Media, newspapers, and magazines Students began publishing
The White and Gold in 1902, which was a literary magazine and newspaper. In 1913, a new newspaper was established entitled
Normal News Weekly. The school newspaper
Paper Lantern (
Normal News Weekly was renamed after the addition of the junior college) became
The Aztec in September 1925. It was later expanded to its current name,
The Daily Aztec in fall 1959. The school's annual yearbook was named
Del Sudoeste (Spanish for "of the southwest") in the early 1920s.
The Koala, a comedy newspaper that is widely known around the San Diego State University area, is also distributed monthly on campus but is not directly connected to the school at the moment.
Formula SAE Aztec Racing is SDSU's
Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) student chapter. Every year, SDSU engineering students design and construct an open wheel, open cockpit race car to
Formula SAE specifications. Aztec Racing then competes against other universities' Formula SAE teams in an annual competition event, where the cars are raced against each other and judged on design. Attendance at Formula SAE competition is international, with several hundreds of schools competing each year. Students from other majors participate as well, frequently in the areas of management, promotion and other aspects of the project.
Greek life Fraternities and sororities have been a part of the San Diego State University campus community for over a century. Today SDSU is home to many recognized Greek-letter organizations, most of which belonging to one of four university-sponsored governing councils. The Interfraternity Council (IFC) currently consists of 15 active social fraternities. The College Panhellenic Association (CPA) is made up of 8 active social sororities.
LGBT-friendly campus San Diego State University was recognized in 2016 among the best universities in the nation for supporting LGBT students. The Campus Pride Index recently ranked SDSU on its 2016 "Best of the Best" Top 30 list of LGBTQ-friendly colleges and universities. SDSU has been included in this ranking for the past seven years along with institutions like Princeton University and Cornell University. SDSU was recognized in 2014 as one of 20 of the most Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender-friendly campuses in all of the U.S. The university attains this recognition through its welcome week LGBT reception, Safe Zone ally training, Big Gay BBQs, participating in Aids Walk San Diego and Pride San Diego, hosting an LGBT college fair, and holding a Lavender Graduation ceremony and several lecture series. The university is one of the few campuses in California that is home to the gay social fraternity,
Delta Lambda Phi. Additionally, SDSU was the first university in California to offer a major in LGBT studies, while also offering a minor and graduate degree in the discipline. In 2014, SDSU opened a first-ever Pride Center at the former Student Organization Annex, with the mission to provide resources and help meet the needs and challenges of LGBT students.
S Mountain On February 27, 1931, President Hardy permitted 500 students to paint rocks to form a white S on
Cowles Mountain. The idea of "S Mountain" was created by the Council of Twelve and initially supported by Hardy. The giant S was lit at night for the opening football game of a season (performed by the freshman to build school spirit) along with pep rallies, and was repainted throughout its history. At the time, it was the largest collegiate symbol in the world. During World War II, the S was camouflaged to prevent it becoming a reference point for enemy bombing aircraft. It was returned to its normal state in April 1944. In the 1970s students stopped painting it and brush obstructed the symbol. After a 1988 brush fire it was exposed, and students repainted it. In fall 1997, a group of 100 volunteers climbed Cowles Mountain after dusk to commemorate the one hundredth anniversary of the school by using flashlights to once again outline the S on the side of the mountain. In 1990, a high school prank defaced the S to read as "91" in honor of their graduating class.
School colors and history of the Aztec mascot The initial
colors of the school were white and gold. When the junior college was added to the campus in 1921, its colors of blue and gold were merged, resulting in a blue, gold, and white color scheme. New colors were later chosen as gold and purple, until being replaced by scarlet and black on January 28, 1928. The school's prior nicknames for its
mascot included "
Normalites", "
Professors", and "
Wampus Cats". The origin of the Aztec mascot is disputed among historians of the university but the first reported manifestation of the moniker concerned a student, Frederick Osenberg (Class of 1926), who came up with the idea of the San Diego State Aztecs while walking by the California Tower in Balboa Park, and became inspired by various murals of indigenous people from Latin America.” In 1925, the student body voted to adopt the Aztec moniker. The decision to choose the Aztec as a moniker was in conjunction with preliminary plans to move to a new campus and was done in unison with changing the name of the school newspaper to ‘The Aztec’ and featuring a yearbook with prominent Aztec symbols. The mascot transition was first mentioned in the January 21, 1925, edition of the school's newspaper at the time,
The Paper Lantern (1921–1925). In the article,
State Adopts New Moniker For Athletes, opens with an improvised fight song, "Rah for the Aztecs! What a name! What a name! Did you say Ash cans? Say I thought those cannibals were all dead! Whaddaya think this is? An Indian reservation? I'll bet Hopis are responsible for this”. The reasoning behind the choice of mascot is also mentioned directly: "We have been called Aztecs and will be called Aztecs in the future. The 'name has' been used to denote a nation of semi-civilized inhabitants of central Mexico. What it will mean in the future remains for us to say. If we build an institution famous for its scholars, for its athletes, for its faculty; if we build a reputation for broadmindedness, for honesty, and for sportsmanship, these attributes will be incorporated into the same Aztecs. On the other hand – but there is no other hand in this picture. We are going to make the Aztecs mean all these finer things. Tradition will know Aztecs as something more than a tribe of semi-civilized inhabitants of Central Mexico...A name should stand for something more than a combination of letters. It should bear traditions, should call up thoughts of courage and fighting spirit. Such a tribe were the Aztecs. Noted for their fleetness, strength and bravery, they were seldom downed in physical encounters. The Aztecs are gone but their spirit and name remains, waiting all these years for State College to assume its burden. Vive la Aztec!” In 1937, the artist,
Donal Hord, completed "Aztec" for San Diego State College as an artistic representation of the Aztec mascot. The Depression-era
Works Project Administration (WPA) partially funded the sculpture, created from a single 2.5-ton block of black diorite. The stone base was presented as a gift to the school by the class of 1937. In 2002, the sculpture was moved to the Prospective Student Center and in 2009, the SDSU Alumni Association installed a large concrete replica in the rotunda of the Parma Payne Goodall Alumni Center. The dedication ceremony included an elaborate dance circle with students, bare-chested, dressed in Plains Indian costumes. This style of performance was seen at the school throughout the mid-century. The mascot continued to evolve and in 1941, for the first time, a student portrayed an Aztec in a football game skit. The character became known as Monty Montezuma. "The first student to dress up as Monty was Art Munzig, who played the role during the opening football game of the 1941 season. He and four scantily clad cheerleaders in Plains Indian costumes secretly hid in a makeshift teepee on the sidelines and emerged at halftime with Montezuma chasing the maidens down the track in front of the stands." In 2000, the SDSU Associated Students’ University Council passed a resolution, backed by the Native American Student Alliance, that called for retiring the Aztec moniker and Montezuma mascot due to racism and culturally insensitivity and President Stephen Weber appoints a task force to make recommendations on the Aztec moniker and Montezuma mascot. This task force recommended updating logos and symbols to be culturally appropriate and historically accurate; defining Montezuma as an ambassador but not as a mascot; educating the university community on Aztec history and culture; and strengthening programs and events that support indigenous communities. During the same year, the Aztec Warrior becomes official through a referendum vote of students and alumni. The jaguar was retired in 2012. Throughout the 2010s, the Aztec mascot has continued to be a point of controversy for the school. The last known vote regarding the mascot occurred in 2018. SDSU President Sally Roush appointed a 17-member Aztec Identity Task Force composed of students, faculty, staff, alumni and members at large and reports to the University Senate her decisions to continue the use of the Aztec identity. She also established a governing authority, chaired by the president, to ensure recognition of and reverence for the Aztec civilization become part of daily life at SDSU.
Mascot controversy Like other mascots referencing historical tribes and cultures, the Aztec mascot has periodically been the topic of question. It was not cited as "hostile and abusive" by the NCAA in 2005. NCAA spokesman Erik Christianson said the organization "accepted the findings from SDSU that it could not find any organized tribe or group related to Aztecs." Then President Weber explained his findings in a letter written on April 27, 2005, to the NCAA's vice president for education services, Ron Stratten. "As I mentioned in my letter on January 3, 2003, the Aztecs are not a Native American or American Indian culture," Weber wrote. "However, the Aztecs are central to the cultural heritage of Mexico." However, the
Aztec Warrior has drawn criticism. Directly following the
NCAA Native American mascot decision, the Native American Student Alliance (NASA) posted an official statement about the university mascot on their Facebook page. The statement said the mascot "embodies the existence of
institutionalized racism." These concerns were also vocalized by NASA in their official statement, where they voiced concern about the impact of the mascot on campus life after a 2009 party hosted by the fraternity
Sigma Alpha Epsilon, with the theme “Cowboys and Nava-hoes." Although the school placed the fraternity on probation, President Hirshman's statement about
cultural appropriation drew attention to "all of the performances of racialized stereotypes by faculty and students, baton twirlers in feathered headdresses, students dressed as imagined Indians, faux ceremonies, chants, songs, the names of the dorms, the names of the rooms of the new student union, t-shirts and banners proclaiming 'We Are Aztecs'." Other points of contention have included worry that the mascot teaches the mistaken idea that Aztecs were a local tribe rather than living in Mexico 1,000 miles away. The SDSU Native American Student Alliance (NASA) continues to support removal of the mascot in an official statements made to the Committee on Diversity, Equity and Outreach. Although that resolution was rejected by the SDSU Associated Students, the University Senate, which represents the administration, faculty, staff and students, had voted to phase out the human depiction of the Aztec Warrior. In May 2021, the senate of the university opted a vote for commission to replace the human depiction of the Aztec Warrior for at least two animals of the Kumeyaay heritage. The commission would be working alongside local tribe leaders for the decisions leading up to a final replacement mascot. ==Incidents==