abbreviations/acronyms

The full, official name of a company, association or organization should be used on first reference. On second reference, an abbreviation or acronym may be used.

Example: An official from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) spoke on campus today. Tom Smith, the GAO communications liaison, addressed business classes throughout the morning.

The exception to this rule would be if the abbreviation is well known enough to the audience (i.e. UNO, UNL, IRS, USA, etc…)

academic departments/majors

Capitalize the names of all of colleges and departments when using the proper name.

Examples: Department of History, College of Arts and Sciences

academic titles

See AP Stylebook for news writing.

Capitalize formal titles used directly before an individual's name. Lower case all titles if they fall after the person's name.

Example: John Christensen, chancellor, attended a luncheon. Chancellor John Christensen spoke today . . . .
or
Loree Bykerk, chair of the Department of Political Science, gave a presentation . . . .

African American

No hyphen is used for either the noun or the adjective. Both African American and black are acceptable although they are not always interchangeable.

Examples: African American students, African Americans

alumni

singular vs. plural:
One man is an alumnus.
One woman is an alumna.
Several men or women, or a group of men and women, are alumni.

ampersands

In printed publications, do not substitute an ampersand (&) for the word and unless referring to an official name that contains an ampersand.

Example: College of Public Affairs and Community Service

Asian American

No hyphen is used for either the noun or the adjective.

Examples: Asian American students, Asian Americans

assistant, associate

Do not abbreviate. Capitalize only when part of a formal title before a name. Assistant and associate as relating to academic titles are not interchangeable.

bachelor's degree

Note apostrophe and lower case.

Board of Regents

The governing body of the University of Nebraska central system/administration. The board consists of eight members elected by districts and a student representative from each of the university's four campuses.

The board's official name is the University of Nebraska Board of Regents. Acceptable on second reference: the regents. Current members can be found at http://www.nebraska.edu/board/board-members.html

Campus building names and abbreviations:

Allwine Hall (AH)
Arts and Sciences Hall (ASH)
Central Utilities Plant (CUP)
College of Public Affairs and Community Service Building (CB)
Criss Library (second reference – library)
Durham Science Center (DSC)
Eppley Administration Building (EAB)
Health, Physical Education and Recreation (HPER)
Kayser Hal (KH)
Mammel Hall (MH)
Mav Village (no abbreviation, always Mav Village)
Milo Bail Student Center (MBSC)
Peter Kiewit Conference Center (PKCC)
Peter Kiewit Institute (PKI)
Roskens Hall (RH)
Sapp Fieldhouse (FH)
Scott Hall (no abbreviation, always Scott Hall)
Scott Village (no abbreviation, always Scott Village)
Strauss Performing Arts Center (PAC)
University Drive East Parking Structure
University Village (no abbreviation, always University Village)
Weber Fine Arts Building (WFAB)
Welcome Center
William H. and Dorothy Thompson Alumni Center (second reference – Thompson Alumni Center or Alumni Center.)

campus

Lowercase in general references.

campus (location) names

UNO is one university with three campuses. They are Center Campus, Dodge Campus and Pacific Campus.

chair

Chair is used instead of chairman or chairwoman in academic references.

colleges at UNO (with common abbreviations)
College of Arts and Sciences (CAS)
College of Business Administration (CBA)
College of Communication, Fine Arts and Media (CFAM)
College of Education (COE)
College of Information Science and Technology (IS&T)
College of Public Affairs and Community Service (CPACS)

Commencement

Use a capital C when referring to the event.

composition titles

Composition titles should be in either italics or quotation marks; be consistent in using one or the other. In general, when it's technically difficult to put words in italics use quotation marks.

Put these composition titles in italics: names of books, newspapers, magazines, movies, television series, paintings, works of art, records/albums/CDs, photographs, theater productions, legal cases, music movements.

Put these composition titles in quotations: titles of poems, songs, presentations, talks, lectures, speeches, lectures, television episodes, short stories, chapters in books and articles in magazines.

doctoral/doctorate

Doctorate is a noun; doctoral is the adjective: A person may have a doctorate, or a doctoral degree, but not a doctorate degree.

dorms/dormitories

Avoid these terms. UNO prefers "student housing."

Dr.

Avoid use of the honorific title Dr. in reference to an academic who has earned a doctorate, unless it's in a direct quote. Dr. may be used in reference to a medical doctor. Use "Ph.D." after the name instead:

Example: John Doe, Ph.D., gave a speech today on the effects of coffee on sleep cycles.

Email

UNO's email handle is @unomaha.edu, while @mail.unomaha.edu is still an acceptable address, please use @unomaha.edu for simplicity. Always provide full email addresses.

eNotes

The internal campus newsletter, distributed online. Lowercase "e" followed by uppercase "Notes," can be found at: http://www.unomaha.edu/enotes/

Facebook

Proper name, online social media outlet that has personal, group and organizational "pages" - capitalize when referring to your, or UNO's pages:

Example: "Visit the UNO Facebook page"

Facebook Pages

Facebook pages with UNO sponsorship should be indicated with a UNO or University of Nebraska at Omaha (if there is room) either at the beginning or at the end. Do NOT list a page as UN-O, University of Nebraska Omaha, or University of Nebraska-Omaha

Examples: UNO Campus Recreation, Campus Recreation (UNO), or University of Nebraska at Omaha Department of Theatre.

foursquare

Proper name, online social media outlet that allows you to "check in" to locations - capitalize when referring to UNO's presence on foursquare.

Example: "Check in to the Eppley Administration Building on foursquare"

The Gateway

The UNO student newspaper.

Hispanic

Capitalize this term. Latina (feminine) and Latino (masculine) are also acceptable.

Latina, Latino

These terms are considered to be English and are therefore not italicized as foreign words. Hispanic (italicized here because the term is being discussed) is also acceptable.

Logo

Links to and guideline for the UNO icon and Athletic Department logos can be found at http://www.unomaha.edu/news/logos/. Campus logos cannot be used without permission and should not be stretched or altered in any way.

master's degree

Note apostrophe and lower case.

Mavericks

The mascot of the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Mavericks can be shortened to Mavs.

Mavchannel

A collection of UNO-related media on the unomaha.edu website at http://www.unomaha.edu/mavchannel/.

Native American

Note that this term is not hyphenated. In many cases, the tribal affiliation is the most appropriate term.

online

Not on-line.

part time

Hyphenate as an adjective before the noun; otherwise, leave as two words.

Example: Lisa is a part-time student. OR: Lisa attends classes part time.

phone numbers

Use parentheses around the area code and a period to separate the groups of numbers

Example: (402) 554.5544

professor

Use the generic term when referring to a faculty member. Check ranks carefully when updating lists. Faculty members are promoted from assistant professor to associate professor and then to professor (sometimes referred to as full professor, but never listed as such).

Room numbers

Number first followed by building. Do not use the word room.

Ex: 203 Health, Physical Education and Recreation or 203 HPER.

Room names for MBSC

Fireplace Lounge
Aksarben Room
Ballroom
Board Room
Chancellor's Room
Nebraska Room
Council Room
Crimson Room
Dodge Room A & B
Gallery Room
Jenkins Room
Redick Room
State Room
Tower Room
U monhon Room

Use Milo Bail Student Center in front of a room name when appropriate.

Example: The Faculty Senate will hold a special meeting in the Milo Bail Student Center Jenkins Room at 3 p.m.

Service-Learning Academy

Hyphenate Service-Learning when used as part of the academy's proper name.

Titles:

In general, name followed by title of position information.

Ex: Bill Conley, vice chancellor for Business and Finance

Twitter

Proper name, online social media outlet that has "profiles" but people usually use the words "tweet" or "follow" to indicate involvement. Capitalize when referring to your or UNO's profile:

Examples: "Check out UNO's latest tweet." "Follow UNO on Twitter!" "

University of Nebraska at Kearney

Can be abbreviated to UNK.

University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Can be abbreviated to UNL.

University of Nebraska Medical Center

Can be abbreviated to UNMC.

universitywide

One word, no hyphen.

unomaha

Lowercase, UNO's username on Twitter and Facebook.

unomaha.edu

UNO's website.

UNOMavTV

UNO's username on YouTube

Varner Hall

The building that houses University of Nebraska central administration. Not to be used as a familiar identifier for Central Administration.

website

Lowercase, one word.

YouTube/UNOtube

YouTube is the proper name of the website www.youtube.com. UNO's presence on YouTube is referred to, on the unomaha.edu page, as UNOTube. Both have videos that can be posed to Facebook pages, Twitter feeds or websites. UNO's YouTube username is "unomavtv"

Use YouTube when referring to the site itself or where to find UNO:

Example: "Check out UNO on YouTube at www.youtube.com/unomavtv"

Use UNOtube when referring to a specific video:

Example: "Here is a UNOtube video on this year's Welcome Week."

YouTube Pages

YouTube pages with UNO sponsorship should be indicated with a UNO or University of Nebraska at Omaha (if there is room) either at the beginning or at the end. Do NOT list a page as UN-O, University of Nebraska Omaha, or University of Nebraska-Omaha

Examples: UNO Campus Recreation, Campus Recreaction (UNO), or University of Nebraska at Omaha Department of Theatre.