Texas Border Business
Dear UT Brownsville and UT Pan American Communities,
As we move forward with plans to open the new UT Rio Grande Valley in one short year, many activities are underway by a number of working groups at UTB, UTPA, and the UT System, and I remain grateful to you for your engagement and support of the process.
Among one of the most high profile and popular processes are the selections of (1) a new institutional wordmark for use in print and digital publications for official academic and administrative purposes and (2) new university colors and a mascot as related to athletics and the broader campus community. Allow me to share with you where we are on these efforts.
With respect to the first process, the development of a new university wordmark and typography has occurred, and two concepts received input from administrators and several working teams from UTPA, UTB and the UT System. The wordmark seen below will be used as we quickly prepare enrollment and recruitment materials for prospective students, parents, high school counselors and more.  Please note that the wordmark may undergo further changes in design as new, final school colors are selected in the months ahead, but for now, we must concentrate efforts on having a UTRGV wordmark so we may quickly finalize materials that must go into production soon for pending mailings.
The second process—the selection of new university colors and a mascot, is one that will involve a much broader participation outside of our established working groups.  The ultimate decision for this is delegated to me by the UT System Board of Regents, but I will make this decision through extensive input by all. The UT System has just posted a survey to gather suggestions and comments from students, faculty and staff, alumni and community members.  I encourage you to participate by linking in to the survey at www.utrgv.edu.
Additionally there will be two new committees, one composed of student leaders from UT Brownsville and UT Pan American, chaired by student government presidents Eréndira Santillana and Alberto Adame, respectively, and a steering committee I will appoint, composed of faculty and staff, student leaders and alumni, also chaired by our student government leaders.   The UT System has engaged a national expert with significant experience in rebranding and the development of logos for universities, professional sports teams, and large corporations. This expert, Eric Rickabaugh, will work with the student and steering committees to hear their voices and help us develop our new athletics logos and designs, and he has already met with a number of individuals on both campuses, including students and athletics leaders. Eric will receive all of the information that is submitted in the web-based survey, too.  Eric has been instrumental in creating award winning designs for Coco-Cola, Toyota, the NFL, NBA, Ohio State University, Vanderbilt, and many more organizations.
I hope this communication is helpful to you as we all share in the equity of the new UTRGV.  As always, I look forward to working with you on this extraordinary opportunity.
Sincerely,
Guy Bailey
President
