BY BRAD COUGHLIN
It’s a worn face familiar to only a few – with half hung lids over lazy eyes and unkempt blue hair behind a dipping yellow beak – but Cliffy, Conestoga College’s neglected mascot, is getting a makeover.
“Cliffy hasn’t been revamped in 25 years, so we thought it was time to update him,” said Ciara Byrne, president of Conestoga Students Inc. (CSI). “He’s going to have a sweet mohawk and I want him to be huge and buff.”
The costume’s facelift is just one of a number of initiatives to improve school spirit proposed by CSI’s new board of directors.
While Cliffy has been seen walking around during Orientation and Respect Week, and giving out free hugs on Blue 2013, a day promoting mental health awareness, students can expect to see him more often this fall.
“He’s not currently used for anything sports-related,” Byrne said, “(but), hopefully the makeover will help with more people wanting to utilize him and show the symbol of the school during events.”
Unlike universities, which have mascot pride and a lot of campus interaction and events, CSI finds it hard to cater to the commuter college’s widespread demographic.
“We have a lot of different people in a lot of different stages of life, so it’s hard to try and accommodate (everyone) and find events … that every single person is interested in,” Byrne said.
The new CSI team, which takes office May 1, hopes to enhance school spirit in a number of ways, including focusing on sporting events and holding an event that promotes school colours.
They also hope to better utilize the shuttle service to bring students from separate campuses together, plan events with companies outside CSI and hold a year-end event.
“They really just want to enhance the pride in the school,” Byrne said, whose last day as president is April 30.
Still in the design phase, the condor’s muscular changes and refurbishment cost haven’t been completely worked out yet, but students should keep their eyes peeled next year for the new and improved Cliffy.
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