After receiving results from the community poll, the mascot search committee will be forwarding "Go Beach," Sharks and Stingrays as the final concepts for the student body to consider.
Long Beach, Calif. -Earlier today, Long Beach State University’s (LBSU) Associated Students, Inc. (ASI) president and vice president announced the finalists for next week’s student body vote for the university’s new mascot. ASI President Genesis Jara made the announcement in an Instagram story ( @CSULBASI ). The options that will appear on the student ballot will be Stingrays, Sharks and “Go Beach,” which serves as the option to vote for no mascot.
Below is a joint statement from ASI President Jara and Vice President Almahdi:
“We are nearing the end of a process that began well over a year ago, with the Senate's approval of our resolution calling on campus leadership to disassociate from the Gold Rush era. We are proud of our university leadership for working with us throughout this search, and we are excited to see what the students have to say.
After a full month of accepting ideas from all across the university community, we have arrived to the top three categories. We received more than 350 idea submissions and with the help of leadership from athletics, the Academic Senate, Staff Council, the CSULB Alumni board of directors, student athletes and other student government officers, we narrowed those submissions down to six overarching categories. After a community polling period that received more than 12,000 votes, we found the three most popular, value-driven and Beach inspired concepts to be Sharks, Stingrays and ‘Go Beach.’ Now all that’s left is for the students to vote, and we couldn’t be more excited to see what they say!”
The search will culminate in a three-day online vote by the student body, which will take place May 6-8. All currently enrolled students will receive a ballot in their registered email inbox. Results of the vote will be announced on May 9, and a formal recommendation will be forwarded to President Jane Close Conoley.
