Metropolitan State College of Denver trustees today voted to postpone plans to rename the school Denver State University.

The unanimous vote came in response to claims by the University of Denver that the switch could create confusion and muddy the private school’s long-standing brand identity.

Legislation that would have allowed Metro and Mesa State in Grand Junction to change their names was to be introduced by Sen. Michael Johnston next week. The trustees have decided to delay that introduction until the 2012 legislative session.

Metro State President Stephen Jordan said this experience is not atypical of what he regularly experiences at the capitol.

“It’s not just about the name change. It’s about the extent to which this institution serves this community” but it does not get the same level of support as other institutions, Jordan said in a news release.

It’s important for the public to know that “the alumni, faculty and students are unified in this motion,” said Board Chair Robert Cohen, who said he was proud of the efforts students and alumni had put forth at the capitol and in the community in advocating Denver State University as the new name.

In a letter this week to the Colorado legislature — which must authorize the name change — DU attorneys said university officials “strongly oppose” Metro State becoming Denver State.

“The change would interfere with Denver University’s essential communication with its many constituents,” chancellor Robert Coombe wrote to lawmakers Monday.

“It would encroach on Denver University’s established identity, built over 147 years,” Coombe said, and he urged lawmakers not to pass a bill authorizing the change.

This afternoon, Jordan will deliver two resolutions to a Senate confirmation hearing. The first resolution will officially withdraw plans for the strategic name change initiative from the 2011 legislative session. It will also inform the legislature of Metro’s next steps, including convening a legislative committee of the board to further research the initiative for 2012 legislative session.

The second, “A Resolution of the Board of Trustees of Metropolitan State College of Denver in Support of its Students, Alumni, Faculty, Staff and Stakeholders,” will highlight Metro State’s role in the Denver metropolitan area, noting that, with more than 24,000 students and nearly 69,000 alumni, Metro State is Colorado’s leader in educating undergraduate Coloradans and that it enrolls the highest number of students of color among four-year colleges in the state.

Metro State’s board of trustees approved the name change March 9, after more than a year of study that included town-

hall meetings, an electronic survey of students and others, and input from a consulting firm.

DU contends it first alerted Metro State in February that it had a problem with Denver State, one of three new names the school was considering. The other choices were Metropolitan State University of Denver and University of Central Colorado.

But meetings between Coombe and Jordan and others soon escalated into increasingly pointed letters and e-mails between the two institutions.

DU spokesman Jim Berscheidt said DU officials don’t object to Metro State changing its name. It’s just the Denver State name they don’t care for, because they believe it could create confusion.

“We have not seen any marketing research” to indicate whether the Denver State name would or would not create confusion with the University of Denver, Berscheidt said.

If Metro State is determined to go ahead with the name, DU would like the opportunity to do such research, he said.

To illustrate their point about potential confusion, DU officials contacted other colleges that share similar names with other institutions.

In one letter to Metro State trustees, DU officials pointed out that when the University of San Diego’s men’s soccer team reached the NCAA final four soccer tournament, it received a trophy engraved with “San Diego State University.”

The similarity could be particularly confusing to potential out-of-state students, Berscheidt said.