By Meredith Lewandowski
Guidon Writer
Agustin Borjas works at the Norwich University uniform store helping cadets find what they need. When he’s not at the uniform store, he spends his free time browsing the website The Chive, a site that constantly posts humorous pictures and videos.
The Chive has been selling many t-shirts but one of the more popular t-shirts has the slogan “Keep Calm and Chive On.”
Borjas has noticed that the students are not happy with the shirts that are being sold at the bookstore and uniform store. He decided to take this matter into his own hands.
“Looking at the shirts I thought to myself that they don’t represent the Corps of Cadets well enough,” said Borjas, 21, a senior business management major from Granbury, Texas. “After I bought my own Chive shirt, I decided to come up with a slogan for Norwich, “Keep Calm and Stand By.”
These slogans originated from one of the British World War II propaganda posters “Keep Calm and Carry On.” This particular poster was supposed to only be used when Germans invaded Britain, which never happened. The poster was “never officially seen by the public and they were mostly destroyed,” (http://www.keepcalmandcarryon.com /history/).
These posters slowly started to show up at antique shows and the National Archives and Imperial War Museum in London according to the Web Site.
“After sitting around a table with some friends trying to come up with some ideas,” said Borjas, “my first thought was to do “Keep Calm and Corps On,” but then I continued to think of what really makes the corps what it is.”
There were many steps in the process of making this shirt, said Borjas. He came up with the slogan first, then went on to decide to use the school colors maroon and gold. The final step and the hardest step was to come up with the logo.
The original logo on the British World War II poster was the British Royal Crown and The Chive’s shirt had the royal crown with a C in the middle, said Borjas. “I came up with different ideas such as the cavalry hat and the rook cover until I decided upon the interlocking NU symbols.”
The interlocking NU symbol has been difficult for the university to figure out whether or not they are allowed to use it or not.
“Back when the Ol’ Sarge got disbanded from the university it seemed as thought the NU symbol faded out as well,” said Caleb Beasley, 21, a senior studies of war and peace major from Shreveport, La. “The uniform store ended up getting rid of all of the uniforms with the symbol on it.”
As the students are still figuring out whether or not this symbol is accepted by the university, they continue to keep the design to themselves and is not sold through the bookstore or uniform store.
“Borjas did the design of the t-shirt and I helped with more of the distribution and selling of the shirts,” said Beasley. “We worked with a supplier in Killington; we just gave him the design and he printed them for us.”
Some of the students that work in the uniform store with Borjas and Beasley were getting excited for the new shirt to come out.
“When I first saw them designing it, I was really interested in having a corps shirt with a spin off from the chive t-shirt,” said Seth Hayes, 21, a senior engineering management major from Granby, Conn. “This shirt is different from any other Norwich shirt you can buy. It’s not the typical black or grey shirt that says Norwich University or Corps of Cadets on it.”
Students are getting bored with the generic shirts that the stores are selling on campus said Evan Carey, 22, a senior communications major from Kingston, Mass. “You see shirts from other colleges that are funny and still adequately show what the school is about; this is our first shirt that really stands out at Norwich and means something to us.”
John Zwack, 21, a senior mechanical engineer from Steventown, N.Y., thinks it would be smart if the bookstore did a survey with the students to see what they are looking for to buy.
“If the students could come up with the ideas for the apparel they sell at the bookstore then they would be more likely to sell more clothing,” said Zwack.
Borjas started out with only ordering 24 shirts but they sold out quickly.
“I walked into Hawkins Hall to deliver some to my friends and walked out with nearly half of them gone,” said Borjas. “I have sold about 89 shirts so far this year and I’m hoping to sell some more when we get back from spring break.”
“Borjas came to my room the first day he was selling the shirts and I immediately bought one,” said Carey. “This new shirt really represents the corps and it was a reasonable price.”
‘Stand By’ is not necessarily a military saying, said Carey. The shirt itself is almost an “inside joke”. “People that don’t go to Norwich have no idea what the shirt means but the people that go to Norwich can really relate to it.”
“You’re always hearing “hurry up and wait” in the military,” said Zwack, “so stand by is kind of Norwich’s way of saying just that.”
“Stand by” is a command that Norwich uses a lot whether it’s in the morning before formation or before they start a parade, said Carey.
“Sometimes it’s a good joke to play because you can get the entire corps to be quiet with just these two simple words for no reason at all,” said Carey, “You can make them stand there for nearly 10 minutes before they realize nothing is actually happening.”
These shirts aren’t just stopping here according to Borjas. His new ideas are brewing in his head and some of them will be up on his Facebook page Keep Calm and Stand By.
“I have about four more shirts that I have been working on,” said Borjas. “None of these shirts are being sold on campus but I was able to design one that is being sold at the uniform store right now.”
This shirt has been a hit not only to the Norwich campus but also alumni and parents, said Beasley.
“It really represents Norwich because we know how to goof off but when it comes down to it, we know how to be professional too,” said Carey.