Lincoln University Curators last Thursday approved new branding materials for LU to use, probably beginning early next year.
Copies of the new official logos, letterheads and lettering, although shared with curators, were not released to the News Tribune because they had not been finalized or trade-marked yet, officials said.
President Kevin Rome told the News Tribune after Thursday's meeting that the re-branding effort ultimately is about more than a new look on logos or letterheads.
"We're looking at our priorities, our academic programs, what we want to be known for, what we want to be known as," he explained, "and where our resources will go toward creating that."
The curators' vote approving the new materials followed a presentation by Darren Heckman of Jefferson City-based High 5 Communications on the research and analysis his company did about LU over the last few months.
In introducing Heckman and his report to the curators, Willie Jude - executive director of LU's Foundation and, separately, its Philanthropy operation - told the board: "We'll be recommending, based on his findings, to move forward with a complete re-branding and actually, re-imaging of our institution. ...
"Looking at all the new things that are going on with admissions (and) academics, it is important that we begin to align ourselves as one, unified front."
Jude and Heckman both said the High 5 report was based on surveys and focus groups of students, faculty, staff, alumni and others in Mid-Missouri, St. Louis, Kansas City, and other parts of the state and nation.
One key finding, Heckman said, was "Lincoln is often a back-up plan for students, (who) are "settling,' for various reasons, to go to Lincoln. ... The challenge it creates here is, it makes it hard to have that sense of pride within the organization."
Along with that, he said, some students feel some faculty and staff "aren't as engaged in their education. That relationship, internally, again has a big impact on the growing culture you want to create at the university level and also beyond graduation, creates a situation where it's hard for alumni to stay engaged with the university."
That's a greater problem with younger alumni - those between 25 and 45 - Heckman said.
For years, some LU students and alums have complained about the processes of registering for classes or getting through the financial aid and accounts offices - what Heckman called "the difficulty in getting from "A to B.'"
He added, "That perception seems to have grown in certain pockets, so you're going to be battling that if you're not engaged in more consistent conversations with your target groups about what Lincoln really is."
Heckman told the board ""leadership churn' is also something that was a consistent outcome in our conversations. Key stakeholders noted that employees struggle to buy in because there have been "big plans' before (but) not followed through," so there likely is less interest in the newest "big idea."
Ultimately, Heckman said, Lincoln needs to be consistent in its message and imaging, including "interrupting" some conversations if they raise issues the school wants to change.
"Define what Lincoln is," he said, "and what you want it to be."
Following Thursday's meeting, Rome said, "As we talk about who Lincoln is - it's different to different people. That's OK. But the core should be the same."
In December 2012, when Rome came to Jefferson City as one of the three people seeking to succeed Carolyn Mahoney as LU's next president, he met with several groups and told them, "Now it's the time for someone to decide where is the institution going to go from this point, and what impact will the institution have on the community, the state, the country and the world?"
He said he still feels that way, but "now I can feel it in context."
He added, "I think I have more of an idea about what it could be - but it's not (just) me determining that. I think it's a collective Lincoln, deciding "This is Lincoln.'
"And I think we can do that and be a stronger institution, a better institution, and I think we will excel once we do that."
Rome noted most Missouri schools have modified or re-shaped their images over the last couple of decades, while he's not sure Lincoln ever has done that.
"Lincoln has evolved - whether quickly or slowly, I'm not sure," Rome explained. "But to go from a historically black college or university to a very diverse institution - without strategically planning for it - creates "something.'
"And whatever that "something' is, I'm not sure that Lincoln was intentional about how that integration happened."
When Lincoln adopted the current logos, letterheads and lettering in April 1992 - 23½ years ago - then-President Wendell Rayburn often called Lincoln one of the - if not the - most diverse universities in the world.
Rome has agreed with that view, and isn't saying now that it should be changed.
"We have to consider our history, we have to consider our present, we have to consider our future and define who or what it is that we want to be, and how we want Lincoln to be perceived," Rome explained, "as a very integrated and inclusive of all of our constituent groups."