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An Australian university union has unveiled a rebrand which has been widely panned by students and alumni for using the same name as a global porn site.
University Union, established in 1895, has removed any reference to being union in its title and will now be called YouX.
The rebrand is supposed to refer to ‘user experience’ but the name is already used by an established adult website.
The student newspaper On Dit said had ‘flagged’ the search term and as a result the site could be prevented from showing up on searches.
Adelaide University Union has rebranded to YouX (pictured) which is already in use by a adult website
A spokesperson for the former AUU said university senior leadership supported the name change (pictured: The University of Adelaide’s CBD campus)
The paper also reported Adelaide University’s chief marketing officer Dr Benjamin Grindlay advised against the rebrand last year calling it unnecessary and saying it would damage the ‘trust and prestige’ associated with the AUU.
He also warned the vague name would have to be explained to each new batch of students and that the cost of rebranding could be considered ‘tone deaf’ as universities Australia-wide battle funding cuts and loss of overseas student revenue.
Students past and present on the union’s Facebook page slammed the name change when the rebrand went live last week, calling it ‘weird’ and ‘dystopian’.
‘Money well spent, https://bvespirita.com/ bravo, glad it wasn’t wasted on providing services to students’ one person said.
‘Imagine being a university union for over 125 years and then having the name changed coz some goons are a bit frightened of the word union. Well done chums,’ another said.
A YouX spokesperson said the cost of the rebrand was funded through commercial revenue and not by sacrificing student services, but stopped short of revealing the cost.
‘As a student services provider, our main priority is the student experience, and this brand helps to transmit that message.Feedback received so far has been overwhelmingly positive,’ the spokesperson said.
‘We have not been made aware of any instances where students have encountered inappropriate content using our name as a search phrase, and all testing to date has produced no unsafe search returns.
‘Indexing of new sites can take time (up to a week) and in the interim search results may be mixed but once completed we believe searching and finding YouX will be easy and user-friendly.’
Dozens of students and alumni criticised the rebrand when it went live on the former AUU’s Facebook page (pictured: Adelaide University)
They also claimed that final presentations before the rebrand were supported by university leadership and Dr Grindlay’s comments were referring to earlier version of the rebrand.
The University’s Student Representative Council, which falls under the umbrella of AUU, previously expressed concern over the rebrand saying there was little consultation with them or other students.
‘We are worried that this rebrand has political intentions and is only being proceeded with due to the desire from figures on the AUU Board to remove the world ‘union’,’ it said.