TUCSON — For years, it was hard to understand why the brain trust at the University of Arizona tried to sell the “UA” brand when most people knew it as the U of A.
On Monday, the University of Arizona announced that the brain trust must have finally noticed that when you search Google using the search term “UA,” Under Armour and United Airlines are higher on the page than the University of Arizona.
In a press release, University of Arizona flak, Pam Scott, advised:
We are changing how we refer to the University of Arizona in headlines and on second reference. We are adopting the use of UArizona to distinguish the University of Arizona from several other national and international entities that use the abbreviation UA, which will assist us with search engine optimization (SEO).
We will begin making the change in our news releases this week. We hope you will consider adopting this change in order to improve your SEO, as well.
The University was wise to finally dump the “UA” brand, but the change raises some questions. Why did it take so long? How much will be spent on rebranding? Would the time spent on rebranding be better spent on providing a better education for students? Is the UArizona brain trust even remotely interested in providing a better education for students? Will the name change impact the perpetually rising tuition costs in any way at all?
So many questions.