Although there are a number of big issues that need attention here at CSU and we're all waiting on tenterhooks for the HLC report (now many weeks overdue), shenanigans in the job hiring at CJ remain and are now morphing into other issues, and yet another interim appointment --dean of the College of Ed--joins the cadre of other interim deans on campus, but no, I am not going to bang on about any of these. Instead, I'm voicing something here that other people have mentioned as an unnecessary irritation. This is a comment, a critique, and a plea: get rid of the triangle.
Whoever had the brilliant idea of changing the CSU letterhead which for years was just that--letters on the top of our stationery--to the big green off-kilter triangle at the bottom (or sometimes top) of a page of stationery needs to go back to the drawing table and rethink the implication of this change. I assumed the new logo was some kind of "branding"/marketing thing --certainly it was never voted on by the CSU "community" --and is clearly meant to impress the impressionable, but did anyone think about the day-to-day impact of a letterhead that demands, nay, sucks up, so much printer ink when you try to print out a copy of the exalted administrative document? This is not corporate America with its seemingly unlimited resources and moneys, this is CSU with very limited resources.
Today was the last straw. I just received a multi-page document from an administrative office that I should print out for use with students but I refuse to do so because I am not going to waste printer ink on printing out a picture of a triangle that will deplete my very expensive ink cartridge at home. The last one I bought cost $90. Nor will I print it out in my office because I do not have an ink cartridge for the old printer there. We don't have a big budget for office supplies and cannot get them at the drop of a hat even if we did. We all know that some offices on campus are more equal than others so I'm bringing it to the attention of those offices more equal than mine.
Newsflash to the CSU marketers and administrators responsible for the triangle brand: My department cannot buy enough printer cartridges to keep all its faculty supplied, not all departments are connected to a main department printer, I AM NOT REIMBURSED FOR PRINTER CARTRIDGES THAT I USE AT HOME TO PRINT CSU stuff (nor for paper for that matter).
Last week I received an administrative letter whose last sentence was obscured by the big green triangle. Today I am supposed to print out multiple pages of green triangles? Get real. It is not possible to read everything as an online document some things must be printed. The outside world may be impressed by the big green triangle at the bottom of the page, my how hip it looks, but inside CSU this brand is a wasteful irritation.
Back in the day (70s and early 80s) the CSU logo was black and white hands clasped, ala the old SNCC logo which can be seen at http://www.sncc50thanniversary.org/press.html. I cannot find an image of this CSU logo, but oldtimers will tell you.
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