A new administrative involvement in the “One Mizzou” campaign will expand the program’s reach but will also tweak some of its original plans, Missouri Students Association President Eric Woods said.
Last week, Chief Diversity Officer Roger Worthington informed Woods that MU wants to make One Mizzou, a diversity initiative launched after the Hatch Hall graffiti incident, a university-sanctioned program.
“What that comes with is a lot of resources and the potential to kind expand this from a small student initiative to a large university-backed initiative,” Woods said.
The logo will be different than the original one decided upon a few weeks ago. Woods said MU’s involvement in the campaign requires the logo fall under university standards in terms of font, color and design. But he said the elements of the design will be mostly similar to what the students decided.
“The thought behind this is that we want the campaign to be something that the university is able to market to prospective and current students,” Woods said. “To do that, logos have to meet certain university standards. We’re working with them to get that done.”
Representatives from the Legions of Black Collegians were somewhat relieved to hear of this, as the organization wasn’t initially fully supportive of the design, LBC spokeswoman Ashley Edwards said.
“Originally, we had a problem with the logo,” Edwards said. “We felt that it wasn’t diverse enough, and people didn’t know what that meant. Pretty much what it came down to was that it looked like everything else in the bookstore – tiger print. If you think about it, if it looks like everything else, that is the exact opposite of diversity.”
But after the initial skepticism concerning the logo, LBC is fully supportive of the program, Edwards said.
“We don’t really have a problem with it, but we just need to know that it’s going to happen,” Edwards said, in reference to the campaign in general. “We need to know everything is going to follow through. This can’t just be something that is said and then disappears.”
Because MU is making the program “official,” it will be conducted on a much larger scale, Woods said. Originally, the One Mizzou banners were intended to hang in the Student Center. Now, with the new administrative support, the banners will hang around the rotunda of Jesse Hall, as well. In addition, an even larger banner might be hung from the columns.
Also growing in size is the launch of the campaign. Tentatively, the launch will take place outside of the Student Center. If plans go accordingly, an administrative representative will speak, in addition to a few student leaders.
Throughout April, numerous events will occur affiliated with One Mizzou. Some events will correspond with Black Love Week, Greek Week and the Graduate Education Week, all which occur during the third week of April. Additionally, Maya Angelou will speak on campus as a part of the campaign.
“We’re trying to think of events that exemplify the diversity and community themes that we’re trying to promote,” Woods said.
All of these ideas are still tentative, as the task force will continue to meet, Woods said.
