A UA alumni was notified he would not be forced to return his personalized plate reading “LOLASU” after being told to do so.
“I’m a UA grad and a Wildcat fan; we laugh at ASU — that’s just what we do,” Josh Miller said, who graduated in 1999 with a Bachelor of Arts in media arts.
In October 2014, Miller received a letter from the Arizona Department of Transportation asking him to return his custom plate based on an anonymous complaint.
Miller chose to appeal this decision and received a notice in January letting him know his appeal was denied.
Miller said he was not happy about this decision.
“I didn’t see anything wrong with the plate,” he said. “Obviously, it’s not profane or vulgar. I went on their Twitter account and voiced my displeasure. The person who runs their Twitter then reached out to me and said she was going to send it up for a second review.”
Almost two weeks ago, Miller received another letter explaining not only was the second appeal denied but that this would be the final decision.
The letter from ADOT states: “There are no further appeals. Because we extended the courtesy of a second appeal, the date that your personalized license plate is to be surrendered at any Motor Vehicle Division office has changed to February 16, 2015 at 5:00pm.”
Miller then started a social media campaign, saying that if “common sense didn’t work with them, I would try to take it viral and, in effect, shame them into making the right decision.”
Miller created a petition on change.org, and various media outlets began to pick up the story.
“It kind of blew up,” Miller said. “I didn’t expect it to get as big as it did.”
After only a couple days of media exposure, Miller received an email from ADOT stating the Motor Vehicle Division director had reviewed his appeal and decided to let him keep his plate.
Miller has not only owned this plate since 2012 but has also gotten the plate approved before he could even receive it.
According to the ADOT website in regards to personalized plates, “[all] personalized plate letter/number combination choices must be approved. [ADOT] may refuse to issue or may suspend any plate that suggests a meaning that is offensive, misleading or that duplicates any existing plate or plate series.”
Since Miller can now keep his plate, he said he is grateful for all the support he received and is glad that “one individual’s sensitivities didn’t make me have to give up my plate.”
When all this came about, Miller said he looked up the process of reporting a license plate.
“It’s a hassle; who has time to do that?” he said. “I figured they were probably just an ASU fan who thought they’d mess with me and be malicious toward me. But I won, as UA always does against ASU.”
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