College board should avoid another mistake

In our desire to restore the name of McCook Community College, we have spooked the board and administration of the Mid-Plains College Area, sending them on a wild goose chase in search of a "politically correct" title for the college area and the campuses in McCook and North Platte.

The board and administration's proposed solution is absurd. They not only want to abandon references to "McCook Community College" and "North Platte Community College."

They want to do away with the Mid-Plains' name as well, replacing it with the ambiguous title of "Heritage Community College Area."

This doesn't solve the name problem ... it makes it worse. The naming issue has been complicated by the actions of the interim president of the Mid-Plains College area, Dr. Carlton Williams. Soon after taking over as the interim head of the college, Williams told a group of McCookites that he would not try to sway the board on the naming issue.

But he has ended up doing just the opposite. In a seven-page report prior to the board's mid-October retreat, he came out strongly against use of McCook Community College as the name for the college facilities in McCook.

Since then, McCook has garnered the support of writers for the North Platte Telegraph in maintaining "McCook Community College" and "North Platte Community College" as the names for the campuses located in the two largest cities in the area.

In his column, "Your Town and Mine," Keith Blackledge wrote in the Sunday, Oct. 20 North Platte paper: "Back to McCook Community College. That's a good enough name and a lot better than the present 'Mid-Plains Community College Area -- McCook Campus.' I don't know what the technical and legal problems might be, but I'd be for also making ours North Platte Community College."

The Mid-Plains Board of Governors should heed the words of Keith Blackledge and it should listen to the people of McCook and Southwest Nebraska.

Reestablish the people's faith. Go back to McCook Community College and North Platte Community College as the names of the two major Mid-Plains' campuses.

To show support, the people of the McCook area need to turn out in large numbers for Wednesday evening's meeting of the Mid-Plains Board. The session will be at the Wig-Wam, which is the McCook Community College student union. The meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m.

"We need everybody and their dog there." said Dr. Mike Owens, president of the McCook College Foundation. "We want so many people there that they will have to move the meeting to the college gym. I know everyone will be tired after a day at work, but we need a large turnout to show the board that the name of the college should remain 'McCook Community College.'"

The college board can avoid a huge mistake. By listening to the people and using common sense, they can vote to restore the traditional names of McCook Community College and North Platte Community College to the area's two largest campuses. To do otherwise would be folly.