MCCC’s administrators have yet again spent money on something unnecessary, this time with the unveiling of a new rebrand of the school’s logo that looks almost identical to the old one. It features two new fonts and the tagline “Above All Else.” We’re not saying a massive change would have been good, but skipping a rebrand altogether would have been preferable, particularly for the pocketbook.
Let’s talk about the M.
Mercer’s signature M with three C-shaped arcs across it for the three Cs of “County Community College”–which we call the “wifi bars”– has seen those lines increase in size by a whole three millimeters to now go all the way across. Why this of all things got so much attention instead of putting the rebranding funds into something like faculty wages or lowering tuition rates, no one at The VOICE has the foggiest notion.
Then there are the exciting “new” fonts, Gotham and Rockwell.
We’re fond of fonts at The VOICE. So here’s some history. Gotham was popularized 16 years ago when Barack Obama used it in his “Hope” campaign. The choice of this font does not inspire any more hope than the new political landscape. It signals nostalgia rather than progress. Again, at The VOICE we would hope Mercer would save the rebrand funds for things like better disability access buttons in bathrooms.
Then there’s Rockwell. The slab serif font was created in 1934, a year older than radar technology and five years older than the start of World War II. That “update” honestly speaks for itself.
Speaking of updates, we have a new slogan: “Above All Else.” In a recent official MCCC Instagram post that introduces the new tagline the voice-over narrator says that Mercer was “Forged upon an idea: What was is not as good as what will be.” Not only is that a mouthful, but didn’t we just update the slogan with “Your place to be!” Now it’s not as good as what will be?
If Mercer is going above all else at the moment, it’s with pointless spending. Are we trying to paper over our dismal three-year (first-time full-time student) graduation rate of just 17% (according to the most recent institutional data posted to the state’s Department of Education)?
Without a clear motive as to why the school chose to do a rebrand now, Sophia Paz, a fourth-year Fine Arts major, questions the decision, saying “Why did they spend money on changing the logo in the first place when they could’ve been doing something else like paying professors and giving [adjuncts] full-time jobs?”
Alex Bazanka, a third-year Criminal Justice major, comments “Yeah, [the new design] looks ‘sleeker’ or whatever, but at the end of the day it’s just another minimalist logo redesign that didn’t need to happen. They’re actively trying to assign meaning to the font for how it’s ‘assertive but not imposing, friendly but not folksy.’ Why are you putting so much emphasis on the ‘feel’ of a font when it literally doesn’t matter.”
Mercer may not be perfect, and it may not be the best school in the country or even the county (thanks, Princeton), but it’s a place we’re proud of. The VOICE is one of the top two-year newspapers in the nation. The soccer teams both just won Regionals and the men’s team went all the way to Nationals. Students from our Honors program are getting into Princeton (see article). The shape of our M didn’t get us there. The quality of teaching and the connections we make with our peers and mentors did. That’s where the money needs to go, fostering those opportunities above all else.
The decision to rebrand at a time of low attendance, low graduation rates, and economic turmoil in this country is a heartbreaking waste of money.
While attending the rebrand rollout ceremony on December 4 with members of The VOICE, one professor’s words summed up our thoughts on the choices Mercer has made: “I’m underwhelmed.”
PS – We hear there’s a new mascot to be announced soon. We hope that The VOICE’s large-scale student survey of mascot preferences, conducted in 2022 was reviewed as part of this effort. We’re keeping our fingers crossed for the Mercer Dragons.
