By Taylor Boyd
Last week, Virginia’s State Board of Community Colleges voted to add an ampersand to the name and the college immediately became Patrick & Henry Community College.
Dr. Greg Hodges, president of Patrick & Henry Community College, will create a small task force to help with the multi-layered re-branding effort.
“We have an end zone of Dec. 31, 2022, but because ours is not as significant” of a change as some community colleges in Virginia, “I believe it will be quicker,” Hodges said.
He plans to create a task force “to tackle the low-hanging fruit” like graphics and logos, he said of changes expected within the next 60-days. The task force also will create a plan to address those areas that will take longer to change.
The task force will include a “cross brand of college officials, local college board members,” Hodges said, adding members will be a cross representative of the college and the community.
“This is not a name overhaul. This is something we can address very quickly,” he said, adding the costs are unknown at this point.
“We did not do a tremendous dive for the (costs) of the ampersand,” he said, adding the expense is expected to be less than the estimated cost of a complete name change.
“There is no money from the state” for the change, he said, adding that the Patrick Henry Community College Foundation “has generously agreed to help with this work.”
The state board in July 2020 directed all community colleges in Virginia to review their names for appropriateness.
At a previous meeting, the state board rejected adding a hyphen to PHCC’s name (which is the way that the college’s name first appeared when it was founded) and asked the local board to reconsider its suggestion to retain the name, according to a release.
Without punctuation, the name Patrick Henry could stand for the Revolutionary War hero Patrick Henry, who owned slaves.
“Our local board had put forth five names. One was to leave it as is, the second was to add a hyphen, and the third was to add the word ‘and’ or the ampersand,” Hodges said, adding the first two recommendations had been made previously.
The state board accepted the third recommendation, which was to add the ampersand, Hodges said. The change went into effect upon approval last week, he added.
“We are grateful that the State Board has put forward a name for our college that allows us to maintain the names of the counties that we serve. Patrick & Henry Community College has a rich history of educating students, closing equity gaps, and lifting families out of poverty, and we are excited to move forward in this work while preserving the names of the regions served by our college.”
The change, he said “is representational, inclusive and it was a welcome decision. It also further underscores the fact that our college is named for the two counties it serves. I am very, very, very grateful” to the state board.
Hodges said he also is proud of the process undertaken by the college, the local board, and the community throughout the review process. The college solicited public feedback regarding its name and PHCC’s local board met over a series of special called meetings to review the feedback. The public also provided feedback through social media and other means.
“On behalf of the faculty, staff, students, alumni, and local board of Patrick & Henry Community College, I express my deep appreciation for the leadership of the State Board in this important renaming process,” Hodges said.
Throughout, the process “has been exhaustive and thorough,” he said, “and I can’t emphasize enough how cordial” the state board meeting was. “Every voice was heard. Every voice was valued, and it did my heart good to see that civil discourse is not dead.”
