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But it will no longer represent the academic side of the university.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
Hey, do you know the name of any Baptist or Church of Christ ministers there in Lubbock who might not have realized the purpose behind this change? I'd love to see some good old fashioned picketing along University!
Hey, PA, would you like to call a local radio talkshow and mention that? They'd be FLATTERED to hear from afar......(806)770-5950. They're discussing it NOW.
That show you how effective the diversion story is working. Anyone talking about the cotton side of the story might as well go around with a big fish hook in the side of their mouth. They've been had.
but if you're gonna call, you've got 13 minutes! the show's over at 9 a.m.
single issue cat hater?
Are you kin to the single issue smoker haters?
Leash the songbirds, too. They poop on hubby's truck.
I have no idea what has already been said on the show...... have they mentioned the bolls form a cross?
I'm not a cat hater.
I'm an irresponsible cat-owner, hater.
I disagree. Cats are far easier to shoot if not on a leash. The owner tends to get a bit upset when you pluck off their pussy from 20 yards while they are walking down the street.
Folks, the lines through the new shield also form a cross. Maybe a little less obvious but still a cross.
show's over....i'll keep you posted via ping or FReepmail.
cotton is bad. after all, it's white, and it's worthless without a market.
cotton is bad. after all, it's white, and it's worthless without a market.
No more cotton shirts for the women. I want them off now!
Bingo. That's the real story behind this idiocy.
I hope the alumni can get this fool tossed out.
The funnier email I received was from Lynn Denton - she used quotation marks around many comments such as
..The project that we are working on involves establishing one “academic visual identity” for the academic activities of the university
...There are hundreds of disparate academic “identities” and by not having one unified “academic identity”
LOL, is this REALLY considered professional at a level of collegiate management?
Cotton Stripped from Texas Tech Seal (attempt to
politically correct the South out of culture?)
Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my Texas ping list!. . .don't be shy.
No, you don't HAVE to be a Texan to get on this list!
thanks, Meek. even for those who aren't Red Raiders, this is about not being run over by liberal academic elitists.
hissy-fit pitching southern woman ping
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