After receiving plenty of submissions for its Name the Phoenix campaign at the end of last spring semester and then halting the event, Elon Athletics is reinstating the campaign. There were five top names, but these names weren't representative of the student body, said Michael Jacobs, assistant athletic director for marketing and ticket operations.

"We ended up having so many respondents," he said. "Everybody gave us their names. At the end of the day we had over 14,000 entries and between the top five there wasn't a clear winner."

This semester's campaign will pick up with the five names and will let students, faculty, staff and community members vote for their favorite name among the submissions, Jacobs said. Like with the "Live the Maroon Life" campaign, Athletics is using Old Hat Creative, a consultant agency, to help craft the second portion of the mascot naming campaign.

"They have finished a formula to where we can take it back to the people," Jacobs said. "Part of the process is if everybody understands clearly that the winner is going to be the winner."

The university committee created last semester to promote the contest has been disbanded, but student members of that committee are still key in getting word out about the movement and also providing feedback to Athletics on how other offices and students perceive the campaign. Laran Gregory, a junior and Athletics officer employee, said finding a name for the mascot is crucial and the amount of student feedback simply reflects that.

"We've still been getting feedback, emails from people asking when we're going to unveil it," Gregory said. "We want our students to be involved with it because this is something that'll last forever with our university until we're ever renamed, if that happens. This is what will be the name."

Athletics had planned on giving an official announcement about continuing the campaign at the football game against Appalachian State University Nov. 19, but no announcement was made. The planned date of announcement is currently unknown.

Junior Sarah McDowell said she doesn't understand why the Phoenix didn't receive a name last semester and why it's taking so long for Athletics to decide on a final name.

"I thought there was so much buildup about it and then we get an email about it saying 'just kidding,'' she said. " I don't understand why they just couldn't pick one of the names."

The mascot's name must be something significant that will last for a while, Jacobs said. He said he would want a name that students can express their school spirit through.

"We're not going to do a little kid name like Barney," Jacobs said. "We want something students will be proud of."

But a name isn't the only thing the Phoenix is getting this year. A new uniform is also in the works. This change comes after much discussion within Athletics, according to Jacobs.

"We're taking the mold from the old one and we're not changing it, just upgrading it," he said. "We want a uniform to look the same regardless of who's wearing it. Even if I'm a little guy, it'll look like I have muscles."

The goal is to make the mascot more a part of the teams and games. This could include things like doing cartwheels at the games or wearing team uniforms at events, Jacobs said.