April 22, 2006
Cornell's Worried Image Makers Wrap Themselves in Ivy
By ALAN FINDER
ITHACA, N.Y. — Cornell has been a member of the Ivy League for decades, but some of its students have Ivy envy.
So driven by a sense that Cornell is underappreciated, some of them banded together to form an "image committee," making it their mission to press the university into marketing and branding itself more aggressively, and to help it climb higher in college rankings. ...
"We deserve more respect," said Heather Grantham, a senior who is now co-chairwoman of the image committee. "I am glad I came here," she added, "and it saddens us if it's not properly marketed." ...
The committee ... persuaded the bookstore to stock a line of vintage hats and sweatshirts that decidedly emphasize Cornell's Ivy League roots. ...
The committee's roots lie in a Cornell-Yale football game in Ithaca four years ago. Yale fans in the stadium were wearing hats and other neat gear unlike anything Cornell offered for sale, Mr. Cohl [a committee founder] said. He talked about that with students sitting nearby, including leaders of the campus Republicans and Democrats.
All were in agreement, he said. "Nobody was wearing our stuff," he said. "We didn't have cool hats, we didn't have cool hoodies."
The committee's first effort was at the bookstore, which proved responsive. Bookstore managers agreed to produce a new line of hats and sweatshirts that looked vintage and emphasized Cornell's Ivy tradition. A blue fitted hat with a simple red C became a big seller, as did a red hooded sweatshirt with a small C on the front. ...
<http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/22/nyregion/22image.html>
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