When introduced in Oct. 2024, Washburn University’s branding guides sparked discussion on campus. The new branding led to confusion and frustration that impacted students’ posters, presentations and group projects. Campus faculty, alumni and Washburn Student Government Association noticed students’ concerns. 

Students have felt lost as they navigated the branding guides and found that they didn’t know what applied to them. Now, after a year and a half, Washburn’s department of Strategic Communications & Marketing is making a change.

Chamiel Thompson, clinical psychology masters student, conducted a research study on religious fundamentalism, spiritual abuse, trauma and perceptions toward receiving mental health support in the African American population.

“A part of that process is getting everything approved by Washburn’s PR, by the psych department, all of that. I was going back and forth with getting the poster approved with the new PR updates and at first I was told I needed to add the Washburn logo … and then it kind of bounced back and forth again,” Chaemiel Thompson said. 

Chamiel Thompson further explained the situation.

“I was told to actually remove the Washburn logo and put whatever class the study is affiliated with. My professor had also emailed me, letting me know that there was some kind of pushback from PR, and they were wondering … why I was excluding individuals from the study,” Chamiel Thompson said.

Chaemiel Thompson wasn’t the only student who felt upset with this update, WSGA President Kate Coulter also noticed the challenges faced by students.

“I could read the brand guide one way and you could read it another way … and we all view it differently. We all make different graphics, but yours … get accepted and mine don’t. It’s just because of how I read it,” Coulter said.

Due to different interpretations, WSGA saw a need for clearer instructions regarding the branding guidelines. Coulter also said the process of rebranding made her feel blindsided and didn’t represent student voices.

In all, the main concerns for Coulter were students being included and preserving the university’s history. She said there are logos on campus that are out of date, but where does the line between rebranding and preserving history lie?

Washburn alumna, Jayme Thompson, also struggled with the branding changes as someone who grew up with Washburn being a household name.

For those living in Topeka, Washburn has been a staple in the community. Local high schools partner with the university to encourage students to take advantage of opportunities. For Jayme Thompson, attending Washburn University was an automatic decision, as she remembered her older siblings walking across the same graduation stage.

Jayme Thompson wrote that she doesn’t recognize Washburn anymore because of how different it’s become.

In a comment on The Washburn Review that Jayme Thompson wrote, a user named “Kelly T” wrote, “I’m also super disappointed in the change to the mascot’s look – definitely a move away from the unique history and optimistic appearance and towards a cold, corporate-looking figure. I’m still really surprised they didn’t listen to students on this or give faculty and staff a chance to weigh in.”

Another commenter, 2024 graduate, wrote they agreed with Jayme Thompson that new alumni won’t share the same experiences as those who graduated before them. 

“I wish Washburn found some way to keep tradition but every year it seems tradition is not important to them for the overall student experience,” said the anonymous 2024 graduate.

The university’s new branding policies don’t only affect current students, but also those who have already left their marks on Washburn. 

“I feel like they should have stuck with the brand they already had, because that’s what former alumni know and it would have built more of a tradition and kind of community which Washburn doesn’t really have,” Jayme Thompson said.

Beyond individual experiences, the university’s faculty have also been paying attention and weighing how these changes affect the campus.

“My work with University Relations has always been positive. I think they have a very specific and challenging task ahead of them … they need to make the world aware of us when we are in a state that is dominated by two big universities,” said Jim Schnoebelen, Faculty Senate President.

Schnoebelen saw a lot of annoyance from students who either weren’t aware of requirements for posters or students using older templates that hadn’t been updated.

While there has been frustration, Schnoebelen said it is important to honor the rules set by those who provide us with resources, but he also mentioned the current lack of wiggle room.

“I think when we go off campus and we’re trying to present ourselves to the world, that might require more specific branding but when we’re on campus and presenting to each other, maybe there could be a little bit more freedom that way,” Schnoebelen said.

Schnoebelen also noted the goal of a brand is to present a consistent public face to the world. Washburn’s brand accomplishes this by representing the university and not individual students.

Joy Bailes, director of internal communications and brand management, offered insight to explain how the brand evolved and how issues arose from the beginning.

After discussing with the director of the Office of Student Involvement and Development, the Strategic Communications & Marketing department discovered that the original guidebook wasn’t clear enough for students and organizations to understand.

After gaining this feedback, Bailes said her team is currently working on creating general templates for the student body to use. During the process of updating the guidebook, her team found that students struggled with clarity and needed easier options from presentation slides to event flyers.

The Strategic Communications & Marketing department created templates to help students display information for opportunities such as WTE’s and Apeiron. According to Bailes, some students thought that they were required to use Washburn’s branding throughout their presentation and others thought there weren’t enough templates provided.

With six new templates of various styles to choose from, students now have more freedom to present their work at events or other schools.

“The intent the whole time was, this is a frame, like a photo frame, and then you put whatever inside,” Bailes said. “But we obviously didn’t communicate that well, so we’re trying to recommunicate that better.”

Another point of interest where students have struggled is within organizations and the materials they put across campus. Seeing this frustration, the Strategic Communications & Marketing department has reframed how student organizations fall within the university’s branding guidelines.

Student organizations are now put into two main tiers, general and affiliated. General groups include majority of student led organizations on campus. Affiliated groups are those that represent the entire student body, including WSGA, CAB and Student Media. 

General organizations fall into these guidelines: they may not imply they are acting on behalf of Washburn University, must be active and registered with OSID and may use their name with the abbreviated Washburn logo.

Affiliated organizations are required to follow the same guidelines as general groups, but may have a secondary logo to represent their organization.

Organizations within the general tier that wish to create their own logos are asked to speak with the Strategic Communications & Marketing Office at [email protected] or 785-670-2153.

The office continues to make adjustments based on student feedback and is open to supporting students and providing resources when needed. Bailes acknowledged that it is hard to balance creativity with consistency, and wants students to explore Washburn’s palette. Students can be creative when working within the guidelines.

“As long as it’s not disparaging the university or anybody else, or totally in conflict, i.e. looks like another university, we’re going to pretty much put it up because it’s a student org,” Bailes said.

Students and individuality are building blocks to a great university, but so is branding. Branding consists of more than logos and colors. It’s also people’s connection with what they are consuming. 

Edited by Anushma Dahal and Bidhya Sapkota and Cheyenne Hittle