By: Maxwell Bruns ~Staff Writer

The Xavier University Athletics Department is increasing efforts to stop the use of proprietary Xavier logos by student organizations.

“This year XU Athletics is better protecting their ownership of the logo,” Crystal Guffey, student organizations coordinator with the Office of Student Involvement, told the Newswire in an email. “The Office of Student Involvement is supporting them in this effort and is making a bigger effort to communicate that.”

Part of the effort at increased communication came at the student organization workshops for club leaders, at which Guffey told student leaders to avoid using the “Athletic X,” the D’Artagnan logo and the “Xavier sword” logo on any club T-shirts or merchandise, adding that Athletics may confiscate any property that improperly features the logos.

Guffey said that this policy has not changed. “The ‘Athletics X’ has always been off-limits to clubs and organizations,” she said. Many of the head coaches for Xavier Athletic teams were unavailable for comment.

“I work closely with [Crystal Guffey] as it relates to logo usage requests from student organizations,” Brian Hicks, associate athletic director for external relations, said. “Since the university unveiled a rebranding policy in 2010, there haven’t been any changes related to the university’s identity.” Hicks said that there “may be some truth” to claims that certain logos are off-limits to club and recreational sports. “We worked closely with James Alexander (assistant director of recreational sports) to create a new identity for the club sports teams,” Hicks said.

“We are now limited by the logos that the Athletics department allows us to have for the team merchandise for which we pay,” vice president of Club Sports Jeff Ullery said. “It is frustrating because it feels to me like our collegiate athletics is trying to set themselves apart from the rest of the school by reserving certain logos when we should be a united body that represents Xavier University through all the different organizations on and around campus.”

Athletics has also made students to include the trademark symbol after all uses of “Xavier University” on merchandise. “Protecting the university’s identity and having a consistent system is important for brand standards,” Hicks said.