The Texas House on Tuesday was expected to pass a bill that would rename Southwest Texas State University, pushing along a change that Lamar University's student leaders have opposed.

The legislation by Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, would change the university's name to Texas State University - San Marcos.

The university's Associated Student Government has been pushing for the change and solicited Wentworth's help even though the board of regents voted in February to not consider the issue until at least 2005.

Because of the way the student government pursued the change, Lamar University's own students leaders have protested the new name, drafting a resolution against it about two months ago.

"It just kind of shocked all of us the way they handled the situation," said Brian Bean, president of Lamar's Student Government Association.

The association also believes that the name change could lead to a new name for Lamar and move Southwest Texas toward flagship status within The Texas State University System, Bean said.

"They denied that they would have flagship status, but we know that's what it would lead to," he said. "Then they would receive the majority of the funding from the state."

Lamar President Jimmy Simmons said he didn't see a name change or an unfair funding process ahead for the university, however.

"I don't have a crystal ball ... but I would say in the near future I don't see that (the bill) would be detrimental to us," he said.

The name change is necessary for Southwest Texas because its current name creates a perception that the university is a "small, regional school," said Robert Doerr, the Associated Student Government president.

"We just feel it's very important to the university community and the future of the university that we have a name that accurately reflects the university we've become," he said.

The bill, which already has Senate approval, has moved through the legislative process without a vote by the student body or alumni, prompting criticism.

"My opposition is the fact that there was never a vote on this," said Bryan McClung, an alumnus who has been fighting the change. "It has little or nothing to do with emotional issues. It's the process."

Doerr countered that there have been countless public forums on the issue and that student government has voted for the change four years in a row.

"It's been going on for too long and it's about time this happened," he said. "If the students were that against it, by now they would have taken over student government."

Former Southwest Texas President Jerome Supple argued for the name change at a February 2002 board of regents meeting, but the board tabled the issue, said university spokesman Mark Hendricks. The regents, he said, did not want to saddle incoming president Denise Trauth with a mandate that might not be of her choosing.

This past February, the regents reaffirmed their vote, he said. The following month, however, Wentworth filed an earlier bill that also would have changed the university's name.

After that bill got stuck in a Senate committee, Wentworth refiled the legislation as a new bill that went to a different committee for approval.

Wentworth could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

If the bill becomes law, Southwest Texas will use the name change as an opportunity to make the university better, Hendricks said. It would be the sixth time the university has changed names since it was founded in 1899.

"The university administration currently is not involved in this," he said. "However, the handwriting appears to be on the wall."

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