consultation with the campuses and their constituencies. The new name will be effective July 1.

"Minnesota State Community and Technical College reflects our broad mission under this reorganization to deliver technical education as well as liberal arts and transfer programs," President Peeders said. "We look forward to providing residents of the region with a wide array of educational and training needs."

The newly combined college is part of a reorganization of the five campuses of Northwest Technical College over the past year aimed at streamlining the region's colleges.

The East Grand Forks campus has combined with Northland Community and Technical College in Thief River Falls, and the Northland name will be retained. The Bemidji campus of Northwest Technical College will retain its name under a new alignment with Bemidji State University.

This is the third in a series of name changes approved by the Board of Trustees. Southwest State University in Marshall will become Southwest Minnesota State University on July 1, and Anoka-Hennepin Technical College in Anoka became Anoka Technical College last month.

The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system comprises 33 state universities, community colleges, technical colleges and combined community and technical colleges located on 53 campuses across the state. The system serves approximately 235,000 students annually in credit-based courses and another 130,000 in non-credit courses.