Whitman to drop Missionary as mascot

Whitman College officials have dropped Missionary as their official mascot and are working on deciding a new name.

College officials announced Wednesday the move, and along with it cited a survey of more than 18,000 alumni and current students, of which 62 percent said they did not think Missionary was an appropriate mascot for Whitman today.

Another 29 percent believed it was an appropriate name and 9 percent had no opinion.

According to the survey conducted in February, 78 percent of both faculty and students believed that the mascot name of Missionary is inappropriate.

In two statements, college officials also noted that some faculty objected to dropping Missionary as mascot.

“Some alumni expressed concern that a change of mascot will result in a loss of history for the college,” media and public relations manager Gina Ohnstad said.

Whitman College was named after Marcus and Narcissa Whitman, early pioneers in the Walla Walla Valley who started a mission to teach members of local Indians tribes and as a way station for arriving white settlers.

A Mascot Working Group study report stated opponents considered the Missionary name to be “divisive and doesn’t represent Whitman’s commitment to inclusion.”

Earlier this year, the campus newspaper, The Pioneer, said it will change its name because it reflects the “racism” of settlers who warred with local tribes and took their ancestral lands. The new name for the paper is also to be decided this fall.

To determine a new campus mascot, a working group of faculty, staff, students and alumni will be created compile a list of prospective official mascots. The entire college community will vote on the new name in the fall 2016.

The move for the change started in the fall of 2015, when new Whitman College President Kathleen Murray assembled a working group of students, faculty, staff, alumni and governing board members to consider the mascot name.

The Mascot Working Group developed and distributed the survey.

After the survey, the group unanimously decided that Missionary was not appropriate for Whitman College.

“I recognize that a significant group of Whitties, particularly among our alumni, voiced strong opposition to any move away from the Missionary mascot,” Murray wrote.

“I know that this decision will disappoint those in that group, but hope that the retirement of the Missionary mascot is understood in light of the fact that all were given the opportunity to comment on the question and that the Mascot Working Group considered all the input it received.”

This story was originally published April 6, 2016 at 5:58 PM with the headline "Whitman to drop Missionary as mascot."