Department names are based on the "payroll names" i.e. the names that are used in various systems like Banner, LDAP, and Shibboleth. We use those names to match office managers and department heads with their department's inventory. We do that by getting their department name from Shibboleth when they log in.
For example, when Gary Sullivan logs into the site, from Shibboleth we get "Architecture and Allied Arts". So, to show him all of his inventory items we need to match what we get from Shibboleth to what is stored in the inventory. To make that match happen we want to use "Architecture and Allied Arts" for his inventory records.
For secondary department names (e.g. AAA Dean's Office) we have a separate field to track that.