With the combining of the Colleges of Education and Family and Consumer Sciences comes the likelihood of a new name for the combined colleges.

In a vote in which 122 faculty members in both colleges participated, 60 percent voted to change the name of the new college to the College of Human Sciences.

The proposed name has sparked opinions and debate on both sides.

Shu-Min Huang, professor and chairman of anthropology, said the name is misleading because the new college does not include economics, sociology, psychology, anthropology or political science.

“If there is a college called Human Sciences, it becomes rather strange,” Huang said. “If they do not do research on human beings, then why do they call themselves the College of Human Sciences?”

Jerry Thomas, interim dean of education, disagreed.

“I think it is a good choice,” Thomas said. “It describes the commonness of the two departments.”

The name is a good description of the two colleges, and has been used at several different institutions, he said. Also, overlapping occurs in all of the colleges — such as science taking place outside of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, or certain design majors taking place outside of the College of Design, he said.

Pam White, interim dean of the college of Family and Consumer Sciences, agreed that changing the name would be a good thing, and she pointed out that the majority of faculty members in both colleges had voted for the name change.

The two main reasons that faculty members voted for the name College of Human Sciences was not only they were interested in a brief name, but they also felt that changing the name to something completely different would signify a new college rather than a combination of two separate ones, she said.

Students also have mixed reactions to the name change.

Melissa Wilmarth, junior in family and consumer sciences education, said there could be a better name that would include both programs.

The name is too vague and needs to be better defined, she said.

“A lot of people are confused on what human sciences actually is,” she said.

Annette Poduska, sophomore in health and human performance, supports the decision to change the name because she said it’s a better fit for her major.

However, the main focus should be on whether programs are suffering as a result of the merger, rather than what the title of the college is, she said.

“It’s important that programs are still at the prestige they were prior to the two colleges being combined,” Poduska said.

The cost to market the new college name — not only to prospective students, but also to alumni — could be immense, Huang said. He said he saw predictions of $500,000 for the change, although White said administrators don’t know the final cost and said she doubted it would be that steep.

The name will be debated at the next Faculty Senate meeting, and, if passed, would then go to the provost and ISU President Gregory Geoffroy for approval before being presented to the Board of Regents.