By Maggie Samole / Staff writer

Students who arrived on campus last week may find themselves at a different school than they thought they’d be at. Instead of attending UPG, they will be attending Pitt-Greensburg.

In an Aug. 2 letter to all faculty, staff and students, newly installed President Sharon Smith outlined her visions for the campus. One point of emphasis is the branding of the campus as “Pitt-Greensburg” rather than “UPG.”

According to Smith’s letter, adopting Pitt-Greensburg as the campus’s brand would “capture the essence” of the school, while allowing the campus to benefit from its affiliation with the University of Pittsburgh. Smith’s letter acknowledged that the UPG acronym is convenient for the campus community to use, but has no significance to those outside the limited confines of the campus.

SGA president Aaron Slafka echoed Smith’s sentiments regarding the name change. Slafka said the use of Pitt-Greensburg gives the school more of an identity of its own.

“The use of Pitt-Greensburg is more identifiable,” Slafka said. “UPG is kind of like those stickers on cars that you see…‘OBX’, things like that. A lot of people have no idea what it means and are, like, ‘What is that?’”

This re-branding of the campus as Pitt-Greensburg will affect not only how those on campus refer to the school, but also the university Web site, the campus bookstore and the athletic department.

UPG’s new web administrator, Jesse Wallak, already has experienced some of the re-branding since he started at the campus on June 4. Although he hasn’t been told to hunt through the Web site and change all UPG references to Pitt-Greensburg, he said that as he comes across them, he changes them to reflect the favored reference.

“When somebody on campus asks me to create or update a site and it has UPG on it, I’ll automatically change it to Pitt-Greensburg,” Wallak said. “In the formal setting Pitt-Greensburg sounds better and is cleaner.”

The campus bookstore also is likely to be affected by the preference of Pitt-Greensburg over the UPG acronym. But bookstore manager John Comerford hasn’t yet made a decision about discontinuing UPG apparel and merchandise in favor of Pitt-Greensburg emblazoned merchandise.

“The note came so close to the beginning of the term,” Comerford said. “I already placed orders at that point.”

Currently, the bookstore has both UPG and Pitt-Greensburg merchandise in stock. However, Comerford said he will not place another order for merchandise until a meeting can be held with university officials to determine a specific course of action.

Bobcat athletes and the campus athletic department also must take the re-branding into account. Athletic director Dick Hack agrees with the change.

“Only internal Pitt students understand what UPG means,” Hack said. “We want to be affiliated with Pitt, but with our own identity. We’re not so nationally known that we can get by with just initials.”

Hack said there probably will be a gradual phasing out of UPG-related references within the athletic department. Hack also noted that athletic teams wishing to continue with UPG references on athlete purchased apparel, such as sweatshirts and T-shirts, could continue to do so with approval.

“Athletic directors must semi-approve such things,” Hack said. “I wouldn’t be upset if a team wanted UPG on something. There needs to be some latitude in that area.”