Amherst College students don’t like military generals that allegedly tried to give smallpox-infected blankets to American Indians. It’s one reason they camped out in the library for four days.
They also don’t like moose – or at least want to be identified with the cloven-hoofed mammals.
About 1,600 students voted in the student government’s Tuesday poll on whether to remove Lord Jeffery as the school’s unofficial mascot, and the results are in:
Yes: 1338 (83%)
No: 268 (17%)
There’s a wrinkle in the results, based on the student comments that accompanied the votes: Dozens wanted to make clear they did not approve of the moose mascot promoted by some students and the Amherst Student newspaper editors after a moose wandered on campus.
The term “moose” shows up more than 90 times on the comments section of the results page. About 25 of those back the moose with no qualifications. Moose oppositions run into the high 30s.
Some examples:
As an athlete, I feel that the moose would be an embarrassing mascot.
Baby Jesus, not the moose. For the love of Nick Cage, anything but the moose! In the name of Mariah Carey, please not the moose. And let’s not forget what Putin and the Soviets would do if we chose the moose. (Almost anything)
As long as we don’t switch to the moose. A large chunk of the reason people are reluctant to change our mascot is because they do not want to be represented as the AMherst Moose…
We can choose literally anything, so let’s make it something relevant and not lame. A phoenix, for example. Doesn’t that fit terras irradient a lot more than some random moose that walked onto campus? I certainly think so. I’ll say this right now, if we get a new mascot and it is a moose, I will never EVER donate money to this school because honestly it would just be too fucking embarrassing.
Anti-moose in the context of this moose:
Making the moose our mascot would be awful. The moose was shot and killed on site. Animal cruelty
Please not the moose – the moose was killed during removal and shouldn’t be the mascot we rally around.
Pro-moose, pro-women:
The moose that visited campus was a female moose, and using a bull moose would be a reflection of the disappointing and sexist fact that most people cannot conceive a female mascot.
And this ransom note-styled plea for “Frost,” the most intensely argued among those citing New England winters and its most famous poet as a fitting mascot:
I SWEAR TO EVERYTHING I LOVE ALL I WANT IS FOR US TO BE THE AMHERST FROST. ITS A SIMPLE REQUEST. IMAGINE THAT PURPLE AND WHITE ATTIRE WITH LITTLE ICE BLUE TRIM AROUND THE LETTERING. MY GOD, THINK OF THE POSSIBILITIES. ITS UNIQUE, IT RELATES TO ROBERT FROST AND HE DID SOME SHIT HERE. FURTHERMORE, ITS COLD AS SHIT HERE BASICALLY ALL YEAR SO THAT FITS IN NICELY AS WELL. JUST GIVE ME THE FROST, GIVE ME SOME NEW MERCHANDISE AND I’LL LIE ON EVERY LONELINESS SURVEY AND SAY I COULDN’T BE HAPPIER AT AMHERST.
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