Name the Living Mascot

Go to the athletics website right away and vote to name our new, living Chesapeake Bay Retriever mascot. Save the poor fellow from being stuck with the name "Champ."

Vote (preferably for "Grit") here.

Campus Appearance

So I'm sure everyone noticed the yellow retriever fever signs stuck all around the loop for homecoming. Driving on to campus via Walker Ave on Friday I saw several signs advertising homecoming. The bonfire on Thursday drew a large crowd as did the fireworks. There were people all over campus and a very positive environment was created. I was actually impressed compared to the usual amount of notice homecoming receives.

Earlier today was the homecoming tailgate and soccer game, unfortunately I was unable to attend since I was at the MHEC SAC (Maryland Higher Education Commission, Student Advisory Council) meeting being hosted this month by Towson. Upon arriving at Towson I drive past at least 2 giant electronic signs advertising sporting events and other going ons. There are banners on the lightposts and signs. I knew I was on their campus even before I saw a single building.

The meeting was in a building in what appeared to be the middle of campus that overlooked their football stadium and several other athletic fields. Throughout the meeting we could hear cheers from one of the fields, although it wasn't the football stadium. As the meeting let out I could see a very large crowd of students from which I had heard the earlier cheers. They were quite a large crowd of students standing outside in the rain cheering for what if I remember was a soccer game.

As I left campus, I see several more signs and paw prints on the street leading to the fields from where I was just parked. There are signs advertising Towson. There was no mistaking that I was still on their campus.

So when I arrived back at UMBC today, from the Walker Ave entrance and again notice the lack of any permanent welcome sign. There's the big giant tent outside of Public Policy for the president's reception along with the brand new landscaping that was put in this week. There are still the yellow signs around the loop, however they are identical in form to the campaign signs that you see everywhere this time of year. It is almost as if this weekend was some temporary campaign for homecoming and once it is over everything goes back to normal.

However even with all of the past's weeks improvements for homecoming, in terms of just pure physical campus appearence, UMBC on homecoming weekend paled in comparison to Towson. The side road I took leaving Towson had a bigger and better sign than we have for our main entrance. An electronic sign advertising events beats a silo any day.

But it isn't Towson that is a top 5 up and coming school, it's UMBC. I think it's time that our campus started looking like it.