Rosella Melanson is a writer and an activist in Acadian and feminist issues. She is a member of the Comité citoyen pour un nouveau nom.
The latest movement to change the name of Université de Moncton, the 12th such initiative since that French-language Acadian institution opened in 1963, is going strong and having fun. This is the most grassroots effort of them all, as evidenced by the videos, articles, memes and caricatures that continue to be shared.
Up to now, the movement has been met with a dismissive wave from the university’s governors. That hasn’t stopped the frolic. A citizen’s committee, Comité citoyen pour un nouveau nom, will conduct a public consultation in early 2025 to select a new name for consideration.
The university is Canada’s largest French-language university outside of Quebec and currently has about 5,800 students on three campuses, in Edmundston, N.B., Shippagan, N.B., and Moncton. It has been central to the renaissance of Acadie – the French-speaking community in the Maritimes.
The problem with the current name does not seem to be about Moncton the city, where one of the campuses is located. It doesn’t even seem to be much about British army officer and lieutenant-general Robert Monckton, after whom the city was named and thence the university. Monckton, as Yale University historian of the American frontier John Mack Faragher wrote, “killed and scalped scores of Acadians, including women and children,” during the British effort to rid Acadie of Acadians.
There is delicious irony in naming the heartbeat of Acadie after a failed colonial ethnic cleanser, but it wears thin.
The most frequently cited reason for a name change is that a university that has come to be seen as the Main Street of modern Acadie should have a name that fits. As renowned sociologist and professor emeritus Joseph-Yvon Thériault has said, Acadian society has changed considerably since the 1960s, in part because of the university. From a group with low self-esteem and a negative identity, modern Acadie has emerged with strong self-esteem and a proud culture. The old name is out of tune with new Acadie.
The name was originally a compromise choice by the university’s founders, settled upon because it was neutral and less likely to provoke anglophones as much as, say, Université Acadienne. During the 1960s and for decades after, leaders of Moncton and New Brunswick freely expressed contempt of francophones. And “Acadie” was thought to be unavailable because a Nova Scotia university is called Acadia. As if their cultural appropriation is our burden.
The citizens’ committee asserts the main reason for a change is that the present-day name conceals what the institution is. It is proudly Acadian, francophone, and provincewide – formed from the amalgamation of existing private colleges in the three main Acadian regions of New Brunswick.
The committee recently drew up a list of names suggested by the public and then asked for more, resulting in 72 different names. Many were variations of Université Acadie. Some were humorous, such as Université d’Icitte (”University of Here,” in French-Canadian parlance) and Université Acadieman, a reference to a New Brunswick comic book superhero. The committee also consulted the public about what criteria should be used in the selection of a new name. A short list of names that meet the criteria was unveiled recently. The public will soon be invited to vote on three choices: Université d’Acadie, Université Nouvelle-Acadie and Université francophone Atlantique.
This sudden upswell of support for a new name surprised many, including the columnist and patriot Jean-Marie Nadeau, whose column in early 2023 touched things off. Within a month, a petition with 1,400 signatures in support of a name change was submitted to the university, and other supporting articles, videos and cartoons flooded media, including a letter from the Mi’gmaq chiefs. The university appointed a two-person task force to examine the issues and survey best practices for institutional name changes.
By the fall of 2023, a book about the history of efforts to change the university’s name had been published by historian André-Carl Vachon. In late 2023, the university’s task force report was released. It had not been tasked with advising for or against a name change, but it did say the current name “carries an enormous (negative) symbolic charge.”
Nevertheless, the university then announced it was dropping any further consideration of a name change, citing the absence of consensus and the potential cost. It promised instead to “contextualize” the current name. Their decision contravened the university’s strategic plan committing it to apply a decolonization filter to all its actions and to foster a rapprochement with the Acadian community.
Modern-day Acadie gets its identity and potential from its institutions. Expect to hear about the name change again, as there is a growing consensus that this Acadian flagship should have a proud name.