UND Nickname Opinion

With all of the hustle and bustle in the last week over the list of potential names being downed to the final five, many people have had their opinions on the list of names at hand and many of them were not too positive. The general public was upset over the fact that the committee said that the public's voice would be heard and accounted for, but when the time came to shrink the list to five, the option of staying UND/North Dakota, which was the public's majority pick, was not in that group it made stakeholders furious.

Reports then came out saying UND President Robert Kelley suggested to the committee that if the UND/North Dakota option was not removed, the committee could be disbanded, leaving another big speed bump in this process. This report was the last straw for the public stakeholders and many alumni and current students sounded off with opinion letters to the Grand Forks Herald and over social media.

As for me, the only option I saw as a suitable fit was to remain staying simply as the University of North Dakota. No name, just the same tradition and history of the university. No matter what name is chosen, nobody will be able to back it. However, a friend and I shared some text messages earlier this week when the news broke, and he said that he would choose the Fighting Hawks because when the PA would sound off before games and announcing goals, they would say "Here's your University of North Dakota Fighting...." and when he says 'hawks' we all could scream Sioux and all would be normal. So just an instance of someone with a positive outlook on a touchy subject in UND country.

Any new nickname will be tough to swallow for anyone. I remember when the Sioux logo was dropped towards the end of my freshman year at UND. That was hard to take and I had just started taking in the history and traditions of the university. I eventually got behind this 'temporary' name/identity for the university and maybe someday I can accept the new name too. Well maybe not if it's the 'Sundogs.'