for them to get a job. Southern was the last Adventist college in North America to retain "missionary" in its title. The others changed their names many years earlier.
In their official announcement of the name change, the Board of Trustees of Southern Missionary College explained that a shorter name would help popularize it. They also stated that, "The word 'Southern' has been associated with the College since its beginning—Southern Industrial School, Southern Training School, Southern Junior College, Southern Missionary College, and now Southern College."
=== Early 1980s controversy ===
Southern College found itself drawn into a wider church controversies involving Desmond Ford who was dismissed from ministry in the Adventist church in 1980, and Walter Rae, and Ronald Numbers' book, The Prophetess of Health. It began after a visit to the campus by a leading Bible scholar and theologian of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Edward Heppenstall, on his understanding of the church's "investigative judgment" teaching, …
