Two of my favorite abbreviations for the names of local institutions:
1) UTI (Universal Technical Institute): Really, guys? You know that UTI is the common abbreviation for urinary tract infection, right? And it's not like Universal Technical Insitute is such a brain-bustingly cool name that you couldn't have changed it up a little bit. You could've gone with Global Technical Institute, for example. It means the same thing and is not synonymous with an itchy, painful, unfortunate affliction of a very sensitive spot. (FYI, research shows that there's no local campus in the DC Metro area...yet...but they advertised locally, so maybe you can do a correspondance course.)
2) HUH (Howard University Hospital): Aw, man, I understand that you need to keep the Howard University part in the name since you are a hospital that is indeed affiliated with that storied institution of higher learning. But couldn't you call yourselves a medical center or something to avoid this phrase favored by head-scratchers being printed on all of your stationery, advertising, t-shirts, etc.? I applaud whatever marketing genius attempted to make it look less like "Huh?" by putting a big red square around the second H, but I don't think you're really fooling anyone.
Then there was the one at Georgetown that I thought the powers-that-be should revise, but it was typically uttered aloud only by the saltier-tongued students, so I don't think the powers that be ever noticed the nickname. It was the Georgetown University Alumni and Student Federal Credit Union, or GAUSFCU for short. I leave it to you to determine how my peers, especially those who got dinged with unexpected fees/penalties, pronounced those last three letters.
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