Posted on 05/05/2005 4:57:02 AM PDT by hispanarepublicana
Cotton stripped from Tech seal BY ELLIOTT BLACKBURN AVALANCHE-JOURNAL
Texas Tech may face a fight from cotton farming alumni after the school announced Wednesday it would pluck the symbolic tufts of the West Texas crop from the school seal.
The changes are part of a broader marketing campaign to be launched early next year that Tech officials hope will improve the university's national reputation.
Chancellor David Smith refuted rumors Wednesday that the school was abandoning its past for the marketing effort.
A-J File Photo
"It is not undoing tradition, it is not undoing pride," Smith said of the changes. "We need a platform to celebrate what Texas Tech is accomplishing as a system."
But Eddie Smith, chairman of the Plains Cotton Cooperative Association and a Tech alumnus who was honored as an outstanding agriculturist last year by the university, said the omission ignored the major contributions cotton made to Tech.
"There's a lot of us that are tied to this university that are not going to let it slide by," Smith said.
School and system officials announced the changes Wednesday in an effort to counter an anonymous e-mail and message board campaign rallying opposition to the revisions.
The Internet campaign sparked rumors of school officials abandoning the Double T trademark while retooling school marketing materials.
In a hastily organized news conference held in response to e-mails and phone calls from concerned alumni, school officials stressed that the beloved Double T logo stitched onto merchandise, emblazoned on the sides of buildings and printed in the letterhead of the press releases distributed Wednesday would not be retired.
"The Double T has an indefinite contract," said Craig Wells, senior associate athletics director. "It's going to be around forever and ever and ever."
But it will no longer represent the academic side of the university. A new seal was designed by an Austin firm as part of a broader marketing campaign that has a $450,000 budget this year. The seal will be featured on academic communications, Chancellor Smith said.
Texas Tech seal Designed in 1927 by campus master planner William Watkin. Formally adopted in 1953. The Saddle Tramps raised $24,750 in 1972 to fund the 37,500-pound granite seal at the main entrance of the campus. The monument will not be changed to reflect the new design, according to Chancellor David Smith.Source: Texas Tech Web site
The seal will replace the myriad symbols each college and program had developed and present a more uniform message, said Bill Dean, executive director of the Texas Tech Alumni Association.
"It's possible for someone to get four or five pieces of correspondence from different areas of Tech and they could all look different," Dean said. "So I think it's a step in the right direction to try and standardize this.
"As to whether they should change it or not," Dean said, "I think that's another question that probably needs to be revisited a little bit."
The modified seal must still be approved by the Tech Board of Regents, which will meet next week.
Cotton bolls that form a cross in the middle of the school shield and represent the 10 cotton-producing counties around Tech were removed from the new design. Instead, a more general "vine-like" image will represent all of agriculture.
A granite monument to the seal erected at the main entrance of the campus in 1972 would not be changed to reflect the new design, Chancellor Smith said.
Several administrators admitted that they did not realize that the round, somewhat crudely drawn shapes splitting the school shield symbolized cotton.
The new design has a clearer symbol of agriculture, and the chancellor said it reflects that Tech is no longer a regional university but a system with seven campuses.
"You've got to decide that you're going to play in that larger sandbox," Smith said.
The changes were not acceptable, alumnus Eddie Smith said.
"Vines are weeds in my cotton fields," Smith said. "I think it's a mistake, and I wish they would ask the people who've supported the university through the years."
Speculation on the changes scattered throughout Lubbock and cyberspace Wednesday. Several alumni were baffled that the changes would be made with little public input.
"Change is inevitable," said Don Harris, a Lubbock appraiser and Tech alumnus. "On the other hand, if it isn't broken, why fix it?"
W.B. "Dub" Rushing, a long-time Tech contributor, said he had no problems with the changes as long as they were for a positive reason.
The school has weathered strong reactions to other changes, such as a proposal to call the school Texas Tech and the recent revisions on the Double T logo, he said. But administrators should be careful about change for change's sake, he said.
"I don't see anything wrong with the present seal," Rushing said. "If it would only make the alumni mad, and that's where their gifts come from - all you have to do is kill off a dozen people and that could be $12 million."
More Tech faithful, including cotton farmers, would warm to the new design once they understood why the changes were being made, Chancellor Smith said.
The outcry Wednesday showed that people cared about the university, but the controversy was overblown, he said.
"A lot of people had a lot of extra time today," Smith said. "It was kind of ridiculous." OLD:
NEW:
To comment on this story:
elliott.blackburn@lubbockonline.com 766-8722
brian.williams@lubbockonline.com t 766-8717
>>there was no need for you to invade this thread<<
Would you please post what credentials you have to show this forum is yours to decide what should and should not be posted. If you didn't like what was said, you are free to ignore it. I wasn't the one that continued to post on the issue; you were.
>>no manners and no class<<
Great assessment from someone who called another one an "ass." Should I learn from you?
>>26,000 students - and a handful get drunk and stupid at a game<<
Handful, my butt. More like close to majority. And the "school" does nothing about it. These aren't isolated incidents, but a pattern of behavior that is, effectively, encouraged.
>>and you want someone to believe not a single student at A&M gets drunk?<<
Of course not. And there is some bad behavior on the part of a few. But it isn't tolerated and literally encouraged the way it is at tech. If you go to any Aggie message board and read comments by people from schools like Utah, Virginia tech, and Clemson -- three schools that have played football at A&M in the past 2-3 years, you will find virtually nothing but positive comments. So don't you dare compare the behavior of so-called fans at tech to A&M.
>>Everyone I know denounces idiotic stunts and/or acts of violence at any sporting event - you are being childish lumping everyone from Tech into that pot.<<
If you actually knew what you are talking about, you wouldn't make this statement. My brother in law, who graduated from tech, actually tried to defend the goal post stunt by saying the Aggie fans "deserved" it. I challenge you to find one quote from the October 2001 incident where a tech official -- SID, head coach, or President, made even one critical comment about the behavior of tech students and fans in that incident. As it turned out, the father of an Aggie player, who was then the Govorner's assistant, was hit in the face by someone who turned out to be an Aggie. He reported to the police initially he was struck by a tech fan. All tech officials did after the incident was criticize the misidentification. Like the other violence wasn't an issue, but misidentifying someone was over the top.
>>I certainly don't call everyone at A&M a tightassed geek<<
I would hope not. That would make you sound like a moron.
Do these petty totalitarians really expect us to believe that Texas Tech is somehow being seen as a regional rather than a national university because of a trifle in their seal? I am a Jasper from Manhattan College and no one even knows what that is. This is so stupid.
>>1L - The alias implies that you are an aspiring lawyer. If so, you will do smashingly well what with your people skills and brilliant courtroom demeanor.<<
Since the alias was created in 1998, you can take the aspiring out of the mix. I have both excellent people skills and brilliant courtroom demeanor. Well, ok, brilliant may be pushing it a tad, but I do seem to win cases.
Off topic, but this virtual tour of the Marsha Sharp Freeway (under video links on the right) is pretty impressive.
http://www.kcbd.com/Global/story.asp?S=3301537
I called you and ass because I might have been banned if I had called you what I was really thinking.
As I said, no one I know is involved in the idiotic behavior and we don't encourage or praise it - in case you haven't notice this entire thread was about our lack of respect for the ADMNISTRATION at this time - so the lack of response from them in any regard is about par..
As it turned out, the father of an Aggie player, who was then the Govorner's assistant, was hit in the face by someone who turned out to be an Aggie. He reported to the police initially he was struck by a tech fan. All tech officials did after the incident was criticize the misidentification.
Really? So what happened to the Aggie who hit this man? Why did the man lie and say it was a Tech student? Did he get into trouble for making a false claim?
See how stupid it is to try to hold an entire school responsible for the actions of a few?
I noticed they had cleared out a lot of homes and businesses along 4th last time I was there - I knew something big was in the works -
The changes are part of a broader marketing campaign to be launched early next year that Tech officials hope will improve the university's national reputation.
LOL... They're going to "improve the university's national reputation" by removing the image of cotton tufts from the school seal? This is the funniest thing I've read in a month.
This brings to mind the old saw about academe fights being so vicious only because what they are fighting about means so little.
Sign me up.
Heh heh heh
'Smatter, Bevo not treating you right?
LOL
an aggie as typically arrogant as david smith.....
This story p*isses me off. My husband ('87) and I ('86) will have to express our displeasure through our checkbook, since we are members of the Red Raider Club and the Alumni Association.
My grandpa grew cotton on land just south of Lubbock, as does my uncle and many other relatives. Cotton farming is a pursuit requiring hard work, diligence, faith and optimism. If you don't have any of those qualities, you probably won't be a successful cotton farmer. Maybe those are standards that today's educators do not want to be held to or reminded of. ...not to mention that CROSS thing!
WAAAA! You're just mad that the *aggies are now the third (or maybe fourth, now) best athletic school in the state. Tech ownes A&M in all the sports that count. Go whine on another thread, ok?
Mike, is that you, Mike?
ya'll are on the ping list
Why don't they drop the incrementalism and fully redesign the seal with a hammer and sickle, as they really want to?
As it turned out, the father of an Aggie player, who was then the Govorner's assistant, was hit in the face by someone who turned out to be an Aggie. He reported to the police initially he was struck by a tech fan. All tech officials did after the incident was criticize the misidentification.
So, an aggie is fighting right along with the evil Tech students, but hits the father of one of his own players in the face!
Is this where Aggie jokes start?
Give smith a little more time.
His "revolution" shall be one of steps and not leaps.
We can only hope that the blind and deaf Board of Regents eventually opens their eyes and ears to the will of the students and alumni.
Cotton lobby doesn't like it?
Cut off alumni funding.
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