The AUSA Senate has dropped discussing whether Denver Boone, a cartoon character in a raccoon hat designed by Walt Disney, should return as DU’s mascot.

Senate President Monica Kumar said the action is being taken because a meeting with Chancellor Robert Coombe on Oct. 1 failed to produce the awaited final resolution on Boone’s fate.

“Students are frustrated because we’re expecting a yes or no answer, but it’s important that people realize that this isn’t something that’s ever going to be resolved with a yes or a no,” Kumar said.

Kumar, along with a number of other senators, said that Boone would probably not become the official mascot again despite the fact many of DU’s varsity sports teams use the name “Pioneers,” which, at DU, was historically represented by the Boone cartoon character, who represents a scrappy pioneer.

Boone was officially retired in 1999 due to pressure for its lack of gender inclusiveness and the changing image of the university, according to Daniels Senator Jason Lundberg.

However, support for the mascot swelled in recent years, with many arguing for an icon that would unite the student body.

“After people graduate, they don’t say, ‘I’m a pioneer.’ They say, ‘I graduated from the University of Denver,’ because there isn’t that symbol of pride,” Lundberg said.

In a survey taken of students and alumni by the university earlier this year, 87 percent of respondents reported liking or loving Boone and hoping to see his return, in some form, as the school’s official mascot.

Fifty-three percent of the 4,408 respondents said that they saw the cartoon as an “effective” representation of DU.

More than half found nothing objectionable about the mascot.

Much of that support comes from alumni who attended DU when Boone was the official mascot and still identify with the character, Kumar said.

However, opponents of Boone’s reinstatement remain firm in their position.

“This mascot is offensive despite his coy smile and overall happy demeanor. Native Americans suffered at [the hands of settlers] like Daniel Boone and now people are advocating having a cartoon that embodies a murderer represent our school.

“I don’t know about you, but I would rather have a gender neutral bird as my mascot over a cartoon associated with the slow demise of the Native Americans here in our country,” said Joe Borrego, a sophomore communications major.

The issue appears to have divided the Senate in recent weeks as well.

Off Campus Senator John McMahon said, “As far as I’m concerned, this is a dead issue.

“The second any student said that they felt marginalized [by Boone] is the second that all discussion [of a comeback] should have been dropped. Boone will always be a part of DU, but I don’t understand the reasoning behind making it a mascot of DU at this point.”

Other senators, including Vice President Antoine Perretta and Lundburg, expressed support for the mascot as an object of pride and unification for the student body.

According to Kumar, the only realistic possibility for Boone’s future at DU is for it to become an unofficial school mascot, utilized only on merchandise and in contexts that are not sponsored or funded by the university.

“This is not a conversation about Boone as the school mascot anymore,” Kumar said. “At this point it is a conversation about university identity and how we identify ourselves as pioneers. This discussion still gives us as students the opportunity to speak out and have our voices heard.”

With a final word from the Chancellor still pending, Perretta said that he does not expect a final resolution to the Boone issue to take place anytime soon.

“Boone retired 10 years ago and we’re still talking about him. As far as I can tell, in another 10 years we’ll still be talking about him,” he said.

The official DU mascot is still Ruckus, the red-tailed hawk. But, the icon currently being used by the DU sports teams is the Denver arch.