U of I's Chicago identity: Champaign? Urbana? Others? (Springfield, Bloomington: law school, university)

[fusillirob1983]

Originally Posted by edsg25

apparently they were listening to your concerns @illinois.edu

Ha, yes knowing people who were there later, I was sad I wasn't at the school in the @illinois.edu days.

[madpaddy]

"Downstate" is any part of the state that's more than ~ 1hr drive south of where you live. When I grew up in the western suburbs, "Downstate" was essentially anything south of Kankakee. Now that I live in the Champaign area, "Downstate" is pretty much anything south of I-70.

[ShampooBanana]

As a proud graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (now that's a tongue twister), I and most everyone else I know have always just called it "Illinois" or "U of I". I highly doubt that's changed much in the 8 years since I've lived in the state.

[edsg25]

Originally Posted by ShampooBanana

As a proud graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (now that's a tongue twister), I and most everyone else I know have always just called it "Illinois" or "U of I". I highly doubt that's changed much in the 8 years since I've lived in the state.

Mizzou started with no add on city name, added the word “Columbia”, then went back to its original name in Tuscalousa, the University of Alabama did not change its name when a UA system was established with two additional campuses. UW Madison has made it clear it wants to go back to UW. And maybe the other UW’s aren’t happy with the name game. I think in Wisconsin moreso than in other states, the smaller UW’s sound like branches

There is no reason that UIUC can’t go back to being UI.

I am a proud graduate of UIC. I doubt anyone at UIC would care if UIUC went back to being the University of Illinois...because it is the University of Illinois. Illinois is the flagship (one of the nation’s best). And UIC takes a lot of pride being our state’s second best public.

UIC is a secure sense of itself, realizing it is a great school. Not super off the charts secure like UCLA (the school that basically invented the Univ of___ @ ____ and whose success and reputation giving rise to other states using such nomenclature for their new universities

UCLA has no concern what Cal calls itself. It thinks it is better than Cal. US News agrees. You would have to search hard to find these four words on its website: University of California, Los Angeles.

The UC system is the nation’s best. Having its top two universities in Berkeley and Westwood has no parallel anywhere

But even though down and down considerably to UC, the state of Illinois comes in second with Illinois and UCLA.....mainly because Cal, UCLA and Illinois are a higher class than UIC

So UIC is happy to be UIC and is not in competition with a much higher profile university, Illinois and knows full well having UI instate is a big big assit

[SkylarkPhotoBooth]

Originally Posted by CCrest182

There's three ISU's, and all three of them are in connecting states with eachother. Always need to ask people if they mean IN state, IL state, or IA state.

There's four. You are correct about three of them being in contiguous states, though.

[SkylarkPhotoBooth]

Originally Posted by edsg25

Clearly from your list, there is only one grouping that is problematic. Not for Idaho State but for the three ISUs. Least so for Iowa State, the top of its state’s publics along with Iowa. Illinois State is a much higher profile than Indiana State. So our neighbors get the short end of the stick.

I can see the argument that Iowa State is above the other ISUs in national perception, with it being the only one in a major conference and the only one of the four that is a Carnegie 1, but I'd put the other three ISU's at a similar level. You'd certainly have to have an overwhelmingly Illinois-centric point of view to think that Illinois' ISU is "a much higher profile" than Indiana's. Those are both universities that hardly anyone outside of their home states knows or cares about, as is Idaho State. I don't get what's problematic about the grouping more than the others.

I always thought the three OSUs were the most confusing. All three are flagship state Carnegie 1 Research universities. All three are in completely different major conferences (and have been for a very long time) in three different parts of the country. All three have big sports histories, and in the past decade or two all three have Top 10 football programs at various points. Two of the three even have the same school colors. Of course, if you want to be technical one of the three is TOSU, but nobody calls it that.

Good call about the UMs, though Mizzou is MU and several of the others are "U of M." Also, I've never heard of Massachusetts being called UM (always UMass), but maybe that's just me.

[Frank the Tank]

Originally Posted by fusillirob1983

Former student, went there in the early-mid 2000s. I only used UIUC when referring to my email address or the school website. In conversation I use/used U of I. Sometimes locally around Chicago I'd say "Champaign". Even at school, Urbana was typically just mentioned if someone said something like, "we're heading to a party in Urbana," which led to a lot of frustration as most of my friends lived in Champaign. When referencing sports or to people from out of state I say Illinois. UIUC completely dropped from my vocabulary when I stopped using the school email address.

Fellow Illinois grad here and this tracks exactly with me: I’d say “U of I” or “Champaign” to people in the Chicago area and “Illinois” to people that aren’t from this area. I wouldn’t ever say that I went to school in Urbana even though I actually lived in Urbana for all 4 years of school. UIUC was used strictly for my school email address.

Interestingly, you’ll still see UIUC used frequently on college admissions discussion forums today. Personally, I think it’s too easily confused with UIC, so it made total sense for the school to completely focus on the “Illinois” branding in recent years.

[edsg25]

Originally Posted by SkylarkPhotoBooth

I can see the argument that Iowa State is above the other ISUs in national perception, with it being the only one in a major conference and the only one of the four that is a Carnegie 1, but I'd put the other three ISU's at a similar level. You'd certainly have to have an overwhelmingly Illinois-centric point of view to think that Illinois' ISU is "a much higher profile" than Indiana's. Those are both universities that hardly anyone outside of their home states knows or cares about, as is Idaho State. I don't get what's problematic about the grouping more than the others.

I always thought the three OSUs were the most confusing. All three are flagship state Carnegie 1 Research universities. All three are in completely different major conferences (and have been for a very long time) in three different parts of the country. All three have big sports histories, and in the past decade or two all three have Top 10 football programs at various points. Two of the three even have the same school colors. Of course, if you want to be technical one of the three is TOSU, but nobody calls it that.

Good call about the UMs, though Mizzou is MU and several of the others are "U of M." Also, I've never heard of Massachusetts being called UM (always UMass), but maybe that's just me.

Fair enough on Illinois State and Indiana State. The gap is between Iowa State, a major university with a national presence, and the other two. I agree. But here is my thinking on this: Illinois, a far, far bigger state has one flagship university. Smaller Indiana has two with IU and Purdue. I can't help but feel IU and Purdue suck up more of the oxygen in Indiana than Illinois does in Illinois.

Right on about all the ways to say UM. The most famous U of M is close by in the Twin Cities. Personally I think that U-M being the real UM made Minnesota not want to be known by the name of the Ann Arbor institution.

If you look at UC's: The UC system is so strong and iconic nationally that no one outside of California wants to call itself UC...

as in U of C: Chicago
CU: Colorado
UConn: Connecticut

with all those used up, Cincinnati did get stuck with being UC.

Correct on OSU's as well. Only three states in the nation have their top public university (flagship) with a name of _____ State University. Ohio, of course, because OSU came later have Ohio had smaller public universities that were not flagships...Miami and Ohio. Ohio already had the name; OSU went with what was left.

In Pennsylvania we have the only private university that is named Univ of (State's Name) in Penn. So Penn State (which was basically nothing more than a land grant ag school until the 20th century) had to do the same as OSU.

I believe LSU is so named because Tulane was one of those crazy schools that went back and forth in public, then private. I believe in its public persona, it was called Tulane University of Louisiana.

Skylark, love the stuff you brought up...very interesting. Now, here's one for you:

Indiana: Indiana University is flagship. Indiana State University is not
Ohio: Ohio State University is the flagship. Ohio University is not.

[damba]

Originally Posted by edsg25

I believe LSU is so named because Tulane was one of those crazy schools that went back and forth in public, then private. I believe in its public persona, it was called Tulane University of Louisiana.

Tulane at first was a (public) medical college called the ‘Medical College of Louisiana’. A couple different families we are close with have kids there now. We heard the whole dog and pony show LOL. (God, I hope they have scholarships!)

[edsg25]

Originally Posted by damba

Tulane at first was a (public) medical college called the ‘Medical College of Louisiana’. A couple different families we are close with have kids there now. We heard the whole dog and pony show LOL. (God, I hope they have scholarships!)

Know anybody at William & Mary or Rutgers?