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In response to a request by members at the annual business meeting in Chicago last month, the APA Board of Directors has authorized me to publish the tabulation of votes in last summer’s referendum concerning the change of the Association’s name. As members are aware, it has been the Association’s policy for almost two decades not to publish numerical tabulations when we report election results (although any individual member may request a tabulation from me). The Board is willing to make an exception in this case because no individual candidate is included in the results below.

The referendum question asked members to vote on the Board’s recommendation that the Association’s name be changed to the Society for Classical Studies provided that the new name was accompanied by the following subtitle: “Founded in 1869 as the American Philological Association”. In last summer’s election a total of 1,305 members cast a ballot on at least one slate. On the referendum question

603 voted to approve the new name
552 voted to disapprove the new name
137 checked the box to abstain
13 cast no vote at all

We are currently making good progress on selecting a new logo, and a planned redesign of the web site will include the implementation of a new URL. Once these fairly complicated tasks are accomplished, I will file the necessary documents with the State of Delaware (where we are incorporated) to make the new name official. We expect to complete this process before the end of this summer.

Adam D. Blistein
Executive Director