University of Illinois
From U of I Wiki
The University of Illinois is the largest public university in Illinois. The university is composed of three separate campuses in Illinois: one in the neighboring cities of Urbana and Champaign (officially referred to as "University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"), one in Chicago ("University of Illinois at Chicago") and one in Springfield ("University of Illinois at Springfield").
Although the university's Board of Trustees officially claim in its marketing campaign the existence of "three distinct campuses; one great university," the campus designation is often in name only: all three campuses act largely independent of one another and differ in course offerings and athletic teams. The credit earned from courses at one campus often won't transfer to another campus, and the basketball team of the Chicago campus, the Flames, often competes against the basketball team of the Urbana-Champaign campus, the Fighting Illini.
Thus considering each campus's independence, no one campus receives a "main branch" designation; the only branch campuses that exist are the medical campuses in Rockford, Ill., and Peoria, Ill., which are branches of the Chicago campus.
Nicknames and abbreviations
The Urbana-Champaign campus is typically recognized as the flagship campus, and most people identify the University of Illinois as synonmous with the Urbana-Champaign campus, rather than the three campuses combined. Likewise, the Urbana-Champaign campus receives the nickname of "U of I" instead of "UIUC." Debatably, the Urbana-Champaign campus's official abbreviation was "UI," although few people referred to the campus as such.
The "U of I" nickname comes at the expense of potential confusion in referring to the Chicago and Springfield campuses, both of whom could potentially also receive the "U of I" moniker but are generally known as "UIC" and "UIS," respectively.
The popular social network Facebook refers to the Urbana-Champaign campus as "UIllinois," the Chicago campus as "UIC," and the Springfield campus as "UIS." Referring to the Urbana-Champaign campus as "UIllinois" is potentially problematic because it could undermine the Chicago and Springfield campuses in being any less "UIllinois." Likewise, the UIllinois.edu URL is the home of the University of Illinois administration, although recent decisions by the administration suggest that the Illinois.edu URL could be the new home of the Urbana-Champaign campus's website, at once establishing it ever closer as the "main" campus branch and confusing itself with the administrative UIllinois.edu URL.
Main article: Illinois.edu
Undoubtedly, the "U of I" nickname causes confusion when saying it to people whose universities could share similar nicknames, such as the University of Iowa or the University of Idaho.
Recognition and accomplishments
The University of Illinois is also one of the first public land grant institutions in the United States. It one of the largest research universities in the world with students from all 50 states and over 100 countries.
