After the closing of Print Services last semester, the university struck a deal with Copyworks that gives student organizations a discount on printing certain materials. A student organization may receive the discount only after their materials have been approved by University Relations because, as with anything, there are rules.

And, as is often the case with rules, University Relations has some that are ridiculous.

Picture this: you are part of a student organization whose sole purpose is to raise money for children battling cancer and other diseases. With your status as a student group, you are eligible to receive the University of Northern Iowa printing discount for your promotional material.

You need this promotional material in order to attract new members to your organization and more monetary donations because 100 percent of the money you raise is given to the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.

You submit your designs to University Relations and are surprised to find out that nothing you’ve created is eligible for the discount because of the colors of your organization. The colors that are touching happen to be the school colors of a different local/state/rival school; therefore, you must change the colors of your organization that raises money for children with cancer OR find a way to pay the difference without the help of UNI.

This scenario is a reality for UNI Dance Marathon, which raised more than $56,000 for The University of Iowa Children’s Hospital last year. UNI Dance Marathon’s colors are black and orange, and they are refused University Relations’ support because Wartburg’s colors are black and orange.

No organization that has black touching orange, black touching gold (Iowa), or cardinal (red) touching gold (Iowa State University) will receive support from University Relations.

From a public relations standpoint, it is very difficult to create noticeable material that won’t get gobbled up by the white noise of the creativity deficient.

On a campus already over-saturated in purple and gold promotional material, any organization with the hopes of establishing a name for itself would be digging its own grave if it used the exact same colors as everyone else.

To a certain extent, University Relations has created problems for themselves. They continue to promote on campus, using more money than any individual student organization, dwarfing all other purple and gold promotional materials created by student organizations while taking steps to prevent any diversity in advertising.

Between taboo color schemes, restrictions on innovative advertising methods and the virtual monopolization of purple and gold by University Relations, there is very little room to create something with the ability to be heard through such an immense amount of white noise.

If you are familiar with any of the posters produced by this university, I’m sure you’ll agree that to describe them as thought-provoking would be fanciful. But the fact that recruitment materials are strategically plastered all over campus makes University Relations look like a jealous and overly self-conscious girlfriend.

The fact that University Relations continues to cover this campus in propaganda even after we’ve enrolled is the epitome of insecurity.

The way I see it, if a student does not want to be at UNI, colors touching on a poster is not going to be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. And so what if they want to go to a different school? Helping a student find a comfortable atmosphere is something we should encourage.

Maybe the atmosphere that needs to be created is one in which viewing particular color schemes doesn’t send someone into a depressing spiral of regret. If University Relations believes that is the case, the atmosphere provided and encouraged at UNI needs to be reevaluated.

That atmosphere exists because there is no truth in advertising. Presenting materials depicting things that literally never happen is a great way to attract people who will be extremely discontent once they get here. Consumers hate being lied to so much that false advertising has been made illegal.

So, let’s lose the fa?ade and begin supporting the organizations our current students are passionate about. Encouraging students of UNI to pursue goals they are passionate about sounds like a great way to bring inspired, young minds to this campus.

An inviting and enabling atmosphere will nearly recruit for itself. Sounds like a public relations dream… a dream that can only become a reality if egos are put aside.