IU license plate redesigned for 2007

Hoosier fans can now "ride with pride" with IU's new 2007 license plate and support the IU Alumni Association at the same time.\nThe new license plate features IU's interlocking logo in crimson against a white background with a new, "sportier look," said Dottie Warmbier, the association's director of business operations and affinity programs.\nThe plate costs $40 in addition to regular Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles registration fees, which include a $15 administrative fee and a $25 tax-deductible group charge that goes directly to the alumni association, according to the BMV Web site. \nThe license plate is available at all local license branches. With more than to 36,000 registered IU license plates, the alumni association has received an estimated $925,000, according to the association's Web site.\n"That money helps support all of our Indiana University Alumni Association programs and services and scholarship initiatives," Warmbier said.\nThe alumni association gave $290,000 in scholarships last year to students, Warmbier added. \nIU plates can be purchased out of state as well, but those funds do not support the association. Currently, Tennessee and New York are the only other states that sell the plates. \n"We're actually working right now to hopefully have one by June in Virginia," Warmbier said. \nMaryland, North Carolina and California are also expected to have the plates in the future, Warmbier said. \nPeople living in nonparticipant states can support the IU Alumni Association by visiting its Web site, www.alumni.indiana.edu, and buying merchandise, Warmbier said. Among the options offered on the site is a Bank of America credit card designed with a "Hoosier pride" flag, which supports the alumni association as well.\n"I think the best thing to do is find some of the other programs and services to help give back to their school," Warmbier said. "If they're talking specifically about riding with pride, I think they just have to order a license plate frame."\nThe plates were first premiered in 1992 after the alumni association saw how successful personalized plates were in Florida, Warmbier said. \n"We went to the legislature to see what we could do about getting a license plate program going (at IU) and made it happen," she said.