WTF? How hard can it be to name a university?
VÄINÖ VASARA, text
EMMA LAAKKONEN, translation
THE NAMING PROCESS of the new university in Tampere began in 2015. This spring, after a long period of work, the University Foundation proposed the name Tampere New University. The criticism that followed this name suggestion was taken into account by the Board of the Tampere University Foundation, and in September, the new university received another name: Tampere University. But there’s more!
A week after the official name proposal, the student newspaper Aviisi wrote that the “Non-turku association” had taken the domain tampereuniversity.fi. On their webpage, they stated that the university should be named “the Tampere University of Not turku”.
Why has the naming process been so difficult, Tampere3 project director Marianne Kukko?
We have such a large community that we also have 40,000 opinions on this. We can’t always make decisions that please everyone. Some matters receive more passionate responses than others, and this is one of those matters. These are complex issues.
What could have been done better?
We should have been better in the communication regarding the latest name suggestion. I also said to the chair of the TTYY that it is time for me to look in the mirror as I should have given them an announcement right after the decision. The communication should have been managed better.
Why wasn’t the tampereuniversity.fi domain reserved in advance?
We have reserved several domains, and we could take an enormous amount of these, but the question here is what the domain will finally be, and this will be decided over time. We had not reserved that longer form of the domain, but it is highly unlikely that we would use such a long version.
What is the current situation, and when will the final name be chosen?
Now we wait while the legislation is under consideration in the Parliament. We have had positive signals from the Education and Culture Committee. It is strongly believed that the decision will be made this year.