The student vote on the potential mascot change will now take place over a four-day period on the Associated Student Body’s online OrgSync poll.
Instead of closing Tuesday night alongside the campus personality elections, the vote between the Landshark and Rebel the Black Bear will wrap up at 7 p.m. Friday night. ASB President Dion Kevin III announced the new voting schedule in a letter to the Ole Miss community Monday night.
The vote on supporting a mascot change to the Landshark will open at 7 a.m. Tuesday and close four days later at 7 p.m. Friday. Kevin said ASB will announce the vote’s results Friday night.
“We just decided it was best for students, and also, we didn’t want to influence the personality (elections) too much,” Kevin said.
The version of the Landshark poll ASB initially published stated that voting would be open until Oct. 3, but Kevin confirmed that was a mistake and the vote will still close at 7 p.m. Friday night. He said the ASB decided to use this new online format because it allowed for a longer voting period.
“We had two goals we wanted to accomplish, and that was to gauge more student opinion and to not conflate Landshark votes with personality votes,” Kevin said.
In his letter, Kevin acknowledged recent student requests for an additional mascot to be added to the ballot, and he refuted any rumors surrounding a new candidate’s addition.
“That issue was decided a long time ago. Colonel Rebel was taken off the field and retired in 2003,” Kevin wrote in the Monday letter. “… The university made clear that Colonel Rebel would not return as the mascot. This is still the case.”
The letter goes on to explain that students will receive a link to the mascot vote’s poll in their university emails when voting opens.
Junior managerial finance major Bryan Turner said he is concerned the extended vote will potentially sway the election results one way or another.
“I don’t see the benefit in extending it because everyone should have already had their mind made up,” Turner said.
Read the letter from ASB President Kevin here.
