DU Rejects Calls To Bring Back Boone The Pioneer, Calls Mascot "Divisive"

"Divisive . . . does not reflect the broad diversity of the DU community"



The multicultural diversity thugs, having already given Boone the boot at DU back in 1999, rejected a call from alumni and students to bring back the mascot:

Boone the Pioneer, the longtime face of the University of Denver, will stay in retirement after the school's chancellor called the cartoon "divisive" and said it doesn't reflect diversity.

The cartoon image of a grinning pioneer with his gun and coonskin cap was the official mascot of the university from 1968 until 1998, when he was replaced by Ruckus, a red-tailed hawk.

Alumni and students urged Chancellor Robert Coombe to return the retired mascot to official or semi-official status.

Coombe sent an email to the university community on Monday rejecting that idea.

The e-mail read, in part, that DU "cannot adopt an official mascot that has a divisive rather than unifying influence on our community."

Coombe wrote that the cartoon pioneer "does not reflect the broad diversity of the DU community and is not an image that many of today's women, persons of color, international students and faculty, and others can easily relate to as defining the pioneering spirit."

DU spokesman Jim Berscheidt said Boone "doesn't really represent the DU of today."

"We moved on 10 years ago and the decision was made not to bring back Boone in any capacity," Berscheidt explained.

The Walt Disney-drawn Boone doesn't offend current DU students, who seem puzzled by the bureaucratic diversity pandering of the DU administration:

"I don't see anything offensive about him. He's just a little cartoon character," said DU student Patrick Biggers. "He looks fun-loving."

"I don't find him offensive," said DU student Katie Bird.

"I personally like him," said DU student Kristin Elliot. "He's pretty cute."

Students approached on campus Tuesday afternoon had trouble pinpointing who would be offended by the smiling cartoon character.

"He's got a full beard," noted DU student Kirsten Cangilla. "Maybe people who are afraid of facial hair?"

Part of the affinity for Boone would appear to stem from ambivalence over his replacement, Ruckus, the red-tailed hawk.

Those students who could identify their new mascot referred to it as an eagle, hawk, falcon, "prairie bird," "bird-thing" and "the red creature."

"Everyone knows Boone," said Elliot. "No one knows the bird thing."

At least the DU administration isn't banning Boone from campus.

If the representation of a pioneer for the DU Pioneers is an issue, then perhaps the actual name should be changed, not simply the logo. It is clear that students and alumni appreciate the mascot, and have no affinity for the new logo, whose ambiguous status (what kind of bird?) illustrates just the type of mind-numbing mediocrity that stems from lame attempts to make a campus more "diverse" by going after cute logos instead of focusing on recruitment and retention.

Women, students of color, and international students can't relate to the "pioneering spirit" embodied by Boone? Maybe it is they who are in need of a little diversity education . . .