4/4/2009:
Recently, Minot State University-Bottineau changed its name to Dakota College at Bottineau. Changing the name of an institution of higher learning is nothing new in North Dakota. In a 1907 spring edition of the Spectrum, the North Dakota Agricultural College's student newspaper, editor Thomas Heath suggested that the people of North Dakota thought of NDAC as an institution where "green young men learn how to plant corn, hoe potatoes, care for stock and raise grain in the most approved scientific manner." Heath suggested a name change that would more properly reflect a modern institution for higher learning, implying that the current name caused students seeking a regular or professional college education to look elsewhere for a school. His suggestion? The State College and School of Agriculture. That name change didn't take hold, but in 1960 the name, North Dakota State University, did.
By Merrill Piepkorn