Brittany Westerberg

The new Jackrabbit logo is set to be unveiled Feb. 19 at 10 a.m. in the Student Union.

Students’ Association Vice President Chris Schaefer will emcee the news conference, which will be held in front of the SDSU Bookstore.

University Relations Director Jennifer Crickard, who has been involved in the logo search from the beginning, is excited about the unveiling. One of the things that was important, she said, was that during the selection process they were able to put examples out there for people to vote on. They received more than 8,000 responses, she said, and after looking at all of the responses, they opened it up to any artists who wanted to submit a logo design. “By opening it up we found out there are a lot of artists out there that did a great job,” she said. “We also found out that jackrabbits are pretty hard to illustrate.”

The logo search committee got a lot of good feedback from e-mail and statewide focus groups involving alumni and friends of the institution, Crickard said. There were six to eight focus groups on campus, as well as an e-mail survey that was sent out to about a third of the students, she said.

“I’m excited because it’s the culmination of an eighteen month process,” Crickard said.

Three different variations of the design will be unveiled, Schaefer said: a head shot, a full body shot and one with full lettering. These variations will be used in different ways.

Schaefer said both he and SA President Alex Brown will be part of the unveiling. “Both Chris and Alex have been just wonderful to work with,” Crickard said.

The artists will be at the unveiling, along with President David Chicoine, Vice President Mike Reger, Athletic Director Fred Oien, members of the Alumni Association and others.

There will be giveaways for students as well at the news conference, including lapel pins and cowbells. There will also be t-shirts and other merchandise with the new logo available for sale in the bookstore. The t-shirts will cost $5 and will enable students to be eligible for more prizes if they wear the t-shirts to the basketball games Feb. 22 and 23. If they go to either the men’s basketball game vs. North Dakota State University on Feb. 22 or the women’s basketball game vs. NDSU on Feb. 23 and wear the t-shirts, they could win one of two iPod Touch 16-GB multimedia players or a Gateway M475 Laptop.

Anyone can buy a t-shirt, but the prizes are only open to students, Crickard said.

“I’m really excited to have everyone see [the new logo],” Schaefer said. “I hope everyone embraces it the way they embraced the last Jackrabbit.”