Final vote under way for Dixie's mascot

ST. GEORGE — Final voting is under way for the new Dixie State College Rebel mascot, one of the last steps in forever replacing Rodney Rebel and his confederate soldier uniform with a new, less controversial image.

"We've had a lot of students say they want the old mascot back," said Lacee Salazar, a junior from St. George who has been taking a turn manning the student-voting booth on campus. "I don't think they understood that we're still keeping the Rebel name and just getting a different mascot."

The college dumped the Rodney Rebel confederate/Indiana Jones mascot in 1999, but students, alumni and college boosters have never quite adjusted to the thought of a mascot-free school.

DSC Athletic Director Dexter Irvin said the Dixie Colonels Club began pushing for a new mascot last year. Boosters and athletes said they wanted the new mascot to be seen as an aggressive, powerful and ferocious reflection of Dixie's school spirit.

After two months of gathering suggestions for a possible mascot, college officials narrowed down a list of 150 ideas to 25 concepts and presented those to the public for initial voting. More than 1,500 individuals cast votes and six finalists were selected for the final round of voting.

During that first round of voting, DSC students cast the most votes at 43 percent, while community members cast 24 percent of the votes. Alumni made up 21 percent of the 1,500 votes cast, while faculty/staff accounted for 12 percent of the votes, according to college officials.

Winning the preliminary round of voting were six finalists, a roadrunner, red hawk, coyote, dragon/reptile, sun/blaze, and scorpion.

Once the six finalists were selected, four artists were commissioned to create illustrations of the possible mascots. Those images are posted on the college Web site to help voters get an idea of what the mascot could look like, said Chris Taylor, DSC spokesman.

"It is important for everyone to understand these renderings are just to help you get an idea of what the mascot might look like," he said. "You're not voting on the image itself, just the mascot concept."

Students are having fun looking over the mascot ideas and making a selection, said Salazar.

"It has been really funny to see some of the views that students have on some of these mascot choices," she said. "Some of the kids are writing in 'the rock' as a mascot, but that's not one of the choices."