Edit: Sioux name is gone

After reading this article and a couple of twitter posts that I saw on my way home from work I am not a happy camper. So the North Dakota State Board of Higher Education would like to kill a historic nickname so the University of North Dakota can get into apply to some mediocre athletic conference that may or may not accept us. This is the same conference that had an unimpressive 3122 fans show up to their conference final in men's basketball tourney. Yeah! Where do I sign up.

I am so sick and tired of these handing wringing do good politically correct morons who put their noses where they don’t belong. Political correctness is ruining this country and will be our down fall.

MAYVILLE, N.D. -- UND's Fighting Sioux logo and nickname appear headed toward retirement, the president of the State Board of Higher Education said here today.

Richie Smith said the North Dakota Supreme Court's decision earlier today affirming a lower court action clears the way for the board to revert to a decison it made in May 2009 to retire the nickname.

"The action we took in Dickinson stands," Smith said.

He cautioned, however, that another board member still could ask to revisit the issue. The board is meeting at Mayville State University and working primarily through budget and construction issues.

The logo issue had been on the board's agenda at the start of today's meeting, but board member Grant Shaft of Grand Forks merely reported that he was waiting to hear what the state Supreme Court issued for an opinion. That opinion came a few hours later, but board members initially inclined to wait until a meeting later this month or in May to act.

But after a break in the meeting this afternoon, Smith said his reading of the situation is that Chancellor Bill Goetz "will write a letter to (UND President Robert) Kelley and advise him that he can start the transition" away from the logo and nickname.

President Kelly is not a strong leader

It's very apparent that the University of North Dakota doesn't have a strong leader in their president Robert Kelly and not a strong leader or a very good candidate to lead UND going forward. I still believe that the University of North Dakota is a great school and needs to have someone from that is from North Dakota to lead the top University in the state of North Dakota. Bellow is an example of Kelly's poor leadership.

Kelley's reaction

UND President Robert Kelley said that his discussions with members of the board suggest that “once the court gives a ruling, once the board has heard all the voices that need to be heard,” the board is likely to make a decision.

“That could be as early as May,” he said. “It’s a very complex issue. It’s a social issue, an economic issue, a political issue, a league access issue, and the board is being very deliberate.”

Kelley said the controversy over the nickname “continues to concern me. The management of that controversy is becoming more and more difficult.”

Asked for specific examples, he said it is affecting the university’s relationship with donors. “Many people feel passionate either way, and the management of that is difficult.

“Many of our students are uncomfortable, too. It’s very polarizing. Many of our faculty and staff feel that way, too.”

Kelley said he’s proud of how UND student athletes have handled the long-running controversy.

“They want to compete,” he said. “It’s not the name and logo that drive their competitiveness.”

Kelley has appointed Robert Boyd, UND vice president for student and outreach services, chairman of a planning task force to look at all issues that could arise with either retention of the logo or its retirement.

Kelley said he is not frustrated by the time the logo issue has consumed.

“The time it has taken has been necessary,” he said. “The tribes are independent nations, and they have their government processes.

“But I don’t know that there are any surprises left” that should further delay action. “It just requires a decision. There are not any opinions left. Anything that could be said has been said, and it’s time to reach a resolution and move on.”

It also appears that there is some movement on the Standing Rock Nation before the rug was in the process of being pulled from under their feet. This was a post that was posted on Sioux Sports by JLP157.

I've been in contact with Archie Fool Bear for a while about this. While I can't write everything in the space here, here is a brief summary of what happened yesterday... And I'm paraphrasing, trying to get it right....

Apparently the petition wasn't acted upon because the tribe doesn't have a policy in place to address a referendum by petition. Yesterday they met with the council again, and the in-house attorney Brent Kary drafted a temporary policy for this referendum. Chairman Murphy then gave the Secretary of the tribe a directive to have the Judicial Committee get a policy in place so the petition can be acted on, and will call a special meeting next Tuesday.

AFB also said he was drafting an email to all of the SBoHE members, addressing the petition and the policy that is needed, and suggesting that the board move to keep the name based on the 1969 ceremony giving UND permission to use the Fighting Sioux nickname. He was going to stress the 1004 signatures as well. (I hope he wrote them before today's meeting)

He is hopeful about the special meeting, but said if they can't get any answers, he said they would have no choice but to file in court, to get the council to recognize the petition and allow the people to have their vote.

If that happens, they may not be able to use the in-house attorney.... So if anyone here knows of an attorney who may be able to help out (pro bono I assume) and take this on, please let it be known. I remember all of the offers UND had when they were first going to sue the NC$$...maybe someone could advise on this case.

Hope this summary made some sense....I'm typing on the fly.

AFB is also encouraging everyone to email members of the SBoHE, and he listed the email addresses of board members. I think that the 1004 signatures should carry enough weight to make them pause, but after this mornings events, who knows? The GF Herald opinion piece would be nice subject matter to forward to them as well. It's worth a shot.... we have nothing to lose....