Elections Held to Name Campus Cat

A cat from seemingly nowhere appeared on the Menton campus fresh into the second semester of the 2021-2022 academic year. One of the campus guards, Marc, said that he had simply appeared one day, and Jose and the students had taken initiative to take care of it. Rumor has it that the cat once belonged to Jose a couple of years ago, returning almost 2 years later to its home.

Once the Mentonese had accepted the kitty as part of its community, it was time to give him a name.

On the ninth and 10th of March, a text into the school-wide group chat, “Risen 1As,” prompted a two-part election to suggest and elect a name for the Sciences Po kitty:

“The cat in front of Sciences Po does not belong to anyone but the Mentonese Sciences Pistes. His/her name should thus be decided by no other than the people themselves…”

As of 10:30 a.m. on March 9, all Sciences Pistes gained access to the first Google Form allowing them to suggest names. By the same time the following morning, the form had collected 15 different recommendations. The next day, later in the afternoon, each of these names was aggregated on a second and final form, upon which 61 students exercised their fundamental right to vote, ultimately providing a definitive name for the kitty. The election allowed individuals to vote for multiple names, taking an approval-rating approach to elections.

Before revealing which name actually won, and in order to get a better understanding of the elections, we interviewed some of the nominators to get a better understanding of the story behind their proposed name.

Hubert (6.6% approval)

The first vote was cast at 10:31:23, in the thick of sociology class, by 1A Lilith Springer. Her suggestion, Hubert, gained four votes, approved by 6.6% of voters. When asked why she chose the name, she quipped, “because it’s an AWESOME name,” shortly adding that it also “reminds” her “of a friendly ghost that is always there but doesn’t really talk, exactly like the cat.”

Right after proposing this suggestion, she thought of another one.

Abu Bakr (27.9% approval)

Receiving 17 votes, “Abu Bakr” was the runner-up to the winning name. “He [Abu Bakr] has the same birthday as me, and, in my view, cats are kind of malicious creatures who are still worshiped for some reason.”

When the time came to vote, Springer cast her ballot in favor of her own two suggestions.

Malthus (8.2% approval)

The next submission came from 1A Saoirse Aherne, fighting for the representation of economic principles outside the classroom. The number of votes received for Malthus (five) was shocking for some, given how pertinent the subject was in the first semester 1A curriculum. Some suggested that a sort of post-economic stress disorder led to the strict rejection of the instinctively funny name suggestion.

Venti (6.6% approval)

Suggested by 1A Emilio Egger Prieto, also in Sociology class, this name earned four votes. Yet Egger Prieto had a keen agenda when he chose the name: “Ventimiglia is a very important part of the Menton experience. Menton without Ventimiglia is like Darkness without Light or Heat without Cold. They define each other and coexist naturally. This is why I advocated to have Venti permanently represented on our campus.”

Balthazar (9.8% approval)

For 1A Ferida Altun, this name, which earned six votes, was “the first name that crossed [her] mind as soon as she saw the cat’s face.” To justify her choice, she explained the history behind the name. “Balthazar is a name coming from royalty, meaning ‘God protects the king.’” The cat seemed rather dominant to her and “the fact that the cat carries (the domination) is a bit of an inversion of the traditional domination relationship (God protects the cat)” made her smile.

Rayantoufiq (11.5% approval)

This creative name was suggested by 2A Ilaï Beressi. Some suggest that it was selected in reference to his roommate and Menton 2A Rayan Toufiq. Although, when directly asked about his suggestion, Beressi explained little, simply saying, “Well… Isn’t it obvious?” and sending a picture of Toufiq smiling thereafter. “Look at him.”

Ibn Khaldun (16.4% approval)

“Ibn Khaldun” received 10 votes. Along with the following two names, this candidate was suggested by 1A Isabel Cronin, who established that she liked the idea of naming animals after historical figures.

“Ibn Khaldun is one of the most influential figures of our degree focus so it felt like a good option. He comes up in many of our courses and is a name most of our campus is hopefully familiar with.”

Machiavelli (13.1% approval)

Earning 8 votes, this name was, in all likelihood, too familiar to the 1As who, at the time, were wrapping up their readings and presentations on Machiavelli’s “The Prince” for their political science seminars.

Cronin said that the same reasoning for “Ibn Khaldun” applied to “Machiavelli.” She thought that this was “a sick name for a cat,” adding that then “we could nickname it ‘The Prince’ which would have been cute.”

Tabbouleh (14.8% approval)

This one of Cronin’s suggestions which dominated the candidate pool received 9 votes. Cronin reflected:

“The second best names for animals are the food-based ones,” (Cronin’s cat back home is named Alfredo Linguini, “so I thought a popular Middle Eastern dish would suit the Middle East campus cat quite well.”

Leviathan (4.9% approval)

The unpopularity of this choice, accumulating only a measly 3 votes, could have been attributed to its placement in the selection pool as the penultimate option. One could also theorize that the wealth of other historical names stole Leviathan’s thunder. Surprisingly, 2A Stanislaw Naklicki was more outraged at the electoral process than the unenthused reception of his name suggestion

“I was convinced the form was anonymous. I feel deceived,” he lamented. The nominations were not anonymous, and nowhere on the form was this indicated. Naklicki added:

“I wanted to call him whale but I forgot how to say whale in English so Leviathan was the only thing that came to my mind as an alternative.”

Perhaps “wave” would have earned more votes. No one will ever know.

Yasmina (cat) as opposed to Yasmina (person) to do so we have to refer to the latter as Yasmina The Person (19.7% approval)

The 1A who suggested this name preferred to remain anonymous, but they had clear reasons for their suggestion. “Right now, there are two Yasmina’s monopolizing powerful positions at Sciences Po Menton. We have… the director of our campus and the Yasmina in MDL (the boys’ dorm on campus). Both (are) arguably powerful and intimidating people. I was thinking if we named the cat ‘Yasmina,’ we would have to refer to the other Yasmina’s as ‘Yasmina the Person’ and take their power away a little bit because the cat would be called just ‘Yasmina.’ There would therefore be three powerful girls running Sciences Po Menton.”

Sciences Pussy (19.7% approval)

1A Giulia Vigoriti chose this name but was disappointed by the 12 votes cast for it. When asked why she chose the name, she simply said, “It was funny! Pussy = Cat. But apparently I am too funny for the average SciencesPiste.”

Vigoriti also warned the Feminist Union, telling them to “watch out,” because she might potentially recycle this name suggestion for a student initiative.

قط

Suggested by 1A Emilia Kohlmeyer, this name came with its own platform:

“This is why you should pick this:

It’s funny because qat.

It can be translated to qt (cutie).

It’s a great name.

Good night.”

Dog (11.5 % approval)

Suggested by 1A Gayle Krest and earning seven votes, the name “Dog” was submitted “because it’s a Cat” and she thought that was funny.

THE WINNING NAME: Muammar Cat-Dafi (59% votes)

The modest 1A who suggested this winning name (which gained 36 votes) wanted to remain anonymous.

They reflected:

“I submitted Muammar Cat-Dafi because it was a pun, but I regret it because I think it’s mean to the cat and maybe disrespectful to the people of Libya.”

It was particularly enlightening to ask each student who suggested a name for their reasoning behind their choice. Perhaps if each nominator had created a platform presenting reasons why the campus should choose their name, we would have seen different outcomes

Without further ado, congratulations to Muammar Cat-Dafi, for officially joining the Sciences Po Menton community and having such an important role in Mentonese history. The certificate above recognizes that the Electoral Council has approved that the name has won with necessary requirements met.

The cat has since been given a distinctive dictator hat, described by a Sciences Piste as a “generic military hat.” Perhaps the cat, once set to be called “Yasmina(cat) as opposed to Yasmina(person) to do so we have to refer to the latter as Yasmina The Person” is organizing a coup against its hypothetical opponent Yasmina… Menton will never know where this cat came from, what its goals are, or where he found Gaddafi’s hat.