After a narrow majority of students voted in favor of abolishing it
The George Washington University is quietly stripping its “colonial” brand from campus, several months after students voted in favor of removing the theme from the campus.
The university “has been quietly removing ‘colonial’ from familiar campus fixtures,” Young America’s Foundation reports. The school’s mascot appears to still be George Washington, but the name “Colonials” has been disappearing from locations on campus.
The university renamed the service location “Colonial Central,” re-titling it “Student Service Hub.” An organization called the “Colonial Army,” meanwhile—a group “which draws students to attend sporting events for the school”—renamed itself “George’s Army,” though that group denied the name change had anything to do with the referendum.
That vote, which took place in the most recent spring semester, saw students voting “narrowly in favor of a controversial referendum calling on GW to abandon the Colonials nickname, with 54 percent of voters supporting the effort.” The number of participants in the referendum actually did not total a majority of students; only about 5,000 students voted on the measure, while the university has around 12,000 students total.
“Hippos, riverhorses and revolutionaries” were suggested as alternative mascots.
Read the Young America’s Foundation report here.
MORE: GWU students approve measure to dump Colonials nickname
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