Editorial Style Guide
UNIVERSITY NAME
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley is the official name of the university.
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley should always be used in first reference in all formal communications. “The” is part of the name and should always be included, uppercase, in first reference. Second references of the university name will be abbreviated as UT Rio Grande Valley or UTRGV (preferred because it reinforces the web address utrgv.edu). Do not use hyphens in the university name e.g., UT-RGV or UT-Rio Grande Valley.
The official university name in Spanish is Universidad de Texas de El Valle del Río Grande.
CAMPUSES & SITES
UTRGV is a distributed institution made up of numerous campuses and sites across the Rio Grande Valley. Use the appropriate name from the following list when identifying specific campuses or sites:
- The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Edinburg Campus
- UTRGV Edinburg Campus
- The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Brownsville Campus
- UTRGV Brownsville Campus
DO NOT use hyphens, such as in these examples: The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley-Edinburg; UTRGV-Edinburg; UTRGV-Brownsville campus, or similar configurations.
- UTRGV Harlingen Clinical Education Site
- UTRGV McAllen
- UTRGV Port Isabel School of Earth, Environmental and Marine Sciences
- UTRGV Rio Grande City
- UTRGV SPI Coastal Studies Lab
- UTRGV Stargate
- UTRGV Weslaco Center for Innovation and Commercialization (CIC)
ACADEMIC DEPARTMENTS & ACADEMIC UNITS
Specific departments and academic units are capitalized when referred to by their official names. Examples: Department of Biology, College of Liberal Arts, Office of the President, MBA Program, etc. Lowercase examples: biology department, the college, president’s office, the program, etc.
On first reference, refer to the full name of the division (e.g., Division of Institutional Advancement, School of Medicine, the Department of Mathematics, the Office of University Marketing and Communications) using uppercase style. When the antecedent is absolutely clear, on subsequent references, use lowercase “school,” “department,” “office,” etc.
AMPERSAND (&)
The ampersand (&) character is part of the official wordmark for UTRGV colleges and departments and should always be used in secondary logos. However, the ampersand should not be used in place of “and” in written communications.
In matters of editorial style, the prevailing standards for university publications of a promotional nature shall be those of the Associated Press (AP) Stylebook and the UT System and UTRGV editorial style guide.