The New School in New York gives Narwhal mascot a political activist backstory

The New School is a private research university in New York City that was established in 1919. It has over 10,000 students and a rigorous enough acceptance rate to reflect their standards.

The staff in charge of mascots at The New School have decided to get a new mascot named Gnarls Narwhal.

Zach Harrell, Assistant Provost for Student Engagement, explained the motivation behind the change.

“In order to prepare students to succeed in a rapidly changing society our values must reflect the evolved needs of our population,” he said.

“In this way, our students can make the world a better or just place and Gnarls is meant to symbolize that. We hear the phrase “that’s so New School” all the time with students and I think the hope is that Gnarls is also “so New School” and a symbol that prospective students, current students and alumni can look at as a representation of their experience.”

Their pronouns are (they/them), as established in the official announcement revealing the modern overhaul to the character.

August 23, 2021

The university has a biography for Gnarls Narwhal, where they describe them as “a social justice advocate.” In the first paragraph the upbringing of Gnarls Narwhal is described to have unconventional parents.

But then The New School adds climate change to the background of their school mascot.

"The year Gnarls was born, data from NASA's GRACE satellites revealed that ice sheets in both Antarctica and Greenland were beginning to lose substantial mass. By the time Gnarls was 12 years old, the Arctic home of the Narwhal family had seen distressing levels of ice loss. This environmental catastrophe forced Mor, Far, Gnash, and Gnarls into an Odyssean journey to find a hospitable alternative to their familiar frozen waters."

Such references continue throughout the rest of the story. But in brief it entails using phrases like Gnarls having a "passion for social justice” alongside abrupt mentions of climate change protests more than once.

Gawker praised the change, adding that Gnarls Narwhal must’ve applied to NYU and got waitlisted, only to end up choosing The New School as a compromise.