The Kennedy School remarkets itself

I just noticed this today: The Kennedy School of Government -- which used to be referred to as "The Kennedy School" or "KSG" by University staff, when I worked there -- is now the HARVARD Kennedy School. Check it out -- the old Web URL, http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/, now redirects to http://www.hks.harvard.edu/, and the once blue-themed website has been replaced by a sparse white and crimson design with a prominent new logo for the HARVARD Kennedy School.

The Crimson article on the name change cites Dean Elwood as saying "lack of a consistent shorthand" is behind the change, but soon the real reasons emerge: The old name wasn't "Harvard" enough. From the article:

“One of our key findings was that we were not leveraging our affiliation with Harvard as effectively as we could be,” [communications officer Melodie L. Jackson] said, adding that the school shares the Kennedy name with more than 900,000 other institutions around the world.

Jackson said the rebranding is a response to poor name recognition of the school beyond Harvard.

“There’s a lot of confusion out there as to who we even are,” she said.

Wait a minute. There are 900,000 other Kennedy Schools of Government around the world? Or people are confusing the Kennedy Middle School in Cupertino with the Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge?

Whatever the case, there is no confusion anymore, with the new name and new logo with the uppercase HARVARD in its name.

Or is there? I noted this quote from one of the HARVARD Kennedy School students, about a very important word that's now missing from the new name:

Stephen C. Chan, a second-year joint degree student at the Kennedy School and the Business School said, “I think it’s strange that the school is focusing on something superficial.”

Chan also expressed surprise at the removal of the term “government” from the school’s new name as it falls in line with Harvard’s other professional schools.

D'oh!