Penn or UPenn

Colleges & Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
1

<p>Is it true that calling the university UPenn is offensive?</p>

2

<p>Sort of! It’s just Penn! In 2002, the President of the University started the marketing pitch for the University as “Penn: University of Pennsylvania”. So, UPenn is not so much offensive as it is showing you are unaware of the culture of the school. </p>

<p>I’m ashamed to even have suggested in the past on this forum that they are both ok. 100% use Penn over UPenn.</p>

3

<p>I HATE when it’s called UPenn. All I can think of is CC people when I hear it, and that hella bothers me.</p>

4

<p>interesting, i didn’t realize it was even a concern. glad to know now!!</p>

5

<p><a href=“https://secure.www.upenn.edu/secretary/nameuse.html[/url]”>https://secure.www.upenn.edu/secretary/nameuse.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>The only two official names for the school are University of Pennsylvania and Penn, according to the university itself.</p>

<p>This confuses me a bit, because the school is officially trying to mandate what the “nickname” of the school should be. From what I understand, the University was incorporated as the “University of Pennsylvania,” so the use of “Penn” is a nickname or shortened moniker for the school. I think historically, the name “Penn” was used in athletic competitions, and U of P or UPenn were used less. </p>

<p>Nevertheless, promoting the name “Penn” is akin to the University of Southern California, another private school, trying to promote its nickname as “Southern Cal” or the University of Rochester (another private school) calling itself “Roch.”</p>

<p>I’m not sure why Penn tries to promote an “official” nickname. Other schools with comparable names, such as USC or U of R have created no such monikers, or stick so aggressively to one rather than another. </p>

<p>All this being said, I generally try to respect the Penn name but adapt based on where I am. In Philadelphia, pretty much everyone call it Penn (though I’ve heard some old timers call it “Univ of Penn”), but in Western PA or in the midwest, where Penn State football is known far and wide, I’d tend to say UPenn just to avoid the confusion.</p>

6

<p>U.pENN</p>

<p>^ Official CC name.</p>

7

<p>When I speak of it, I call it Penn, leading to assumptions that I am referring to Penn State.</p>