A Worthy Mascot

The dolphin isn’t the biggest or scariest creature in the sea but it’s clearly the smartest, and that’s why it is the perfect mascot for the new Cal State University Channel Islands.

Selecting a mascot is yet another milestone in the 30-year campaign to bring Ventura County its first four-year public university. Last year the Cal State system took possession of the campus formerly occupied by Camarillo State Hospital, and this summer students will begin to take classes there as the Ventura satellite campus of Cal State Northridge moves to the site. In a few years, CSUN-Ventura will metamorphose into CSUCI.

It fell to CSUN-Ventura students to select their future mascot. Possibilities included the Gray Whales, the Sea Lions, the Otters, the Gulls, the Whalers, the Waves and the Surfers (not to mention the Channel Surfers).

But the Dolphins leaped out as the obvious choice. Their intelligence, loyalty and resourcefulness are well known. Only two other colleges in the country (neither in California) call their teams the Dolphins. And dolphins occupy a central place in the lore of the Chumash people, the first humans known to have lived on the Channel Islands.

“The dolphin was always considered to be a friend of the Chumash, if not an incarnate brother,” said Ed Pulido, a member of the Chumash tribe who is working on his bachelor’s degree at CSUN’s Ventura campus.

CSUN-Ventura students have already shown themselves worthy of such a noble and clever mascot. Two weeks ago in this space we described an attempt by CSUN to force its students in Ventura to help pay for a lavish new recreation center at the Northridge campus, 50 miles away. To defeat that extra fee, the 1,650 Ventura campus students needed to rally more no votes than the 25,500 Northridge campus students could muster yes votes. And they did.

Go Dolphins!