The Trinity community will soon have a new means to display its Tiger pride: custom license plates. With a tentative release date of Oct. 15, the Trinity license plate will be available to anyone with a Texas registered vehicle or motorcycle.

Since her arrival at Trinity in August 2006, Director of Alumni Relations Mary Kay Cooper has fielded requests for custom plates from alumni, students, parents and friends of the university.

A reduction in the cost of the plates generated a renewed push for production. In 2009, the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) hired the third-party vendor MyPlates. Costs then dropped from $15,000 to a $1,385 design fee and a deposit of $4,615, refunded when Trinity sells just 500 plates.

“The cost was prohibitive,” said Cooper, who will be ordering a specialty plate of her own.

Since the dramatic change in cost, Cooper has witnessed a resurgence of interest, especially in the survey process required by MyPlates of the potential Trinity client base.

“We got a good response, and people were most excited about the maroon ones. People have been excited every step of the way,” Cooper said.

An additional component of the application process was the DMV’s approval of a marketing plan, which discussed how many alumni were in Texas and the media coverage the plates would receive through Twitter, Facebook and the Trinity magazine.

“The plate is very color coded and has the exact Trinity color and symbol of Trinity. It also has the outline of Texas,” said junior May Oo Tha. “I like it.”

Without any vanity, it costs $55 for a year. For a bulk rate, five years costs $195, and a ten-year plate runs $295. Ten percent of the license plate’s cost comes back to Trinity.

When asked about the potential appeal to undergraduates and alumni, Cooper said the plates should appeal to all generations of Trinity students and anyone else who shares a fondness for the school.

“I would really hope that students would be interested in purchasing it just as much as alumni would,” Cooper said.

A link to receive email updates regarding the Trinity specialty plate is available below.