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
Well, if nothing else, 'Breastfeeding in Lubbock' would probably make a good name for a band.
Stay the hell out of it then.
Oh, believe you me, I have. I avoid it like, well, like I avoid Odessa.
LOLOLOLOLOL!!! Don't be knocking Sweetwater....they have rattlesnakes, ya know!! I knew I'd find you on the thread about Tech!! Just catching up with all this, and as a former Tech student and proud Mom of a Tech graduate, I must say, I'm glad to see that cotton is back where it belongs on the Tech seal.
Ok- Sweetwater has it's redeeming qualities - give me a few hours and I'll think of them............ ;^)
Guns up, hispanarepublicana! You tell her!! :-)
Why the dogpile?
Is there some rule I missed that says I have to adore every town in Texas because I was born in one?
Amarillo has very little to recommend it to me. Likewise El Paso and Corpus Christi. YMMV.
I'm a Houstonian born and bred, one of very few natives, and I've always figured the cool thing about Texas is that it has something for just about everybody.
Here's one: I was born there. I never actually lived there, and I'm sure after my birth, things started to decline. LOL
For your information... if you ever listen to the entire song of Mac Davis.. it is happiness is Lubbock, TX getting nearer and nearer. He loves his home down and sang to a standing ovation a couple weeks ago. He comes home often and loves it here.
Well, there ya go then.......... and one of my children was born there too!
So you prefer over-rated hill country burgs so that you can suffer through traffic, liberals, humidity, heat, a lack of 4 seasons and few if any views of the horizon or beautiful sunsets? Different strokes for different folks, I guess.
No mam, sure isn't.
I'm a Houstonian born and bred, one of very few natives,
Congratulations.
and I've always figured the cool thing about Texas is that it has something for just about everybody.
Right you are. I don't know about the others, but I personally don't go onto a thread about Houston and start slamming it. If I did, I'm sure I'd get *dogpiled*, too.
Have a great day!
Lighten up, Francis, and be man (or woman) enough to post your cursing here, rather than in Freepmail.
Was that you who punched the Aggie's dog?
a lack of 4 seasons
Help me remember, the 4 West Texas seasons are Dust, Frozen, Moredust, and Hell, right?
Brings back wonderful memories in San Angelo watching the color changes of the weeds. 10 minutes of green to brown to ochre to dead, then start all over.
What a show!
Uh, yeah...that's the ticket....(if it'll keep riffraff out). But just between you & me, I'm looking out my window at the businessmen SNEAKING off to play golf because, as it is generally 5 out of every 7 days in spring/early summer & fall here: winds @10 to 15 mph; around 70 degrees (w/a high forecast of 82); mostly sunny and I would guess about 15 percent humidity. (the wind and sand blew just one day this year, so we should continue to keep our record for our average windspeed at 12 mph below Dallas' as it has been most years). Most of the guys going off to play golf will travel 20 miles to get there (roughly the width of the city limits) but make it there in 15 minutes. As opposed to Dallas & Houston, moms & dads going to pick up or meet there kids at 5:30 p.m. soccer/baseball/teeball games will not have to leave their downtown offices at 3:30 just to make it work. I think I'll stay right where I is.
Well of course your wind speed is lower, you're further from Oklahoma (which totally sucks.)
And don't tell anyone that I'd love to retire to Alpine some day. Would ruin my schtick...
BTW, I seem to have detected a bias toward mosquito farmers in your posts...
bias toward WHAT?
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