Ole Miss might be getting a mascot sooner than you think.
Legislation concerning the development of a new on-field mascot at the University of Mississippi will be discussed in a special session Wednesday, Feb. 3 by the Associated Student Body Senate, according to an e-mail sent to ASB senators by Vice President Richard McKay.
According to the e-mail, the Department of Athletics and ASB senator Kori Ann Porter requested the special senate session, which will focus exclusively on mascot-related legislation.
“This legislation is time sensitive, which calls the need for this special session,” McKay said in the e-mail.
ASB president Artair Rogers said there were two primary reasons why Porter requested a special session Wednesday, as opposed to presenting the issue at Tuesday’s weekly ASB meeting.
Wednesday also marks National Signing Day, in which incoming freshman football candidates across the nation will sign letters of intent to universities they have chosen to attend.
“With the mascot issue being a sensitive one, (Porter) did not want to create any kind of unnecessary controversy,” Rogers said.
Rogers said waiting until next week to present the legislation would interfere with those launching campaigns to hold an ASB office for the 2010-2011 school year, and that candidates deserved ample opportunity to run for office without having to focus on the mascot issue.
The legislation in question will be a request for the student body to share its input concerning whether Ole Miss should have a new on-field mascot after former mascot “Colonel Reb” was removed as the face of the university in 2003.
“This isn’t a controversial piece of legislation,” Rogers said. “(It) is only asking for a student opinion on whether to pursue a student-led process to create a new mascot. It’s really open to students that want (others) to be able to voice their opinions, I feel like they’re trying to present it in the right way.”
The movement to present the option for a student-led movement began last semester, but was quickly overshadowed and halted by the controversy surrounding students shouting, “The South will rise again” at Ole Miss football games.
Porter said she will reintroduce the legislation to present the question of whether the student body wants a new mascot. However, she does not want the legislation to be interpreted as depicting Colonel Reb as a villain.
“The athletic department made it blatantly clear they are not revisiting the issue from 2003,” Porter said.
Porter said she developed a petition in Fall 2009 asking Ole Miss students if they wanted an on-field mascot. “I made it ambiguous on purpose,” Porter said. “I didn’t want to go so progressively into the future. I just wanted people to come to one common ground.”
After obtaining signatures from 10 percent of the student body (approximately 1,600), Porter pursued the initiative to revisit the issue through the ASB legislative body.
“I wanted to go through the most transparent way possible,” Porter said.
She said this was an opportunity to present a forum for the student body to make their voices heard, something she said was lost during last semester’s controversial football season.
“The students became defiant because they felt like they weren’t included,” Porter said.
“Though I have the right to put the question on the ballot, I wanted the Senate to vote on it. I wanted them to be able to go over the bill as students and hash it out with me.”
Porter also cited National Signing Day as a reason for the necessity of holding a special session.
“We didn’t want to do anything to hurt the university’s image,” she said. “We wanted to make sure we held off.”
McKay asked ASB senators to “gauge the feelings of (their) constituents” during the short time before the session.
An ASB special senate session can only be called by the president of the Senate (McKay) or by a majority of campus senate members.
The meeting will be held in a classroom in Peabody Hall at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, according to the e-mail.