Collegiate Times

After the shootings that occurred on the Virginia Tech campus two weeks ago, many students were left wondering when they would be able to buy an official memorial T-shirt; however the University of Relations was hesitant to officially license the use of the Virginia Tech logo for this purpose.

“We had hundreds of inquiries about licensing and how exactly people would handle a tribute,” said Christopher Clough, director of marketing & strategic communications University Relations, “Right now we are just focusing on sorting through those.”

“I can see why some students would want T-shirts now,” said sophomore psychology major Cinthya Larios. “But I also understand why the university would want to be careful and ensure that profits are going where they should be going.”

University Relations said they were opposed to approving a license too quickly because it may mean that some people would try to make a profit off of the tragedy, which is undesirable.

“Sadly there have been many unauthorized usage of the Virginia Tech name,” Clough said, “Some are distasteful and others are simply trying to exploit the situation. We want to ensure that this situation is cautiously handled.”

According to University Relations, it is possible that if the university were to quickly approve licensing of the Virginia Tech logo, then there could be people that would claim that they were giving the profits of merchandise to university foundations but really be using the money for other purposes.

“We have even had quite a few problems with people selling all kinds of things in hreference to the Virginia Tech tragedy on eBay,” Clough said, “Some of it was just terrible stuff, however we got the worst of it pulled.”

According to Gabrielle Minnich of University Relations, the university has approved a license for the black Virginia Tech ribbon so long as it is being used in an editorial purpose.

“With regards to the use of the Virginia Tech ribbon,” Clough said, “It is being used already by various editorial outlets.”

University Relations would also like to remind students that if they wish to make their own shirts that would be completely acceptable.

“It’s important to mention that if (people) want to make their own shirts that is fine,” Clough said, “The problem arises when people start selling the shirts because then there is the question of who is receiving the money.”

University Relations say that they hope if anyone sees any unlicensed Virginia Tech material that it would be immediately reported to the university because to trivialize the tragedy would be terribly wrong.

“I would hope that if students saw people trying to sell stuff that they would try to tell us,” Clough said, “I don’t think that any member of this community wants to see things that may trivialize this situation”

Above all else University Relations maintains that the decision to license Virginia Tech products, given the highly sensitive situation, is one that should be considered slowly and carefully.

“It’s a challenging situation,” Clough said, “The challenge is that we want first and foremost to treat the situation with respect and in a formal fashion, and this will take some time.”