CSUSM Is Still Groping for Symbols of Its Identity : University: Cal State San Marcos remains without a mascot or official seal, and the school logo has created some confusion.

A university just isn’t a university without a mascot. Or an official seal. Or a class ring.

Cal State San Marcos doesn’t have any of those, and even the logo that it does have, well, some people still aren’t quite sure what it is: a California mountain lion, a puma, a cougar or what?

“Let’s just say it’s a cat,” said Greg Cosgrove, the man who designed the logo for the university.

The fledgling university hopes to address some of these dire concerns by early next year, in time for the first graduating class to have official seals on its diplomas and buy class rings.

“We are forming the traditions and the legacy for the students that follow, laying the foundation for them,” said Barbara Pender, co-editor of the university’s first yearbook, which began distribution last week, and a member of the class ring committee.

Part of the difficulty in creating a legacy at Cal State San Marcos has been the lack of anything solid with which to identify.

“The students would like to see the (mountain) lion’s head on the ring, and they would like to see some representative landmark on it,” said Marti Gray, an administrator who chairs the class ring committee.

Unfortunately, the university has no landmarks, due in large part to the lack of a campus.

“Well, let’s say, an expected university landmark,” Gray said.

Since its birth, the university has been operating out of a San Marcos business park. The actual campus is not expected to be ready until sometime next year.

“The area is sort of nondescript,” said Cosgrove, who had also done some work on the class ring. “There’s nothing concrete that we could use as an identity to tie it to San Marcos.”

The university administration anointed the California mountain lion as the school’s mascot two years ago, before any students stepped foot on campus. But a year and a half after the school opened its doors, the students have yet to give their blessing.

“The students have not decided on it, and some are pretty peeved about that. They felt that it should be their decision,” said Larry Boisjolie, co-editor of the school newspaper, the Pioneer.

Boisjolie said that students will have their say in a committee to be set up sometime next week to settle the mascot issue.

The yearbook took the name “Tukut,” a Native American word for mountain lion. But even Pender feels that that would be an inappropriate name for a mascot.

“In the future, we are going to have a football team, and they can’t be called the Tukuts. I mean, it would be like ‘The Tuk-Whats?’ ” Pender said.

No, that doesn’t quite instill fear into the hearts of opponents quite like “The Fighting Irish” of Notre Dame, Pender said. It would be more akin to the Banana Slugs of UC Santa Cruz.

Although there is no immediacy to deciding on a mascot, the official seal must be completed in time for diplomas in May.

“We’re trying to include the Age of Communication and the future, we want to have our international perspective, we’d like to have the notion of diversity, and all those fundamental elements that appear in the mission statement somehow reflected in the seal,” said Dick Rush, university executive vice president.

The seal, which a university committee has been working on for six weeks, should be completed by early January, Rush said.