Wiley College, an HBCU in Marshall, Texas, announced Friday (Nov. 3) at a 2023 Homecoming event that the institution will be renamed Wiley University, station KYTX reports.

“Becoming Wiley University is not simply an exercise and a name change; it is an exercise in our ability to embrace our past and see the future,” Wiley University President and CEO Dr. Herman J. Felton Jr., said at the event dubbed “Returning to Our Roots.”

The rebranding returns Wiley to the original name at its founding in 1873, the Marshall News Messenger reports.

At the ceremony, Wiley also announced adding three master’s degree programs in business administration, criminal justice and higher education administration, station KSLA reports.

“We’ve been preparing for this since our sesquicentennial, and it’s an opportunity for us to look to the future with the name change as a signal of the institutional offerings, such as the graduate programs that are our new additions, and then to also uplift our continued commitment to excellence,” Tashia Bradley, Wiley’s chief operating officer, said.

Wiley is best known for the film The Great Debaters, about the school’s 1935 debate team that defeated the defending national champions from the University of Southern California in a nationally broadcast competition.