Hi, how's it going? We're your Union. We thought it might be useful to get to know us a bit better and we know that our name can sometimes cause confusion.
We changed our name from the Students’ Union to the Union of Students to shift the focus more to people, togetherness, and unity.
The SU acronym was so ingrained, people had forgotten what it actually means; more associated with bars, cafe´s and shops rather than people or a representative force.
This meant we need to change some commonplace references to who we are:
- Rather than saying ‘Students’ Union’ you can just say ‘Union’ or ‘Union of Students’!
- Likewise when you would have said ‘the SU’ or ‘the UDSU’ you can just say ‘the Union’ or ‘the Union of Students’.
- We’re not the US (neither the ‘us’ or the ‘you-ess’), so rather than abbreviating the ‘Union of Students’ you should just use ‘the Union’
If you need to be more specific you can call us ‘Derby Union of Students’, ‘the Union of Students, University of Derby’ or even ‘the Union at Derby’. But, usually, if you’re talking to students then you shouldn’t need to add the context at all – just ‘the Union’ or ‘the Union of Students’ will do. Still with us?
One last thing: We use ‘us’ as part of our branding when we are speaking in a collective voice, you’ll mostly find this play on words with one of our ‘us’ logos but you may occasionally see it just as a lowercase word in bold. Only the Union is allowed to use ‘us’ in this way. Remember, it’s not the US (you-ess) but just us talking about us.
Students are at the heart of everything we do, and we value your feedback. If you have any questions about our brand, please email marketing@derbyunion.co.uk