Slugging It Out : UC Santa Cruz Students Try Again to Adopt Slimy Local Creature as Mascot

Students at the Santa Cruz campus of the University of California are voting this week on a proposal to readopt the banana slug, a snail-like creature found in the damp forests of the Santa Cruz Mountains, as the school mascot.

Five years ago, Chancellor Robert L. Sinsheimer, who for years has been trying to change the university’s image as an easygoing place that has never left the ‘60s, ignored overwhelming student sentiment for the slimy creature and decreed that the school mascot would henceforth be the sea lion.

The students have been slow to drop the idea, however, popularizing the cheers of “Go, Slugs” and “Slime ‘em, Slugs” at basketball games.

“The banana slug is sort of a symbol of Santa Cruz’s uniqueness, rather than something more conventional like the Fighting Tigers,” said student government leader Eric Satzman.

As of Thursday, the banana slug was outpolling the sea lion 258 to 57.

Sinsheimer remains opposed to the idea.

“As a symbol of our athletic ambitions,” he pleaded in a recent letter to the campus newspaper, “consider that the banana slug is: spineless (ipso facto), yellow (cowardly), sluggish (slow of foot) and slimy (enough said).”

Economics professor David Kaun replied that the chancellor was overlooking the slug’s “flexible, golden and deliberate” qualities. He said the campaign to readopt the slug shows that students want to keep sports in perspective as just being “fun” or “play” compared to their studies.

“The University of Georgia would never think of calling its high-paid players ‘the Banana Slugs,’ ” he said.