13 DECEMBER 2019
Below is a statement quotable from a Students’ Union UCL spokesperson.
This week, the Union’s Executive committee met to discuss the responses to the Phineas consultation, which concluded in mid-November.
More than 3,500 students viewed the consultation on our website, and thousands more saw the consultation exhibition in Phineas Bar.
In the consultation, the majority of students felt that although the Phineas statue no longer represented British Colonialism, its historic ties were not representative of the Union today.
The Union’s Executive also felt that Phineas does not represent the modern values of the Union; inclusive, inspiring, fun, bold and student-driven, and voted for Phineas to be retired as the Union’s mascot.
Phineas only featured as the Union’s mascot during the London Varsity Series, when we compete against Kings College across 28 sports. From Varsity 2020, Phineas will no longer be on the sidelines.
What has been made clear throughout this process is that Phineas’ history should be more widely known by our members. This consultation will therefore be the beginning of the Union’s work to educate students on Phineas’ history.
No decision was made on whether the Phineas statue will return to the bar or whether the name of the bar will change. This will be picked up by the Union’s Executive at their next meeting in February 2020.
NOTES TO EDITORS
- Students’ Union UCL is a student-driven charity and the recognised representative body for all 44,000 students at UCL, one of the world’s leading universities.
- Phineas is a wooden statue of a Jacobite era Highlander originally fixed to the outside of Catesby’s department store on Tottenham Court Road. It was stolen by UCL students in 1900 to celebrate a significant British victory during the Boar War, and was later adopted as the Union’s mascot.
- The Union's Executive is made up of elected Sabbatical Officers and Part-time Officers.
- One of the Union’s bars was named after Phineas in 1993 and this remains the name of the bar today.
- A full history of how Phineas came to be the Union’s mascot can be found here: studentsunionucl.org/mascotconsultation