Request Information
Ready to find out what ÍøÆØ³Ô¹Ï can do for you? We’ve got you covered.
On April 18, Metro State officially changed its name to Metropolitan State University of Denver, when Gov. John Hickenlooper signed SB12-148 in the jam-packed Student Success Building lobby, proclaiming, “It’s a law! You can now officially call yourselves Metropolitan State University of Denver.â€
President Stephen Jordan began the celebration by stating that this “might be the best day yet to be a Roadrunner! This isn’t the end, though. Rather it’s the beginning of a new era for Metro State.â€
Hickenlooper said he has been and will always be a supporter and added that ÍøÆØ³Ô¹Ï is one of the outstanding universities in Colorado and in the nation. “Changing the institution’s name was a great way to honor what it has become: a great asset for not just Denver, but for all of Colorado.â€
The seeds of the University’s new era were sown two years before, when the Board of Trustees voted to study a name-change option. The resulting Strategic Name Initiative garnered overwhelming support for a new name: 80 percent of the 9,000 students, faculty, staff, alumni and community members who completed an online survey wanted a name change. The primary reason was to increase the value of an ÍøÆØ³Ô¹Ï degree while eliminating the misperception that the institution was a community college.
In his closing remarks, Jordan recollected ÍøÆØ³Ô¹Ï’s opening in 1965, when 1,189 students enrolled.
“Today we educate nearly one-fifth of all undergraduate resident Coloradans. We have nearly 24,000 students enrolled at Metro State. That’s a 2,000 percent increase since 1965.
“Scrappy, full of fighting spirit, this is a ubiquitous theme I see as we keep one foot in our past and one in the future and become Metropolitan State University of Denver. It is a great day to be a Roadrunner!â€