Radford University:

Who The Heck Are WE?

by MICHAEL SOS

As Whim's Art Director, I am challenged daily by the task of wall-papering this site. I do aesthetics. Last semester when I took on this job, I was very intimidated at first. I had nothing to work with. There was no RU logo, specific color, or even a common Radford theme. I designed this site from scratch; creating its own theme. Looking back at this venture, I have realized that this is all wrong. Radford should have a theme. We should have a logo that screams "Radford University!!" I think this is at the heart of our identity problem.

Many people will argue that we have an identity in our tartan plaid and our Highlander. I challenge these people to tell me what our school colors are. I have seen our athletes wear blue, white, red, and green. Please make up your mind and tell me. I might like to show some spirit and wear our school colors if I actually knew what they were.

While it is easy to point fingers at our university, I offer a solution:

To whom it may concern,

Please start an RU committee whose job is to create a unified Radford look. Give this committee some money and let them spruce up the awful RU web pages with something new and up-to-date that represents us better. Let them create the school colors and some by-laws governing the use of them by our athletes and institutions representing the university.

Make this committee open to RU students and I will be the first in line to join.

Name:   

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Name: Ahmed KAMAL ALI
Major: police oficer
Comments:
i need a free schooler ship in fittnes in usa or canada

Comments:
no. actually, All of the other schools have online versions of thier school newspapers. Whim is only a online publication. That includes the boring repetitive graphics. By the way, UVA's graphics are really cool. Wow they used 3 colors. Now that is taking advantage of the exciting netscape pallette. 1

Comments:
Actually, if you will surf around, most of schools have an online mag. In fact, a lot of schools have one much better than the Whim. Hell, Uva's online daily newspaper is a better online magazine that the Whim. So don't get all high and might. The only thing the Whim has is some decent but boringly repetitive graphics and this feedback section, and I have a feeling that they edit the shit out of this feedback section.

Name: Highlander
Comments:
Guess what? Other schools do not have online magazines. You are looking at the only official college webzine in the country. Radford students did it first. Now that is what I call identity. the only thing it needs is a little plaid. So if you read this art boy, add some plaid and this mag will be perfect.

Name: shadoldy
Major: media studies
Comments:
OK OK 1st of all RU is as much of a party school as any other university..whether it it a Virginia school.or a school out in Hawaii for all I care. Our school colors are Tartan plaid, symbol is the beehive, we have a school song (no it doesn;t rhyme..but so what?), we have an alumni garden and house, our mascot is the Highlander. As for the STD count..well..you give me the real facts on that and then we will talk. If you can show me a website or something like that that says RU is the biggest party school in country and the highest STD count for a state school then we'll talk but until then you shoudl get your facts straight. I think about the good parts of RU and why I came there. The beautiful and medium campus. The fact that we are in the nice Blue Ridge Mountains. We have our own on line magazine and TV and radio station. I'm not saying that other universities/colleges do not but that is alot for one school. I like the suites in the dorms..that is one reason why I picked RU over VCU. We have a bunch of different resident halls to choose from like smoking and non smoking floors,etc. It is like what my button says that I got my freshman year (for RU students) UR RU. SHOW IT!

Comments:
Since our school themes are so ambiguous to the students themselves, regarding school traditions, our heritage is being lost to us. You can't market yourself without some type of theme. We aren't known due to lack of funds and marketing around our themes/heritage. People will continue to not know who we are. We are our own problem, as well as, the politics in the area. Granted, I didn't even know some of the things mentioned in the Comment Article. We really have some neat heritage. :)

Name: Lauren Estes
Major: Plaid and lovin' it
Comments:
Mike, just tell me how and I'll be happy to do that article for you. :)

Name: Lauren Estes
Major: Plaid and lovin it
Comments:
Mike, just tell me how and I'll be happy to do that article for you. :)

Name: Michael Sos
Comments:
I ussually don't respond to feedback in a direct way, but the last comment deserves a response. To answer "Plaid and Lovin' It", No I didn't know all those things. I have been here for 3 years and I love my school but no one told me. Whether or not my original argument holds water is not the point. The purpose of my article is to find Radford an identity that we can be proud of. It excites me to hear that we have so many fine traditions. Traditions are the first step to having an identity. I wish all students including myself shared your enthusiasim. I think we could if you shared more of this information with us. So what I am asking is for you to submit these same thoughts as an article. Your feedback in this article, while argumentative, inspires hope for loyal highlanders and should be showcased as opposed to being hidden in the bottom half of this poorly written article.

Name: Plaid and Lovin' It
Comments:
Scott was right when he mentioned the "inneffective SGA." Any student who is enrolled at Radford University is by the SGA constitution a member of the Student Government Association. And while I think Scott was particularly targeting the active and "effective" members of the organization, it is people such as himself that are causing the identity problem at RU. It is people who have to be like EVERY OTHER school...so what if there are "hundreds of cars with university logos that everyone recognizes?" Does everyone recognize those logos for the individual university, or do they recognize them as just another university logo? I am personally ELATED that our school colors are MACFARLANE CLAN TARTAN based after that specific group of Scottish immigrants that settled on the very land that we are now being educated upon. Michael, I find it very interesting that you were so "challenged" to begin designing this website because you didn't have any tradition to work with. You think that the beehive symbol is silly? Is is silly that this university is based upon community, and working together toward a common goal of education? Did you know that when the architecs were standing on this land in 1910 trying to decide how to design the campus a flock of geese flew overhead in a perfect "V" formation and they decided to build the campus in the shape of a "V" with Founders Hall at the point to show how the school was traveling together and focused on the center point--the students? Did you know that there used to be a stone wall around the campus, and pieces of it now make up the planters in the alumni gardens? Did you know that John Preston McConnell library, named after our university's founder and first president, is the most widely recognized and photographed building on this campus? The graphics on your webpage could include clocks (clocks are big on this campus--Muse, plaza, Moffett), the fountain, the porcelain couch between Heth and Muse that everyone is familiar with, and many more aspects that represent this university. It is my belief that ONE aspect of a university does NOT define it. It is the many different traditions and parts of the school's history that form the "STORY" that is unique to the campus. Plaid got a lot of talk at the NCAA--it may have set us aside from the rest, but that's what I WANT. I don't want to be just another logo. I want to be different, and I don't think I'm alone in that desire.

Name: MM
Comments:
We have a name, Radford. What do the colors matter? Its unique to be plaid. Our teams get to choose there own colors. People, wake up, why does everyone want to be told what to where?

Name: WiT
Comments:
I was at a sporting goods store yesterday and one of the clerks overheard my buddy and I discussing radford basketball. The clerk interupted our conversacion to ask us what the hell our colors are. He claimed the entire ncaa tournement game last year the commentators on tv kept making fun of us because we had no image. What really bothers me is not the commentators comments, but the fact that this clerk remembered them a year later.

Name: Holly
Major: MFA sculpture
Comments:
Your comments need to be directed to the Chairmen of the university. You should e-mail them personally about this issue. I do know that "Radford City" does not work with Radford University. There is a constant battle unlike Blacksburg. Politics is at the heart of our problems here in Radford. I know, for a fact, that the University has been trying with the "city" for years. I do think that our school colors and a theme could be accomplished. It's the "Granduer" things that involve the "city" itself that will be the hardest to overcome. I'm almost surprised that "Radford City" allows the Highlander Festival, get me?

Name: TO ALL RADFORD STUDENTS
Comments:
No kidding the worst part about Radford is that we are not known for education but for how much we party. Although partying is cool when we graduate to either further our education or to find the "dream job" we are referred to as the ultimate party school and the place that only the "people who could not get into real colleges go" well I am here to say that we must put Radford University On The Map. To do this we must further our excellence by striving for more technology and more educational mediums. ...

Comments:
Great point Mike. Radford's image effects not only sports but the ability to attract good students. Wake up scott cloud even Harvard has school colors. Marketing properly effects funding for the school as well attracting students to us. R U's image needs sprucing up. This best schools in the country have learn the trick that people must constantly be told about how great thay are. R U is the best kept secret in Va.

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Maybe the art department would like to sponsor a logo contest open to all students??

Name: Adam Sos
Major: Who Care's
Comments:
I think Michael makes a good point, what are Radford's school colors? You can't say its just 'plaid' or a Tartan. iI think someone should walk up to Dr. Covington and ask him to his face what the colors are and have them set in stone for all to know, and for all the visiting students to know. But that is only my theory to solving your problems, I don't even go to school there.

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W & M I believe that stands for wussies and maggits.

Name: Brian :)
Major: Advertising
Comments:
From an advertising standpoint, think of all the possibilities with marketing...all it would take is a few choice colors. Think bumper stickers, jackets, hats, placemats, umbrellas, flags, banners, pens, keyrings...Sure, we've already got those things. Look, though, at how different they all are from each other. It's time someone looks at RU's PR with an Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) approach. Unify. Set a standard, and have every medium cover it, in every way imaginable. Consistency. It's the way to go.

By the way, sodo...great comment. Very intelligent.

Name: Highlander
Comments:
I have heard of W&M before. aren't you those stuck up snotty bitches over in that little town with nothing to do but make candles and baskets. I am sure no STDs exsist in that town due to the fact you are all probably virgins. Mr. W&M probably isn't sure what hole to stick in. WHIM is Radford turf, so keep your nose out of our business, W&M boy.

Name: W&M
Major: Business
Comments:
I for one have heard of Radford before. Keep that STD count up guys! P.S. The school color should be some sort of inflammation red. RU 4 AIDS!

Name: bill
Comments:
This guy Rogers does do a good job on the website. He updates it daily, which is a lot of work. On the other hand he is not a designer and that is very obvious. A university is a big business. Last time I was at other business sites they had figured out how to get thier departments to work together in the same look. You shouldn't have such low standards for Radford.

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I think Rick Rogers does a good job in the webpage. I don't see the big deal, unless of course you're suggesting telling the departments and sub-departments adhering to your color ideas, in which case- GOOD LUCK.

Name: Scott Cloud
Comments:
My main concern, expressed through a haze of other concerns, is that the University experience would probably be damaged is Radford set up a color Gestapo. The truth be known, there are already exists formal bureaucrats who make such decisions about colors and mascots and symbols. I am sure there were several committees went through months of decision making before they came up with that stupid looking highlander mascot guy. I believe what Mike was suggesting is that there be a final commission- or person- set up and formalized into the bureaucracy (probably the ineffective SGA) to oversee all the arms of the University's use of the colors and symbols. This person or people would enforce what they have determined to be "acceptable use." Radford doesn't need that. Radford just needs better decision making in the channels already exist. As a final side note, this whole issue is usually mandated by a Universitys’ sports teams. We really don't have much of a focus on sports here. In the words of my favorite prof while I was there- "I came to Radford because no one give a damn about sports." If we had a big time football team, I guarantee that we would get colors consistency really fast.

Name: Brian
Major: Social Work
Comments:
Hold on one second, I don't think that anyone is arguing the fact that there are issues that are more in the forefront of some people's minds, but let's be realistic. Mike has a point. Radford needs to look for some recognition for academic life and college life. Last time I checked, college is a combination of experiences, not limited to someone's narrow interpretation of what people should be concentrating on. If we don't make the best of the college life and academic life, we shouldn't be here. If some people believe that having a more well known symbol can make them have more school spirit, then where's the problem?

Name: sodo
Major: Media studies
Comments:
This whole Identity thing now I say we get a squril, hell there all over campus and paint it up with all the school colors Red, Blue, Green, and White and stick it the oppsings team coaches pants. Now that will give this school some identity.

Name: Ghost
Comments:
Why not boost the academics, put less emphasis on "the college life" and a little more into "education", and let our name speak for itself???

Name: Scott Cloud
Comments:
Doesn't cheese cause constipation? Have some broccolli I always say. George Carlin says it cures cancer. :-)

Name: :)
Comments:
You know, when all is said and done, everyone needs to sit back, relax, and have some cheese. That'll solve everything.

Name: Scott Cloud
Comments:
If it were a perfect world, we would all concerned about global warming (actually, that is not much of an issue yet. The one that troubles me most is the degrdation of the water quality from envrimental dumping), but I totally support a citizen's concerns about things such as school colors. You are right, that Turkey is stupid. And we don't have much better. But thank goodness that at least they fit a little, unlike some professional sports teams. Tennesse Oilers? Utah Jazz? In retrospect, I do commend you for trying to improve a situation you see as bad. However, still being a radical civil libertartian of sorts, I cringe at the thought a University commission deeming what is and isn't image-correct. As you proceed, please bear in mind the needs of the University for aethitic and cultural consistancy along with the needs of the University enviroment to be a free open and robust forum for expression in every aspect. A hard load to balance. I don't envy you.

Name: Michael Sos
Comments:
Good comment Scott. You eased my pain a little. Hell, I still want school colors. I have a hard time making fun of that damn turkey when I have nothing but a beehive and a silly tartan to fall back on. I guess I should be more concerned with more important issues like global warming. I would like to have a good tan and wear sandles all of the time, so it never really ruffled my feathers enough.

Name: :)
Comments:
just goes to show you it's all really about cheese

Name: Scott Cloud
Comments:
Why does a University of Learning need a color scheme? Being a former PR guy, I understand that organizations need consistency in their marketing campaign. But I still ask the question- should Radford be more concerned with improving its image as an organization or improving the quality of its education experience? Now, I am sure my colleague and friend Mr. Sos will point to the fact that University Identity is an important part of the University experience. I agree. But I also point out that the individual should develop a sense of independence, critical insight, and as Thomas Jefferson put it "rebellion" during their college years. It is not necessarily helpful to that end to come up with a standard of aesthetic acceptance to be mandated to all official University functions- such as webpages and sporting events. School colors are fine, but let the sub-groups determine the use of these colors. The last thing Radford needs is some SGA committee of color police ruling over a bureaucracy of acceptable uses. In a way, this kind of Giuliani-eque directive just implicitly teaches college students a watered down sense of unltra-nationalism and conformity. (Two dogmas that students should have receive enough training of in their public education) Radford’s consistency should be focused on its vision of education and the ideals that reinforce that, not in its matching art work and color codes. Sorry Mike. (just my opinions)