LINN, Mo. -- It's time to introduce the "State Technical College of Missouri."
Beginning Tuesday, that's the official name for the school that's been known as "Linn State Technical College" since it became a state-owned school 18 years ago.
"We now have a footprint across the state of Missouri," President Donald Claycomb said. "This fall, for example, we had 91 percent of the counties represented in enrollment. We, typically, will have 80 percent, or more, of the counties."
But many Missourians also don't know what Linn State Technical College is, or where it's located.
"There were those who thought we were in Linn County, Missouri - Brookfield," Claycomb said.
But the 1995 state law that brought the Osage County school into the state's higher education system gave Linn Tech a statewide mandate.
"I don't know that there's (ever) been a downside to it," he said. "We are a separate entity, so to speak, as far as being a section in public higher education.
"And I think that has been to our advantage, to be our own section."
Unlike Missouri's community colleges, which split their funding with a local property tax base as well as state government funding, Linn State gets its public money only from the state - in addition to its income from tuition and fees, grants, gifts and private donations.
Lawmakers approved the change in the 2013 General Assembly, giving the school officials a year to make all the plans and changes needed to make the name-change official on Tuesday.
By Tuesday afternoon, Claycomb will have been president of the school for three of its four names: Linn Technical College, 1968-96, Linn State Technical College, 1996-2014 and State Technical College of Missouri, beginning July 1.
The only name Claycomb didn't work under was the first one - Linn Technical Junior College, 1961-68.
"With all the changes that have taken place here, one of the things that I'm most proud of," he said, "is that we have hung on to that philosophy from day one," that the school's purpose always has been to prepare its students for employment.
"This will be our fourth name, but we're still doing what was set out for us to do in 1961," Claycomb said.
Claycomb was hired in 1993, when the school still was owned by the Linn R-2 Public Schools district.
One of the R-2 board's goals when Claycomb first was hired, he recalled, "was to come up with a plan that would separate the college from the K-12 system."
Claycomb worked with a committee of about 17 people, including members appointed by the Linn school board, a Linn Tech graduate, teachers and staff.
"They had people who came in and visited with them" about the project, he recalled, including then-Higher Education Commissioner Charles McClain and Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Bob Bartman.
"Both of those individuals came and spoke the same night, and both were supportive of a change being made," Claycomb said.
The committee considered a number of options, including staying as part of the Linn Schools, becoming a branch of an existing Missouri college, going private and seeking state status.
"The people on that task force were very much in favor of seeking state status," Claycomb said.
Working with area leaders, including then-state Rep. Joe Clay Crum, D-Vienna, and then Sen. Mike Lybyer, D-Houston, the school asked the Legislature to approve the ownership change - a request that was granted on the last day of the 1995 session, to be effective July 1, 1996.
After lawmakers approved the plan, Claycomb was hired by the college's first board of Regents to be the new president - even as he was finishing his duties with the local school board as the "old" president.
Claycomb said the school began with the vision of Thurman Willett, then superintendent of the Linn Public Schools.
Unlike the vocational-technical schools that were beginning to be formed by a number of Missouri public school districts, with an emphasis on technical education for high school students, Linn Tech always was focused on teaching skills to adults - those who had completed high school.
The technical college began began in the basement of the high school building, and - with the help of a landowner willing to sell part of the property each year over a half-decade - eventually began moving to its current, 250-acre site just east of Linn.
Becoming a state school "was the best thing that ever happened to this institution," Board of Regents president John Klebba said.
Tuesday's ceremonies begin at 9:30 a.m. in he ITC Building Rotunda, with several speakers planned.
At 10 a.m., those attending will walk to the school's entrance on U.S. 50.
"We're going to have some equipment set up on display around the entrance," Claycomb noted, "and, on one of our large trucks, one of the symbolic things we're going to do is to peel off the word "Linn' off the truck and then it will say, "State Technical College of Missouri.'
"And then we'll unveil the new sign."
In addition to the new name and a new logo, the State Technical College of Missouri will have a new website: www.statetechmo.edu.