State puts the brakes on some college plates

[NT80]

State puts the brakes on some college plates

09:57 PM CDT on Monday, June 27, 2005

By TONY HARTZEL / The Dallas Morning News

Many Texas colleges and universities simply don't make the grade when it comes to specialty alumni license plates.

Dwindling support for the program at some colleges and universities has led the Texas Department of Transportation to phase out 24 of the 49 higher education specialty plates.

Texas Woman's University will be gone. So will be the University of Texas at Dallas. And the one person each who currently sports Brookhaven College or Richland College license plates should be prepared to turn them in at their mandatory replacement age.

"We haven't heard from the universities yet," said Christina Flores of the Transportation Department's vehicle titles and registration division. "We may be hearing from some alumni soon."

Specialty plates, which tout and support things like universities, organizations and veterans with special logos directly on them, have taken off. In May, more than 356,000 of almost 19 million Texas vehicles had some type of specialty license tag, up from 342,000 a year earlier.

Statewide in May, 16,647 cars and trucks sported collegiate plates. They and most other plates require an annual fee of $30, generally with $8 going to defray production costs and $22 going toward programs associated with the plate's theme.

Faced with $15,000 in production costs for every new plate issued, the Legislature passed a law several years ago that established criteria for eliminating many low-performing plates. And though stricter criteria went into effect in September, the state is now beginning to look at the plates issue.

According to the state transportation code, specialty plates should be allowed only if:

•3,500 sets of plates have been issued during the plate's life span;

•the Transportation Department has made $15,000 from the issuance of the license plates;

•a university or other sponsoring group deposits $15,000 to start a new plate, keep existing plates available or restart a plate in the future. That money would be returned once the minimum number of plates, including annual renewals, had been issued.

The rules, which the agency is not required to enforce, eventually could affect other plates, such as the United States Olympic Committee plates (195 in use statewide). The state has no plans to discontinue any noncollegiate plates, said David Pyndus, a spokesman for the vehicle titles and registration division.

For universities, the $15,000 requirement is the same, but the threshold for plates issued during its lifetime was lowered to 1,500 sets.

"Quite a few of the smaller colleges and universities didn't even come close," Mr. Pyndus said.

It wasn't a difficult decision to eliminate the program at TWU, where 78 university supporters have a specialty license plate.

"It just wasn't economically feasible," said university spokeswoman Amanda Simpson. "There wasn't enough demand to warrant the cost. We're a public university, and our No. 1 priority is to our students."

On the opposite end of the spectrum stands Texas A&M University, which outpaces all other colleges and universities in specialty plate registrations. With 6,346 plates in May, Aggie pride easily outdistanced its closest license plate competitor, the University of Texas, which has 3,121 plates. Taking the bronze medal in the competition is Texas Tech University, with 2,764 registrations.

Texas Christian University (472) has the most specialty plates of any North Texas school, and the University of North Texas (320) draws the second-highest local support.

Although the bumper-based measure of school pride is sure to warm the hearts of Aggies everywhere and frustrate Longhorn supporters, the money raised goes to a good cause. This year, the plate helped raise enough for $156,000 in need-based scholarships, said Mike Huddleston, the university's executive director for contract administration.

"We're very thankful for the program, and we're very proud of the success we've had with it," he said, adding that it does give College Station a certain measure of bragging rights. "That's always fun. This is the friendly part of the rivalry."

A&M doesn't do much special with its license plate programs, placing brochures at spots including the university visitors' center and the parking garages.

"Most of it is the camaraderie our students feel to each other," Mr. Huddleston said. "They like to be associated with the university, and they like to show pride."

E-mail thartzel@dallasnews.com

PHASING OUT

Universities whose license plates are being phased out by the Texas Department of Transportation, and the number of vehicles registered with those plates in May:

St. Mary's University – 101

Texas Woman's University – 78

Tarleton State University – 61

Lamar University – 39

Abilene Christian University – 36

Texas Lutheran University – 36

University of Texas at San Antonio – 32

University of Texas at Dallas – 30

Texas A&M University-Kingsville – 23

Midwestern State University – 22

Texas Wesleyan University – 22

Howard Payne University – 21

Houston Baptist University – 18

McMurry University – 18

Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi – 16

Incarnate Word College – 15

University of Texas at Brownsville – 12

Huston-Tillotson University – 10

East Texas Baptist University – 8

Texas Chiropractic College – 7

North Central Texas College – 4

Brookhaven College – 1

Richland College – 1

Parker College of Chiropractic – 0

PLATES IN

1. Texas A&M, 6,346

2. University of Texas, 3,121

3. Texas Tech, 2,764

4. University of Houston, 571

5. Texas Christian, 472

6. Baylor, 446

7. University of North Texas, 320

8. Rice, 269

9. Prairie View A&M, 253

10. Texas State, 228

Edited June 28, 2005 by NT80

[risinggreen]

Come on guys and gals! Thirty bucks isn't too much for a nice little marketing campaign for our school. I've been doing my part for the last few years, and it's time that we pass Houston and move into fourth place. Three hundred new registrants should easily do the job.

[Got5onIt]

What logo is present for NT on these plates? If it's that copper star piece of crap, you can count me out.

[NT91]

I contacted TXDOT a few weeks ago. They told me that the tags will be changing soon. I would think the new eagle will be on the tags.. I hope with "Mean Green" placed across the eagle. Also They should drop "The University" and just have "North Texas" across the bottom of the tag.

[PlummMeanGreen]

What amazes me about North Texas alums is how we can let a focused $500 GMG.com project begun by Harry and Cerebus take days to raise even just half that amount, but we can do a helluva job of discussing logos, brandings, color schemes and things that don't amount to a hill of beans most of the time because of (basically) few successes because we just spread ourselves too thin .

While we fiddle around in our green-tinted Rome merely talking, talking, and talking, other school's alums are giving, giving, giving money to their schools non-stop. Memphis U with their version of the MG Club (called the Tiger Club) are now at $4.8 million raised for scholarships this fiscal year. "Middle Tennessee State's" equivalent of GoMeanGreen.com and its posters just raised $3,000 for an athletic project and that by its posters. But while this board discusses things that irritate us, we are still gr-unting to raise just $500 for a Mean Green coaches-led football camp for youth? We should be raising $5,000 for such a project.

We have a long ways to go, folks, because we have 5,000 different "money need to be raised" projects that some (well meaning) GMG.com posters put on this board too many times, but we may be the most penny-ante group of alums of any university our size in the whole gol' darned USA.

No revelation to most all on this board, but Big Time athletics is not cheap folks, I've been encouraged to double my MG Club membership by SUMG and he has succeeded with me because that is just what I am going to do. Do I have other monthly bills? Sure I do, just like the rest of you and this old nestor only has a single income coming into his coffers.

SAY WHAT?.....................BTW, he may send me a ticking package for putting this on this forum, but SUMG repeated his Mean Green Club donation of $2,500 for the upcoming year just a few weeks ago. I applaud those who put their money where their mouths are and always have. We should all try to emulate what SUMG is doing. I for sure cannot match his amount, but I will (because of his persuasion) double my Mean Green Club amount in the next 2 weeks before the July 15'th season ticket renewal deadline. *** You know, even the Lord Himself praised the widow who just gave a little bit because that was all she had to give. Sorry, I know, separation of church and state, I'll get out of the pulpit.

Sorry about this rant, fellow alums/fans, but this is just how I feel about all this. One can only imagine how campus officials feel about this "most talkative" board that many times does not put our money where our mouths are.

Edited June 28, 2005 by PlummMeanGreen

[Got5onIt]

I saw Cerebus' thread and made my donation!!

I've got a quick question....

Can donations to the MGC or Stadium Fund be used as a Tax write off?

Edited June 28, 2005 by Got5onIt

[DeepGreen]

I saw Cerebus' thread and made my donation!!  

I've got a quick question....

Can donations to the MGC or Stadium Fund be used as a Tax write off?

I believe the MGC sends you a form stating the value of the donation made for tax purposes. Also, I'm sure that Dennis Francione will somehow list his $1 million donation to TAMU on his tax form.

I'm not a CPA, someone may want to weigh in on this subject.

[eeally]

I have 2 of these plates for my wife and my car. If you can't get these then you are not trying...and I live in Austin.

Go get them so we are not phased out.

[Stan R]

Got one for our Minivan, plan to get one for my car as well. Might wait until the new design comes out for my car though.

[shaneb]

I have 2 of these plates for my wife and my car.

You put a license plate on your wife?? How did she feel about that?

[SUMG]

Oh wonderful. I finally get around to ordering my plates for Parker College of Chiropractic.......and now you tell me this. Great, just great.

GPCofC!!!

Edited June 28, 2005 by SUMG

[NT80]

Oh wonderful. I finally get around to ordering my plates for Parker College of Chiropractic.......and now you tell me this. Great, just great.

GPCofC!!!

I heard the Vertebras are going to have a good team this year.

[AustinTalon]

The timing of this post is incredible — I'm on the verge of ordering new plates and saw 2 cars in Austin the past two days with UNT plates (with the older eagle head and "UNT" below). I guess I might as well wait for the USPS logo version before ordering.

This is the current release:

[AustinTalon]

Note that many TCU fans seem to order this plate:

I've seen many cars with this plate sport a TCU sticker.

[FirefightnRick]

University of North Texas, 320

Rice, 269

Prairie View A&M, 253

Texas State, 228

St. Mary's University – 101

I know not many here see this as I do but it relates to something that I have eluded to for way too long while trying to explain a "WHY", yet it still comes up from time to time with the often asked question of: "Why can't I get any North Texas gear at the local store?"

Above you see the numbers of plates sold to university's with a small fan base. North Texas is no different. We have a very spirited, supportive fanbase that love and support their school as any in the nation. But it's a SMALL fan base. The fact that only 320 fans out of the countless thousands of alumni statewide purchase the plates each year is a microcosm to our overall fan base. Simply, it's a very small fan base. The problem is our Logo/Branding licensing is set up for a system that handles these kind of numbers:

1. Texas A&M, 6,346

2. University of Texas, 3,121

3. Texas Tech, 2,764

And when I say "system" I mean a "money" system. The system that is Collegiate Licensing Company is based on money and it operates to make a lot of it generated by thousands of fans. THOUSANDS upon THOUSANDS, and this runs the cost up to produce our products, making it difficult for local manufacturers to operate for us.

Whereas, if NT and the Exes association were to go with a private licensing system they could control their licensing and allow the smaller, more local manufactures to produce our products, get more shirts and hats out there available to more people thus getting our name out there too. Which is the WHOLE POINT of this! To get our name out.

Of course, most of you already know this, and NT does too as I'm blue in the face by now. It's just good to see it in this way because it really clearly states why things are the way they are for us.

Rick

[ADLER]

Whereas, if North Texas was to go with a private licensing system they could control their licensing and allow the smaller, more local manufactures to produce our products, get more shirts and hats out there available to more people thus getting our name out there too.  Which is the WHOLE POINT of this!  To get our name out.

Unfortunately, I see the main focus of the university and it's components not being to get the product in public view, as much as each trying to get their cut.