For most Webb students, afternoon classes are usually marked with a mix of drowsiness and restlessness as they approach the end of the academic day. However, on Monday, March 27th, 2023, at 2:12 p.m., an impromptu outlook notification jolted the entire community awake with a surprise.  

Dr. Theresa Smith, Associate Head of Schools and Head Elect, sent an email to Student News titled “The Next 100: A New Model, A New Name,” forwarding the Board of Trustees’ decision and approval of our new school’s name beginning in the 2024-2025 school year — Webb Collegiate.  

In the groundbreaking letter, the Board also elaborated on the reasons behind this name choice. The word “collegiate” demonstrates Webb’s rigorous academic program that stimulates a college-level learning experience. Yet despite its heavy affiliation with the word “college,” the name change will not bring about any structural academic changes. Rather, this new name acknowledges Girl’s Collegiate, a girls’ college preparatory school that became a benefactor of Webb when it closed in the 1970s, directly contributing to the Vivian Webb School’s establishment years later.  

However, many students’ immediate reaction to this news was surprise, confusion, and concern. During the latter half of many students’ C-block classes, over a hundred emails bombarded STAS in the span of minutes, many joking that the new initials, “WC,” is the abbreviation of “water closet,” or bashing the Board of Trustees and administration for making this decision. While freshmen cried out in protest, seniors humorously expressed their delight at graduating before the name change would take place. To convey the students’ dismay, a student even created an online petition minutes after the STAS blowup named “Webb Collegiate needs to be changed,” obtaining over 200 signatures within three hours.  

However, attempts were also made to quell the situation, bringing us back to the difficulties of discourse reminiscent of the “2021 STAS Bee Incident.” 

“I know all of us have thoughts about the recent name change, and STAS is a safe space for people to voice their opinion,” said Yoyo Meng (‘23), WSC student government president. “However, do please continue to keep STAS a safe space for everyone, stay civil, and refrain from targeting individuals and hateful comment.”  

To address the community’s opinions about Webb’s new name and give details behind the decision process, Dr. Smith followed up her previous email with an invitation to an informational session in Liu Cheung Theater at 6:30 p.m. on the same day.  

During the 38-minute meeting, Mr. Taylor Stockdale, Head of Schools, and Dr. Smith delivered a presentation about the name “Webb Collegiate” and further plans for rebranding Webb. The decision process consisted of surveying feedback and researching to form the criteria in choosing a suitable name — no radical departure, franchise, value differentiation, flexibility, establishment, and branding — to represent Webb’s values. Through meetings with selected members of the Board of Trustees and the consulting company Kilter, they had reached a consensus on the new name. 

Dr. Smith also went over some of Webb’s reasoning of using “collegiate” as the name.  

In the past, it has been a common name for boarding schools, and thus there is an established convention of using collegiate as part of high school name. When considering names like “The Webb School of California,” worries emerged surrounding the lack of representation of the VWS community. As a prestigious school, adopting the less common name of collegiate allows us to stand out among our competitors. Moreover, the meaning implied by the word reflects the rigorous nature of our academic program.  

Lastly, we are far from an ordinary high school. With the only nationally accredited museum on campus and extensive curriculum partnership with the Claremont Colleges, “collegiate” serves to expand the image of Webb. We want to “dream big,” perhaps one day expanding beyond just a school.  

While the process was presented clearly during the information session, there are still inquiries and doubts on whether the student leaders were surveyed, or was just added for credibility.   

“Student leadership [HCs’] input was considered quite a bit at the start when we discussed it at several meetings,” Ben Thien-Ngern (‘23) said. “But after that, they turned it into collegiate and student voices were left out completely. It came to us in surprise and a lot of students were complaining because student voices were not included in it at all.”   

The question-and-answer section after the meeting allowed us to gain insights into the heart of student objections. The following seeks to summarize some of the major concerns from the student body that were raised during the meeting.  

Firstly, collegiate is an antiquated noun used to refer to a school, an ironic contrast to Webb’s vision of moving forward in the next 100 years. Noun usage has almost completely disappeared since centuries ago, and now it is most used as an adjective.  

Secondly, we cannot ignore the abbreviation of our new school’s name — WC — a common name for water closet that correlates with the toilet emoji. Students worried that this association could harm our prestigious college prep school reputation and turn our students into “laughingstock among independent schools,” a valid concern raised by Webbies. The name “Collegiate” also sounds too much like the toothpaste “Colgate,” as students have already pointed out. Many question whether we can uphold our serious image with such a name.  

Thirdly, “Collegiate” could imply that we are already in college, and Webbies are afraid that it might exacerbate Webb’s existing prep school culture and toxic academic environment. Moreover, the confusing name makes it much easier for people to mistakenly think of Webb as a college instead of a high school, even though this is not desired.  

Most importantly, in making the final call, the Board failed to ask us what we truly wanted. Instead, they simply announced their reasoning behind the decision and expected us to embrace it. From student government, peer advisors, to dorm and day student prefects, no Webb students have shared yet that they were part of this “student leadership committee.” The only event in which they asked for student input was at the beginning of the year, where students wrote ideas on slips of paper. The administration also dismissed student proposals of adding a “school” or “academy” after collegiate to solve the WC initials dilemma, announcing that the decision had already been set in stone. 

However, it is also worthy to note that future branding would continue using just the word “Webb” and avoid the WC abbreviation. There are also school names that also use the “WC” abbreviation –– Western Christian, for example –– but the new branding model should not be bothered by the association.  

Whatever the name is and how we arrived at this point as a school remains in deep discussion and dispute, but the goal of this renaming is to keep the student experience unchanged and provide an experience where people will fondly remember their time here as just, “Webb.” 

“That [Webb]’s what we call our school in conversation with each other,” said Dr. Smith in the email addressed to the community. “And Webb will remain Webb.”