Olivia Fendrich/The Mossy Log
On Sept. 3, the Lewis & Clark Mascot Advisory and Selection Committee (MASC) sent an email to the LC community with an update on the nearly two-year-long process of considering a new mascot. The committee announced the eight finalists: Cascades, Herons, Lynx, Mammoths, Pronghorns, River Otters, Riverhawks and Timberwolves.
The process began almost two years ago on Sept. 29, 2023, when an email from President Robin Holmes-Sullivan announced how LC would address the Pioneer mascot.
“Whether we want the ‘Pioneers’ to continue as our school mascot and symbol is a question that deserves thoughtful attention and engagement,” Holmes-Sullivan wrote.
After that, the Mascot Steering Committee (MSC) was established to gather feedback through community dialogues and surveys from LC students, faculty, staff and alumni. On Sept. 18, 2024, Holmes-Sullivan announced the retirement of the Pioneer mascot. Shortly afterward, the MSC was retired and the newly formed MASC was tasked with creating criteria and sourcing nominations for a new mascot, eventually narrowing down from 414 eligible submissions to eight finalists.
Beginning in the spring of 2024, Vice President for Student Life and Dean of Students Ben Meoz, who also serves as the chair of the Mascot Advisory and Selection Committee, led the group through its selection process and prepared the announcement.
“Both phases of the process (are)meant to be as representative as possible of the community, holistically, having faculty, staff, alumni and current students from all campuses involved,” Meoz said in an interview with The Mossy Log.
On Jan. 27 through Feb. 12, students, faculty, staff and alumni received an individual nomination form through email. Those who filled out the nomination form were able to submit three mascots for nomination.
MASC aims to represent the diverse communities at LC. As Meoz explained, this added challenge and complexity to the committee’s decisions. In addition, to demonstrate integrity to the LC community and the nomination factors, their interests and concerns were taken seriously to find a unifying mascot.
Meoz stated it was important to define specific values and traits associated with each mascot candidate. On the mascot website, each candidate was introduced with a list of traits each mascot “inspires.” For example, the Cascades inspire “Strength. Wonder. Belonging.”
MASC met regularly during the spring and summer. By late April, the committee announced it had reduced the list from 414 to 25 nominations. As fewer nominees remained, the committee devoted more time to discussions, weighing both qualitative and quantitative factors to narrow down finalists. Meoz explained that the committee considered the significance of mascots, how different communities may see them, how they may visually represent LC, their societal connotations and more.
More than 30,000 students, staff, faculty and alumni have the opportunity to vote for their favorites through ranked choice voting (RCV). As the Ranked Choice Voting Resource Center website explains, unlike the common plurality voting system, voters rank candidates in order of preference, rather than selecting just one choice on a ballot. For a winner to be selected, a candidate must have received a majority of the first-choice votes. This style also reflects Portland’s recent switch in 2024 to RCV to elect city officials.
“The rounds that the ranked choice voting uses usually yield something that represents far more of the community. I think that’s more in line with the spirit of what we want a mascot to be, which is something that a wide swath of the community can really get behind,” Meoz said.
After the finalists were announced, MASC posted signs across campus in hopes of provoking discussion and bringing excitement to the new change. In addition, there were several events before and during the voting process to encourage students to choose a mascot. LC’s Speech and Debate Program presented The Mascot Debates, the Associated Student Body’s Campus Activities Board hosted a Mascot Night with trivia and prizes and MASC had a table at the Student Engagement Extravaganza Fair.
To better understand students’ opinions on contenders for a new mascot, The Mossy Log interviewed several students.
“I’m really fond of Timberwolves, and wolves in general, so that would be my favorite,” Dakota Ostile ’29 said. “But, if it comes to representing the spirit of the school, I can understand why the River Otter is so popular.”
Another student explained their impressions of the mascots they were not considering ranking in their top selections.
“I know for a fact that Cascades were not something I immediately was attracted to because I know that other schools usually don’t have like a waterfall or a mountain as a mascot,” Paulina Castillo ’29 said, who was considering the River Otters, Timberwolves and Riverhawks. “I do feel like we’re giving River Otter.”
In addition to sharing the candidates they were considering, out of the students interviewed, many students shared a similar concern about the school’s name.
“If what they’re trying to do is disconnect us from colonial roots, then I feel like we should be dealing with the name of the college first, rather than the mascot,” Alaniya Aslam ’27 said, whose favorite was the Lynx.
When LC officially retired the Pioneer, the MSC created a report for Holmes-Sullivan, which acknowledged concern with decoupling “Pioneers” from “Lewis & Clark” as individuals and the effects of their expedition on Indigenous people.
“It is clear from the survey results and the other factors we considered that merely changing the mascot without also engaging thoughtfully with this legacy will fall short of the paramount goal of building a more welcoming and inclusive community,” the MSC wrote.
Voting will be open until Sept. 19 at 5 p.m. with the goal of announcing a new mascot by late September or early October. Once the new mascot is revealed, a permanent design will be released by early 2026, from which students can expect the new design to be phased in across campus and online. Students with questions or suggestions are invited to email mascot@lclark.edu and can expect to receive future updates for engagement from the Bark newsletter.
“Whatever the outcome, we want to invite people to help us think about how that new mascot can be woven into the fabric of this place,” Meoz said. “There will be so many things we get to do for the first time with a new mascot.”
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