Southeastern Oklahoma State University has been known as the “School of the Rising Sun”, the place “Where Your Story Begins” and the university associated with the blue and gold oval logo. Southeastern has had many identities and it is time for the university to have a definitive one.

Larry Acker, the Director of University Marketing, started working on Southeastern’s new identity in January of 2016. Acker stated a group of students and faculty members got together to brainstorm a new slogan for the university.

“We spent one afternoon talking about who we are as an institution, what we do well, what are we known for, what do we want to be known for, how do we want to be perceived, what are our core values”, Acker said.

Once spring break came, the group agreed to take the week off and come back with ideas for a new slogan that represented the core values of the University. The one that rose to the top and represented everyone’s general input was “Changing Lives, Today and Tomorrow.”

Acker said, “That is what we’re here for. We are here to change lives. What we do better than anybody else, we believe, is we help students achieve their goals.” Fifty-four percent of the 2016 graduating class were first generation college students.

The new slogan started being implemented to the school’s website at the end of the spring semester of 2016. The new logo and virtual tour were also being added to the university’s website earlier in the year. With this change Southeastern will continue to change lives, today and tomorrow.