Are we a Campus? A College? A Center? The C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University has truly had an interesting history of name changes. So we sat down with Vice President Mary Lai, who has been with the University for 50+ years, to help us sort
out the history of our name.

In 1947, Long Island University put a deposit down on the Mrs. Joseph E. Davies (Marjorie Merriweather Post Close Hutton Davies) estate in Brookville. In anticipation of eventually opening a campus on the estate, Long Island University began offering classes in nearby Hicksville High School and Oyster Bay High School. The Nassau County locations were not officially named but were referred to as the off-campus locations of Long Island University.

In 1951, Long Island University began offering evening courses in Mrs. Post's mansion. This site was called the Oyster Bay Branch of Long Island University. In 1952, Long Island University added a day session, but it only lasted for one semester: the acting president William Marion Hudson, did not think it could be a success because there were little funds to keep it running.

C.W. Post College

Evening classes continued to run from 1951 to 1954 at the Oyster Bay branch until it had a name change in 1954. C.W. Post was officially founded in November 1954 and was christened C.W. Post College of Long Island University. "College" was chosen because our first school of study was the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Our founding fathers, especially then president of Long Island University Admiral Richard L. Connolly, opened C. W. Post with the intention of creating an elite, but small, liberal arts college similar to Dartmouth or Amherst. He never dreamed that the school would grow to have six schools of study.

Incidentally, we named the college after Mrs. Post's father, Charles William Post. Grover Whalen, Long Island University trustee and a personal friend of Marjorie Post, proposed that the new campus by named for her father to help establish a strong identity for the University’s new location. In addition, Whalen and other university officials hoped this sentimental gesture would motivate Marjorie to become a major benefactress of the newly found campus. She donated more than $2 million to the campus and would often visit the campus to participate in various activities such as football games, sorority dinners and commencement exercises.

Mitchel College

In 1954, Long Island University's Brooklyn Campus began offering courses to military personnel and their families at Mitchel Field Air Force Base in Uniondale (presently part of Nassau Community College). About 1958, the site was officially named Mitchel College of Long Island University. In 1963, when the federal government closed the Air Force Base, it deeded the property to the University for educational usage. The University operated for a short time, but closed Mitchel College because it lacked enrollment. The remaining students were offered a choice of completing their degrees at either the C.W. Post Campus or the Brooklyn Campus. One program, however remained at the former Mitchel College site until the mid 1970's. It was a Marine and Environmental Science Program, which was considered an extension program of C.W. Post.

In 1965 the Long Island University Board of Trustees decided to change the names of all the campuses: C.W. Post College was changed to The Merriweather Campus (after Marjorie Post's mother Ella Merriweather Post); the Brooklyn Campus became The Zeckendorf Campus (after its first president, William Zeckendorf, Sr.); and Southampton was named The Southampton Campus.

In 1969, for continuity among each of LIU's campuses, the campuses' names were changed to Centers. When the Brentwood, Rockland and Westchester Campuses opened they were called Branches of the C.W. Post Center and Brooklyn Center.

Then in 1980, all six units of Long Island University were changed to Campus. We remained consistent for several years until 1995, when Southampton changed from a Campus to a College. To this day C.W. Post and Brooklyn remain Campuses.

Mrs. Lai noted that the variety of changes in our names was a result of changes of leadership, ranging from new presidents of the University to new board chairmen.