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What if? CSU Main Campus Edition

If you've ever visited LSU's campus in Baton Rouge, you've likely seen Mike the Tiger, the famed live Bengal Tiger that serves as the graphic image of all LSU Athletics teams, and that resides in a 15,000-square foot environment that includes lush planting, a live oak tree, a waterfall and a stream evolving from a rocky backdrop overflowing with plants and trees that is situated between Tiger Stadium and the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. As the image above indicates, Mike the Tiger is a favorite among LSU supporters and fans, particularly the younger ones. The current Mike the Tiger, Mike VII, was donated to LSU by the Okeechobee, Florida-based sanctuary Wild at Heart Wildlife Center.
Two states closer to Georgia, at the University of North Alabama in Florence, sits a lion enclosure, known as the George H. Carroll Lion Habitat, in the middle of the University of North Alabama's campus. Until recently, it was home to Leo and Una (see image at left), a pair of live lions representing the institution's mascot. The pair began their residence in the enclosure around 2002, after their donation by a refuge in New Hampshire when they were just cubs. Like Mike VII, University of North Alabama alumni and supporters proudly journeyed to campus over the years to visit Leo and Una.
Interestingly enough, in the early-to-mid 2010s a CSU supporter contacted CSU officials with an offer to finance construction of a mountain lion (cougar) enclosure on CSU's main campus, and to secure one or two mountain lions (cougars) to inhabit it. We recently communicated with a former CSU administrator who was closely involved with the proposal, who affirmed our recollection of events surrounding it. When word of the proposal spread across the CSU community at that time, there was opposition to it by students, who preferred that the donor instead allocate the proposed funds for the mountain lion enclosure to student scholarships. The donor wasn't interested in this idea, perhaps because he already contributed to CSU student scholarships, and withdrew his offer altogether. What if CSU officials had moved ahead and accepted the proposal without spreading word about beforehand to the wider CSU community? If it had done so, the CSU main campus would have a mountain lion enclosure inhabited by one, maybe two, live cougars that people from all around would be drawn to the main campus to visit. Consider the image of the two mountain lions above. It comes from the zoo in our namesake city, Columbus, Ohio. The two cougars you see, they were rescued from California wildfires that destroyed their natural habitat. This seems like a situation for which the old phrase that it's sometimes "better to ask for forgiveness than permission" was crafted. While previous installments in this series have been aspirational in nature, this one represents a big missed opportunity. What do you think?
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