“Welcome to NYU Shanghai, and congratulations on getting to be a part of NYU’s Global Network University.” We all heard this statement or a variation of it sometime during our admitted students’ weekends and orientation weeks, but what we, as a student body, did not hear was a collective and official announcement informing us of the rebranding of the Global Network University to NYU’s Global Network. I first heard of this change during a discussion with a friend regarding NYU’s global presence and have since interviewed more than 20 members of the NYU Shanghai staff and student community asking them if they were aware of the change, or its significance. None of them were. To this date, no official announcement has ever been given to the students through email or otherwise of the branding change. This begs the question whether this is a significant change to what NYU’s mission is and specifically to the standing that the portal campuses of Shanghai and Abu Dhabi hold within NYU’s Global Network? Whilst we are currently unaware of which executive decision meeting led to the adoption of “NYU’s Global Network” as the preferred branding, this terminology first came to light when the University’s Faculty Advisory Committee on the University's Global Network released a report at the end of the 2013-2014 Academic Year that consistently referred to the “Global Network”. This induced a flurry of confusion among the students in the NYU campuses most notably in Abu Dhabi since they had just noticed a change in the terminology of NYU Abu Dhabi to NYU in Abu Dhabi Corporation. In addition, NYU released a style guide in June 2014, that contained “Guidelines for Communicators” which addresses how to communicate officially as an NYU stakeholder. This contained tips on when to use the term “Global Network University” and never to use terms like “NYUAD”, “NYUNY” or “NYUSH” as we so often do. In short, “Global Network University” should only be used if one is referring to NYU’s vision and/or strategy. Otherwise, refer to “NYU’s Global Network” when referring to NYU’s structure. In a similar vein, the guide states that using terms like NYUSH “fragments our global university and suggests an outlying entity” rather than representing our university as “one unified entity worldwide that offers diverse educational experiences in cities across the globe.” One might say that this makes sense, and ensuring that all the university's stakeholders follow these guidelines would make for a unified front in presenting the school’s image as “one unified entity.” However, this has not been as thoroughly implemented as the University administration would think it is. A quick search through the NYU website shows a discrepancy between descriptions of the education offered at NYU as “NYU’s global network” and “the NYU Global Network University” on the undergraduate and graduate admissions’ pages respectively. Similarly, NYU Abu Dhabi and NYU Shanghai’s websites still have pages here and there that refer to the Global Network University in places that could be referred to as NYU’s Global Network. There’s definitely a lot more to explore on this matter, especially if the student body is to understand whether the new changes in branding have a significant effect on the portal campuses like NYU Shanghai. For that matter, stay tuned for a follow up on the matter with discussions from NYU Shanghai faculty Scott Fritzen, Chen Jian and Marianne Petit who sit on the Faculty Committee in NYU’s Global Network. This article was written by Mercy Angela Nantongo. Send an email to [email protected] to get in touch. Photo Credit: Nicole Chan