Identifying Fort Hays State University

The university's identity marks are designed to distinguish the university from all other institutions of higher education and to help us achieve instantaneous, favorable recognition. The benefits to the university of such an identity are obvious - our institutional name, our identity, our "brand name" becomes associated with quality and value.

The benefits of such recognition do not stop with the overall university, and neither does the necessity for protecting that identity. The individual departments, programs and offices of the university all share in, and contribute to, whatever identity the university has.

Affordable Success

In order to establish a distinctive image for a university, it is necessary to identify a quality or qualities that set it apart. One of those qualities for Fort Hays State University is affordability. As one of the three regional universities in the Kansas Board of Regents system, Fort Hays State has long been able to claim that it offered an affordable education. Since the other two regional universities -- Emporia State and Pittsburg State -- raised their tuition significantly in recent years, FHSU has emerged as the leader in affordability among all the four-year institutions in the state, public or private. However, promoting only affordability carries the risk of creating the perception of cheapness, a distinction that could act as a disincentive to those who are seeking a quality education. Fortunately, FHSU can substantiate the quality of its educational performance though the annual awards and honors, both regional and national, that are achieved by its faculty and students.

Accordingly, the Integrated Marketing Committee selected Affordable Success as the university's slogan, or catchphrase. The president endorsed that decision by making Affordable success the official theme for the 2002-2003 academic year, and it continues as the university's main marketing slogan.

Promotional materials for departments, offices and the university in general should make liberal use of the slogan in order to establish and reinforce Fort Hays State University's unique identity. Remember, though, that a slogan is by its nature superficial. Therefore, be sure that assertions about affordability and success are always backed by supporting facts and anecdotes. The Office of University Relations can provide that supporting evidence.



Licensing

Fort Hays State University has created a licensing program to provide legal protection for its identity marks. To protect the university's image, and to protect the university from liability, Fort Hays State University has implemented a program that establishes ownership and regulates the use of its name and other identity marks.

We are a mid-sized university with a long record of highly successful athletic programs, many other popular activities and an alumni base of 37,000. Therefore, we enjoy a demand for commercial products that capitalize on our name and image.

Although the university once charged royalty fees for the use of its protected identity marks on commercial products, all royalty fees have been discontinued in order to encourage wide dissemination of our image. However, all businesses are required to become licensed by submitting an agreement and paying a $25 fee, acknowledging FHSU's ownership of its marks. In addition, all uses of the university's protected identity marks must be presented to the Office of university Relations for approval prior to manufacture. This approval is required for all users, commercial or otherwise.

Please contact the Office of University Relations for further information about the FHSU licensing program. A current list of manufacturers that have been licensed is available at http://www.fhsu.edu/univrel/vendors.html.

Editorial Style

Not every academic area uses the same professional writing style manual (Chicago Manual of Style, AP Stylebook and Libel Manual, the MLA, etc.). The Office of University Relations adheres mainly to the AP Stylebook in its news releases, since most of these go to news outlets familiar with AP style. The main reason for adopting any particular writing style is consistency in the presentation of certain kinds of information: names, titles, addresses, statistics, numbers, etc. Consistency in such things is desirable because it causes readers the least amount of work while leaving writers the freedom to be creative and imaginative where it will give readers the greatest benefit.