Bruce's Blog: Is Western dropping the Viking as our mascot?

Western Washington University President Bruce Shepard posted his thoughts this morning on the idea of changing Western's mascot to something other than the Viking. He began:

Not that I foresee. For several reasons.

Mascots matter. Remember Benjamin Franklin’s objections to the early nation’s choice of, as he saw it, the “sharping & robbing” American Bald Eagle of “bad moral Character.”

Over the now approaching eight years I have served at Western, I have received one letter questioning our choice of mascot. Very thoughtfully reasoned and simply calling for discussion. But, one letter.

A former student body president once shared plans with me for a referendum on the matter (but then chose not to have one), and there has been an article in the most recent issue of the Western Front reporting discussion of the subject among some of our students.

Read the rest of this blog post on Bruce's Blog.