[7/28/04]Alcorn State’s Brave may be leaving the reservation soon.

Following a national trend, the Lorman school has stopped using its old logo featuring a profile of a Native American and may phase out the “Braves” mascot.

The new logo is a letter A with the word “Alcorn” written through it.

“There are national sensitivities toward Native American symbols, and there is a national movement toward this,” Alcorn athletic director Robert Raines said. “Our administration felt it would probably a good idea for us to do this.”

Raines added that the decision to drop the old logo came after a nationwide NCAA study on the matter and several years of discussion. Other schools, such as Marquette, St. John’s, and Miami of Ohio, have dropped old nicknames with Native American themes in favor of less-offensive generic nicknames and mascots.

There are no current plans to change Alcorn State’s “Braves” nickname, Raines said, but the next target may be the school’s mascot. A student dressed as a Native American warrior roams the sidelines at football games.

“I’m sure that is the next step,” Raines said of phasing out the mascot. “That is a student affairs issue, though.”

The office of student affairs oversees the mascot program. A call to student affairs director LaPlose Jackson was not returned.

If the Brave is booted from Alcorn, it would be the second college mascot in Mississippi to meet such a fate. Ole Miss is phasing out its Colonel Reb mascot after protests from African American students that its use was offensive.

Raines said the decision to back away from the use of Native American imagery at Alcorn was not influenced by the situation at Ole Miss.

“It had more to do with the sensitivities that have developed on the national level,” Raines said. “I don’t think the Ole Miss issue in our own state was a factor.”