Council Calls for Reversal of UCC Crest Changes
An emergency motion calling for the Students’ Union to lobby against a change to the UCC crest, which has seen the ‘Where Finbarr taught let Munster learn’ motto replaced by ‘Tradition of Independent Thinking’ was passed at the final sitting of SU Council on March 18th.The motion, brought to Council by Mark Stanton and Barry Nevin, claimed that the SU had previously been told that the new version of the crest would only be used in external communications. However, the SU President and Comms Officer highlighted that this had not been the reality, pointing out to those in attendance that even the sign outside the SU’s building had been changed.After being accepted for discussion by the elected reps, the motion outlined that such a change to the logo “undermines the history of the University and the legacy of past students of UCC.” In addition, it was noted that the “motto does not exclude students or prospective students from outside of Munster.”Speaking in favour of the motion, Rob O’Sullivan, Equality Officer, argued that “it is important to keep the heritage of the college,” something which would come under threat if the new crest was used more widely than had originally been planned. Despite receiving a minor level of opposition, council approved the motion by a majority.University guidelines on the use of the UCC crest acknowledge that the logo has been changed, stating that doing so allows the university to be more effective in advertising on a global scale. The crest has “been carefully redrawn to ensure it reproduces effectively offline and, more importantly, online to reach a global audience.”While UCC has argued that the motto was a later addition to the original crest, the university’s official historian, Prof. John A. Murphy, previously criticised the plans to remove the motto when they were originally announced. Murphy argued that the ‘Where Finbarr Taught’ motto was an “integral part” of UCC’s heritage and should not have been considered an “optional extra” when redesigning the logo.