Will the real UDM please stand up?

[Titan Jim]

Turns out there is a Divine Mercy University in Arlington, Virginia. (OK, it's not really UDM, but DMU. But, that's OK, because I tend to be a little dyslexic.) The branding nightmare just keeps getting worse and worse!

[NC Titan]

Yeah, because Divine Mercy is in the headlines all the time. We are always getting mixed up with them.

[titanmac]

i think the u needs to revisit this. garibaldi needs to appoint a search committee of concerned impartial alumni to review the circumstances, hire a consultant and make recommendations to the president. i think a strong objective committee would be tacitus, titan mike, t buysse and....oh, i dunno....me! that ought to end this matter once and for all?

[NC Titan]

Yeah, let's beat this dead horse some more.

[Titan Jim]

OK, I posted this as a joke. You guys need to lighten up.

[upbasketballfan]

OK, I posted this as a joke. You guys need to lighten up.

OK, I posted this as a joke. You guys need to lighten up.

+2

[titanmike]

Yeah, let's beat this dead horse some more.

Dead? Well at least PETA wouldn't be on our case.

[ptctitan]

Does DMU have a College of Direct Messaging?

[titanmac]

hah! old friend. so long as uofd grads live, and maybe even longer, the dead horse will be beaten ‘til just maybe it arises from the ashes like pegasus! ( or was that a phoenix?) nevermind either way it aint goin anywhere....

[ExcitedTitan]

Will we go back to University of Detroit or move to a better conference first?

Even odds, both being 1 in 1,000,000,000.

[ptctitan]

The formal name of the university should remain University of Detroit Mercy.

When our teams play, they should use the name "Detroit." Not only is this the 100+ year old heritage of the institution at the main campus location where Mercy chose to relocate, but also it avoids confusion among those many people who do not live in metro Detroit area and are unfamiliar with the merger. A lot of those people think "Detroit Mercy" refers to the Mercy university located in Detroit instead of a combined entity consisting of the former University of Detroit and the former Mercy College of Detroit. The obstinate insistence to add Mercy to the athletic teams' names without a hyphen creates at least as much misinformation as the re-branding effort sought to correct.

I realize that the experts sought to rebrand the school name in the same way that Loyola of LA and Marymount were rebranded as Loyola Marymount and LMU after their merger. But Loyola is not the name of the city in which the university is located. Thus, the name itself, when seen in a sports section, does not cause other people to think that Marymount played Gonzaga and that Loyola has ceased to exist. If the smart people involved in this naming mess cannot see this issue, then, at least, insert a hyphen between Detroit and Mercy so that less people unfamiliar with the school do not continue to mistake the school as the Mercy university located in Detroit.

This is no different than the State of Rhode Island being called Rhode Island even though its formal name is the "State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations."

[Rogobob77]

FWIW, this is the official guidance on branding:

“As a reminder in application, on second reference, the University will be referred to as Detroit Mercy; the use of acronyms, including "UDM" or "DM," is not acceptable. Failure to properly use our brand guidelines dilutes the Detroit Mercy identity in the marketplace, creates confusion with prospective students, shows a lack of consistency in brand awareness throughout the institution and can lead to poor representation in media coverage.”

FWIW, at least two Twitter messages I received from the school in the last hour don’t adhere to this policy, and this is an everyday (pretty much every hour) occurrence.

[Commissioner]

If we would just merge with Providence College and move the campus out to the countryside, we could be the University of Detroit Mercy and Providence Plantations.

[Tacitus651]

Sadly, I don’t think the inconsistency or confusion will ever end. I personally don’t mind when the older alumni refer to us as U of D, especially on the message board. But, having new recruits tweet they are committed to “The University of Detroit” is very problematic. I don’t understand how some people fail to see how that hurts the branding of the university. Again, not tweeting about playing for the “Detroit Titans” - that might be a mistake that could be understood given the recent rebrand of athletics.

As Rogo has posted, the University is still committed to the rebrand and calls for consistency while still making its own share of rebrand fails. We missed a golden opportunity in NOT going back to UD two years ago. It seems only fair to me that if some alumni (mostly older ones) can insist on calling us UD, that others can point out the continuous fail of the rebrand and push to actually change the name back.

[ptctitan]

Good one Commissioner.

tacitus - as an older alumnus, I get angry when someone tells me, "Sorry to hear that your college closed." Because they see Detroit Mercy in the sports scores.

[DetroitBASKETBALL]

Good one Commissioner.

tacitus - as an older alumnus, I get angry when someone tells me, "Sorry to hear that your college closed." Because they see Detroit Mercy in the sports scores.

There will always be confusion Missouri State University, Montana State University, Michigan State University, Mississipi State University, Moscow State University.

MSU doesn't support athletics (Moscow State University)
MSU lost to South Dakota State last year in football ( Montana State University)

Yeah we are only one with naming issues, every school has issues, we just have a much bigger hurdle to overcome and if enough people continue to refer to us as UofD maybe we will go back, or maybe in some distant future not many alums from UofD and Mercy College are around and students call us UDM, Detroit Mercy or something else and the school has some opportunity to change that or keep the branding. At the end of the day it would be a slap in the face to the administrators and alums that graduated from Mercy College to wipe away their history, because the merger negotiations indicated it was supposed to be an equal institution supported both by Sisters of Mercy and Jesuits.

[Tacitus651]

Honest question for you guys, how many signatures would a change.org petition (addressed to Unuversity Trustees) asking to go back to UD get?

[titanmike]

The formal name of the university should remain University of Detroit Mercy.

When our teams play, they should use the name "Detroit." Not only is this the 100+ year old heritage of the institution at the main campus location where Mercy chose to relocate, but also it avoids confusion among those many people who do not live in metro Detroit area and are unfamiliar with the merger. A lot of those people think "Detroit Mercy" refers to the Mercy university located in Detroit instead of a combined entity consisting of the former University of Detroit and the former Mercy College of Detroit. The obstinate insistence to add Mercy to the athletic teams' names without a hyphen creates at least as much misinformation as the re-branding effort sought to correct.

I realize that the experts sought to rebrand the school name in the same way that Loyola of LA and Marymount were rebranded as Loyola Marymount and LMU after their merger. But Loyola is not the name of the city in which the university is located. Thus, the name itself, when seen in a sports section, does not cause other people to think that Marymount played Gonzaga and that Loyola has ceased to exist. If the smart people involved in this naming mess cannot see this issue, then, at least, insert a hyphen between Detroit and Mercy so that less people unfamiliar with the school do not continue to mistake the school as the Mercy university located in Detroit.

This is no different than the State of Rhode Island being called Rhode Island even though its formal name is the "State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations."

No

[titanmike]

Good one Commissioner.

tacitus - as an older alumnus, I get angry when someone tells me, "Sorry to hear that your college closed." Because they see Detroit Mercy in the sports scores.

There will always be confusion Missouri State University, Montana State University, Michigan State University, Mississipi State University, Moscow State University.

MSU doesn't support athletics (Moscow State University)
MSU lost to South Dakota State last year in football ( Montana State University)

Yeah we are only one with naming issues, every school has issues, we just have a much bigger hurdle to overcome and if enough people continue to refer to us as UofD maybe we will go back, or maybe in some distant future not many alums from UofD and Mercy College are around and students call us UDM, Detroit Mercy or something else and the school has some opportunity to change that or keep the branding. At the end of the day it would be a slap in the face to the administrators and alums that graduated from Mercy College to wipe away their history, because the merger negotiations indicated it was supposed to be an equal institution supported both by Sisters of Mercy and Jesuits.

Slap in the face to Detroit Mercy grads? I don't think so. Is it a slap in the face of Mercy Grads to have Detroit in the name? If I were a betting man and a poll was taken of graduates of the three schools, University of Detroit/University of Detroit Mercy, Mercy...we all know who the winner would be.

[77-85Titan]

Good one Commissioner.

tacitus - as an older alumnus, I get angry when someone tells me, "Sorry to hear that your college closed." Because they see Detroit Mercy in the sports scores.

There will always be confusion Missouri State University, Montana State University, Michigan State University, Mississipi State University, Moscow State University.

MSU doesn't support athletics (Moscow State University)
MSU lost to South Dakota State last year in football ( Montana State University)

Yeah we are only one with naming issues, every school has issues, we just have a much bigger hurdle to overcome and if enough people continue to refer to us as UofD maybe we will go back, or maybe in some distant future not many alums from UofD and Mercy College are around and students call us UDM, Detroit Mercy or something else and the school has some opportunity to change that or keep the branding. At the end of the day it would be a slap in the face to the administrators and alums that graduated from Mercy College to wipe away their history, because the merger negotiations indicated it was supposed to be an equal institution supported both by Sisters of Mercy and Jesuits.

Slap in the face to Detroit Mercy grads? I don't think so. Is it a slap in the face of Mercy Grads to have Detroit in the name? If I were a betting man and a poll was taken of graduates of the three schools, University of Detroit/University of Detroit Mercy, Mercy...we all know who the winner would be.

And TitanMike drops the microphone and walks off stage to end this debate once and for all...........