Officials at Chicago State University (CSU) have warned a faculty-run blog of copyright infringement legal actions if it is not taken down.
The creators of Crony State University Faculty Voice do not seem willing to stand down, recently altering the site to stand further apart from the school, Inside Higher Ed reported. The blog, however, features an identical photo of CSU's lawn cutout only the word "Chicago" on the sign is crossed out and replaced with "Crony."
An un-doctored photo of the CSU lawn cutout exists on the school's admissions page and university officials want the blog shut down or to have a disclaimer.
Site creator Phillip Beverly, a CSU associate professor of political science, told Inside Higher Ed the blog first came under fire in Nov. On Nov. 11, five days after a post was published alleging the school falsified resumes and applications, the blog received a cease-and-desist letter.
"At any university, company or organization, they all have an obligation to protect their trademark," said Tom Wogan, CSU public relations director.
Wogan said the school has separate trademarks on each of the block letter font, the university seal and the Cougar logo for CSU's athletic department. Beverly said he could not find a trademark when he looked and that the site did not publish anything incorrect.
"We post whatever is true," he said. "As academics, we don't like to get it wrong; we won't put out something that we know is false."
Since changing the blog site's name from "Chicago" to "Crony," the school has also made demands about the photo. CSU argues that the photo of the CSU lawn cutout, combined with the domain name (CSUFacultyVoice.blogspot.com), give readers the impression it is associated with and approved by the school.
University administrators acknowledged that CSU is a common acronym in higher education and did not request it be changed. They did propose a disclaimer for all the site's writers to use that would specifically separate the views expressed on the blog from those of CSU faculty and administrators. Beverly insisted the non-relation of the blog and school is already apparent enough.
"If you can't look at our site and see we're not affiliated with the university, you probably have the intelligence of a small bird," he said.
The blog has gained support from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) and from Duquesne School of Law professor Jacob H. Rooksby.
"There's no confusion," he told Inside Higher Ed. "It's clear from looking at the blog that these are faculty speakers who are just expressing their issues with the university."
