DANBURY, Conn. - The journey to develop our new mascot took over two years, beginning with the founding of a committee to select and adopt a new mascot identity, announced Associate Vice President for Enrollment Services Jay Murray on Wednesday.

The Mascot Advisory Committee presented a final ballot with several choices to the Western Connecticut State University community including students, staff/faculty and alumni, asking them to choose the new mascot identity. Nearly 3,000 respondents, 51% of whom were students, 39% of whom were alumni/emeriti and 10% of whom were faculty and staff, voted. Wolves received 49% of the total votes cast, beating out the other choices.

Once the identity was voted on and adopted, a new Art Task Force Committee under the direction of the Director of Communications and Marketing started the daunting process of creating the visual identity and branding. Over this past summer, the Art Task Force Committee worked to design mascot variations that would bring the community together and instill unity and pride. The Art Task Force Committee designed more than 60 variations of wolves. The process of eliminating certain looks and colors was purposeful and directed towards the best outcome.

When the WestConn Wolves mascot was finalized and then approved by administration, the image was put through a patent and trademark search by Cantor Colburn LLP, and we can now use the mascot as created specifically for Western Connecticut State University for all branding and outward facing purposes including marketing, admissions and other school materials; club, extracurricular and athletic use, and in any way to represent the university to the student body and the public. The process of filing our trademark will take six months to obtain all the classes for the mascot.

As you can see this has been a long and involved process, which officially and legally makes the new Wolves logo/mascot variations the only ones that university representatives, including students, clubs, athletics, faculty and staff can use for university related purposes.

The Athletic Department's branding package includes images for the entire department with unique marks for each individual program.  Only Associate Athletic Director Scott Ames will field and fill all requests for the Athletic Department logos.  A department style guide will be available in the coming weeks.