Local Tech College Will Go By Different Name

Local tech college will go by different name
By Teresa Stowell of the Watertown Daily Times staff
Friday, November 6, 2009 12:49 PM CST

Area residents who attend Madison Area Technical College-Watertown campus, also known as MATC, will soon be referring to the school as Madison College.

“In the past I don't know if the name MATC truly represented or told the story about what we offer,” Diane Walleser, director of marketing and enrollment development for Madison Area Technical College, said. “Primarily MATC does not say anything. A name should begin to communicate with people what you do. We felt this shorter version will be easier for people.”

College officials decided several months ago to consider rebranding the school to end confusion with Milwaukee Area Technical College, which is also known as MATC.

Although many people living in Madison may not hear much about the Milwaukee college, others such as those in the Watertown area may receive information in the mail from both schools.

“The Watertown area was at a greater threat for confusion between Madison and Milwaukee schools,” Walleser said. “We're finding most students go to the Web site first to find out about the college. With a high name awareness people would type in matc.edu, which is actually the Milwaukee school. Some Watertown students might end up going to Milwaukee even though they would have access to Madison right there in Watertown."

The new nick name, Madison College, was unveiled last week to the college district board and is expected to be in place along with a new logo by the start of the 2010-11 school year.

“We're going to be doing a soft launch,” Walleser said. “We're very sensitive about any cost to this. So if we run out of letter head then we'll use the new logo and new identity. Our goal is to have a lot of the signage in place by fall of 2010.”

The new logo was also developed to help others understand what the college is about. Surveys were done with students and staff to learn how the school should be represented. Three ideas came from those surveys to create the logo. The path represents the future, the crest represents credibility and the capitol represents the distinctness of the district.

“We are a credible school that is almost 100 years old. We have a strong history of providing quality education. We are also the pathway of the future for our students whether its retraining or starting a four-year degree,” she said. “We are also the only district in the state that has the Capitol. And actually the Capital dome was built the same year Madison College was founded.”

The new logo will appear at each other Madison College campus including Watertown, but each campus will have it's own identity with the logo.

“We're still working on our guidelines of the logo, but each campus will have a color or label to identify itself,” she said. “We think it's important that this new logo allows each campus to represent what they offer to their community.”