Voice and Tone
Themes
Our brand voice revolves around a singular theme: Inspire Higher. This simple but powerful phrase is the basis for how UHCL communicates with our audiences, pointing back to our brand pillars and guiding our messaging to be clear and concise. While not every communication will emphasize this theme overtly, it’s helpful to think of it as a dial for raising or lowering the volume of voice to best suit the medium and intended message.
Inspire
UHCL is a place where ambitions for the future can be reached. Where college isn’t just a destination but a path to something greater. Where the passion of faculty and enthusiasm of fellow students provide an irresistible will to succeed. Where students are encouraged to reach for a better life without paying for it for the rest of their lives.
Higher
At UHCL, we encourage students to raise their expectations for their education and life beyond it. The nature that surrounds our campus elevates their daily experience. Faculty members are accessible and invested in their work. State-of-the-art STEM facilities open doors and welcome them in. And flexible schedules and online classes put learning within reach.
Characteristics
Some guidelines refer to our style. These are functional, non-interpretive standards that ensure that our choices in grammar, formatting and spelling are consistent. Other guidelines refer to our voice. These standards are more subjective.
Tone of voice is expressed through language choices we make in our writing. It exists in every sentence we write across our whole global brand. These choices signal the relationship we want to have with, and to see between and among, students, faculty, staff and alumni. Message is what we say. Tone is how we say it.
Taking the brand voice and tone further, we look to our brand personality (dedicated, flexible, encouraging, accomplished, ambitious and harmonious) and translate that into high-level writing attributes for communicating our brand personality to external audiences. These attributes are:
Proud
Ask any faculty member, staff member or graduate, and they’ll tell you that they carry the unique pride of being part of the UHCL family. Pride in our 90+ majors and minors. Pride in the expertise and commitment of our instructors. Pride in the natural beauty that surrounds our campus. And pride in our role of welcoming students no matter where they are in their lives.
Clear
At UHCL, students come first, so we need to speak to them in the language they recognize.
That means avoiding stuffy, formal academic talk. It means honoring their time by
getting to the point and expressing ourselves with enthusiasm. For our students and
faculty alike, time is of the essence.
So when we speak directly with energy, the feeling is contagious. It grabs them and
keeps their attention.
Savvy
We understand our unique place in the world. We’re an institution that’s a little different from traditional colleges by design. UHCL is a university that adapts to our students’ needs, and they love us for it. This is a place for people hustling to get ahead, ready to change their lives and move into the future with confidence. We speak to them in ways that recognize where they are in life and that show we’re comfortable in our own skin.
Welcoming
This one’s important, because many of our students join us from nontraditional paths.
They may be apprehensive about the journey or unfamiliar with the expectations. Our
voice is warm and inclusive, showing that we’re on their side — reinforcing their
choices and decisions. Because
everyone needs to be seen, heard, and validated.