February 5, 2009
-
Announcing . . . “Sol” the “SunCat”
Current mood:
puzzled
This week’s CNM Chronicle announced the selection of the school’s first official mascot — “Sol the SunCat.”
What exactly is a “SunCat?” OR a “suncat,” for that matter?
The Google searches that I linked to above yielded more results for collegiate library systems than any sort of mascot. Nor do any of the searches yield anything to do with CNM unless you put CNM in as a search keyword. When you do that, you get a link to the school’s Facebook page, where the page owner put up a “Wall” post directing people to vote in the selection process.
For that matter, why exactly does CNM need any sort of mascot?
That question is best answered by Kathy Bercaw, who was a student participant in some sort of marketing focus group back in October, 2007. (See the bottom of page 3 of the PDF document I linked to there.)
Kathy Bercaw stated through the student Strategic Planning Forums the students are craving recognition for CNM. They mentioned that they want a CNM mascot —- something that identifies us as in the community is important. They want to be competitive with surrounding community colleges and universities.
That’s funny — I signed up with CNM before any sort of mascot for the school was devised. What attracted me to sign up?
The answer — I was convinced of the opportunities that would become available to me after my completion of the Photonics program.
If the administrators are truly concerned about making CNM competitive with UNM, NMSU and other schools, there’s two things that they can do that will be much more effective than a mascot –
- Offer courses that prospective students can’t get anywhere else.
- Offer those courses at a lower price than what UNM, NMSU, etc., charge.
And I always thought that mascots like “Sol” were oriented around sports teams, such as the UNM Lobos and Albuquerque Isotopes. CNM doesn’t have anything resembling an athletics program on the scale that UNM has. Is this a portent of the future? Is CNM destined to employ varsity basketball and football coaches who demand raises every year, despite already making piles of cash?
