Jane is a product of her insular belonging to bureaucratic UC & CS circles. It is partially a 'make-believe' world of dogma. I doubt she even knows places like Hawaiian Gardens or Artesia or Paramount even exist, and really doubt that she's ever ventured to them, unless she was lost.
she simply shows no leadership on how to energize the Alumni Association or scholarship at the university. I doubt the students even think much of her, she simply was a 'tool' to a few of them.
1) I will always wonder if Jane had any idea of the alienation and hurt eliminating 49ers and Prospector Pete would have. It is easy to imagine her being told how little 49ers is used, most people are fine with the baseball team calling itself “Dirtbags,” fans chant “go Beach,” etc. On the other hand, she is the one who said something about people in the 50’s and 60’s not being sophisticated enough to understand these issues.
2) Originally, we were told that the CSU required eliminating human mascots. From SDSU, CSUN, etc. we know that is not true. However, if there really was such a policy, “Sharks” is about as good a new nickname as we could get. So, I do not object to Sharks as much as feel negatively towards the elimination of 49ers, especially with the way it was handles.
3) Absolutely. As a rule, traditions should never be eliminated, but new ones can be added. For example, the new fight song can be used when the team enters the Pyramid, the old can be used before the start of each half. Use the new Beach logo on somethings but keep the old. It still kills me that we spent money to change the floor from a design that other schools copied to a good but generic design. Valuing what went before does not mean that today’s generation cannot add anything, they just should not disregarding everything that was done before.
4) I do not know how the greater Long Beach community feels about the changes at LBSU, but I know my friends and others I have spoken to, no one likes the changes. So, I have also wondered how often Conoley goes to speak to businesses about LBSU and hears them refer to the school as the 49ers. If so, does she correct them? How often does she hear their disappointment in the changes she has made?
you hit the nail on the head
no way that sort of stuff happens at UCLA or USC,imagine if Fee came in to UCLA, he wouldn't pay some marketing firm to change the brand, he displayed an attitude at Long Beach that something was 'wrong' with Long Beach, & so zip respect.
the sand Beach logo was a product of ogranic 'Go Beach' that evolved, and as you say was scribed with a purpose to promote that 'Go Beach' chant and take advantage of it
I have no issue with different expressions of it, USC & UCLA have multiple logo scripts, it drives sales, but don't obliterate the past just because Fee invented and created a self-fulfilling explaination for change.
I don't even hate the shark per se, it's energetic, it has some connotation to Long Beach & the University, but you don't have to obliterate a positive legacy of 49ers and certainly don't misrepresent history/legacies. You could actually have both.
and then this year, a new fight song appears OUT OF NOWHERE, it's just 'done', that's it!. just bizarre decisions that tell the alumni/boosters/students/fans that whatever existed before was 'wrong'. i.e. "I know better than you mentality, and I'm also not going to even bother to ask you, lol
you can even have a change in fight song, and keep and play both over time. but this fad branding & decision-making that has gone on is he height of dismissiveness towards alumni/boosters/fans, and then they somehow think it shouldn't matter?
these decisions have been poorly and arrogantly decided, totally mis-managed. plus it violates branding 101. and the thing is I'm pretty sure our interim AD knows it, our coaches sure as heck know it, and if Conoley would be honest about it, she knows it.
& all three, mascot, logo, fight song...have been done on Conoley's watch. why? because she and those she hired 'know better'....in other words...F' you! alumni, F' you! to those that donated before my decisions were made. you are stupid, you are racist, you don't matter, & your are not wanted! and the reality is that's been a significant aspect to her message unfortunately. It's up to her on how to figure out how to positively change that message. I don't hold out much hope though on that front.
I'm sure the interim AD is smart enough to recognize that, hopefully they get the right AD that can articulate it constructively.
Part of the problem with the whole mascot issue is the way it was handled. No room for compromise. Act before the opposition organizes. Might makes right. Winner takes all.
If the statute was in such an “in your face” location (hid between two buildings) then move it next to the pyramid. It had more to do with sports anyway. They could add other statutes to represent the diversity of the 49ers. But, of course, “diversity” is a great word to throw around but not the objective.
I also feel like changing the Beach logo was another mistake. It went from a cleaver look of written in the sand to one done on a broken typewriter. The old logo reflected the push to make LBSU the school of choice. The logo change to me is just another example of no respect for anyone or anything that went before Conoley.
How do you build support from the alumni and community when it is clear there is no respect for us, just an open hand.
How ironic
on a day when Step 1 of a potentially great step to grow and enhance the University via athletics, this occured.
the interim AD sent an email and asked to consider donating $49 dollars!! FORTY-NINE, sheesh!!
does everybody see the ultimate irony here?!
49? really?
this President has obliterated, and did it almost unilaterally, pride and positive connotations to both the University and State of California
as if alumni/boosters/fans/community are/were some force of evil.
DO NOT INSULT ME by on one hand asking for my support in a way that reinforces the HYPOCRISY of your decisions that have hindered the Alumni Association and Athletics...
what should Conoley do?
maybe she should figure it out,
an apology for lack of critical thinking and INCLUSION of alumni in the decision-making process? I don't know...
if Conoley was so high and mighty to erase all the 'pain' that our statue and mascot and assciations with '49' caused, then how in hades does she allow this? shouldn't the inteim AD be fired for lack of sensitivity.
I'm not sure exactly what has to happen, but Conoley needs to recognize her blatant HYPOCRISY & RACISM formally, and in some constructive fashion, without some of her usual attendent non-sensical lecture that she often has made
why would anyone donate $49 to a university that has told me 49 is 'evil'?
the mixed messaging needs to be resolved, and soon.
particularly as it applies to one Jane Conoley - it has totally inhibited current students by hindering the alumni of Beach connecting and supporting them. That falls on Conoley.
I'm not saying a prospector mascot has to be at every game, but...
I do believe the Statue should be placed on campus again, and if it's right to identify the atrocities of certain gold miners, or railroad barons, or biases of John Fremont, or Kit Carson (along with some of their positive associations with native americans), or farm/ranch owners, or pick an oppressor...... that would certainly be productive to display and acknowledge on her part, but not this ARROGANCE she displayed of time warping oneself to 1850 and suggesting if YOU were living in that time, that you would have done differently, because that's just bulls*t, and she should know it, it's never that simple.
in short, it would go a long way for Conoley to acknowledge that the legacy of 49ers as it pertains to Beach is positive, that the legacy of California is positive, and expansion to California has been positive, not just some simplistic notion that our goal is that there there are individuals who don't even have a relation to native americans, and who in 2019 are 'offended' simply because the mascot was a white person, and so we need to obliterate such.
ok, rant over, just don't ask me for $49 on one hand and then insult me by saying 49ers are evil on the other. It's simply disgusting, coming from this administration. it's like saying "F you' every time they bring up 49er
maybe she'll figure it out someday, one can hope
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