Wait! What Happened To WITC in Superior?

We were driving by WITC in Superior the other day when I noticed a different name on posters by the campus. I asked my wife next to me, "What happened to WITC?" Is this a new technical college or ownership? It's no longer called Wisconsin Indianhead Technical College. It's now Northwood Technical College. What's behind the change?

I figured maybe they felt the need to remove the Indianhead portion of their name because of diversity and changes that have been happening nationwide. The answer is that's part of the reason but not the entire reason. It has to do a lot with the name just being outdated. WITC has now rebranded and changed their name to Northwood Technical College. They've also adopted a mascot for the school, where they previously hadn't had one. Blaze the Bear is now the mascot and part of the logo. They picked the bear to represent the grit and resilence of the student body. "Blaze" is short for trailblazer which represents the innovative technology the college embraces and teaches.

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The rebranding of the college was decided after doing a survey of community members, students, alumni, and others. They found that the term Indianhead was no longer recognized as a geographic region especially among younger people. There also was confusion on what WITC stood for and if it was even a college.  Some prospective students thought that it was just a tribal only college. The rebranding according to their website will better identify and represent the college.

So now instead of saying WITC when referring to the campus, staff and students call it Northwoods Tech for short.