WORCESTER – Faced with the prospect of changing its historic “Crusaders” nickname this fall, the College of the Holy Cross is also confronting a central question: What’s in a name?

According to six professors who sat on a panel to discuss that inquiry Tuesday afternoon in the college’s Rehm Library, there is more packed into the Crusader mascot than its function as a sharp logo on T-shirts and gym bags. From its reflection of Holy Cross’ values, to its role as a symbol of the school’s Jesuit tradition, to its potential ostracizing effect on people who don’t identify with the armor-clad, sword-wielding knight and all its historical implications, the Crusader name has a lot going on.

The question of abandoning the moniker, said Holy Cross ethics and society professor Mark P. Freeman, “is a question of whether the symbol and image of the Crusader resonates with our deepest held values, beliefs, and ideals.”

Renewed debate on campus about the mascot’s appropriateness was kicked off earlier this year when the college’s student newspaper, also named the Crusader, contemplated dropping its title because of the existence of a newsletter of the same name published by the Ku Klux Klan. At a fishbowl-style discussion hosted by the paper’s editors a couple of months ago, Holy Cross political science professor Vickie Langohr said there seemed to be an agreement of opinions that the random similarity “in and of itself is not a reason to change the name.” But the KKK’s embrace of the Crusader and other medieval imagery –an affinity shared by the recently emerged alt-right political group – should give the college pause, she said.

Given the Crusader’s origin with the Crusades, several professors said the mascot could have an “othering” effect on non-Christian people, including Jews and Muslims who would have been on the other side of the Crusaders’ siege in medieval times.

“It’s kind of just a dodge to say, ‘we can reimagine it differently,’” Ms. Langohr said. “You have to accept the negative of that (symbolism) if you retain the name.”

Other professors pointed out the aggressive-appearing mascot may not even fit in the Jesuit tradition, given the order’s founder, St. Ignatius of Loyola, laid down his own sword.

But some panel members also cautioned against judging the mascot purely from a historical perspective.

“I’d be leery of being too quick to jettison something because it’s problematic,” said Holy Cross philosophy professor Kendy M. Hess, only to later find the name had deeper meaning to the college and its members.

Holy Cross religious studies professor Mathew Schmalz said it would be a mistake, for example, to go down the same path as his alma mater, Amherst College, which recently dropped its controversial “Lord Jeff” mascot and became, by way of a campus vote, the Mammoths.

“There was no kind of broader discussion about what was going on with this” name change, he said, adding the ultimate intent was never satisfactorily addressed at the college.

Holy Cross, meanwhile, as a Jesuit college may have even more of itself wrapped up in the Crusader name, Mr. Freeman said – “the stakes are higher here.” If the college decides to move on from the Crusaders, its new name “is still going to have to bear the weight, in some significant way, of the college’s Catholic tradition,” he said.

That can create some tricky problems; as Holy Cross history professor Sahar Bazzaz pointed out, Holy Cross’ Crusader, after all, is akin to a Baghdad institution naming itself the “Jihadis” – “(they’re both) someone who is fighting in the name of religion,” she said.

Then again, the point of a mascot, at least from the perspective of the sports teams that will be associated most closely with it, is to be at least a little provocative, said Mike Rogers, a chaplain at the college who spoke from the audience at Tuesday’s discussion. In the “us versus them” mentality of athletics, trying to avoid “othering” might not be a “practical consideration in this context,” he said.

Contact Scott O’Connell at Scott.O’Connell@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @ScottOConnellTG