Talk:Purchase College

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: not moved per WP:SNOW, considered in the context of the 100+ RMs proposed at once by this user. Extraordinary Writ (talk) 04:34, 24 December 2024 (UTC)

State University of New York at Purchase → SUNY PurchaseSUNY Purchase – WP:COMMONNAME. Theparties (talk) 14:42, 22 December 2024 (UTC)

• Oppose. The full name provides a WP:TITLECON consistent naming convention across all articles on universities and colleges in the United States. Many reliable sources like Forbes and US News and World Report still use the full name. The OP has also made numerous individual RMs on this same issue like this one, which may violate WP:ACROTITLE or use a shorter common name that is rarely used outside a sports/athletic context. Better to stick to the status quo. Zzyzx11 (talk) 15:12, 22 December 2024 (UTC)
• Oppose as unnecessary, unwise, and unhelpful for readers. ElKevbo (talk) 15:17, 22 December 2024 (UTC)
• Oppose, per the comments of Zzyzx11. —Eyer (he/him) If you reply, add {{reply to|Eyer}} to your message. 15:54, 22 December 2024 (UTC)
• Oppose per WP:TITLEFORMAT#Avoid ambiguous abbreviations, WP:ACROTITLE, and what Zzyzx11 said. – Epicgenius (talk) 14:36, 23 December 2024 (UTC)

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: moved. (closed by non-admin page mover) Jeffrey34555 (talk) 17:06, 14 March 2026 (UTC)

State University of New York at Purchase → Purchase College – WP:COMMONNAME can now reasonably be considered to be Purchase College. This is the branding used by the institution across its own website, even as its official name remains State University of New York at Purchase. It's consistent with recent-ish rebrands at other top SUNY campuses such as Binghamton University, Stony Brook University, and University at Buffalo — all of which retain their official names of "State University of New York at [location]" but whose WP articles use the branding as their titles. Starfishprimo (talk) 05:57, 2 March 2026 (UTC) — Relisting. Jeffrey34555 (talk) 05:57, 9 March 2026 (UTC)

• Comment I know that many of the other New York state schools have been similarly rebranded, but my perception is that SUNY Purchase is more common than Purchase College. I know that the school website uses the name, but I'd like to see more evidence to support the COMMONMAME claim. Alansohn (talk) 18:51, 7 March 2026 (UTC)

  I'm sure "SUNY Purchase" is still informally used to some degree, but it’s worth noting that commenters on the 2024 move request for that name were unanimously opposed — for reasons that appear sound.

  Per WP:NC-UNI, “Colleges and universities should always be named using the common (not necessarily official) name of the institution. This can often be determined by looking at the current branding of a university via their website, published documents, and advertisements.” So official branding is given great weight. While it goes on to say that “it is preferred that all institutions in the system use the same naming convention”, that’s not being done with the Binghamton, Stony Brook, Buffalo etc. articles. And it adds, “This may be overruled by common branding.”

  The New York Times might be the most reliable independent source. Google search results for Times articles about any school in the system will be returned under the heading "State University of New York at [location]", but the actual articles tend to use the branding: “Purchase College” or “Purchase College, part of the State University of New York” on first reference, and “Purchase” on subsequent ones. The most recent examples of this are a piece about the choreographer Tere O’Connor from December, and one about opera director Peter Sellars from last July. Starfishprimo (talk) 03:02, 10 March 2026 (UTC)

• Support per WP:PRECISE and WP:CONSICE a shorter title that gets the point of the article across is much better than its formal name. For example, we don't use the formal name Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) we just use "North Korea". Rager7 (talk) 16:39, 9 March 2026 (UTC)