I use UBB 5.47a on our university website. It's there for potential students to ask questions about our university: how to get admitted, etc.

The forum is open to all, and there is a lot of posting from one student to another, etc. I want this to continue.

However, I would like UBB to display something like "University Staff" beneath the usernames of our employees. This would help designate that an answer is "official."

This can't be done easily in the 5-series, which was last updated three and a half years ago.

Please upgrade to the latest release. You'll be able to give users custom titles right through the control panel.

Upgrade to the latest release. The latest release (6.7.1) has a feature (as of 6.6) that allows custom titles for any member of your board.

Basically you'd just open your control panel, click member management, enter the username, fill in the "title" you wish to use, then click submit; user will now have "Staff" or what have you under their name.

Also, there have been a large amount of security related upgrades and a large amount of features added since the 5.x series; the security upgrades alone would be a good reason imho.