Identity Shift- A Response to an Article Published in the NDSU Spectrum

A Response to an article recently published in The Spectrum (NDSU’s school paper)

I appreciate the sincere congratulations on our NCAA hockey win. What I don’t appreciate is the finger pointing and calling us awful people for celebrating a legacy that has been with our school since 1930.

If you are unsure of the article I am referring to, here is the link: http://ndsuspectrum.com/39692-2/

Yes, it is an opinion article, but I also have an opinion on the issue.

The nickname is only still an issue because people refuse to stop bringing it up in articles such as the one I am referring to. Yes, we still cheer for the Fighting Sioux for now. No, we do not mean to be “racially insensitive”. We were just thrown a new nickname recently, we need time to adjust. UND had the Sioux nickname since 1930; it was passed on from grandparents and parents to current students who grew up cheering for the Sioux, so that adjustment time might be awhile.

When the nickname issue is brought up in articles like the one mentioned, it’s just opening the fresh wound from getting our team’s identity ripped away. I say fresh wound because it was only in 2012 that the Fighting Sioux nickname was retired and it was November 18, 2015 that it was announced that the Fighting Hawks would be our school’s new nickname and that it would be used immediately-thus throwing our old identity out the window. It was quite a shock to the system going from the Fighting Sioux identity to no name (well we were called North Dakota, but that’s not much of an identity) to having this new name, Fighting Hawks.

In the article that was published in The Spectrum the author stated that “The Quinnipiac Bobcats used to be the Quinnipiac Braves, but you didn’t hear their fans screaming that name throughout the championship.”  He also says “In fact, I’d be willing to bet that you didn’t even know that. Why? Because they understand the importance of their change in mascot, and don’t go out of their way to bring it up.”

Do you know why they don’t bring it up anymore? Because the school, which is a private university just for the record, voluntarily got rid of the nickname in late 2001 after “a recommendation by President John Lahey, and followed a semester of discussions by the Faculty Senate, Student Government Association, President’s Cabinet and the Alumni Board of Governors.” (http://www.uscho.com/2001/12/03/quinnipiac-drops-braves-as-schools-athletic-nickname/)

The Bobcats nickname was announced in late 2002- less than a year later. Also according to another article, the school had a de-branding initiative where t-shirts were handed out and excitement was brought to the new name. (http://www.quchronicle.com/2002/09/bobcats-new-nickname-for-division-i-athletes/) 

 Whereas UND simply had a press conference after voting was done announcing the nickname and then immediately started using the new name at games and on the UND website and on sports programs on TV. There was no real plan to get the students hyped up about the new identity, we were simply told that we were now going to known as the Fighting Hawks.

What I am saying here is that Quinnipiac had 13 years to get over their name change, UND on the other hand has only had a few months, so clearly there is going to be a time period where people will still stand and cheer for the Sioux, but given time I believe that the Fighting Hawks nickname will be accepted by most.

Personally, I believe that the way we cheer for the Fighting Sioux is no different than any student from NDSU, or any other school for that matter, would cheer for their team (except for the car flipping and the vandalism-that was uncalled for and an embarrassment, but I don’t think that the acts represent UND as a whole either). We are showing support for our team that we care about and want to do win when we cheer for the Sioux in the stadiums. Sure there may be those fans that take it too far and are disrespectful, but I don’t believe that what they do reflects on North Dakota as a whole- that’s just taking it too far. What I do believe is that we need time as a University to heal and accept this new change. If NDSU was to announce tomorrow that they were dropping their Bison nickname, do you think that they would go down without a fight? I doubt it, I bet we would be seeing those stupid horns thrown up at every football and basketball game for quite a long time after the name would be changed.

Although many people are unhappy with the new name, the university did approach the change in a good way, setting up a committee and voting to try to keep everyone happy. The university seemed to be well aware that the change will take time to be accepted. Change takes time and sometimes people are stubborn and don’t want it right away, but in time I know UND students and fans will get acclimated to the new nickname and it will be accepted. I don’t think that the Fighting Sioux legacy will ever go away, it has been around for decades and it will always be a part of UND.

In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations.

– Iroquois Maxim (circa 1700-1800)

New Year, New Me!!

-- Bull sh*t. I don't know how many times I have heard people say new year new me in the past few weeks, and I can't even explain how much the saying makes me mad. Like not raging, steam coming out of my ears mad, but more like a disappointed mad because even though those people might have good intentions I just can't help but thing that their resolutions wont get finished. Like, why is the beginning of a new year so special? Is it because it has so much more potential than the rest of the year? Because it's a fresh start, a new beginning? It's really not any different than starting something in the middle of the year. You need to have the motivation to do it in the first place; a resolution won't just automatically be achieved if it's started at the beginning of the year, the person needs to be motivated in achieving it. We all know how people say that this year is different and that they'll keep with their resolutions, but according to staticbrain.com only 8% of people who make resolutions are actually successful in achieving them (yes, I looked it up - I was curious.)

I have never really been one to make resolutions, maybe I've told myself that I'll lose some weight or that I'll finally learn how to crochet, but nothing really extreme. I think this is because I've never really had any bad habits to kick or good habits that I should pick up (okay, I could probably eat more vegetables), but I've just never really understood why people need to change so much at the beginning of the year. I've noticed things about me in the middle of the year that I need to change and instead of telling myself that that should be my new years resolution, I make a resolution then to change it then and there instead of putting off and making it a harder thing to change once the new year rolls around.

I started changing the way I did things in the middle of last year when it started getting bad. Things have changed so much in the past year because of this, I've lost friends I thought would be my friends forever, I changed my major because classes were stressing me out so much, and I changed the way I do my school work because nothing ever got done- all three of these things caused major stress in my life to the point where I slept all day and my hair was falling out in clumps. This being said, I have gained better friends and built better relationships with the people that care about me, I'm back on track with school, and I am much happier overall.

Now that the toxic people are (mostly) out of my life I am a better person, not only to other people, but to myself as well. I no longer let other people drag me down and I am focusing on making my thoughts heard and not put things that are bothering me on the back burner and bottling them up until I'm bursting at the seams. I am so much happier- and my hair stopped falling out.

"I used to be afraid of all the things I couldn't keep.
I used to be afraid of all the things I couldn't change.
I used to be afraid. I can change."

-Transit, I Told You So