UL/Louisiana Branding

[justafan83]

sorry, wrong link. It was from Act 45 from 1995, as it amends R.S. 49:1101. Not the System policy.

Here it is:
http://www.legis.state.la.us/lss/lss.asp?doc=103486

Wow that's retarded to have in there.

[HoustonCajun]

Allow me to play devil's advocate for a moment. Yes, LSU is the flagship university of the state, as per La. R.S. 17:3215, which reads:

"The Louisiana State University system is composed of the institutions under the supervision and management of the Board of Supervisors of Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College as follows:

(1) Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, located at Baton Rouge and designated as the premier flagship university for the state.

(2) Repealed by Acts 2011, No. 419, §2, eff. July 12, 2011.

(3) Louisiana State University at Alexandria, located at Chambers.

(4) Louisiana State University at Eunice.

(5) Louisiana State University at Shreveport.

(6) Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center at New Orleans, which shall include medical and related health schools and programs located in New Orleans including those state's medical centers transferred to the Board of Supervisors of Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College as provided in Subpart C-2 of Part II of Chapter 4 of this Title, subject to provisions of R.S. 17:1519 et seq.

(7) Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center at Shreveport, which shall include the medical school and related schools at Shreveport, Louisiana State University Hospital at Shreveport, E. A. Conway Medical Center at Monroe, and Huey P. Long Medical Center in Pineville.

(8) The Center for Agricultural Sciences and Rural Development which administers the agricultural extension and research programs of the board throughout the state. The center shall also be responsible for conducting river water research.

(9) Any other college, university, school, institution or program now or hereafter under the supervision and management of the Board of Supervisors of Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College."

source: http://legis.la.gov/lss/lss.asp?doc=80673

Interestingly enough, however, there is no rule I am aware of which prevents the state from having more than one flagship. There are several states which have multiple flagships (e.g., Florida).

As to the name of UL, the only applicable statute is R.S. 17:3217, which reads,

"The University of Louisiana System is composed of the institutions under the supervision and management of the Board of Supervisors for the University of Louisiana System as follows:

(1) Grambling State University at Grambling.

(2) Louisiana Tech University at Ruston.

(3) McNeese State University at Lake Charles.

(4) Nicholls State University at Thibodaux.

(5) Northwestern State University of Louisiana at Natchitoches.

(6) Southeastern Louisiana University at Hammond.

(7) The University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

(8) The University of Louisiana at Monroe.

(9) The University of New Orleans.

(10) Any other college, university, school, institution or program now or hereafter under the supervision and management of the Board of Supervisors for the University of Louisiana System."

Source: http://legis.la.gov/lss/lss.asp?doc=80675

Neither statute, by the way, says a darn thing about what anyone is required to call either school..... which is why I call the school located in Lafayette "UL," while I call the one in Baton Rouge "that community college 54 miles down I-10 East".

It doesn't say if the city tag with each university is their official name or not, but I suspect it is not, just a reference. I would bet LA Tech would fight having to use at Ruston with their name, but see no problem with our being required to. Also, the law requires two schools to have the University of Louisiana name and both must use the city tag. And any use of "University of" or "UL" requires the city tag. The law is very specific and that is all it addresses. So, when we use Louisiana, we are not in violation of the law because we haven't used "University of" Louisiana. When we use UL alone, we are in violation of the law because we don't include Lafayette. So, what other abbreviation would not be in violation of the law? How about LU? It in no way implies University of Louisiana.

If we are not going to try and change our name to Louisiana University and I can understand why we would not, we can get by legally with Louisiana and LU. Of course, that requires everyone to change from UL to LU. Seems like a small sacrifice to stay legal and finally get a completely legal reference that we want. No more UL-L, UL Lafayette, Louisiana Lafayette, U La La, Lafayette, U Laf, Laf, LL, and any other variation we all have seen.

Why can't we all get on the same page on something like this and adopt something that, although it may violate the spirit of the law as someone stated, is clearly legal and something we can use NOW? We would certainly be in good company with other universities who do the same thing, i.e. University of Oklahoma, OU, University of Kansas, KU, and University of Colorado, CU. It is time to end the madness.

[DannyP]

Do you think Texas is taken as a collegiate nickname because they called dibs on it, or perhaps there might be a law protecting it?

1) There's no law protecting "Texas", and they certainly don't need one.
2) A law is the only thing protecting AGAINST The University of Louisiana being officially and 100% "The University of Louisiana".
3) So what if someone gets mad as hell about being double LL'd? What's wrong with being passionate about this issue?

The only people that would have a problem with that kind of passion are those that are on the other side of this fight. Those that stay silent are no worse than neutral.
But you have spoken- "I'm a ULL graduate and I couldn't possibly be more tired of this dumb@ss name thing. I understand you want us to be called Louisiana or UL. And I truly don't care if you use that name or ULL..."

[justafan83]

1) There's no law protecting "Texas", and they certainly don't need one.
2) A law is the only thing protecting AGAINST The University of Louisiana being officially and 100% "The University of Louisiana".
3) So what if someone gets mad as hell about being double LL'd? What's wrong with being passionate about this issue?

The only people that would have a problem with that kind of passion are those that are on the other side of this fight. Those that stay silent are no worse than neutral.
But you have spoken- "I'm a ULL graduate and I couldn't possibly be more tired of this dumb@ss name thing. I understand you want us to be called Louisiana or UL. And I truly don't care if you use that name or ULL..."

Texas is in fact a protected trademark of the University of Texas Austin. No other university can legally describe itself as "Texas."

And I still couldn't be more tired of it. The problem with getting mad as hell with someone for being double LL'd is people like Ben McDonald literally don't know going in what to call the university. It can't possibly be a good representation of the school to rip his head off and then claim you're just passionate.

And yeah, I have spoken, and I still couldn't be more tired of people acting like children when somebody doesn't use the name they want when there are plenty of acceptable reasons why they might say University of Louisiana at Lafayette. The only arguments I've posted about the name were saying that outsiders sometimes have a legitimate reason for using the non-preferred names and it doesn't do us any good to act like jerks to them. Of course, the second I mentioned the name at all, the exact people I was talking about jumped all over it without really understanding what I was saying. I'm all for raising the prestige of the university as much as possible, but stomping your feet around and screaming at people isn't going to help, and will only fuel the people that want to hinder the university.

[DannyP]

Texas is in fact a protected trademark of the University of Texas Austin. No other university can legally describe itself as "Texas."

And I still couldn't be more tired of it. The problem with getting mad as hell with someone for being double LL'd is people like Ben McDonald literally don't know going in what to call the university. It can't possibly be a good representation of the school to rip his head off and then claim you're just passionate.

And yeah, I have spoken, and I still couldn't be more tired of people acting like children when somebody doesn't use the name they want when there are plenty of acceptable reasons why they might say University of Louisiana at Lafayette. The only arguments I've posted about the name were saying that outsiders sometimes have a legitimate reason for using the non-preferred names and it doesn't do us any good to act like jerks to them. Of course, the second I mentioned the name at all, the exact people I was talking about jumped all over it without really understanding what I was saying. I'm all for raising the prestige of the university as much as possible, but stomping your feet around and screaming at people isn't going to help, and will only fuel the people that want to hinder the university.

You're on the other side of this fight, in one way or another. So why not just leave and let it be. You are beginning to look like a "mad as heLLer"!

[justafan83]

Let's see, on June 10th, tLSU posted his last comment in this thread, and June 11th justafan83 started posting, but sounds like the same person. Coincidence, I don't think so.

I haven't posted even the slightest thing in support of LSU and never would.

[Ragin9221]

It doesn't say if the city tag with each university is their official name or not, but I suspect it is not, just a reference. I would bet LA Tech would fight having to use at Ruston with their name, but see no problem with our being required to. Also, the law requires two schools to have the University of Louisiana name and both must use the city tag. And any use of "University of" or "UL" requires the city tag. The law is very specific and that is all it addresses. So, when we use Louisiana, we are not in violation of the law because we haven't used "University of" Louisiana. When we use UL alone, we are in violation of the law because we don't include Lafayette. So, what other abbreviation would not be in violation of the law? How about LU? It in no way implies University of Louisiana.

If we are not going to try and change our name to Louisiana University and I can understand why we would not, we can get by legally with Louisiana and LU. Of course, that requires everyone to change from UL to LU. Seems like a small sacrifice to stay legal and finally get a completely legal reference that we want. No more UL-L, UL Lafayette, Louisiana Lafayette, U La La, Lafayette, U Laf, Laf, LL, and any other variation we all have seen.

Why can't we all get on the same page on something like this and adopt something that, although it may violate the spirit of the law as someone stated, is clearly legal and something we can use NOW? We would certainly be in good company with other universities who do the same thing, i.e. University of Oklahoma, OU, University of Kansas, KU, and University of Colorado, CU. It is time to end the madness.

LU is the way to go. They would have to use Louisiana. Until someone sends us to court, that is what we do.

[CAJUNJUDO]

LU is the way to go. They would have to use Louisiana. Until someone sends us to court, that is what we do.

...but....but....no matter which way I turn my hands, I can't get them to read "LU" - now what are we going to do?

[ULGrad@HOU]

I haven't posted even the slightest thing in support of LSU and never would.

Sure you haven't.......as justafan83, but how about when you are tLsu?

[HoustonCajun]

...but....but....no matter which way I turn my hands, I can't get them to read "LU" - now what are we going to do?

A small sacrifice for a national identity. I think the hand signs originated in the SWC with the Longhorn sign. Other schools like UH and Texas Tech tried to copy and have some unrecognizable signs. It doesn't work for most schools. While UL is a neat hand sign, it is likely recognized only by UL fans. Hate to lose it, but LU will take us to a much higher recognition. Other than Lamar and Liberty, can you think of another LU school?

[Turbine]

The law as stated requires 2 universities for the University of name along with a city tag for each. If we went to the legislature and obtained the Louisiana University name, the same law would still apply to ULM. They would have to either find another school that wanted a name change like Southeastern to UL Hammond, they could keep ULM. If no other school came forward, they would have to change their name as they would NEVER be the University of Louisiana.

Do we have a delegation strong enough to get this passed in the legislature. Will any other school care if we are Louisiana University so long as we are not the University of Louisiana and perceived to be the flagship of the UL System?

If we are not willing to take it this far, then change our abbreviation. We can't use UL. We do use UL-L, but we all hate that. So, keep it all legal and go to LU and Louisiana athletically, even if we remain officially the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Get creative and do something to get this whole thing in allignment and focus more on the LOUISIANA than Ragin Cajuns.

It was a law without principle.

Principles require logical reasoning.

Back in 1984 they never broached the principle behind why UL didn't deserve to be THE University of Louisiana.

In 1995 they never broached the principle behind why there needed to be two.

So in the end the largest school in the system could not be the one, but it absolutely did not matter how small the second school was. The smallest school in the system could have been the 2nd one.

The unprincipled name rule.

[Turbine]

Allow me to play devil's advocate for a moment. Yes, LSU is the flagship university of the state, as per La. R.S. 17:3215, which reads:

"The Louisiana State University system is composed of the institutions under the supervision and management of the Board of Supervisors of Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College as follows:

(1) Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, located at Baton Rouge and designated as the premier flagship university for the state.

"premier flagship" indicates the existence of other flagships.