After the retirement of the "Education Redefined" tagline last April, university officials have decided not to replace the former slogan.
At community sessions to involve the public in Ball State's brand refresh, Joan Todd, university spokesperson, said the university won't be adopting a new tagline as a part of the refreshed brand. Instead, the new administration is choosing to focus on entrepreneurial learning.
“Taglines were very important as part of branding 10 years ago, but we are always looking at best practices and upgrading,” Todd said.
Because brands and trends tend to evolve quickly, Todd said the university wanted to stay up with the times.
"The current thinking is that taglines tend to limit the definitions of organizations," she said. "This gives us a little latitude to do things beyond a narrow definition."
Tyler Sparkman, a junior telecommunications major, spoke at one of the brand refresh sessions and said he believes the tagline should not be removed. He was a fan of "Education Redefined," and said he was sad to see it go.
“What’s so great about Ball State University? It’s because we redefine education, that’s what’s so great about it,” Sparkman said when he spoke during the meeting. “It’s not just going to a college ... we redefine it.”
Because the university prided themselves on the "Education Redefined" tagline for so long, Sparkman said it doesn't make sense to take it away now. Rather than taking away the tagline completely, he said he thought it would be better to create a tagline that is "limitless."
"I think [the tagline] is a good way to say what Ball State is, and who Ball State is," Sparkman said. "Almost every big brand today has some sort of tagline."
Sparkman said the old tagline might have made people think twice about the standard of education at the school, whereas having no tagline could make it hard for outsiders to know what the school focuses on.
"I think if [the university] were to really sit down and be more innovative about it, they could create some kind of tagline that would be really limitless and really showcase Ball State as a whole," he said.
Shaheen Borna, a marketing professor, said he doesn't believe a tagline provides anything for a university in an academic environment anymore. There isn't any evidence to show that it actually helps recruit students, he said.
Borna said former President Jo Ann Gora spent more than $100,000 on the “Education Redefined" tagline.
“Why spend so much time and money for a tagline that serves no purpose?” Borna said.
To market the new focus, Borna said the university has spent $4 million to implement entrepreneurial learning activities, but those activities don't indicate the concept of entrepreneurship well, he said.
“A university cannot be entrepreneurial, it is an oxymoron," Borna said. "We have certain money the government allocates that administration cannot risk. To spend the money on certain activities and just calling them entrepreneurial seems to me to be a waste of money.
The activities related to entrepreneurial learning were once identified as part of “Education Redefined," so Borna said it would make sense just to keep those activities as they were before.
“My point is these activities are not entrepreneurial type activities, they are forcing the issue," Borna said.
However, he said he agrees with Sparkman that there is no problem keeping the tagline as is, because it's not doing any harm.
“Education is always in the process of redefinition,” Borna said.
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