The Big Green Backers, the coordinators of a search for a College mascot, will send an e-mail message to students this week asking if they support finding a mascot to accompany the Big Green nickname, according to a press release issued by the group.
Big Green Backer Hank Brier '98 said the BlitzMail survey, to be sent to all students at the College, will ensure everyone has the opportunity to have a say in whether they want a mascot.
The Big Green Backers set up a survey on a World Wide Web page last term to solicit suggestions for the mascot from students, but the survey is no longer on the Internet.
The moose emerged as the most popular potential mascot in the web survey, having garnered the votes of 30 percent of the approximately 500 people who took part in the survey.
"We got a great response [to the web survey] but we don't think we reached the entire campus," Brier said. "The BlitzMail survey will reach everyone."
Brier called the search for a mascot "a campus project" and said every student is entitled to "have their say in whether we do it or not."
"Before a mascot can be chosen it must first be established that the student body wants one," the press release stated. "Only then can the question of 'what' be fully addressed."
Brier said the survey will likely be a 'yes' or 'no' question, where students can either approve or disapprove the idea of a mascot search.
The Big Green Backers said they want to emphasize that they are only suggesting adding a mascot to supplement the Big Green name, according to the press release. They said they do not wish to eliminate the Big Green name from Dartmouth's sports teams.
For instance teams from Cornell University are called the Big Red, but their mascot is a bear, according to Big Green Backer Jay Lavender '97.
Student Assembly President Jon Heavey '97, also a Big Green Backer, previously told The Dartmouth he feels there is a need for a mascot for students to rally around.
"It would be more fun to have a tangible item ... running around the stands at athletic events," Heavey said.
Brier said if students decide to go forward and find a mascot, then the suggestions gathered from the web survey will be narrowed.
"If the students on blitz decide they do indeed want a mascot then those choices [from the web survey] will be the ones that will be picked from," he said.
Brier said the next step would be to narrow down the choices.
"I'm not sure how we will narrow it down," he said. "We are not really concerned with the second step until we are done with the first."
Brier said there is no deadline for the mascot decision to be made.
"We don't really have a time limit set," he said. "Right now we are just trying to see if it is a popular choice."
He added that the method for actually picking the mascot, if that is what the students want, has yet to be determined.
"Nothing is set in stone," Brier said. "We are going to do what is best for the school."
Brier said all of the alumni that have contacted the Big Green Backers have been very supportive but are not currently involved in the mascot selection process.
The group feels "this is a project more for the current student body than anyone else," Brier said.
