The “Big Ten” meeting rooms in Norris University Center will have new names beginning Nov. 30, according to a press release.

The spaces will be named the Alumni Room, Arch Room, Rock Room, Armadillo Room, Lake Room, Scholars Room, 1851 Room, Wildcat Room, Evans Room, Chicago Room, Big Ten Room and Casbah Room.

The names will replace the current scheme, in which rooms are named after Big Ten schools. The change is “in order to promote the Northwestern culture better within the walls of the University Center,” according to the press release from the Norris Marketing Office.

Last spring, the Marketing Office brainstormed with students on changes to Norris, which led to the idea of new names. The Norris Center Advisory Board, which consists of students and administrators, voted for the new names and forwarded the proposal to senior NU administrators, who also approved.

The names are historically significant to NU: “1851” is the year NU was founded, “Casbah” is the name of a now-defunct restaurant in Evanston as well as an e-mail server and “Armadillo” refers to the original name for Dillo Day.

But students said there were areas of the NU community that were ignored, such as sports. Also, rooms that share names with campus locations, such as the Arch Room and the Rock Room, may confuse students, they said.

Weinberg senior Jayne Kenney said the change was confusing because it was happening midway through the school year. The change might appeal to prospective students who would otherwise visit Norris and see rooms named after rival schools, but it made the NU community more “insular,” she said.

Communication junior Jessica Sher also said she disagreed with the new names.

“They clearly polled the wrong people,” she said.

But the competition between Big Ten schools may have provided ample cause for the change, she said.

– Nitesh Srivastava