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July 22, 2006

Students deserve voice on mascot

Change has an effect on people. It's infectious, and entire communities want to work with organizations as they begin to develop and implement new ideas.

As student body president at the University of Louisiana at Monroe, I've been lucky enough to see this phenomenon take place from a unique vantage point. The past week, my e-mail inbox has been flooded with ideas of what to name the field version of our new mascot. The turnout has been remarkable beyond the sheer volume of the response; more importantly, we at Student Government Association have received ideas from students, faculty, staff, alumni, and people who are just interested in what's going on at Â鶹¹û¶³´«Ã½. That's exciting — it represents an overall desire to help make things great at Â鶹¹û¶³´«Ã½.

Because of this massive response, we at SGA have been so inspired that we do not want the final decision concerning the mascot to be our own. Rather, we have opted to select several of the most excellent from among the community's ideas and to allow the students to choose early in the fall semester. This way, incoming freshmen (who will begin their matriculation as Warhawks) and seniors can take part in the final decision. We are acting on the understanding that this decision transcends our institution and lies directly in the hands of the students of Â鶹¹û¶³´«Ã½. This duty — to give the students a voice — is the very essence of what we stand for.

Our thanks go out to the community for their support. We look forward to the future, and we are glad that we can somehow be part of it. Go Warhawks!

Rob Carroll

Student Body President

Â鶹¹û¶³´«Ã½ (Monroe)

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