All around campus there are signs of major construction. But something else catches the eye besides construction: new green, gold and white directory signs.

Students, teachers, alumni and visitors are weighing in and deciding if the campus is either moving forward with the new signs or taking a step in the wrong direction. The new signage project, “Way-Finding Program,” designed by graphics design students at Sacramento State in 2004, underwent several changes and was implemented in October 2006. The project stemmed from a part of President Alexander Gonzalez’s Destination 2010 plan.

The signs weren’t implemented until the logo of Sac State was chosen so students could incorporate the new logo into the design, Robin Lovering, manager of project design and development on campus, said in a phone interview.

The project cost about $316,000, but there is still a rough estimate of $150,000 left in the budget, which came from a general fund the administration set aside to tie up the loose ends of the project, Lovering said.

Michael Fitzgerald, chair of the Faculty Senate and journalism professor, said the signs are a nice addition to the campus, but that he is concerned about where the money came from and the surplus money in the project’s budget, saying that the communication studies department had to cut $135,000 from its budget, which meant cutting classes for students.

“The students will find the building OK, but they might not have a class inside to go to,” Fitzgerald wrote in an e-mail.

There are a total of 109 new signs, beginning with five prototypes put out last semester, Lovering said.

Lovering said that they are putting together stage four, which includes replacing some of the old signs that are still in place and replacing parking signs, such as the ones that read “faculty only,” “student only” or “30 minute parking.”

Lovering also said they are considering fixing night lights on some of the signs that are not in lit areas, but will have to weigh the cost of the lights first.

John Forrest, an assistant graphic design professor, said that new signs were needed, but that the cost of the project was never discussed with the graphic design side.

He also said that it was a great opportunity for students when the idea was proposed.

Forrest said another reason the signs were needed was because people sometimes came onto campus and had no idea that they were on campus.

Reed Parsell, a part-time faculty member in the journalism department, said he couldn’t help but notice the new signs even though he is only on campus a few hours a week.

“I’m a travel writer, and appreciate anything that helps point me in the right direction,” Parsell said.

Matthew Stuart, a student who was a part of the winning design team, now works as graphic designer in the Marketing Design Department at Sac State. Some of the other students who worked on the project were J.B. Ganton, Laura Fontana and Heidi Jacobs-Barton.

There were suggestions made on the chosen design and details from the other teams’ designs were incorporated into the final one, Stuart said in a phone interview.

“It was very exciting because it was a real-world project,” Stuart said.

Lovering proposed the idea of student involvement instead of hiring a company to create the signs to the President’s Board, after talks with the graphic design department. The board agreed it was a good idea.

The project took place in a senior course for graphic design majors called Corporate Identity and Systems. One section was taught by Phil Hitchcock and the other by Bill Olmstead of the University Union. There were eight teams created which consisted of four or five students between the two classes, according to Forrest. Stuart said there was serious competition in the class. He and his group members stayed up late working on the project and, even after he graduated, he continued to be involved.

“It was a special opportunity. I just wanted to finish the project and be a part of it,” Stuart said.

Neither Lovering nor the board gave the students or teachers any direction. He said they assigned the project, and the students and teachers took it from there.

Lovering said that there were some really clever designs that incorporated the American River in them, while others included the campus foliage. He said that people were pretty pleased with them after the prototypes were put out.

Forrest said that the students were trying to design something that had just the right amount of everything, was pleasant to look at, but still did the job of helping people around the campus. The signage fulfilled their idea, Forrest said.

Bow Lee, a graduate of the graphic design program who still visits Sac State periodically, said in a phone interview that the signs are refreshing to the campus.

“They are fancy, yet still simple enough to please the eye,” Lee said.

Lee said the logo doesn’t fit with the bottom cut on some of the signs, but that overall, the signs are helpful to students and sized well for walking or driving.

Lee also said that the students who participated have a chance to say they were part of the redesign of the campus and now have something to add to their portfolios.

“I would have been interested in the project if I were in the course that was chosen to create it,” Lee said.

Franchesca Basa, a sophomore at Consumnes River College who plans to attend Sac State as a sociology major, said that her initial reaction was that some of the signs had too many locations on them, which made it confusing for new students or visitors.

“The signs aren’t that specific, being that there are many locations on one sign that point toward multiple locations,” Basa said. She said she thinks this contributed to getting lost recently trying to find the University Enterprises offices.

David Ramirez, a junior kinesiology major, said he has mixed feelings about the new signs. On one hand, he feels the money could have been used on things like more classes, but on the other hand, he said it was cool that students designed them.

“It leaves an imprint on what they did here,” Ramirez said.

Tu Huynh, a senior communication studies major, said the new signs were a waste of money and the administration should focus on student academics or sports rather than beautification to attract future students and visitors.

“The students were just cheap labor,” Huynh said.

Huynh said it was good that graphic design students created the designs and they probably feel really good about it, but that the amount of money the project entailed made it unappealing.

The design students physically researched and recorded how many signs there were on campus, Forrest said. The students found that the campus only had four or five large directories and smaller and outdated building signs, he said.

Tom Xiong, a senior social work major, said the signs are perfect and would have helped him when he was a new student.

“We should appreciate what work other students put in and I think they did a great job,” Xiong said. Gia Vang can be reached at [email protected]