Letter to the editor: Students called for a change

Seth Albert

ASG President

Dear Fred Schnell,

I understand your frustrations and concerns, they are all completely valid. However, this decision to change the Barney logo for our entire school, has been going on since Fall Term. It is unfortunate that anyone has waited this long to come forward with concerns. As it is now the process will be wrapping up and a new mascot logo will be announced on Monday.

The entire process started this past summer when the vice president of ASG, Lindsay Patiño, myself as ASG president, and Dr. (Debbie) Derr met to go over our goals and intentions for the year. While we came up with many projects, we all were very passionate about the need to change the mascot logo from what is widely referred to as “Angry Bulldog Barney.” This decision was made due to the growing complaints from students through the years about this logo. The “current logo” does not resemble a Saint Bernard.

Most people, unless they know better, think that our mascot is a “Holy Bulldog.” This also brings up the halo part of the mascot which implies a bias toward a single religion rather than our acceptance and nondiscrimination towards all religions. All in all we decided it was finally time to address this issue and give Barney a much needed makeover.

We understood that this process would be a huge undertaking and could cause a lot of mixed reactions among the employees of the college. However, when students call for a change, it is our responsibility as Associated Student Government to do all we can to make that change happen. Starting Fall Term, I started meeting with Bruce Battle and Glenn Wright (MHCC Community Relations employees) to come up with a game plan on how we (could) make headway towards this project becoming a reality. We decided that this should be done by the students and chosen by the college community as a whole. In order to make this happen we held a college-wide design competition, starting Winter break, which was open to all students. We received a great variety of submissions from about 20-30 students.

The next step was to choose a top three. For this we brought a committee together from every part of campus that would be effected by this change. This included Athletics, the bookstore, college administration, and students. This decision to proceed with the logo redesign was not made in isolation, but was initiated, vetted, and supported by this committee in honor of what our community of students are seeking. Together we discussed the reasoning for this change as well as picked our top three. It was discussed to bring the current logo into the running as one of the top three but (that idea) was widely shut out.

The new mascot will be announced next Monday at the ASG presidential (winner) announcement. As to paying for changes in the logo, we understand that the budget is tight and there is quite a bit of merchandise with the old logo on it. In talking with the Athletics representative at the committee meetings we came to an agreement that it (change) was not expected to happen immediately. Change takes time. As things wear out or need to be replaced, (each item) is expected to have the new logo on it as they are reordered.

As I stated before. I completely understand your feelings toward this matter. But I would like to reiterate that this is being done for students by students. If you or anyone has any personal issues or complaints, please feel free to come to the ASG office. Lindsay and I would be happy to discuss this with you.