Jimmy Lai/HIGHLANDER

An ancient proverb from the country of Snoglandia features the grizzly bear as the omnipotent symbol of wisdom. The beautiful, furry creature is probably the most underrated and underappreciated creature in American society. Since the swapping of a grizzly bear with UCR’s current mascot Scotty the Bear as a result of the widely reported “Freaky Friday” wave, the change initiates something which should have been done years ago: Introducing a tough, new mascot to our campus. While Scotty has been a fun, adorable mascot, the school has experienced a change for the better.

Scotty is a mascot that is well-known by UCR students, though it pales in comparison to other UCs which appear to have more serious mascots such as UC Santa Cruz’s banana slug and UC Davis’ mustang. While Scotty is an adorable mascot, it is difficult to take him seriously in consideration of these two competitors. Shifting our mascot to the grizzly bear will provide a mascot that is deemed as fierce and wise. Take the UCLA Bruins for example. If we want to be as revered as UCLA is, we might as well pick a mascot that is comparable to the tough and noble imagery of the Bruins that we have all come to know.

With the grizzly bear, we could likely just scare the team away as soon as they stepped foot onto our sacred Highlander turf. The sports teams would not even need to train as hard because they could then rely on the the new mascot to frighten the socks off of those who even thought they had a chance, all before the team even leaves the locker room.

Secondly, as President Donald Trump vowed to “Make America Great Again,” Schwarzenegger vows to “Make UCR Great Again.” This involves making UCR the most “American” that it can be, and making it the most American school in the nation. Nothing says American quite like grizzly bears and s’mores and American flags. While handing out free s’mores around campus and waving more American flags high is easy, we need to show that we mean business when we say we want to “Make UCR Great Again,” by ensuring that the grizzly bear becomes our new emblem of pride.

Lastly, UCR needs to be perceived as the wisest of schools. People like quoting ancient proverbs, so this will be like an ongoing consistent proverb being constantly repeated and rubbed in all of the UC system schools’ faces to display our wisdom. While UCR may have cheap and non-abundant parking, it is sadly not well established as being at the top of the ranks for being the best at sports, academics, dining hall food, top-notch research buildings or really anything super important that actually matters, having a mascot that emanates wisdom and vitality can vastly improve our image. While we have numerous mediocre things around campus, a grizzly bear would give us a leg up in the field of sports and school spirit.

Not choosing to keep the replacement of Scotty the Bear with a grizzly bear mascot would be highly detrimental to the future of UCR. Schwarzenegger’s notable goal to make UCR a greater place begins with a great mascot. UCR students would be absolutely foolish to think otherwise in this change for the better to bring the university to greater heights.