R-MWC has long been confused with the Ashland campus because of the closeness in names, apparently still a point of some befuddlement - Randolph-Macon College's president says it has gotten angry e-mails from R-MWC alumnae this week.

Suggestions for a new name include Rivermont College, after the land grant the campus was built on, or Macon College. If R-MWC chooses a name that is close to the Ashland campus' name, that could set the stage for a legal dispute, a University of Virginia law professor said.

R-MWC was founded in 1891 by then-president of the Ashland campus [William Waugh Smith] to provide a school for women. Current students will be able to choose whether their diplomas bear the school's old name or new name.