Alma mater

The previous post discusses Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative of Alabama.

Stevenson is, like me, a graduate of Eastern College in St. Davids, Pa. (So too is Doug Davidson, formerly of The Other Side magazine, whose interview with Stevenson I noted.)

We Eastern College grads now face a dilemma. A couple of years ago, our alma mater changed its name and its accreditation — it's now Eastern University. The new university includes not only the liberal arts school in St. Davids where I received my bachelor's degrees, but also the Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary, on City Line Avenue, which was a separate institution when I graduated from its MATS program.

The dilemma is this: what do I put on my resume? "Eastern University" seems wrong, because that's not where I attended. Yet "Eastern College" doesn't actually exist anymore.

I'd like to be able to say I have a master's degree from "Eastern University," thus avoiding the apparently frightening, resume-killing term "seminary." Prospective employers read that and assume one is a religious nut, both ordained and celibate. (I am not ordained. My celibacy is a hopefully temporary matter of unfortunate circumstance, not of taking vows.)

In any case, the new name — "Eastern University" — has the same disturbingly generic quality as "Eastern College." It sounds like something invented by a hasty screenwriter. ("Eastern what?" prospective employers tend to ask. Telling them "Just 'Eastern,'" doesn't enhance the prestige of my educational background.)

I'm sure there's someone at my alma mater who could tell me what the protocol is for pre-"University" graduates, but I'd like to keep that as a last resort. (More contact with the alumni office seems to entail more requests for money.)

Any suggestions?