Why is everything maroon?
This post originally appeared on The Daily Runner in March 2012 but was lost due to a server error in 2014. We’ve re-uploaded it for your enjoyment.
By Austin Bell
Regent University’s website is maroon. The signs on the campus lamp posts are maroon. The wooden trim in the Ordinary is maroon. It’s pretty obvious that Regent’s school color is maroon…right?
Not even close. The actual school colors are green, blue, and gold.
But it forces the question: If those are the official colors, why don’t we see more of them on campus? Where did all the maroon come from?
Regent’s official school colors have been around since before the undergrad school was formed, and they came straight from the top. Mrs. Pat Robertson, the wife of the school’s chancellor, chose blue and green, in addition to influencing other design elements on campus. Gold was later added.
According to Sherri Stocks, Regent’s Vice President of Marketing and Public Relations, Regent’s official colors are not prominent in the university’s marketing, because they are not very important to the university’s identity. According to Stocks, the most visible part of many schools is their sports teams, and university marketing tends to reflect the colors used by the teams. However, Regent has never had any sports teams, so “what we organize…around is the mission and the vision of the university,” Stocks said. The mission and vision theme can include a variety of colors. The Regent University crest remains consistent on marketing materials, however.
According to Stocks, maroon is a color that exudes leadership, so it was chosen for the website. She says it has been a very effective marketing campaign decision. Traffic on the university’s webpage doubled after implementing the maroon.
Stocks also mentioned that the official colors are not completely absent from campus. For example, they are used during Regent’s formal ceremonies, such as commencement.
Even so, the substantial lack of the official colors on campus has gotten the attention of the Regent Undergraduate Council (RUC). According to RUC president Chelsea Adams, RUC has drafted a proposal for the University to either change the school color to maroon or change campus to reflect the official colors. With the upcoming addition of sports teams, Adams feels it is important to make the school’s colors clearer to everyone.
It is unclear what changes may take place in the future, if any. Roger Cheeks, Regent’s Director of Community Life, says that the administration’s current position is that the official colors will remain the same. However, he also says that within the next six to twelve months colors on campus will begin to change. “You’ll see more blue, you’ll see more green,” he said. Stocks, however, says that she has no current plans to change how the marketing department is picking colors, though she is open to the idea of conforming more to the school colors.
Adams would prefer that the school change its color to maroon. “Our style on campus is colonial…,” she said, “and to change things on campus to green and blue seems a bit more impractical than to just change the colors.”
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