Anyone with a Long Beach City College “Pacific Coast Campus” T-shirt could have a collector’s item on their hands.

The college’s board of trustees voted 4-1 Wednesday to change its name to the LBCC Trade Tech and Community Learning Campus.

The former Pacific Coast Campus at Pacific Coast Highway and Orange Avenue opened in 1949 and hosts many of LBCC’s trade courses like automotive repair, welding and construction courses.

At their meeting, board members said that the Pacific Coast Campus monicker, often shortened to PCC, did not accurately represent what was offered there. One member said it could be confused for Pasadena City College.

Board President Vivian Malauulu said the name change could help boost enrollment, especially among people looking for trade classes.

“I know for a fact that there are people in our community that take public transportation to get to LA Trade Tech to take classes at LA Trade Tech that they don’t know we teach here,” she said.

According to data from the college, enrollment at the PCC campus has declined over the past few years with the pre-pandemic headcount of students at the campus dropping from 14,372 in 2019 to just 9,233 in 2024.

Last year, LBCC hired a consultant who surveyed students about potentially changing the name.

Survey results presented to the board showed there was support for the name change with 45% of the 1,474 people who completed the survey saying they were “very supportive” of a rebrand.

Just 9% of respondents were not supportive of a change, according to data presented to the board by GradComm, the firm hired by the college.

Comments collected by GradComm said that the change could bring the campus onto a more equal footing with the district’s East Long Beach location, which already has a unique branding as the Liberal Arts Campus.

“I always felt it was a missed opportunity to name the campus after a street, with its vast resources and offerings,” one person wrote.

Terms like “Career Education” (48%), “Technology” (46%), “Technical” (42%) and “Trades” (43%) all polled the highest among people who took the survey as possible ways to identify the campus.

The board’s vote Wednesday was between two options; “LBCC Trades and Community Learning Campus” or “LBCC Trade Tech Campus.”

Some board members fought to include the word “community” in the title and ultimately opted to merge the two options.

“This is a decision that we’re making that will be here a decade or two or three from now. The priority needs to still be the community,” said Trustee Herlinda Chico.

College officials are hoping to complete the rebranding later this year when the district celebrates the 75th anniversary of the campus on Pacific Coast Highway. It’s unclear how much the rebranding could cost the college.

LBCC spokesperson Stacey Toda said in an email Monday that the expected cost of replacing signage at the campus is about $6,500.

LBCC was originally established in 1927 as a Long Beach Junior College at the site of what is now Woodrow Wilson High School. The campus on PCH originally opened in 1949 as the LBCC Business and Technology Division.