By Courtney Elisech
UNIVERSITY CENTER – On Aug. 22, 2023, faculty of Delta College were welcomed to the upcoming semesters by President Gavin, who had a surprise mascot reveal up his sleeve. With more to come on the physical mascot and what it will look like, the new mascot of Delta College is the Delta Ducks! But have no fear, Delta Pioneers are also here to stay.
To clarify, the Delta community will still be known as Pioneers but now with an actual duck mascot and image for reference. The name, origin story, and actual look of the new mascot has not yet been shared.
“Faculty and students wanted to have a mascot to engage the community and at games.” Gavin said.
At the All College Day of the Fall Learning Days 2023, he shared that this process was driven by students and faculty, and that the administration did not set it in motion. Requests for an actual mascot to represent Delta at sporting events or on clothing poured in. Gavin also mentioned the desire to join the Community College Day at the capitol in April, when all the mascots come together from around the state.
“The personality traits of a pioneer, perseverance, curiosity, and leadership, have and will always define Delta College.” This quote came from the animated video used to reveal the surprise. “We will always be explorers following the path to a brighter future.”
The reveal video also shared that in all the time of the Delta Pioneers, there had been no good rendering of what a pioneer should look like, sharing different drawings and costumes used throughout Delta’s history. This was what sparked the need for a physical mascot to be added, that could be easily pictured. As well as at games hyping the crowd up.
According to Gavin the most passionate response from the community regarding the change was to keep the tradition of the Pioneers, but also a desire to have a mascot they could engage with as students. So as a win-win, they listened to the desires of everyone.
“The loudest voices we heard were about the Pioneer,” Gavin recognized that many people in the area have grown up with Delta Pioneers and familiarity and didn’t want to take it away. “This was a solution to that issue. The most passion I heard was about keeping the Pioneers, we saw a lot of responses for the other one. So, we thought, let’s not obliterate passion, that’s good.”
Delta Collegiate has been attempting to keep the community updated on the mascot change but has been unsuccessful in obtaining the information via a FOIA request at this time. It is still in process, so more to come on that. Gavin did confirm that the marketing department has budgeted for this change.
