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OUSU Council votes for ‘offensive’ mascot

A motion to create an OUSU mascot, a “big bouncing blue blob of bureaucracy” called ‘Ousy’, unexpectedly passed at OUSU Council last Friday, despite repeated objections from representatives.

£300 of OUSU’s publicity budget is to be spent on creating a suit after the proposal from Oxide Radio DJs Max Seddon and James MacAdam was amended to force Seddon to be inside the suit as a part-time executive officer.
Seddon, a first year Magdalen student, described Ousy in his satirical manifesto as “a big bouncing blue blob of bureaucracy who lives in a beautiful 1970s style building surrounded by happy homeless people. He’s a loving fellow and is sure that OUSU Council fully reflects the opinion of the majority of students. His favourite things are student union services, hugging and anal sex.”

Wadham SU President Ben Jasper warned that students will not necessarily accept the decision as light-hearted. “Half of our central student union’s publicity budget will be dedicated to putting a pompous Etonian twit in a big blue suit for a few days in Michaelmas,” he said.

“It’s not going to help let students who face being thrown out of their college contact the Student Advice Team. It will prevent OUSU from advertising the most important welfare services it offers. Other JCR Presidents should be hanging their heads in shame. It occurred in a hysteria of ‘I don’t care, my replacement’s been elected’ and they acted with utter stupidity.”

Jamie Frew, OUSU Vice-President for Welfare, said that the mascot was intended to perpetuate the Student Union’s negative public image. “There are people both inside OUSU and beyond who have been very offended by what has happened. I had expected the motion to be quickly dismissed: I was really surprised to discover that people were prepared to vote for the sanitised version he presented.”

Another OUSU sabbatical officer, Andrea Miller, agreed with Frew that the mascot would not be beneficial for the Student Union. “I am very upset that OUSU Council would pass a motion that endorsed the statement that ‘students would be more prepared to listen to someone in a fuzzy blue suit talk about and provide student services than members of the OUSU executive.’

President Alan Strickland refused to side with his fellow sabbatical officers, suggesting that the mascot would be welcome in the future. “I’m touched that Max is thinking of us. I think a mascot would be a fun publicity tool for events like elections and clubs nights where we want to grab students attention and get them involved.

“Personally I think of OUSU as more of a lion than a dinosaur: fast, powerful, and ruthlessly effective. Max’s idea to use animals to get our message across is inspired. Communication is a mammoth issue which has sometimes been a bit of a dog’s dinner for OUSU because of our mouse-like funding.”
Becky Ely

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