A South African university has successfully objected to a domain
name that incorporates the university's nickname.
North-West University ("NWU"), once
an exclusively Afrikaans-language institution that's situated
in the city of Potchefstroom, and that was formerly known as the
Potchefstroom University College – or PUK – for short
(the Afrikaans word for "college" starts with
"k"), opposed a registration for the domain name
propuk.co.za.
Many readers know that South African universities are volatile
places right now, and one of the issues that bedevils them is
language policy. The name propuk.co.za was used by a group of NWU
alumni who are seemingly associated with a primarily Afrikaans
trade union called Solidarity, and the site made it clear that the
aim of those associated with it was to ensure that Afrikaans is
retained as a language of tuition at NWU.
