I think that was actually the design brief...The old logo screamed "museum" and while it was hardly original or particularly good design, it adequately fit its purpose. The new one says...nothing whatsoever about the organization it is supposed to be a logo for. It could be an app, a social network, a stupidly-hard-to-pronounce restaurant. It's as if the design brief was to make it stand out as little of possible in a sea of "minimalist" logo trends. If it doesn't look ludicrously dated in a surprisingly short time once the basic trends change, it'll be solely because it's so empty of any meaning or distinctiveness (making it effectively worthless as a logo).
So serifs and good design are exclusionary now, apparently. Have we really reached a point where organizations are demanding blandness as much as possible to not look too elite? Can't look threatening or intimidating if it looks like everything else out there!
While on the topic of logos, glad to see the DCU Center referencing it's Centrum history. So many good childhood memories associated with that logo: