St. Thomas’ mascot, Tommie, was seen using a flier from a College Republicans booth to wipe his rear end Tuesday.

Minnesota Republican House hopeful, Andy Brown, was promoting his candidacy in the Anderson Student Center Tuesday afternoon when Tommie grabbed a piece of Brown’s literature and proceeded to wipe his bottom with it, according to a tweet from Angela Hasek, Minnesota College Republicans chair.

“We were a bit stunned and didn’t know how to react,” Hasek said in an email. “Tommie is supposed to represent the student body in a positive and responsible way. We realize that Tommie’s job is to be funny, but this was disrespectful to Andrew Brown, the time, effort and resources he has invested into his campaign, and the rest of the members who were representing the College Republicans.”

Hasek said the university responded quickly after she tweeted about the incident.

“The behavior was completely inappropriate, and the university apologized for the incident a short time after it took place,” Associate Director of Campus Life Matt Gustafson said.

Jim Winterer, director of Media Relations, agreed that the situation was highly inappropriate.

“A mascot is a representation of the university,” Winterer said. “It’s surprising because this behavior was so unexpected. If this makes people think about respect and tolerance and how quickly those lines can be crossed, then it is a good thing for people to think about around the elections.”

With spread of this story through social media, Winterer compared this incident to the camel situation that occurred last semester.

Hasek said the College Republicans did not mean to get the Tommie representative in trouble with the university but simply want to make sure he or she thinks about the act.

“I think our job is to hold our fellow students and those who represent our school accountable for their actions,” Hasek said. “We would have been just as upset if Tommie had done the same to the literature of a Democrat or another organization on campus.”

Senior Garrett Smetana said he thought Tommie’s behavior was harmless and the situation was blown out of proportion.

“If someone did that to a club that I was involved in, I would not be offended at all. If it was an American flag or something more than a piece of paper, then I would be offended,” Smetana said.

Smetana also said that this incident will bring unwanted attention to both Brown’s campaign and to St. Thomas.

Winterer said St. Thomas has already seen some of the repercussions that can result from this situation, having received emails and phone calls about the Tommie incident.

“This has not been good publicity for St. Thomas,” Winterer said.

Brown was contacted and could not be reached.