Luke Kanczes, President of the Royal College of Science Union (RCSU) successfully stole the Imperial College School of Medicine Students’ Union’s (ICSMSU) Phoenix mascot head earlier this week with RCSU Vice-President Paul Beaumont in a mascotry scandal that continues today. The RCSU President explained that they ‘’saw the chicken head carelessly tossed aside on the Queen’s Lawn”, posed as freshers to distract the medic manning the RAG stall and took the mascot.

He continued that the medic mumbled, “that guy just stole our head” and that they had to “dodge several rugby lads” to escape. It is claimed that the medics, “unable to understand the difference between Science and Engineering”, went to the CGCU office as their first port of call.

ICSMSU’s President, Suzie Rayner, responded that they are “highly disappointed in the poor manner the head was stolen”, adding that it has had “enough abuse from non-medics at Varsity” resulting in damage to its right eye. “It is questionable whether this constitutes mascotry when they don’t have the full mascot”. The RCSU’s demands included a £200 donation to RCSU RAG, the ICSM President streaking in Beit Quad with only the Phoenix head on and a department-wide email stating that “RCSU is better than ICSMSU”.

During the Freshers’ Fair, this medic-friendly reporter was targeted by medical students and the Felix Cat head was stolen. Although swiftly retrieved with aid of the ICSMSU President, she sympathized but commented “the medics have taken to stealing mascot heads in retaliation. No head is safe, as the Felix Cat discovered.”

Imperial College Union President Scott Heath describes mascotry as an “adults’ game of hide and seek” aiming to “humiliate those unable to protect their mascot” and to “gain a charitable contribution”. The rules have been historically laid out and the mascots are open to theft by faculty unions only.