When students celebrated the official opening of their new school in a ribbon-cutting ceremony last week inside the Knight Block building, they also learned about the school’s new name: John Adams College.

School co-founder and faculty member Gordon Jones said Monday, the first day of class in the new building, that the new name would pay tribute to a founding father who he believes represents what the college wants to be.

“One of the purposes of a college is to remind the world of the importance of virtue and its role in good government, and John Adams probably personifies that about as well as anybody does,” Jones said.

Jones also believes that Adams is underrecognized in modern times compared with what he accomplished. He said there is one institution named John Adams University, though, “we’ve never been able to figure out what it is,” and that there was no John Adams College.

“Despite the fact – and it is a fact – that the Declaration of Independence would never have been passed in the form we have it, if it passed at all, without this man, he is one of the most overlooked of the founders while at the same time one of the most famous,” he said in a speech at the school’s opening ceremony Thursday.

“It is a crime. Our action today is a small remedy. But it is the best we can do for now, and we hope the exceptional quality of our students will, over time, add some weight to his side of the scales.”

John Adams College moved to Provo in hopes of attracting more students who want to experience classical liberal arts.

School co-founder Jennifer Jensen told the Daily Herald in a previous story the school has an enrollment of 25 with a goal of growing to 80 to 100 students. The college has a broader educational scope of history, philosophy, government and economics.

Jones said that the Murray location was missing nearby cultural and athletic events and joked that the only thing they were close to was the emergency room at Intermountain Hospital.

He thinks the move is a good change.

“If the students want to go to a cultural event, they just need to walk down the street a little bit,” he said. “If they want to go see a basketball game or a football game, it’s just within walking distance. It’s really a remarkable place. So we’re extremely happy about the move.”