(Photo courtesy of LDSBC)
SALT LAKE CITY — The LDS Business College announced a name change on Tuesday. The change, to Ensign College, is an effort to reflect the call of church leaders to use the correct name of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The change is effective on September 1, 2020. It was announced during the school’s weekly devotional on Temple Square on Tuesday morning.
“This name change will be a catalyst for re-introducing the college and all that it offers,” said Elder Paul V. Johnson, commissioner of Church Education.
Elder Johnson said the new name was inspired by Ensign Peak, where church President Brigham Young announced that the Salt Lake Valley was where the Latter-day Saint Pioneers would settle.
This most recent renaming comes as the church goes about fulfilling church president Russel M. Nelson’s call to stop using nicknames and abbreviations like LDS or Mormon.
In the October 2018 general conference of the church President Nelson said, “The name of the Church is not negotiable. When the Savior clearly states what the name of His Church should be, and even precedes His declaration with, ‘Thus shall my church be called,’ He is serious. And if we allow nicknames to be used and adopt or even sponsor those nicknames ourselves, He is offended.”
This name change will be the fifth for the school.
The school was originally called the Salt Lake Stake Academy when it opened in 1886, it later became LDS College in 1890 and then LDS University in 1921. The name reverted to LDS College in 1927.
The last change came in 1931 when the school was named LDS Business College.
Also announced was the plan for the school to begin offering a limited number of bachelor degrees beginning fall 2021.