The University of Texas at Tyler will be keeping the school’s eagle mascot Swoop & as UT Tyler Eric Figueroa in celebration after the announcement. (Michel Alfaro/Freelance Photographer)

Swoop there it is! The University of Texas at Tyler will keep the school’s beloved eagle mascot Swoop.

After more than a year of rebranding for the college, President Michael Tidwell said administrators saw how much students and the community loved Swoop and decided not to make a change. The college made the announcement at the University Center Theater on Friday.

“We heard you,” Tidwell said as Swoop ran on stage to thunderous applause.

Tidwell said that while it’s important to present a strong brand as the school moves into NCAA Division II athletics, the traditions of the school are equally important.

Students and alumni began pushing back almost immediately after it was announced last year that the mascot would be phased out. Multiple petitions circulated, and the move became the center of memes on social media.

Swoop also will be getting an outfit update between now and homecoming later this spring, he announced.

The school’s original mascot was Pat the Patriot, which was an eagle in a colonial-era Minuteman costume. Over the years the athletics department and student groups adopted an eagle logo, and after the college transitioned to a four-year university Swoop was adopted as the mascot.

After the announcement, hundreds of students gathered for selfies with Swoop.

“I’m glad UT Tyler is keeping the mascot. Swoop was a big part of my first few years when I lived on campus,” Nichole Gaston said. “I remember walking to class one day and seeing him and taking a selfie with him. Bald eagles are one of the most patriotic things I know, so why change it?”

Gaston said the college should focus more on improving the campus for the better, rather than altering campus culture.

As happy as students were to keep Swoop, many took to social media to express frustration with the process.

If we think about it, it’s pretty sad that we’re thanking administration for listening to student and alumni input after literally over a year of us telling them we wanted to keep Swoop. Tidwell’s keeping Swoop & I’m so happy, but I won’t applaud a fish for swimming🤷🏼♀️ #SwoopSwoop

— Not Kate (@KatieHicken) March 8, 2019

Over the past year many campus organizations have rebranded to match the university’s push to move away from the eagle imaging, including the school’s student-run newspaper.

Patriot Student Media Editor-in-Chief Claire Wallace said assurances by administrators that Swoop was not coming back led to the organization rebranding. 

“I love that we get to keep Swoop, but if the faculty had listened to students when the rebranding happened, we wouldn’t have had to get rid of Swoop in the first place,” Wallace said.

“The Patriot had to change its name because an eagle was no longer our mascot, and we got a lot of flak for it. I had someone on Twitter tell us we were a once-great paper, and the reason we weren’t great now was because we dropped ‘Talon’ from our name, disrespecting Swoop.”

The students used their own money to move away from the “Patriot Talon” name to “Patriot Student Media.” Students invested time and resources into designing new logos, overhauling all of their social media platforms and website, and hosting launch events to get the word out.

“We completely rebranded, which cost us money and time, because we were assured by administrators that Swoop was not coming back,” Wallace said. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy we get to keep Swoop. I love him. I’m mad that the administration didn’t listen to us in the first place and put us through a year of student outrage.”

Although the university decided to keep Swoop, a spokesperson said it still plans to pick a winner for the mascot design contest the college had run.

TWITTER: @TMT_Cory