By Tim Leeds
A new sign hangs over the Registrar's Office in Cowan Hall on the MSU-Northern campus.
The sign, constructed by Altec Graphics in the Havre Holiday Village Shopping Center in the spring of 1999, was installed over the Registrar's Office windows last October by members of the Altec Graphics' staff.
Brett Albertson, one of the owners of Altec Graphics, said that he is pleased with how the sign turned out. He said they e-mailed a digital file to Denver where the actual sign was routered out of black foam by a firm there. Once the sign was in Havre, he and employee Mike Williams added the colors and some foam blocks to mount it.
Albertson said that they had never done a sign like this before.
"We were trying out some new techniques," he said. "We gained some experience in how to make it and how to mount it."
The topic of putting up some new signing in Cowan Hall arose while working with Jim Potter, MSU-Northern University Relations director, on some projects for the university, Albertson said. He said Potter expressed a desire to do some work with signing on the building's entry so people would know where they were.
At first the university was looking for something simple, just to identify the campus.
Once he started looking into costs, Albertson said he realized that something slightly larger and more elaborate would not be too expensive. After researching cost of materials and the time required, Altec Graphics offered to buy the materials and donate the time to build and hang the sign. The sign was finished in the spring of 1999, and once space was found and cleared to hang it, the sign was mounted in October by Albertson and Williams.
MSU-Northern Chancellor Mike Rao said he is pleased with the sign.
"We're very grateful to yet another business partner in the support of the new, more visible image of MSU-Northern," he said.
Altec Graphics is continuing to work with the university on campus improvement. One area is to turn the campus' digital kiosk information system into a web site accessible off campus over the Internet. They are also working on installing other new signing on the campus. Albertson said he had no regrets over the time and materials donated for the Cowan Hall sign.
"If it helps the campus achieve its goals, it's basically good for everybody," he said.
