“Maryland,” “The University of Maryland, College Park,” “UM,” “UMD” — the list goes on, but these are all names by which this university is known. With so many monikers, it begs the question, “How does one refer to this university?”
“Being from out of state I usually say ‘Maryland’ because as a respectable state school, people understand what I mean,” freshman architecture major Bridget Maley said.
For years this university has flip-flopped between the abbreviations “UM” and “UMD,” but all it took was a June Diamondback column to get administrators to decide on one official nickname: “UMD.”
“Even we in the Office of Marketing and Communications have been uneven in its application,” university spokesman Millree Williams wrote in an email. “The recent DBK opinion piece, among other references to the confusion created by ‘UM’ — especially in national media — only added a sense of urgency.”
And while students, staff and the media may still use “Maryland,” “University of Maryland,” and “The University of Maryland, College Park” interchangeably, having an official abbreviation puts this university one step closer to securing its identity.
Several students said the most important change that comes with using “UMD” is setting this university apart from the pack of schools that go by “UM.”
“There are a lot of states that start with M, so having UMD is easy to recognize as Maryland” freshman government and politics major Jasmine Jones said.
And now that administrators and public relations officials are all on the same page, Williams said such mix-ups are problems of the past.
“We believe that it will help us take a closer step toward distinguishing the University of Maryland, College Park from the myriad of other UMs out there,” he said.
— Rhiannon Walker
