What’s in a name? Nothing, really

After years of unsuccessfully pushing to “take control” of the community college campus in his careworn city, North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee has at last succeeded in … getting the name on the sign out front changed!

Oh, he has to raise the money to pay the costs. Hey, maybe a corporate sponsor? How does the “Frito-Lay North Las Vegas College of Southern Nevada” grab you?

Only kidding. Assuming the change gets final approval this week, the new name will be the College of Southern Nevada, “North Las Vegas Campus.”

Unbelievably, it took years to get to this point.

First, a subcommittee of the College of Southern Nevada Institutional Advisory Council approved a plan to re-name all three of the campuses formerly known as community colleges with the name of the city in which they were located. The cost was estimated at between $13,000 and $15,000 per campus, money that would have been taken from the college’s maintenance and operations budget.

While the issue was debated, a survey found 58 percent of students and faculty opposed the idea, mostly because of cost. That’s a surprising statistic; one might have imagined that a majority would have chosen the option, “Could not possibly care less even if the building was actually on fire as I fill out this survey.”

Undaunted and, apparently, badly in need of a hobby, the full Institutional Advisory Council took up the issue in September and approved a plan that would have allocated up to $119,000 for re-naming all three campuses. Sadly, the momentum behind the plan stalled in December when a subcommittee of the Board of Regents — the actual Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education — heard the matter but took no vote.

But Lee — who said in September 2013 that he was going to “take control” of the North Las Vegas campus — was single-minded in pursuit of, at the very least, taking control of the sign out in front. And his persistence paid off: That same Board of Regents subcommittee finally gave approval to the re-naming plan, assuming Lee can cover the cost. The full Board of Regents is set to consider the matter this week, along with actual, important subjects, one imagines.

And you thought your “Lord of the Rings” book club and role-playing adventure was a waste of time!

Of course, things aren’t over yet. Not by a long shot. Why, we’ve hardly yet begun to debate what typeface to use on the new sign! And the proper size of the type! Surely, that’s a matter the College of Southern Nevada’s Institutional Advisory Council’s Subcommittee on Graphics &Design should address forthwith. To serif or not to serif?! Let’s do a survey!

Behind this ridiculous waste of time there is an important issue: Who should run the community colleges, and for what purpose? The regents — in a process marred by controversy over manipulated research — ultimately decided that the higher education system was a better master than local officials such as Lee. That was the right call, for a variety of reasons, even though it’s not the way things are done in some other places.

Lee has lusted to control the campus primarily so he can ensure it’s churning out workers for the high-tech businesses he envisions filling out the vacant land at the Apex industrial site, companies such as Faraday Future and various hyperloop manufacturers. But it’s not as if the higher education system was unaware of that need, or unresponsive to it. Those programs will evolve, and would have regardless of the name on the sign.

In fact, that’s literally the least important thing that could have occupied the attention of anyone involved in this process.

Steve Sebelius is a Review-Journal political columnist and co-host of “PoliticsNOW,” airing at 5:30 p.m. Sundays on 8NewsNow. Follow him on Twitter (@SteveSebelius) or reach him at 702-387-5276 or SSebelius@reviewjournal.com.