July 12, 2024 – About 200 people attended a hearing in the Sam Rayburn Student Center Thursday on the possibility of A&M-Commerce changing its name yet again. Public radio station K-E-T-R reports president Mark Rudin told the group that “Texas A&M University-Dallas ” was not the only rebranding option being discussed. “East Texas A&M University” is also among the options under consideration.
Before the 1996 rebrand as Texas A&M University-Commerce, the school had been known as East Texas State University and other names using “East Texas” and was casually referred to as “ET.” It was founded as Mayo College by W.T. Mayo in 1889.
Rudin did not give his personal opinion on the “East Texas A&M” option … which is popular with many alumni. He said he’s still in the information-gathering phase. Rudin said: “I’m listening intently to all these various groups and making sure that whatever I take forward to the (Texas A&M University System) Board represents best path forward for this university.” He said that there might be no name change at all.
Regarding the A&M-Dallas option, Rudin said that should the university rebrand as Texas A&M University-Dallas, the Commerce campus would remain the university’s administrative center. More than 8,300 people, mostly alumni, have signed a petition at change.org opposing the adoption of “Dallas” in the university’s name.
A second meeting was scheduled for 9 a.m. Friday morning.
