The History of EWU's School Colors
Faculty Mentor
Tim Lower
Presentation Type
Poster
Start Date
May 2025
End Date
May 2025
Location
PUB NCR
Primary Discipline of Presentation
Psychology
Abstract
We conducted this research to examine the meaning behind Eastern Washington University's choice of enduring school colors: red and white. This research is relevant to EWU as an institution specifically, and psychological theories of organizational culture generally, because the colors red and white are a common symbolic representation of the school to which they hold demonstrative importance for collective identity. The historic reasoning for why red and white was chosen for the school's colors seems to have been consumed in a fire in 1912 at EWU. This research looks deeper into the school’s usage of the colors red and white to piece together history that was lost. We used archival research to conduct the currently reported project and will be using the survey analysis to conduct our research in future research extensions. Within our archival research, we examined newspaper articles, yearbooks, uniforms, and books from Eastern Washington University. Throughout our research thus far, we found a few possible reasons as to why EWU chose red and white. These can be grouped into regional influence, architecture, and bold colors to create a statement for school spirit. The conclusion we draw is that of these, the impact of regional influence on the decision to choose red and white appears to be most predominate. Continuing our research into future projects, we will look into what the community of EWU believes the meaning of the colors are historically as well as in present day to further our research in the colors' meaning to EWU.
Recommended Citation
DeRosier, Ashley F. and Miller, Alaura, "The History of EWU's School Colors" (2025). 2025 Symposium. 42.
https://dc.ewu.edu/srcw_2025/ps_2025/p2_2025/42
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
The History of EWU's School Colors
PUB NCR
We conducted this research to examine the meaning behind Eastern Washington University's choice of enduring school colors: red and white. This research is relevant to EWU as an institution specifically, and psychological theories of organizational culture generally, because the colors red and white are a common symbolic representation of the school to which they hold demonstrative importance for collective identity. The historic reasoning for why red and white was chosen for the school's colors seems to have been consumed in a fire in 1912 at EWU. This research looks deeper into the school’s usage of the colors red and white to piece together history that was lost. We used archival research to conduct the currently reported project and will be using the survey analysis to conduct our research in future research extensions. Within our archival research, we examined newspaper articles, yearbooks, uniforms, and books from Eastern Washington University. Throughout our research thus far, we found a few possible reasons as to why EWU chose red and white. These can be grouped into regional influence, architecture, and bold colors to create a statement for school spirit. The conclusion we draw is that of these, the impact of regional influence on the decision to choose red and white appears to be most predominate. Continuing our research into future projects, we will look into what the community of EWU believes the meaning of the colors are historically as well as in present day to further our research in the colors' meaning to EWU.
