UNI specialty plates popular among alumni

For some people, the University of Northern Iowa specialty license plates are mobile purple and gold word puzzles.

To Mark Jastorff, president and CEO of the UNI Alumni Association, the plates are "rolling billboards" for the school - even if most people don't know what 2617TOY means.

The Alumni Association handles the money UNI gets from the specialty plates. The plates cost $50 to purchase on the first year and $5 to renew for each following. Half of the $50 goes to the university. State law designates that money to go to student scholarships.

"There's no allowance to use any of that money for marketing," Jastorff said.

Lately, the plates have been promoting themselves. The colors purple and gold have been more common in the Cedar Valley since the UNI men's and women's basketball teams made the NCAA championship tournaments. Fans and UNI faculty like Penny O'Connor, a 1988 master's graduate and her husband, Jim O'Connor, a 1989 alum, show their Panther pride in a more permanent way with their plates.

"I have to admit it was a lot of fun to have the last couple of weeks," Penny O'Connor said.

The couple's plates sound like a call-and-response cheer - BPURPLE and WERPRPL. O'Connor said their plates are straight forward compared to some ambiguous vanity plates.

"They're both pretty clear," O'Connor said. "Although sometimes people think it says 'were purple' not 'we are purple.'"

The hardest part about getting the plates was choosing what they would say, O'Connor said.

"You think of something and you think it's the most creative thing in the world but then you find someone else has got it," she said.

O'Connor suggests checking for duplicates on the Iowa Department of Transportation list of the UNI plates to save time. She said she noticed many of the plates have a purple theme like her and her husband's plates. Many are plays on the UNI initials. Some plates are names and others refer to the car they adorn. Jastorff's wife drives a convertible Volkswagen Beetle with UNIDUB plates. She likely isn't alone in vehicle or school choice - UNIBUGY appears on the list.

"Most of the time they're easy to figure out," Jastorff said.

Jastorff's plates - P617TOY - are little more obscure. P617 is the paint code for purple, TOY refers to the Toyota on which they hang.

"It took me a while to come with them," he said.

Interest in the UNI collegiate plates climbed when the Alumni Association began overseeing the program in 2006 for the 2007 fiscal year.

From 2006 to 2007 the money brought in by the plates climbed from $3,312.50 to $4,980. In 2008, UNI garnered about $5,147.50. The revenue has leveled in recent years to $3,177.50 in the 2010 fiscal year. All the money went to UNI student scholarships.

"There's nothing better than having rolling billboards," Jastorff said. "You're showing your pride, everywhere you drive."

-JOHN MOLSEED,Waterloo/Cedar Falls Courier