Happy Summer!

With fall term just around the corner it might be a good time to brush up on the appropriate applications of campus buildings, administrative titles, and other campus-related topics that you may encounter in your writing.

academic terms

• Use term as the general reference, and lowercase with fall term, winter term, spring term, and summer term.
• The law school uses a semester-based calendar: fall semester, spring semester, and summer semester.

acting vs. interim

• acting: someone filling in for an administrator who is temporarily on leave
• interim: someone filling in while a permanent replacement is being sought

University of Oregon

• Spell out the first reference to the University of Oregon. Use the UO, Oregon, or the university to abbreviate subsequent references. Use of “U of O” and other variations are acceptable when used in quoted material: Denise, who is applying to schools in the Pacific Northwest, says, “My top choice is U of O.” 

credit

• Use credits rather than credit hours, hours, term credits, quarter credits, or term hours. To distinguish between a quarter system and a semester system, use quarter credits and semester credits.

course listings

• See the University of Oregon catalog for correct order and style for listing course information such as subject code and number, title, credit, and grading options.

departments

• Capitalize the formal names of departments and lowercase the informal names. Formal: Department of History, Department of Political Science, Department of English, Clark Honors College. Informal: the history department, the political science department, the English department, the honors college.
• When referring to a department, include the school or college. (e.g., She is a professor in the Department of Biology, which is in the College of Arts and Sciences.) Consult the UO catalog for the correct names of departments.
• Use residence hall instead of dorm/dormitory.

Ducks

• When referring to student sports teams, the correct terms to use are the Oregon Ducks or the Ducks.
• When using the team name as an adjective, use Ducks, not Duck: Ducks fans (i.e., fans of the Ducks) crowded the stands in Autzen Stadium.
• One UO attendee, alumnus, or alumna is considered a Duck, but one is not a “Duck fan.” The only exception is in the official name of an organization, such as the Duck Athletic Fund.

Miscellaneous designations

• advisor, not adviser
• graduate employee (GE), not Graduate Teaching Fellow or GTF.
• PathwayOregon (all one word with intercap)
• Use first-year student instead of freshman/freshmen when possible, although there are certain contexts that require referring to the freshman/freshmen class.

Subject codes appear in UO catalogs and class schedules, and on student schedules, degree audits, transfer articulation reports, and transcripts. (See the Office of the Registrar.)

Questions? Email editor Sharleen Nelson, University Communications.