Hannah Ryan & Leanna Byrne | News Editor & Editor
The University Times has learned of a memorandum sent to the Provost by the Fellows of Trinity College outlining their concerns in relation to the ‘Identity Initiative’ and the proposed name change of ‘Trinity College Dublin’ to ‘Trinity College, the University of Dublin’.
The proposed name change was put to the last meeting of the College Board and is set to be voted on in their next meeting.
Although the Fellows say they ‘welcome’ the Identity Initiative as an ‘exercise of self reflection’, they do not believe that any ‘single name can work’ in all contexts.
The memo stresses the vital need for Trinity to “maintain its heritage, and not to lose the benefit of the strong brand identity that it already possesses in the name ‘Trinity College Dublin’.” To this end, the Fellows have outlined four main principles to be considered in the re-naming process.
They have proposed that the existing names ‘Trinity College Dublin’, ‘TCD’ and ‘Trinity’ continue to be used for ‘all local, European and Anglophone markets’, all academic purposes and all ‘bibliometric activities’. This suggestion comes in light of the ‘strong recognition and historic awareness’ associated with these names.
The Fellows have also expressed their concern that moving to name the college ‘Trinity College, the University of Dublin’ would “have a significant detrimental impact on bibliometric inputs into college and university rankings”, and point to the significant advancements made in previous years in achieving a high level of consistency in this area. Over 70% of the college’s records in the Web of Science use the name ‘Trinity College Dublin’, with other variations of the name returning poor results.
Furthermore, all ‘external stakeholders’ now use the name ‘Trinity College Dublin’ in databases, analyses and reports; this was the result of what the Fellows describe as ‘a painstaking and complex process’, work which would have to be ‘undone and redone’ were the college’s name to be changed. Thus the Fellows have insisted that in order to “remain competitive in college and university rankings”, the name ‘Trinity College Dublin’ must continue to be used.
The memo also acknowledges that the term ‘university’ can be vital in certain global marketing contexts; as a result, the Fellows have suggested that the name ‘Trinity College, the University of Dublin’ may also be used in jurisdictions with previously ‘limited exposure’ to Ireland and which are generally “outside the traditional Anglophone sphere of influence”. They also comment that this name may help to bring the term ‘University of Dublin’ to the foreground in discussing and presenting the college, while it has previously remained ‘in the background’; however, this process will require a “clear internal narrative of what the University of Dublin is and what it does”.
While recognising the need for “modernisation in [College’s] visual identity”, the memo goes on to stress that the College crest should not be materially changed, as it is historically important and ‘widely recognisable’.
Finally, the Fellows emphasise that any re-branding of the college must be undertaken with ‘the utmost care and consideration’, particularly in light of the fact that Trinity is viewed by policymakers as one aspect of a wider “matrix of components” used to promote and ‘sell’ Ireland.
