Only after a close vote in favor of inclusion did the board achieve a unanimous vote, and that vote reflected a desire to retain Walla Walla in the name rather than changing to Northwestern. The name Walla Walla Adventist University, however, met with strong opposition from faculty, students, and alumni. On Monday, May 10, Jere Patzer met with a group of more than 300 students on campus for a discussion of their concerns. Prominent in the discussion was the proposed name change, and several students voiced their concern over having the name Adventist on their diplomas. They fear the word may cause graduate schools to consider their degrees to be more parochial than professional.
Quality goes in the name.
College president W.G. Nelson attended, along with John Brunt, vice president for academic administration, Victor Brown, vice president for admissions and marketing, and several faculty members. For the next three hours the administrators met representative students to discuss their concerns. Six issues received attention. First, administration assured that students involved in the sit-in would not be punished for violating curfew. If the trial proved successful, the new hours would become policy for the 1999-2000 school year.