CampusGreenly

While we’re always ready to applaud any change for the environment on campus, recent hubbub over a super lame mascot has us scratching our heads. Kansas State University released the new mascot this month and one lucky senior at the college gets to don this ultra dorky but ecologically friendly superhero outfit. EcoKat is a, “crusader of conservation and fanatic of fluorescent.”

The person who got stuck as the mascot must also be a fanatic of flying fruit. I’m talking tomatoes here, people. Because students are not pleased at the mockery they’ve received thanks to the mascot, who is merely a sidekick to their long time representative, Willie the Wildcat. The plan was to have the two working side by side to take on campus environmental issues and getting the student body jazzed about their mission to reduce, reuse and recycle. One student commented:

“Does everyone see the mockery and humiliation that one bad idea that was not properly thought out had on the good reputation of this school? I am all for helping the environment and being “eco-friendly”, but the next time any school decides to try and make a mascot for conservation, make real sure that you think long and hard about what that mascot should look like and how it should act before posting it on the web. Trust me it will save you a lot of headache.’’

A little more digging revealed that poor Ecokat (who might need a visit to a clinical psychologist after all of that harsh criticism) was benched for the season because of the negative reaction from fans and twitter subscribers. One twitter response to EcoKat was pretty awful: "In honor of #EcoKat, I will separate my plastics, glass and aluminum from one another... then put them in the trash anyways." Reading this comment makes us feel a bit guilty for the sarcasm at the beginning of this post.

The administration is planning on bringing EcoKat back when things calm down and it’s no longer national news.  "It's unfortunate that it was a creative idea that, by going viral, we've lost some ability to kind of manage what it was supposed to represent," said K-State president, Kirk Shultz. "But people just need to relax, we're not making this big change at the institution. I'm hopeful that within a few days, things will have calmed down, it won't be nationally newsworthy."

What do you think about EcoKat? Did she deserve the reaction? Or was she just the victim of going viral?