The Man
Behind
The Mascot
C HRIS ERNEST IS AT HIS BEST WHEN
he's not himself. The junior from
Michigan's Wayne State U. has
played everything from McDonald's "Mac who. s that masked man? Tony
Tonight" to Michigan State U.'s "Sparty" to the Tiger?No, it's Chris Ernest of
the Detroit Tigers' "Paws." sWayne state u., honest.
Ernest is clawing his way through There wasn't an actual tryout, just gan State to Wayne State this fall to
school as a professional mascot. an interview process. They knew my be closer to his job, but he says he
The Ferndale, Mich., native got talents ahead of time, I guess." won't try out for the mascot job
his start in 1989. A ninth grader at Ernest's favorite part of the job is there. "I'm way too busy with
the time, Ernest began to shine as playing cat and mouse with the Detroit," Ernest says. "And I'm not
the "Mac Tonight" moon man for crowd. even sure Wayne State has a mas-
public appearances in the Detroit "The fans are really starting to cot."
area. "My mom worked for the guy like me," he says. "I enjoy being able Ernest, a broadcast journalism
who made appearances as Ronald to get smiles on the kids' faces. It's major, says he'd like to be the
McDonald, and they needed some- just the biggest rush. I just love to Tigers' mascot for another five to 10
body to fill in," he says. "I was just get people all pumped up." years before pursuing his ultimati
in the right place at the right time." But getting people pumped up career goal - sports broadcasting.
Then came stints as his high every day has its down side, too. Ernest doesn't have a long-term
school mascot and later as Michigan "I haven't had a day off in, like, contract with the Tigers, and hi
State's "Sparty" Spartan. By that three months," Ernest says. "But I won't say how much money hi
time, he says, mascoting was in his love it." makes - not even a ballpark figure
blood. In addition to Tigers games, But he's not ruling out the idea of
But when Ernest first stepped Ernest appears as Paws for birth- staying in his current field.
onto the lush, green grass of Tiger days, weddings and other functions. "Who knows what will happen,'
Stadium this summer, he knew his "The only thing I won't do is he says. "Maybe I can make thi
dream had come true. Twirling his bachelorette parties," Ernest says Tiger mascot bigger than life
orange-and-black-striped tail in his with as much pride as a man in a maybe even bigger than the San
hand, Ernest debuted as the Tigers' tiger suit can have. "That's just Diego Chicken."
first mascot - "Paws." something for the reputation of the
"I just sent in my resumd," he organization." Tony Hansen, Michigan State U./
says. "There were about 100 of us. Ernest transferred from Michi- Photo courtesy Detroit Tigers inc.
College Trek:
The First
Generation
A T TENNESSEE TECHNOLOGICAL U., TYPICAL
reactions include screaming and tears. That's
what Rick Stegall sees from students awarded
one of the school's new "first-generation" scholarships.
e
e
,0
Stegall is director of the Capi-
tal Campaign fund-raising group
at TTU, one of a growing num-
ber of schools offering special
scholarships to students who
demonstrate financial need and
whose parents do not have bache-
lor's degrees. Terms of the pro-
grams vary from one school to
another, but the principle behind
them is the same.
"One young lady that we
awarded it to last year had already
borrowed all the money she could
borrow," Stegall says. "She broke
down and wept, she was so happy."
Samar Lightfoot, a sophomore
at Colorado State U., says his schol-
arship allowed him to attend CSU
rather than a smaller school in his
native Cleveland. "It's two less
loans I have to take out," he says.
"If I didn't get a pretty big
scholarship, I wouldn't be able to
go here," says Josh Cooper, a
senior at TTU. "I was relieved."
Paul Thayer, director of the
center for educational access and
outreach at CSU, takes credit for
starting the first program of this
kind in 1984.
"In Colorado, people have
seen how successful it has been in
attracting and retaining students,"
Thaver says. "On a national level,
it's probably being looked at as an
alternative to other kinds of schol-
arships - race-based scholarships
and the like."
Thayer says he doesn't know
an exact number of the schools
.
Because his parents
did not attend
college, Samar
Lightfoot can.
with similar programs, but he
thinks CSU's programs is rare.
"There's been a lot of interest,"
he says. "I really do think it's
going to be a promising concept
for a lot of places."
At CSU, approximately 275
students benefit from the pro-
gram. In its first year, the TTU
program had only eight recipients,
even though 60 percent of stu-
dents were eligible, Stegall says.
"What's surprising is how well
the students have done in terms of
leadership and performance,"
Thayer says. "We're serving a dif-
ferent cut of students that isn't
otherwise recognized, rewarded
and encouraged."
Feona Huff, Norfolk State U., Va./
Photo by Erica Carlson,
Colorado State U.
Affirmative
Action:
The Burning
Question
A FFIRMATIVE ACTION'S 30-YEAR-OLD
fire was again stoked this summer by
the Supreme Court.
The Court's 5-4 decision made all race- and gender-based
programs vulnerable to court challenges. But university admis-
sion, scholarship and hiring practices may get burned the worst.
"This [ruling] doesn't mean courts threw out affirmative
action," says Andi Butler, director for affirmative action at
Northwestern U.
But it does change how universities develop affirmative-
action plans, Butler says.
"The programs will be much more narrowly defined in
order to survive the scrutiny test," she says.
Under the October 1972 Higher Education Guidelines,
colleges and universities receiving federal funds were required
"to make additional efforts to recruit, employ and promote
qualified members of groups formerly excluded, even if that
exclusion cannot be traced to particular discriminatory actions
on the part of the employer."
The court's decision, however, hinged on the
fact that the Constitution guarantees protection
of iidividual - not group -- rights.
On July 20, the U. of California regents abol-
ished race-based preferences in admissions, hiring
and contracting. The vote made UC the first uni-
versity system in the nation to scale back its affir-
mative-action programs.
Paul Encinas, director of the U. of Colorado
(CU)'s student advocacy center, is worried about
the ruling's effect on minorities. "[Minorities
will] be more pessimistic about opportunities
available in higher education because they won't
see the race-specific schol-
arships there," he says.
One way CU is erying
to increase minority status
is by changing admissions
standards. "All universities
need to find a way around
affirmative action," says
Loren Sharply, a senior at
CU and president of the
student body. "We have to
find a new way to achieve
the same result. Economic
standards could be used
instead." Approximately 15
percent of CU's student
population is minority.
Sharply also is con-
cerned about the ruling's
impact on recruiting and
retaining minority faculty.
Down the road, he says, students could suffer from the lack of
minority teachers.
Lorrie Lima, associate director of the Office of Equal
Opportunity and Affirmative Action at the U. of Utah, says
the decision and its impact on the U. of Utah is still unclear.
"The court applied a high and strict scrutiny standard to all
federal institutions,... so it won't be as liberal as it once was,
Lima says.
But the ultimate fate of affirmative action is still to be
determined, especially since President Clinton is so against
ending it.
"This particular decision has definitely perked everybody's
ears up," Lima says. He says that affirmative action programs
should have ongoing yearly reviews to make sure they're meet-
ing the needs of their communities.
"We need to be more conscious of what we're doing in
affirmative action," Butler says. "I don't think our work is
done."
Erica Kalkofen, U. of Wisconsin, Stout/Illustration by Scott Magoon,
Northeastern U.
12 U. Magazine August/September 1995