On a sunny Calif. day, while the drumline was playing and dozens of Cerritos College clubs tried to lure fellow students to join their society, the new “name-it-yourself” mascot bolted right out of the Burnight Center like a Cerritos win depended on it.

While having a new mascot may raise the school spirit for those attending sporting events, (all eight of you, please continue supporting) it should be asked, were the thousands of dollars allocated toward the mascot really a necessary expense?

Could some of the money put toward the mascot budget have been used to improve some issues of importance for student safety?

It is no secret that our campus has had a rough spring semester start at the hands of an indecent exposure case and a peeping tom.

One of the biggest issues we face is the dim lighting throughout campus that is often overpowered by student fear and dark nights of seemingly black hole proportions. Imagine how a student feels walking through a dark campus at night?

It’s not about being against athleticism or school spirit, it is about asking ourselves if the mascot budget could have been cut in half and if the costume-making could have been placed at the hands of the creative students at Cerritos College.

This scenario gives us a mascot costume made by our students, thousands of dollars that could be allocated toward campus safety and a much bigger sense of school spirit.

The new mascot decked out in the Cerritos College blue collared shirt and athletic shorts appealed not only to the sports crowd, but to students and student leaders. It posed for photos with faculty and students and walked around greeting bystanders, a token of appreciation to him/her for that transference of school spirit via fist bump or selfie.

I’d feel a lot prouder high-fiving the hand of a mascot sewn together by students, than an overpriced one that may have come between funding that could have benefited my safety.