Economic challenges may propel more changes for Mississippi University for Women than a new name, key legislators suggest.

“We’re going to have a math problem,” said Sen. Doug Davis, R-Hernando, chairman of his chamber’s Universities and Colleges Committee, looking ahead to the state’s budget for Fiscal Year 2011.

State revenues are down 12 percent, or $124 million, since the current fiscal year began four months ago. FY 2011 begins July 2010.

In that context, Davis expects MUW in Columbus to get a thorough examination along with the state’s other public universities, community and junior colleges and K-12 education systems.

“Will MUW close? It’s way too early to discuss that,” said Davis.

Tuesday, Rep. George Flaggs Jr., D-Vicksburg, a member of the Appropriations Committee, told a gathering of elected officials and opinion-shapers that the economic crisis has put many sacred cows on the discussion table.

One likely topic is education at all levels, including the touchy subject of public school consolidation, he said.

“We should ask, ‘Is it feasible to sustain 152 districts or have 82 districts – just one in every county?’” suggested Flaggs.

Thursday, Flaggs said that approach translates to the state’s eight public universities, with a special look at its smallest, 125-year-old MUW, which has 2,500 students.

“We cannot afford to have a major university having less students, on a good day, than a community college.”

By comparison, fall enrollment at Itawamba Community College is 7,771; at Northeast CC, it’s 3,673.

MUW has other factors that could affect its future:

- MUW President Dr. Claudia Limbert, who has announced she will retire in June, has drawn fire almost since she arrived on coed campus in June 2002. The latest point of contention has been her recommendation to change the school’s name to Reneau University, in honor of a 19th century advocate for Mississippi women’s higher education, to market to a more diverse student body.

Rep. Mac Huddleston of Pontotoc expects disaffected MUW alumnae to fight the Reneau name change and to offer their own “new name” for their school – “The W.”

The state College Board must approve any change; after that, it’s the Legislature’s decision.

- Mississippi State University is just 25 miles away with a new president, who aims to expand MSU enrollment to 22,000 within six years.

Huddleston noted he’s been privy to talks about consolidating some university administrative functions across the state. MUW and MSU could share top management leadership, he suggested.

“We could save hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions” across the system with that strategy, he said.

Privately, some legislators ask how long the largest universities – MSU, University of Mississippi, University of Southern Mississippi and Jackson State University – can, in effect, “subsidize” smaller universities like MUW.

“Ole Miss and State have foundations doing everything to keep their ships afloat” after state funding cuts, said Huddleston, a member of the House Universities and Colleges committee.

He says he’s not so sure how much private support schools like MUW, Alcorn State, Delta State and Mississippi Valley State have to fall back on.

Capitol observers expect every agency budget will be trimmed as lawmakers try to deal with mounting tax losses during the nation’s deepest recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Education – K-12 through universities – traditionally receives about 63 percent of the state’s general fund budget.

“Is it logical to believe you can appropriate the same percent of the budget and still get the same service?” Davis said.

For universities, Flaggs said, “I’m told that if you take the four smallest schools’ budgets” and give them to the other four universities, “we’re still $80 million short” of their current funding.