Do you know who MVP is? Our TUKS mascot is named Most Valued Player, aka MVP the Eagle. Do you ever stop to wonder why our mascot is an eagle? It could be because many of us have eagle eyes to spot the baddies on campus. However, I do not believe that the eagle truly represents all of us here at Tuks, so here are some other suggestions for our paradigmatic bird.
The first possibility is a penguin – reason being that many students try to succeed in university but the reality is that, much like the penguin, some of us do not FLY@UP. But when looking at the dating pool, because penguins mate for life and Hatfield students mate over the lengthy period of a one-night stand, maybe a penguin is a misleading representative.
Another suggestion could be an owl, specifically a night owl, for three reasons. Firstly, the frequented “WE OUTSIDE TN!” of UP students and the city coming alive at night is surely indicative of an owl’s nocturnal lifestyle. Secondly, some of our students are determined receipt-collectors and many a time will their noses be stuck in your business. And as the owl calls, these collectors routinely ask, “Who? Who?”. Thirdly, the difference I have observed (and also love) between UP students versus other university-goers is that we are, much like an owl, wise, street-smart, or perhaps street-wise, but that would make us chicken, I suppose.
A parrot would be the perfect academic representation for us. When test week rolls around or when exams hit us like a moving truck, what do we do? We parrot. We parrot the slides. We parrot the textbooks. We parrot the handouts. We parrot and we parrot well.
Many of the guys on campus could be compared to birds of paradise, ruffling their feathers (low taper fades) and performing (nonchalant baddie performative male final boss) to attract a mate. Less commonly known, birds of paradise are also sexually dimorphic, so that makes a lot of sense, does it not?
We could use a pelican because pelicans can hold their liquid in the same way that we can hold our liquor. On average, pelicans hold thirteen litres of water while the average UP student can hold thirteen klippies and coke.
Ultimately, we could even question why we have to have a bird. We could have a goat (self-explanatory) or, hear me out, a party animal.
