The best way to show your pride in the Billiken: Stick him in the middle of the street. Step on his face; put your feet over his mouth. And let cars drive over him. School pride at SLU can be painful. But the Billiken Pride Initiative plans to fix that.The first enhancement of school spirit: an enormous Billiken head painted on the pavement of the Grand Boulevard crosswalk. Many more pride-enhancing initiatives are slated to come.We often make mention of the conspicuous lack of pride among our classrooms, statues and students. So, to the folks behind the Spirit Initiative, we say: Go for it. If you can improve the current attitude of our students and staff, we’re behind you.SLU has its own distinct identity-one in which we should take pride. We have a rich history: We’re the first University this side of the Mississippi. A little-known fact is that the first recorded pass during an officiated football game was by our old football team. And, there’s that whole Jesuit thing.The fact of the matter is that the Spirit Initiative isn’t (and shouldn’t be) inventing anything new for which we should be proud. Rather, it is reaching to make students proud of what we already have.The Spirit Initiative hopes to make SLU’s lesser-known history better known. Plans are set to display student organization memorabilia in the Busch Student Center. There will even be music videos made to teach the fight song.There will also be T-shirts. And a candy machine. Class councils. Spirit competitions. Many of these new plans seem extravagant (more of our insignia around Midtown?!), and some might seem brutal (competitions between groups for sports game attendance?). But all of the plans are juvenile.Juvenile, though, isn’t a bad thing. Although such competitions and mascot-waving may invoke memories of high school gymnasium pep-fests, they might work. Spirit of the collegiate sort-facepaint at sports games, cheers, campus-wide traditions like parades and tailgating-often is juvenile. At least, in general, it requires a bit of childish fun.For that matter, we are juvenile. For instance, we like Harry Potter. And in many ways, the proposed plan reminds us of Harry Potter: crests for the residence halls and spirit points for school factions-very Hogwarts-esque.Hopefully, the plans set out by the Spirit Initiative may give SLU’s school spirit the kick in the pants it needs.And, anyway, what’s the downside? If you think that this new spirit-oriented decor might be outrageous or ostentatious, look up-you’ll see a giant Billiken-shaped topiary. You see, our decor has already achieved that audacity-that’s part of our identity, too.The Spirit Initiative should highlight the other things that make SLU special: SLU authors, SLU researchers, SLU professors, students and faculty and their contributions to the community in and around SLU.We’re spreading it all around the neighborhood: SLU. In neon lights. In steel. On billboards. In ivy. And now pavement.Really, the new initiative is more than juvenile. It’s animal. Instinctual, even. We’re marking our territory. Kind of like those drunk guys who pee on the Billiken.