I strongly support Mr. Paul Hypolite’s suggestion that Nicholls
replace its Colonel mascot with a symbol that reminds no members
of the student body of a painful era in their racial history.Racial harmony has been one of my lifelong interests, beginning
when I witnessed fire hoses and police dogs attacking demonstrators
in Birmingham, AL in the ’60’s. I was also living in Birmingham when
four little girls were bombed by a racist agitator as they were entering
their church (see my classmate Sena Jeter Nasland’s current novel
based on this horrific episode called Four Spirits). Later, I helped to
build a school for minority students in Jamaica to express my
commitment to interracial peace. It has been a matter of concern to
me throughout my career at Nicholls that we hold on to a symbol that
many find a painful reminder of an era in which their forebears lived
under suppression.

It is not the intention of many good-hearted students, faculty, and
community members to hurt others by their support of the Colonel-
he represents the individual for whom the University is named. But if
you were Jewish, would you take pride in attending a University
where the mascot was directly or indirectly connected with the time
frame of the Holocaust?

I suggest that we offer a prize for the most creative and appropriate
mascot that any of us can find to replace the Colonel. Let’s see-
Nicholls State Nutrias? Probably not. Maybe the Nicholls State
Stingrays, Devilfish, Barracudas? Sharks? I believe that our
creativity can come up with a name we can all support and which is
forward-looking, dynamic, and inclusive.

Sincerely,

Dr. Anita Tully
Distinguished Service Professor of English