‘Insulting and hypocritical’: Petition calls for ban on DU rebrand

Furious student leaders have started a petition against barmy uni rebranding.

A petition is calling for ratified societies to still be able to use ‘Durham University’ in their name and has amassed over 650 signatures so far.

Many of the angry student leaders are complaining about the university’s apparent embarrassment of the societies who make up the uni community.

One comment said: “It is insulting and hypocritical…we are Durham students and run Durham student clubs: we make, support and entertain the thriving student community.”

While the President of Durham University Football Supporters Society stated: “I’m personally insulted that the university is ashamed to be associated with us. Although, I’m far more ashamed to be a student at a university where the powers that be continue to alienate students and undermine their achievements.”

Samuel Spencer, the President of the Astronomical Society, and creator of the petition told The Tab:

“We’re so opposed to the move because we feel it shows a lack of recognition from the university for the massive amount of work that societies do to enhance the university experience for students.

“Take the astronomical society for example, we’ve run twenty nighttime observation sessions, ten or so solar observation sessions, ten lunchtime talks with speakers from the physics department, two external public speaker talks, two trips and four socials this year so far.

“I think the university should be proud that there is such a vibrant extracurricular programme available for students, if for no other reason than it helps to attract new students.

“We want the university to publicly abandon these plans.”

These will all have to go back to the drawing board

A student contacted Vice-Chancellor Stuart Corbridge to address the issue – he denied having any responsibility in the matter: “Your email took me by surprise, so I have checked with our Head of Marketing and Communications. We both think your concerns are properly addressed to the DSU, not the University. The DSU is de facto, an independent body.”

It appears the university were not made aware of their own proposed rebrand by the DSU.

The powerpoint with the proposed changes, which were put to the societies at the Societies’ Forum on 3rd March, has since been removed from the DSU website, but a copy can be found here.

The changes, reported in The Tab on the weekend, would see all student societies to remove themselves from the university brand, by avoiding the “palatinate” colour, and elements of the university crest. Student socs will also have to refer to themselves as “Durham Students’ Union”, not “Durham University” societies.

The university were contacted for comment but were unable to do so in time for publishing.