Marshall University’s Board of Governors recently made the decision to officially change the school color from hunter green (PMS 356) to kelly green (PMS 354).

Mallory Jarrell, University Communications marketing & branding coordinator, said the university changed the color a couple years ago.

“That was when the athletic teams changed their uniform colors, and you saw all of the apparel at local retailers change as well to the brighter kelly green,” Jarrell said.

Jarrell explained how the darker green was harder to work with and became problematic while reproducing.

“When it was printed, the ink color was dark, and it was very hard to be consistent throughout different types of printing materials,” Jarrell said. “So it was suggested through a committee that we change to PMS 354 to be a brighter kelly green.”

John Winters, director of printing services said the final decision was made by the Board of Governors but the issue was brought forth and presented by Ginny Painter, senior vice president for communications and marketing at Marshall.

“We want to maintain consistency in order to better relate to what is happening in the athletics arena because they are the most visible as far as the apparel goes,” Winters said. “The university wanted to make sure that the materials we produce all stay consistent.”

Jarrell said the color change was more of a formality issue to get things more consistent throughout the entire university, and she said the focus was not entirely on athletics.

The color change will not cause any further expenses for Marshall.

“What we will do is, as things get replaced or redone, that’s when the changes will occur,” Jarrell said.

“Kelly green is what our fans like, it is what people like to see for Marshall and what they associate with Marshall is that bright kelly green,” Jarrell said. “This is just going to help us be more consistent in our brand and throughout all of our university items and our licensed merchandise and retail.”

Students and members of the community can look forward to seeing the brighter green take over Marshall’s campus in the future.

Nichole Henderson can be contacted at [email protected].