What's in a name?

Many of you Neubies out there may not know this, but Neumont has a mascot - the Knights (decide for yourself whether it be Jedi or medieval).  But, have you ever seen the Neumont Knight? And, does anyone really care?  Probably not.  But why would they? Neumont doesn't have a football team with uniforms, or pep rallies with a goofy mascot doing back flips across the quad (you're welcome). . . . Come to think of it we don't have a quad either.  But, Neumontians do have school spirit, so what's up with the lack of enthusiasm for the mascot?

Well, first - why do school mascots even exist? According to a Penn State University Archivist, Jackie Esposito Representative: "Mascots embody that desire to support your school and are a visual representation of what we believe to be the best parts of our school or organization."  In fact, some original college mascots were actually a sort of patriotic war time response: Historically, post-Civil War was when intercollegiate athletic games and rivalries emerged. Some mascots even trace their names to the war. For example, Illinois College’s teams are known as "The Blueboys" or "The Lady Blues," nicknames that began when many of the college’s students volunteered for the blue-uniformed Union army." Neumont has no shortage of war time service, we've proudly supported many Neubies who've deferred their academic pursuits to serve in our war efforts, and gladly welcomed them home at the end of their service, but the Neumont Knight wasn't chosen to represent their sacrifice, or unity of the school.

So, what other purpose does a mascot serve?  According to Wiki, mascots are often used for merchandising of school athletic teams, does the Nerf Federation count as an athletic team?  Would anybody buy a Knight emblazoned dart-coozie?  Ehhh, probably not.  Also according to Wiki "the word mascot has been traced back to a dialectic use in Provence and Gascony, where it described anything which brought luck to a household.^3" Certainly there are some Neumont students who could use a little luck during finals in the next couple of weeks, but I don't see anybody carrying around their lucky Knight figurine . . . or if they are, they have the self respect to keep it tucked into their backpack.

So what purpose would a Neumont mascot serve?

I suppose the basic answer is that it could be an informal uniting symbol of our university, and the spirit of our students.  But, if a mascot starts 'The Wave' in a forest and nobody's around to stand up, did it really happen?  Same goes for the Neumont Knight, or any school mascot -- if nobody feels that the mascot represents their student pride, what's the point?

So, to that end, there will be a Unified Student government meeting on Monday to discuss the Neumont mascot . . . the Knight's fate is far from certain, but what could be proposed in it's place?  A few thoughts:

The Neumont Bytes
The Neumont Noobs
The Neumont Spyders

What do you think?  Join in the conversation with other Neumont students to review potential Neumont mascot options and show your NU community pride.  Monday, Room 200 @ lunch.