Dixie State University Still at War With Itself Over Changing School Name
“Equal passion was expressed by both proponents and opponents of retaining the current name”
Why should Dixie State change its name when Yale has not done so? Elihu Yale was directly involved in the slave trade.
FOX 13 in Utah reports:
Focus groups recommend dumping ‘Dixie’ in university name change process
Focus groups put together as Dixie State University undergoes a name change process support dropping the name “Dixie.”
That’s according to a report on the focus group meetings given to the university and made public this week. In fact, the report said, 65% of those who participated backed dumping “Dixie.” The focus groups were conducted by Love Communications, a Salt Lake City-based ad and public relations firm.
“Equal passion was expressed by both proponents and opponents of retaining the current name, and yet nearly everyone expressed the same goal – helping the university become nationally regarded while still serving the southern Utah region as an open-enrollment, comprehensive university,” the report said, later adding:
“However, based on the community’s support for the term Dixie, we recommend the institution should dedicate additional time to developing ways to honor the region’s history and heritage should the term Dixie be removed from the name.”
The university is in the midst of a name change process after the Utah State Legislature passed a bill to allow for it. University officials and some students have argued that the name “Dixie,” with connotations to the Civil War Confederacy, are hurting the school’s image and recruitment and retention. They also point to the university’s own past with Confederate-style mascots and symbolism.
Supporters of the name argue it has a different meaning in southwestern Utah, where it’s tied to Mormon pioneers who settled in the area to grow cotton. Focus group opinions on “Dixie” range from fervently in support of the name to passionately opposed.
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What an incredible waste of time and resources. All members of an academic community build its reputation. There are thousands of peer-reviewed faculty publications indicating an affiliation with Dixie State. When you change the name of the institution, all of those connections are severed.
my parents met at Dixie, and after retirement moved down there (like everyone else in northern Utah). They think the whole discussion is silly.