NORTHRIDGE : New CSUN Logo Draws More Fire

Tumult continues to brew over the new logo for Cal State Northridge, which was adopted by the administration earlier this year.

Today, a committee of the Associated Student Senate will consider a resolution condemning the new logo, citing the example of the CSUN Faculty Senate, which passed a resolution last week dubbing the logo “inappropriate and unacceptable”.

“We are not just talking about a trademark. We are also talking about the principle,” said Artemus E. Ward, a student senator.

Ward and other logo opponents say they are angry that university administrators did not look first to the students or faculty for an idea for a logo. And they say the new logo itself, a stylized depiction of the columns of the campus’ Oviatt Library, is rather obscure and meaningless.

“What it says about the campus, I don’t know,” Ward said.

But university administrators say the new logo, developed with the help of an independent consultant, gives the campus a more dignified and consistent image. They say the campus community will adjust to it as it slowly replaces the unofficial “CSUN” script on campus stationery and catalogues.

“This really is the usual response when an institution changes its logo,” said university spokeswoman Kaine Thompson. “People become attached to something they didn’t really have feelings for before.”

Amir Henrickson, a student senator, argued the university has already spent the money for the logo--about $3,000 for its actual design and another $15,000 for a broader study looking into public perceptions of CSUN’s image--and it might as well stick with the result.

The whole controversy is “a little ridiculous,” she said.