The State - News from May 14, 1986

The banana slug is now the official mascot of the University of California, Santa Cruz. Chancellor Robert Seinsheimer reluctantly bowed to overwhelming student body demand after a majority of the school’s athletes said they would rather be known as Slugs than Sea Lions. Seinsheimer said the new nickname would stand “until such occasion as the students might wish to hold another election.” He suggested, however, that university biologists “begin a program of genetic research upon the slug to improve the breed.”