With Elon merger, Queens University of Charlotte to get a new but familiar name

When it merges with central North Carolina’s Elon University, Queens University of Charlotte will have a new but familiar name, officials with the schools said on the year anniversary of the announced merger Wednesday.

Elon University | Queens College will be the name of the planned undergraduate academic unit of Elon University in Charlotte after the merger and required regulatory approvals, officials said. Elon is in the Alamance County town of Elon, west of Burlington and about 110 miles northeast of Charlotte.

After the merger, Queens will be part of Elon University, rather than a separate university, officials said. The schools’ Royals and Phoenix athletic programs will remain the same.

And the Queens College name “will carry forward the Queens name, residential experience, Royals tradition and deep relationship with Charlotte, while drawing on the reach and resources of the broader Elon University community,” Elon president Connie Ledoux Book said in announcing the names on the Queens campus in Myers Park.

Last September, Book told The Charlotte Observer: “We’re committed to having the Queens name as part of the new naming structure. We’ll have a more fulsome exercise with branding and getting community feedback, but Queens has a special place in the heart of the city because of its legacy there and its contributions to higher education, so we’ll want the new name to preserve that.”

The name Queens College will preserve the school’s legacy “as a living academic community – with students learning on this campus, faculty mentoring them, Royals competing and longstanding traditions continuing for generations to come,” Queens University of Charlotte acting president Jesse Cureton said in Wednesday’s statement.

In September 2025, the schools announced plans to merge that became official in June after the universities’ accrediting agency approved.

Some alumni told The Charlotte Observer at the time that they feared the Queens name would disappear. Not so, according to Wednesday’s announcement.

The Myers Park campus “will also remain an important home for graduate and professional education in areas including law, health sciences, counseling and business,” according to a joint statement by the schools. “The longer-term strategy and structure for individual programs are still being developed.”

In June, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges approved the substantive change for the merger. The first phase of shared services between the schools began this summer in admissions, facilities, human resources and career services, officials said.

A merger review by the U.S. Department of Education continues.

Regarding academics, Elon Law’s full-time Charlotte program plans to welcome its first Myer Park campus students in 2027. The university’s clinical mental health counseling master’s program has expanded to Charlotte, and Charlotte’s first graduate physician assistant program will welcome its inaugural class in January, officials said.

No program closures are being announced, and more academic and organizational decisions remain under development, officials said Wednesday.

“The institutions have committed to continuity for current students, who should continue pursuing their programs and degrees as planned,” according to Wednesday’s statement. “If there are decisions affecting specific programs or students, they will be communicated directly when they are finalized.”

This story was originally published September 23, 2026 at 4:03 PM with the headline “With Elon merger, Queens University of Charlotte to get a new but familiar name.”