Earth-shattering news out of the faculty senate: The College of Communications is changing its name. It isn’t official yet, but the leading candidate to take its place is “College of Media Arts and Sciences.” But apparently another college at the University is not taking the decision well.

The drama apparently started when the Department of Speech Communication decided to rename itself “Department of Communications.” The campus powers-that-be then decreed that the University wasn’t big enough for a department and a college of communications. Like the Highlander, there can only be one.

But it doesn’t stop there. The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, parent unit of the department formerly known as speech communication, has expressed displeasure at the new proposed name because two colleges with “arts and sciences” in the title will be confusing to students. There is special concern about the acronyms, LAS and MAS, because ‘L’ and ‘M’ are right next to each other in the alphabet. That’s just way too close for comfort.

We’re not sure which is sadder, two colleges dueling over a name tag or neither talking to each other about it in the first place. Any reasonable mother would have sat the Department of Speech Communication in a corner and explained that you can’t just take something that belongs to someone else without their permission. Now that it appears the name change may backfire, there is no violin small enough to accompany the cries from the College of LAS.

These two colleges should not be acting as if the fate of the world hangs in the balance.

Instead of auditioning for parts in an adolescent melodrama no one will watch, officials at both colleges should be devoting their energies to improving the actual quality of the degrees they offer. It’s safe to say students probably care more about what job they can get after college than the name of the college they came from.

The message this university should be sending to students is one of unity, not of petty bickering. The longer the colleges of LAS and Communications continue to fight over this most meaningless of meaningless issues, the message it sends to students is that neither can get its act together. That will turn off more students to both colleges than any change in their stationery.

With every silly argument like this, the faculty senate looks more like a playground. It should be a place where its members fight to improve the conditions of campus buildings and against cuts in state funding. Instead, issues like Lincoln Hall and a failing “Inclusive Illinois” are neglected.

The name-calling over the name-calling should stop now. Otherwise each college deserves a time out.