{"id":7245,"date":"2018-05-20T08:06:12","date_gmt":"2018-05-20T08:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=7245"},"modified":"2018-05-20T08:06:12","modified_gmt":"2018-05-20T08:06:12","slug":"united-futures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2018\/05\/20\/united-futures\/","title":{"rendered":"United Futures"},"content":{"rendered":"

It will be rather a relief not to have to refer to EAUC again when it adopts its new brand: United Futures<\/em> \u2013 even though this has an extra 2 syllables it flows more smoothly that E A U C (I usually had to take a breath after each letter and never quite had the courage just to say YUK). \u00a0It's certainly much more economical that the tiresome 20 syllable\u00a0Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges<\/a>\u00a0...<\/p>\n

There's a debate of sorts about the new (not yet adopted) name. \u00a0Here's Andy Nolan<\/a>:<\/p>\n

United Futures. When I heard it the first time, I thought \u2018hmmm\u2019. Not specific enough. Doesn\u2019t tell me \u2018sustainability\u2019 or \u2018university\u2019 or \u2018college\u2019 and certainly doesn\u2019t say \u2018post-16 tertiary education\u2019 to me. Well, good. It doesn\u2019t need to. I don\u2019t know how you reacted to the proposed name. It may have been with disbelief, indifference or excitement. Of course, it matters what the association is called but what\u2019s more important it what it does. After a few minutes of thinking about it, I realised that. I also realised that the flexibility in the new name was a good thing \u2013 why box yourself in when you can create flexibility? Further and higher education doesn\u2019t need any more constraints placed on it in such uncertain times. I like the way the new name aligns with the sustainable development goals and is forward looking.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Although Andy has to be right \u2013 what matters is what it does \u2013 the name is important as the Royal Mail found when it had its expensive\u00a0Consignia<\/a> brain seizure.<\/p>\n

That's why I'm not convinced about United Futures. \u00a0There are three main reasons:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. confusion with other brands: United Airlines \/ United Nations \/ United States \/ Manchester (West Ham ...) United (etc) \/ Unite the Union<\/li>\n
  2. (inevitably) the name already exists; for example: in the UK for a community partnership \u2013\u00a0United Futures<\/a>\u00a0and, internationally, for a futures broker \u2013 United Futures<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. Although the plural\u00a0futures<\/em> is important as more than one future is possible, the qualifying\u00a0united<\/em> rather contradicts the plural. \u00a0How are many futures to be united? \u00a0Or is the idea that we'll all be united around a sustainable future? \u00a0Some hope!<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Of course, [1] is really neither here nor there and [2] is unfortunate but inevitable. \u00a0I take [3] more seriously however as it sends a confused message. \u00a0Whether that would be enough to cause me to vote against is another matter.<\/p>\n

    My suggestion would have been\u00a0Think Futures<\/em>\u00a0or\u00a0Thinking Futures\u00a0<\/em>\u2013<\/em> if they hadn't already been taken<\/a>\u00a0\/ taken<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 as these leave the issues in play here open to possibility, and the word think(ing) would be a constant reminder to the future EAUC about what it's priorities should be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    It will be rather a relief not to have to refer to EAUC again when it adopts its new brand: United Futures \u2013 even though this has an extra 2 syllables it flows more smoothly that E A U C...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-news-and-updates"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7245\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}