Quinnipiac University Updates Logo After Student Petition

Quinnipiac University has updated its logo following a student petition asking for the change. The petition protested that the logo's lowercase "u" in "university," saying it undermined the school's academic excellence. Last summer, the Connecticut school unveiled its new brand identity, which included "Quinnipiac" with a capital "Q" and "university" in all lowercase letters. The revamped logo prompted Brett Segelman, a senior marketing major at the school, to start a petition in September. "I was outraged by it," said Mr. Segelman, who added that the wordmark did "not entail a message of academic importance." The student's plea must have not gone unnoticed because Quinnipiac revealed an updated wordmark on Friday, which showcases the word "university" in all caps. On the university's Facebook page, it posted the new logo with the upper case U, saying "Today we are announcing a new 'Quinnipiac University' full wordmark that achieves significantly better alignment with our primary wordmark, which simply uses 'Quinnipiac.'" It continues, "We determined that our secondary and full wordmark 'Quinnipiac University' appears substantively different from our primary wordmark by giving too much weight to the word 'university' at a time when our goal is to shift attention to the 'Quinnipiac' brandmark. This new wordmark design structure is also more closely aligned to higher education industry convention — namely how other prestigious institutions apply the word 'university' to their primary wordmarks." Quinnipiac representatives declined to provide further comment on the revamp or Mr. Segelman's petition, which garnered 1,200 signatures. "The outrageous decision not to capitalize the 'U' in university (a proper noun), reflects poorly on everyone affiliated with this institution of higher learning," the online petition stated. "We feel that the most basic components of English grammar must be recognized in all settings, regardless of stylistic intentions." Despite the fact that Mr. Segelman said the university president has not yet met with him about the situation and the Student Government Association canceled a Q&A session about it in the fall, the logo change "absolutely" feels like a victory. He said it's "much better typographical treatment." Mr. Segelman, who still hopes to meet with the university president before he graduates, said the situation taught him "not to give up if there's a cause you believe in."

Quinnipiac University Updates Logo After Student Petition

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