Syracuse University has walked back a policy that would have prevented the school’s club sports teams from using the ACC universities logos and trademarks in certain settings.
According to The Post-Standard, the policy, which was intended to apply to social media, clothing and marketing materials, was put in place during the fall of 2020. However, it didn’t have much of an impact until the past two weeks, when the university tried to enforce it on the social media accounts for Syracuse’s club men’s hockey and club baseball programs.
Syracuse club baseball tweeted Sept. 27, saying, “Syracuse has asked all Syracuse University Club Sports to remove all Syracuse logos, specifically the Block “S” logos from all social media platforms. We will not be changing our logo until we are directly contacted with valid reasoning to why we are not allowed to represent.
“The University we attend and play for appropriately on social media. Our team takes pride in representing the University throughout the Club Baseball community around the country. We wish Syracuse University felt the same way.”
Syracuse club baseball president Connor Burke said he wouldn’t change the team’s logo until the school explained the policy, while the club hockey team changed its Twitter avatar to orange juice.
After the pushback, Syracuse spokesperson Sarah Scalese released a statement that reads, “Like all our recognized student organizations, Syracuse University’s sport clubs are an important part of the student experience. Each year, more than 1,500 students participate in nearly 50 sport clubs. Based on feedback we have received from student groups in recent days, we have made the decision to allow our sport clubs to use our marks beyond uniforms to include areas such as club-managed websites and social media accounts. We will be working with our sport club leaders in the coming days to define appropriate use. We know our students have a lot of pride in being Orange and we will do everything we can to ensure they can represent our university proudly during competition.”
“I consider it a win,” Burke said. “I was in a public relations class and we were talking about it. We talked about how powerful Twitter is to get this changed in 24 hours. I thought we were fighting a losing battle, a small club team against a big institution. I’m thankful they came around.”
“Not everything is solved but social media is big,” club hockey team president Mackenzie Murphy said. “It’s a big part of how we promote and recruit. Our first game is Friday and we’re working as hard as we can to get the biggest crowd we can. It’s hard when you don’t have the ‘Block S’ behind you. It would have been weird wearing it on our uniforms with all this going on.”
