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Thursday, January 04, 2007

Regular, and Whitening Rinse, Crest



'Simon Fraser University chancellor Brandt C. Louie was so opposed to taking two small crosses off of the university's coat-of-arms that he persuaded governors to let his office keep it.

"The university is going to have two crests," said Louie yesterday. "One will be used by the university and the other by the office of the chancellor."

And Louie said SFU alumni won't need to buy themselves new ties, as the old crest is still an official symbol of the 40-year-old university.

"I still am opposed to the change, but the board of governors felt it was something they wanted to do to modernize the crest," said Louie. "I argued against changing it because I believe that, basically, tradition should be respected." Two "crosslets" in the top corners of the crest will be replaced by open books, he said.

He said there has never been any question of Christian or non-Christian groups at the university being in a dispute over the coat-of-arms.

"Because we're now a university with global aspirations, a lot of students outside North America thought we were a religious institution because of the crosslets in the corner," he added. "We said, 'No, we're a secular, public university. That happened to be the crest that was given to us when we were founded 40 years ago.'"

He said there are no cost implications, as existing letterhead will be used up before any change is made. The old crest will stay on the chancellor's robes, letterhead and invitations and will remain on existing buildings and SFU property.

The original crest was created in 1964 by Lord Lyon, King of Arms, at his home in Edinburgh. He found the coat-of-arms for the Clan MacDonald, the maiden name of Simon Fraser's wife, which featured the crusaders' crosses.

It wasn't until SFU decided to change its crest that officials discovered the old one had never been registered, said Louie. "So we are in the process of registering both crests for the university," he said.

Louie will be wearing his ceremonial robes, boasting the old crest on its shoulder and sleeves, at spring convocation in June.'



---the province---