Following the installation of new MU-themed street signs throughout campus in August 2010, Campus Facilities has chosen to replace some of the signs because the letters were difficult to read.
Campus Facilities spokeswoman Karlan Seville said 10 signs have been replaced so far this year.
Seville said each set of two connected signs located at traffic intersections costs $100. With about 110 MU signs on campus, the entire project originally cost about $11,000.
A recent federal regulation would require all signs for streets with speed limits greater than 25 miles per hour to use a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters in order to make them more legible to drivers. But Seville said this legislation was not the driving force behind replacing some of the signs.
“The signs that we made already met the regulations,” Seville said. “So, we did not have to remake signs for that reason.”
She said when the new signs were installed last year, Campus Facilities created them all to be the same size and, over time, has noticed the names of longer streets are difficult to read.
“We tried to make all signs the same length, but when we put those signs up, the letters were small,” Seville said. “They still met federal guidelines, but we chose ourselves to just go ahead and make the length of the sign longer for those streets.”
The streets in question include Carrie Francke Drive and East Campus Drive. Campus Facilities has since installed larger and longer replacements for the signs on those streets.
The last round of road signs replacements occurred in time for Homecoming in the fall.
Seville said the Mizzou Alumni Association agreed to fund the signs to let visitors know they had “arrived” on campus.
The signs help to distinguish campus from the rest of downtown Columbia.
Mizzou Alumni Association Executive Director Todd McCubbin said the idea came up during a chancellor staff meeting when members mentioned other college campuses with similarly styled street signs made up of school colors.
“It’s something we’d had on our minds for awhile,” McCubbin said. “It wasn’t something that necessarily had to be done, but it was an opportunity to look at branding our campus, and the Alumni Association was happy to step forward to make that gift and get those signs printed.”
The Mizzou Alumni Association figured out how to implement the signs and worked with Campus Facilities to pull it off.
“When you’re dealing with the Alumni Association, there’s no such thing as too much black and gold,” McCubbin said.
The Alumni Association gave a one-time donation to Campus Facilities to create the signs. Campus Facilities budgeted for replacement signs, but the Mizzou Alumni Association did not provide additional funding for replacement signs.
McCubbin said he has heard a lot of positive feedback from students, faculty and returning alumni this past fall.
“I think it’s great to see those signs up and about campus now,” he said.