NORTH MANKATO — At South Central College Tuesday, it was time for a special guest to make a “Splash.”
Splash the otter, SCC’s new mascot, made his debut as students went about their second day of classes.
For SCC leadership, the project has been a long-time coming.
“This had been a long-expressed need that we need to have a mascot. We need to have an identity, and I think that identity, that sense of having a placeholder, is so important,” Ritu Raju, president of South Central College, said.
For Raju, the day was filled with celebration, as she went around from class to class welcoming all the students to the new semester, the start of which marked her second year as president of the college.
“I’ve just been walking around popping into classes saying hello, and the energy is wonderful,” she said, looking around the student lounge, where the special guest was soon to arrive. “Yesterday, you know, we have classes that run four hours. And when they had a break yesterday, a bunch of the mechatronic students were in here playing pool, makes me so happy.”
The celebration featured free food, a chance to dine with the deans of the college and a t-shirt airbrush station. However, the centerpiece of the celebration was the mascot reveal.
“We collaborated with our students, faculty, staff, community partners, retirees, all of that to come up with the animal or whatever it would be, and then through that process, the otter was selected,” Katie Hewitt, vice president of finance and operations at SCC and member of the school spirit team, said.
That decision wasn’t arbitrary either; the otter represents something for the college. It stands for what they want to be in the community.
“We wanted a mascot that reflects who we are as a college and the communities we serve,” Raju said in a press release earlier this week. “Splash represents curiosity, adaptability and resilience, qualities that are demonstrated every day by our students, faculty and staff.”
While Raju was certainly focused on the day, her mind was also on the future.
“I’m really looking at embedding South Central into the community. We have so many resources for our community … I really want us to be able to tell a great story of how we support our community,” Raju said.
And that excitement and ambition isn’t just in Raju, but it’s already flowing in so many of the students walking through the halls for the first time this week, as shown in a story Raju tells about an interaction with a student she had on Monday.
“He’s chosen welding, because it’s such a high demand, high entry wage occupation, but he’s also an artist,” Raju said. “He told me that he wants to do art in eight different mediums, and I think that’s exactly the kind of innovation and exploration that we want to encourage.”