KU announces new campaign: ‘Towering Toward the Blue’

Share this post or save for later

The University of Kansas is now presenting itself with a new branding campaign, “Towering Toward the Blue” — a phrase borrowed from the school’s alma mater.

The campaign is “designed to emphasize KU’s contributions across the state and beyond to teaching, research and economic development,” according to a Wednesday news release from KU.

“The campaign points to KU’s role as a national leader in higher education. The state’s flagship university is one of just 71 member institutions in the Association of American Universities,” according to the release.

KU gathered input from thousands of members of the public in Kansas and across the country, as well as KU staff, faculty and alumni, according to the release. The university announced the campaign on Kansas Day — the anniversary of Kansas becoming a state in 1861.

“The University of Kansas is a top research, teaching and service enterprise,” Chancellor Douglas Girod said in the release. “Now more than ever it’s important for all our stakeholders to know the value KU delivers them and the high level at which we deliver it.”

“Kansans and others outside the state can expect to see updated messaging and a fresh visual style in multimedia campaigns and interactive stories that highlight the university’s contributions,” according to the release.

KU Endowment, the fundraising arm of KU, has highlighted the alma mater in previous campaigns. The first verse and chorus of the alma mater — “Crimson and the Blue,” written by Professor George Penny Barlow in 1891 — are as follows:

“Far above the golden valley
Glorious to view
Stands our noble Alma Mater
Towering toward the Blue

Lift the chorus ever onward
Crimson and the Blue
Hail to thee our Alma Mater
Hail to old KU”

KU Endowment previously generated $1.6 billion with a campaign also borrowed from the song, “Far Above,” and currently is fundraising under a campaign called “Ever Onward,” with the tagline “Toward infinite possibility,” that aims to raise $2.5 billion. It has raised 81% of that total, according to its website.

Read more from KU at this link.

If our local journalism matters to you, please help us keep doing this work.
Don’t miss a beat … Click here to sign up for our email newsletters


Click here to learn more about our newsletters first

This post is by the Lawrence Times news team.

If you have news tips, questions, comments, concerns, compliments or corrections for our team, please reach out and let us know what’s on your mind. Email us at Hello@LawrenceKSTimes.com (don’t forget the KS!), or find more contact info and a quick contact form at LawrenceKSTimes.com/contact.

Follow us so you won’t miss the local news that matters most to you:

Latest Lawrence news:

Kaw Valley Almanac for Feb. 17-23, 2025

Share this post or save for later

”This winter has been a great cat TV channel for our cat, as she chatters away at birds through a double-paned window. … It’ll be another good week to feed birds (not feed birds to cats!),” Ken Lassman writes in the latest Kaw Valley Almanac.

MORE …

Previous Article

Obituary: William David Deel Jr.

Next Article

Letter to the Times: To those disillusioned and troubled by the church