Posted on 05/06/2005 4:23:14 AM PDT by hispanarepublicana
Bolled over by alums, Tech backs off on new seal BY ELLIOTT BLACKBURN AVALANCHE-JOURNAL
The Texas Tech University System will return cotton's likeness to new designs of the school seal, an administrator said Thursday.
Associate Vice Chancellor Lynn Denton, the system's head of marketing, said the school will develop new designs of the school seal that include symbols representing cotton.
"We've decided that we are going to put cotton plants back into the seal," Denton said.
Alumni became alarmed earlier this week after speculation circulated the Internet that the school was downplaying the Double T logo and removing cotton from the seal.
Officials assured the Tech community that the Double T logo was in no danger of retirement but confirmed at a Wednesday news conference that there were plans to remove 10 cotton bolls crossing the school shield.
Updated and uniform school seals and shields would replace a confusing number of individual college and program logos.
The new designs were created as part of a broader marketing effort, developed over the last year and a half by firms in Lubbock, Austin and Chicago, to improve the school's national image.
The change angered many cotton farmers who graduated from Tech, including Plains Cotton Cooperative Association head Eddie Smith.
Smith was cautious about the announcement Thursday, but said it was encouraging.
"I think that's an excellent first step and then we'll just see how it develops from there," Smith said. "I think it just shows that Tech officials are, as they should be, sensitive to the alumni and the surrounding community."
Denton reported the decision after a two-hour presentation given to Steve Verett, Plains Cotton Growers Inc. executive vice president, and the John Johnson, spokesman for the Plains Cotton Cooperative Association.
Verett, a Tech alumnus, said he told administrators that the best solution would be to make minor improvements to the existing seal.
He supported the university's efforts to better market the school, and was pleased with a productive meeting, he said.
"We appreciate them being able to look at a compromise," Verett said. "It's my preference that the shield stay as it is today and still be used in their effort to move forward ."
Johnson also supported the university's re-branding efforts, but believed the best choice would be to return to the original seal.
"I advised the best way to stop the controversy is not to change the seal at all," Johnson said. "I work for 29,000 stockholders in a farmer-owned co-op, and they have not authorized me to negotiate."
The school seal was designed in 1927 and formally adopted in 1953. Ten cotton bolls representing the 10 cotton producing counties around Lubbock cross the shield.
Changes to the school shield were not part of the compromise. The new cotton image would be incorporated into the larger seal, Denton said.
The newest designs should be prepared in time for next week's Board of Regents meeting, Denton said.
To comment on this story:
elliott.blackburn@lubbockonline.com 766-8722
brian.williams@lubbockonline.com 766-8717
It is on the south side of town along 82nd street (Lubbock now extends well beyond 100th street). I'll post the pic in a minute.
82nd and what? I drive all over the place when I visit - lol
82nd and Nashville.
My daughter has an apartment in that complex for next year....... it is beautiful
We'll have to visit that next time we're in Lubbock - thanks
Those are nice off-campus digs!
Yeah, nothing like the dives I lived in during college.........lol
I was so shocked at that whole area of apartments/condos on the east side of University - what a huge undertaking - but desperately needed since most apartments near campus were way past their prime.
Would you put me on the Tech/Lubbock ping list? I don't live that far from Lubbock now. I lived there a total of 3 years, but it still feels like home when I go there.
Yes it is! The dude is nearing completion; he even has a website dedicated to the house.
I'd live anywhere in Texas rather that live in another state...
anywhere, that is, but Houston.
I 'd live in Florida first.
Thanks for adding me to your ping list. I get to come to Lubbock once or twice a year. When we moved there Slide Road was about as far west as the city went...now it seems Lubbock goes all the way to Levelland!
So you lived in Abilene, Lubbock, Midand AND San Angelo?
Me too.
Moving to Muleshoe on Tuesday.
God, I love West Texas.
sounds fun but i'll have to check my calendar and i'm drinking too much wine for that now
AAC, I have photos from the roof of the Saigon Hotel in 1968 and of downtown Saigon where the little boys would try to get the GI to give them a cigarette.
yeah....that house was on hgtv's extreme homes la t year...still unfinished
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