LONG BEACH (CBSLA) — After giving Prospector Pete the boot last year, Cal State Long Beach is looking for fresh ideas for a new mascot.
The university started accepting ideas for a new mascot Monday, with the deadline to submit proposals on March 8. The finalists will be announced in April after a campus-wide vote, with the winner named in May.
Pete was retired last September after students decided he represented an era of oppression against indigenous people during the Gold Rush.
Since then, students have been cheering “Go Beach!”. But the campus still bears the marks of the gold mining theme, from the Nugget dining hall and the 49er Shops.
Students, however, have some rather interesting ideas on what the new mascot should be.
“As long as it’s not a giraffe, I think it’d be okay, because it has nothing to do with California or the beach,” student Alex Romero said with a laugh.
Student Antonio Arrendondo thought the presence of one critter on the campus would make it a candidate for college mascot, despite the fact that this creature is present on pretty much all college campuses.
“It should be a squirrel. We have squirrels on campus, we have squirrel gear, I already have a squirrel hat, I’m not buying another one. So we’re getting squirrels,” Arrendondo said.
Ideas for Cal State Long Beach’s new mascot can be submitted at the CSULB Associated Students website.
