Names, Acronyms, Buildings and Tagline

The university should always be called Saint Mary’s University, Saint Mary’s or the university when being referred to as a noun. It is acceptable to use the abbreviation SMU in an informal context not tied with academics or on social media if there are not enough characters, but it should never be used otherwise.

When using the tagline World without limits in a middle of a sentence in communications products please ensure:

  • the entire tagline is italicized
  • only the first letter of the word World is capitalized
  • there is no period at the end of the tagline

For further direction on the use of our University positioning line, see the messaging section of our brand standards.

The official campaign name is A World Without Limits: The Campaign for Saint Mary’s University

This is a natural yet distinct extension of the Saint Mary’s brand, World without limits, and should be treated as such.

Guidelines for usage in print and electronic documents, web pages, social media, etc.:

  • The full title of the campaign is A World Without Limits: The Campaign for Saint Mary’s University, not to be confused with the university brand World without limits. Note the “A” as part of the campaign name and that every word is capitalized while the university brand name only capitalizes the first word, “World.”
  • The campaign title should be italicized and each word capitalized, whether at the beginning of a sentence or in the middle. Note: the exception to italicizing is when the campaign name is used as a stand alone, such as part of a graphic treatment or designed piece on a document or web page.
  • A colon should always be used to separate the two parts of the title (not an emdash, endash or hyphen).
  • The full title of the campaign—A World Without Limits: The Campaign for Saint Mary’s University—should be used on first reference whenever possible.
  • Subsequent reference it can be shortened to A World Without Limits (italicized and capped) or “the campaign” (lowercase, not italicized).
  • Note: an exception to the “full name on first reference” rule is when used in a proposal, for example, during the initial storytelling portion before we’ve introduced the campaign proper. (e.g., “We’re discovering and nurturing the next generation of researchers, innovators and community and business trailblazers who will build a better world for all of us—A World Without Limits.”). In this case, each word is still capitalized and italicized, indicating a reference to something greater (the campaign) that is being set up for further discussion.
  • The “A” at the beginning must be included when referencing the campaign name, which may require some adjustment to the sentence in order not to cause grammatical “bumps” (e.g., the somewhat awkward-sounding “We value your support of the A World Without Limits campaign,” which can be easily written around: “We value your support of A World Without Limits” for example, which presumes the full title was referenced previously; the writer may need to do more finessing in other circumstances so that the name does not get reduced to just “World Without Limits” for ease of reading).

Building Names (acronyms before building name)

  • AG - Art Gallery 
  • AT - Atrium
  • B - Burke Building
  • DC - the Dauphinee Centre (the not to be capitalized)
  • HC - Homburg Centre for Health & Wellness
  • Huskies Stadium
  • LA - Loyola Academic Complex
  • LR - Loyola Residence
  • McNally Building 
       ME - McNally East
       MM - McNally Main
       MN - McNally North
       MS - McNally South
  • O - The Oaks
  • PPL - Patrick Power Library
  • RR - Rice Residence
  • S - Science Building
  • SB - Sobey Building
  • SC - O’Donnell Hennessey Student Centre
  • VR - Vanier Residence
  • 867 - 867 Robie Street
  • 883 - 883 Robie Street
  • 960 - 960 Tower Road
  • 5907 - 5907 Gorsebrook Avenue
  • 5960 - 5960 Inglis Street

Fitness memberships are to be called SMUfit

The series of programs services and support in eight areas of wellness is called InBalance not Inbalance or In Balance.  In the first reference, it should be called InBalance.

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