When former President Bill Clinton spoke here endorsing Sen. Hillary Clinton, the IU logo appeared behind him in newspaper photos. Because of this, some members of the IU administration expressed concern that people would mistake this as an endorsement for Hillary Clinton.
IU Chancellor Ken Gros Louis said the IU trident should not appear at any political events because “it’s just confusing to the public for a political candidate making a speech with an IU logo behind him or her, because it gives the impression that the University is supporting the candidate,”
But we say this is simply not the case. The IU logo appeared in photos of Bill Clinton because he was at IU. It was visible when Sen. Barack Obama visited campus during the women’s Little 500. And it was on stage with Dave Matthews as he performed in support of Obama. No one is going to confuse these as political endorsements. If anything, having an IU flag behind a political candidate is only good publicity for the University, as it shows the country our political activism (or at least our love of free concerts, as in the case of Matthews).
IU spokesman Larry MacIntyre seemed to put this worry to rest, saying the logo’s appearance behind Bill Clinton, as well as at the Obama-sponsored Dave Matthews concert, were simply “understandable coincidences.”
As this example shows, the University can be quite protective of its logo, which we appreciate. This past November, the IU administration prevented the University’s image from being misrepresented - it threatened to sue makers of a documentary titled “Indoctrinate U” when it saw that a portion of the film’s logo looked strikingly similar to IU’s. (After a glance at it, we saw it as dang-near identical).
When a film has a logo so similar to the University’s that it could be assumed the University endorses the movie, it is expected that the administration would take action, especially considering the content of this film - it carried the underlining message (according to what the film’s director Evan Coyne Maloney told Cyber News Service) that institutions of higher education are “defrauding students, parents and taxpayers.”
After receiving the threat from IU and not wanting to enter a lawsuit with the University, Maloney had the design changed and shut down the film’s Web site in the meantime. By December, the site was back up and running with a new logo. Maloney, and certainly others, questioned the University’s reaction.