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Northeast State Community College name change official

Published June 8th, 2009 | 0 Comments

BLOUNTVILLE — Northeast State Technical Community College is no more.

The name officially has been shortened to Northeast State Community College, one of five community college name changes signed into law late last week by Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen and taking effect immediately.

“We’ve always been interested in having the change in name and dropping ‘technical,’ ” Northeast State President Bill Locke said, emphasizing that 60 percent of the school’s student body are in university parallel programs.

Technical programs award an associate’s degree in applied science, while the 60 percent earn associate degrees outside of technical fields and/or continue on to four-year colleges.

The change comes just in time for today’s Tuesday’s on-campus interviews of three finalists to replace Locke, set to retire June 30, and also matches signs installed at the Blountville campus around 2004.

“I was just looking ahead back then to save the school some money,” Locke said of the entrance sign that reads Northeast State Community College.

Expenditures for the name changes will come from the institutions’ existing revenues, according to a fiscal note on the legislation. The colleges will be allowed to phase out items such as stationery.

Chattanooga State Technical Community College is now Chattanooga State Community College, Pellissippi State Technical Community College is now Pellissippi State Community College, Nashville State Technical Community College is now Nashville State Community College, and Community College in Southwest Tennessee is now Southwest Tennessee Community College.

Locke said Southwest merged with a technology school, and Northeast State and all five schools are comprehensive community colleges, offering technical programs, university parallel programs and community service programs.

The change was agreed to by all five colleges, among 13 state community colleges statewide.

“Now there are no community colleges in Tennessee with ‘technical’ in their name,” Locke said.

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