The mascot of the university first to come up in peoples’ minds as the image of the university. Like the eagle of Yonsei University, and the tiger of Korea University, once the mascot that represents university sticks to people’s minds, it is hard to strip it off. Universities reflect the images of their mascot and use them for marketing, and the unity of the university members. That is why it is very important to create the proper mascot of the university.

The mascot is usually related to the university’s symbolic animal. University of Seoul (UOS)’s symbolic animal is a hawk: not just a common hawk, but Jangsangot (Cape, located in Jangsan, North Korea, in English)-hawk. Jangsangot-hawk is a legendary animal which doesn’t exist and it is known for its braveness and strongness. It was elected as the symbolic animal in 1989 after the voting of the members of UOS and has represented the university since then. However, UOS Press had discovered that people including UOS students were not aware of what UOS symbolic animal is and the Press cited that it is because the university had no proper image of the mascot. It is a critical problem for the university whose fame and name are directly connected to the number of students who enroll and the unity of its students.

In 2018, UOS had its centenary, and Suh Soon-tak, the president of UOS had announced that the Jangsangot-hawk is the official symbolic animal of UOS. As it was acknowledged by the president of UOS, the university held the ‘UOS Jangsangot-hawk design contest’ in October 2019. One character won the first prize (picture below, by Jo Ye-rin, Dept. of Industrial & Visual’17), voted by UOS members. It was going to be used as a mascot of UOS afterward. However, on July 18, 2020, one post popped up on the Student Council Facebook page. UOS selected two out of eight draft designs by outside company, which were made by referring to the winner of 2019. The problem was that they were different from the character of the first winner. Netizens of UOS left comments with questions about the reason for the changed characters and even the original designer, Jo Ye-rin, expressed her displeasure.

Jo Ye-rin, the winner of the contest, said “I was very embarrassed and concerned if my character would just disappear. At first, the planning office of UOS told me that they are going to develop my character and also said it will be discussed with me if they change some parts of my design. However, I was suddenly informed that my design was canceled and they will use another design. They just said they are sorry for the short notice, without any other words.” She also said, “It would be great if UOS communicates with students and informs them before the university goes ahead with their plans.”

As above, the character of the university is very important for unity, a sense of belonging, and for marketing to people who are interested in UOS. Students kept demanding the proper image of the character of our university, or even change the symbolic animal of UOS, but there was a lack of communication for a long time. As Jangsangot-hawk is acknowledged by UOS president, the university should seriously consider what kind of character fits with UOS’s image. The contest held in 2019 was fair enough as it took in the vote by UOS members. However, if the university just changes what students had agreed on, it will not be representative of both the university image and the sense of belonging to the members of UOS.