Teeder11

Rob Portly over at SAB just posted a doozy full of pompous uninformed opinions, biased conjecture, slanted speculation and revisionist history, basically, standard SAB fare. So in other words, nothing new to report there. http://sayanythingbl...ng-sioux-issue/

I'm anticipating a good-faith effort to do things like enabling announcers at games to once again refer to the teams as "Fighing Sioux" and allowing the use of uniforms with Fighting Sioux logos on them, but I don't think we will be seeing UND reinventing the wheel again and reversing everything that was done with the website and the formation of the new clubs, i.e. Champions club, nodak nation, etc., at least until after the people decide in June and the constitutionality of the law is challenged in court. I think UND will be reticent to continue the ping pong game of changing and then changing back until things become more settled.

I know you weren't. My comment wasn't directed toward you, but rather those from other regional schools who take this argument as a battle cry in their own little pi$$ing contest with UND. Certainly, on-campus enrollment is important, but you have to remember that UND is raking in a ton of cash from online tuition, too, and it is also sustaining on-campus teaching, technology support and administrative jobs and paychecks that get spent locally. It is also important to realize that UND's on campus enrollment is growing along with the online gains, so it's a win-win all around. There are more students on campus spending money in the community and more money being pumped in from elsewhere in the form of online student tuition and fees.

Cratter is correct.

I never did get that whole B.S. assertion. Who cares who is on campus and who is going to UND at a distance? They're all taking classes from UND instructors who are using UND time and resources to educate people who have chosen UND over other schools for one reason or another. It's not like they're phantom students. They are paying tuition and getting an education in exchange, just like thousands of others who do the same thing in on-campus classrooms. This is a different time than the ye ol' days of the 1960s-90s when you went to your parent's alma mater when you were 18 and graduated four to six years later, depending on how many brain cells you wasted on alcohol. We have technology now that allows us to do more than ever and to cast a wider net to deliver our education at a cheaper cost to both the institution and the student. Students tend to be older and more savvy than the days of old, and many take advantage of distance learning to go back and advance their education while they continue in the workforce. It's a win-win for both the University and the student. Why not take advantage and exploit it? Every other school in this country has the same opportunity to do the same thing; it just so happens that UND has been doing it since 1995 and has a leg up on most of this region and ranks high in online education delivery across the country. This whole attitude where jealous Jan Brady types poo poo online enrollments and suggest that on-campus enrollment is somehow more genuine is akin to jack-hole Minnesota Gopher faithfuls who diminish UND's success in hockey because we choose to recruit nationally and internationally instead of drawing our talent from in state like they do in the "State of Hockey." What's the difference, I say? Get the best players from wherever you can. Don't limit yourself to self-imposed parameters and then turn around and criticize others who choose not to. The same goes for university students: attract them anyway you can, and if an online program is one means of doing it and doing it well-- so be it.

Chuck Haga is thumbing through his Rolodex right now... "Hmmmm, now let's see 'F' for Fullerton, yes, Doug Fullerton, what's his number again?"

Final Spring enrollment number is 13,950..... which would have been a huge fall enrollment number only a few years ago. Only 50 students shy of 14,000 is pretty impressive.

It's too bad things have devovled to this state. There's a lot of blame to go around on all sides, but blame gets us nowhere near the road to healing.

It's just nice to see that kind of knee-jerk knuckle-dragging rhetoric go away. Whether the cause is disingenous or not is up for debate.

I was thinking about this very thing the other day, but I drew a different conclusion. From my perspective, I feel the only remotely positive development that has come from the Spirit Lake tibe leading the fight for the "repeal of the repeal," the constitutional amendment and the suit against the NCAA is that much of the anonymous nastiness that used to be spewed forth unfairly toward American Indians as a whole by many on the fervent pro-nickname side has been supplanted by a more general courteous tone toward Indian people, who have always been caught in the middle of this controversy. The ignorant statements like "go back to the reservation," and "I'm never going to go to an Indian casino again" and "why don't you pay for your education" and "don't you have bigger problems to deal with than a school nickname" and "if you hate UND so much why don't you just pack up and go somewhere else," have been seen much less frequently since the Spirit Lake Committee for Understanding and Respect got going in earnest.

Nicely put, Chewey!

They didn't do it because they had a hard on to get rid of the name, they did it because they kept getting calls, letters and e-mails from their bosses in Bismarck, concerned and influential alums and watchdogs elsewhere who kept finding references to the nickname and logo in hidden crevasses on the website. The verbage "hunt down" and "scrub" wasn't the best choice of words in the PC sense, and it sure made for a nice sound byte for the save-the-name-at-all-costs crowd to rile up the masses, but it had nothing to do with anyone's feelings toward the nickname. Besides, since when did that crowd turn into the thought police, regulating the words people choose to use? Hypocrite much?

Thanks, Sic! That is enlightening. Disheartening, but enlightening.

What a mess!? LOL! Now I am hearing that UND probably won't even wait until any kind of a certification or verification of signatures, as once the petitions are filed, the repeal is repealed and were back in NCAA violation until the June vote decides it. It would seem rediculous to not verify the signatures first, but that's the way some are reading the law. I will beleive it when I see it. Who really knows? Guess we all will tomorrow!

I agree.

Good point.

Really, you know, you two oughta get a room. There is this cute little function on here called "PM," or Private Messaging. I respectfully suggest that you guys use it. No matter how much you guys think we want to navigate through your ridiculous personal attacks on each other and your snarky rejoinders, we really don't give a spit about what either of you think about each other, we don't care about how adept you are at using the English language to slap the other down, and we sure as hell don't care for attempts to expose who the other is (Yeah, that means you watchmaker49!). You may think we are hanging onto every verbal volley between you two, and you may think we appreciate the masterful Dickensian grip you guys think you have on the English language and the high falutin $100 words you use as much as you guys love reading your own literary genius. But fact is, most of us are here just to have healthy and spirited debates about UND issues, and most of all, UND ATHLETICS, not to get sucked into your personal pissing contest. Now I could hit "ignore," but then I would miss the many well-reasoned opinions that you guys bring to the table, all of which I do believe contribute to the healthy debates that I mentioned earlier. End rant. Now how 'bout that women's hockey team, up to fourth in the Pairwise. Way to sweep Bemidji this weekend, Ladies!!!

Of course, I am. (;

Phil Hansen.

No, dagies, it's even simpler than any of that -- it's the law. They have to. University lawyers interpret the law to say that once the petitions are filed and certified, "the repeal" is on hold, thus, the law on the books before the repeal would go into effect until the June vote decides the matter. Dumb, I know, but that's how they're interpreting the law.

Well, in a way, yes.... but I would do it for free any day. I love the University and have devoted most of my life to it.

It was never their intention to destroy anything, only to strengthen the University. Now the NCAA, mind you, has every intention of destroying the nickname. If you want to assign blame, make sure you pin it on the right organization.

I'm told that UND is preparing to immediately revert back to the Fighting Sioux nickname once the Secretary of State certifies that there are enough signatures. They aren't planning any shenanigans to remain nicknameless, despite a successful petition drive. UND officials have told me that once the petitions are filed and they are certified, they will abide by the letter of the law and go back to the pre-repeal law that was pass last spring in the legislature. If the primary vote in June fails then the name would be discontinued again, and then the waiting game starts again for the constitutional measure in the fall. What a yo-yo of events this could turn out to be. All that said, the info above comes from UND officials. The SBHE may have other commands for UND, and history has shown that the UND admin will fall lock step in line with what their bosses on the board tell them to do.

UND had a 1st day spring enrollment of about 13,500. As of Jan. 27, it had grown to about 13,800. The all-time spring enrollment record was set last year at 13,458, so UND has already eclipsed the record this year and it's still growing. The final UND spring number for this year should be realsed next week. I have no idea on NDSU. They have been pretty mum on those figures in recent years.

I didn't check out the roster, but maybe they're getting players from southern Manitoba and Saskatchewan (Brandon, Boissevain, Estevan, etc.). Or maybe there are some kids coming down to play from the Alberta oil sands region, if their parents get jobs in the Williston Basin? Interesting nontheless.