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[forwarded by Pat Morris. Thanks...]

Fri, 28 Jan 2000
http://www.northscape.com/news/docs00/0128/283B6C9.htm

Kupchella to form panel to study nickname

Use of new logo won't be considered until
commission completes its work

By Ian Swanson
Herald Staff Writer

Before he acts, he wants to know the facts.

That was UND President Charles Kupchella's message
Thursday to the University Council, UND's top internal
governance group, during a talk about the Fighting Sioux
nickname.

Kupchella, holding up a dark-green T-shirt imprinted
with a club-wielding caveman and the words "I'll decide,"
made it clear that he'll make the final decision on whether
UND keeps or gets rid of the Fighting Sioux nickname.

But first, he said, he will appoint a commission representing
different voices in the UND community to study the nickname
issue, a move he had previously outlined in a university letter.

The commission will have several months to complete its
work, so no decision on the nickname will be made anytime
soon. The council tabled a vote on the issue until next fall.
 

Decision on new logo

One decision, however, has been made.

The new Indian-head logo that was unveiled by UND in November
and which ignited the latest round of the nickname controversy,
will not be considered for use until the commission formed by
Kupchella completes its work, Kupchella said.
 

Missing information

Kupchella suggested the commission's work would help UND
understand how keeping the nickname or eliminating the nickname
would affect UND. He said the commission would be expected to give
its recommendations on how UND would best proceed in either
direction.

The problem with the nickname debate, Kupchella said, is that
information is missing. He said he doesn't know how alumni really feel
about the issue, nor does he know precisely how Native American
alumni feel. He said he'd also like the commission to provide a better
understanding of the national nickname debate.

Kupchella said the commission, to be formed in the next few weeks,
would have a flexible schedule.
 

200 in attendance

About 200 people attended the meeting of the council, a group that
meets once a semester and consists of all faculty members and
administrators as well as some UND staff members. Kupchella said it
was a regularly scheduled meeting and did not come at the request of
faculty members.

An overwhelming majority of those in attendance were in favor of
changing UND's nickname. Applause followed every speaker who
rose to oppose the nickname.

"In my opinion, it's a very simple issue," said civil engineering Professor
Sukhvarsh Jerath, who told the crowd a story of a conversation he had
with former UND President Kendall Baker about the nickname
controversy.

"My last name is Jerath. If someone wants to use my name, they have
to ask my opinion," said Jerath, who advised Baker to survey the Sioux
people just as someone would survey people named Jerath to get
permission to use that name. He said Baker liked the idea but that the
survey never took place.

"I don't think faculty or students or alumni or administrators matter,"
Jerath said. "Ask these people to whom this name belongs."

Only one speaker suggested that UND keep the nickname.
 

Issue 'irrelevant'

"This issue is irrelevant," said Dave Demontigny, who said he was a
Native American. He said Kupchella shouldn't act on the Fighting
Sioux nickname until all Indian reservations in the United States have
acted on names used by schools on their territories.

No applause followed Demontigny's comments. Instead, several
audience members gave voice to their disdain.

Some audience members suggested that Kupchella ask the commission
to sample possible new logos. Philosophy Professor Lynn Lindholm
said that would give UND a sense of the positive directions in which
creative imagination could lead the school.

But Kupchella made it clear he believed alternative logos would
suggest an outcome to the commission's work, something he does not
think would be a good idea.

"There are lots of people in the middle on this issue," Kupchella said.
"We don't want to dismiss these people out of hand."

Kupchella has been meeting with people about the nickname debate
since December. He said he planned to visit all of the state's
reservations, starting this spring, and that he'd also visit alumni groups
in 10 cities across the nation.
 

Stacked meetings?

This worried a number of faculty members, who suggested that the
alumni meetings would be stacked with pro-nickname alumni led by
Earl Strinden, executive vice president of the Alumni Association and
UND Foundation.

Strinden has said that 97 percent of UND alumni support the
nickname, a statistic that many at Thursday's meeting find dubious.

Kupchella said the alumni meetings are annual events that anyone can
attend.

Lindholm asked Kupchella to ask Strinden to put information in the
alumni newsletter about "the history of misuse of the (Fighting Sioux)
logo."

Kupchella said it would be important to learn how alumni really feel
about the issue, but he didn't say whether he'd talk to Strinden about
putting information in the alumni newsletter.

Communication Professor Jim Hikens applauded Kupchella for his
"heroism" on taking 20 minutes of questions on the divisive nickname
issue. (Kupchella answered more than a hour's worth of questions by
the end of the meeting.)

"No matter how much data and surveys we collect, that can't tell us
what we ought to do," Hikens said. He compared the Fighting Sioux
nickname debate to another controversy.

"Personally, I think it would be tragic if the Confederate flag was taken
down from the South Carolina Capitol before we made a decision on
this logo," Hikens said.

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