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How will the New Nickname be Decided?


Cratter

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(if it happens)

What small group of people get to decide the fate of this great university?

What has history shown us at other universities changing their names?

Any way for the people at UND to have the most powerful voice?

Question #1...the new president has already stated his excitement at the new marketing opportunity...great, we get to trade in our nickname and tradition so they can sell more t shirts and hats...

Question #2...Ask U of Miami...after they changed to Redhawks they lost a ton of Alumni $upport...

Question #3...not sure, that's a good question though...

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(if it happens)

What small group of people get to decide the fate of this great university?

What has history shown us at other universities changing their names?

Any way for the people at UND to have the most powerful voice?

If it comes to that, I would hope that we would go without a name until something comes along that makes sense and fits the University. Being known as THE University of North Dakota would be fine for as long as it takes(1 to 15 years) for something else to make sense. If there is some lame ass contest or stupid committees formed to come up with a name I will be pissed off and I dont think I will be alone.

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When Central went through the name change we (the students) summitted a whole list of names then the facilty (not sure if the school board had a say) filtered the list to take out inappropriate names and other names that didn't fit. Example they didn't want Bulldogs because students were saying we do it doggy style (and guess what the female students were called) "I know its childish but so is high school"- Ferris Bueller" Then when the list was voted on by the students and the top 4 was put on a new ballot and you got to the top 2. Then the final vote by the students happened and the GF Central Knights were born. So i could see UND going that route.

The way things are going the SBoHE will have a new name the U.

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Question #1...the new president has already stated his excitement at the new marketing opportunity...great, we get to trade in our nickname and tradition so they can sell more t shirts and hats...

Question #2...Ask U of Miami...after they changed to Redhawks they lost a ton of Alumni $upport...

Question #3...not sure, that's a good question though...

I want a source on U of Miami athletic donations. I sure as heck am not going to take your word.

How about other schools that have changed? Arkansas State? Who else is there? There must be others.

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If it comes to that, I would hope that we would go without a name until something comes along that makes sense and fits the University. Being known as THE University of North Dakota would be fine for as long as it takes(1 to 15 years) for something else to make sense. If there is some lame ass contest or stupid committees formed to come up with a name I will be pissed off and I dont think I will be alone.

This.

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Ummm...the University of South Dakota markets itself as "the U". So effectively, I might add, that nobody else calls them that.

usd_logo.gif

I did not know that, oops. That still doesn't mean much because they don't market it. We could really market it by incorporating the 'U' into the 'ND' somehow or with other text and branding it that way.

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I did not know that, oops. That still doesn't mean much because they don't market it. We could really market it by incorporating the 'U' into the 'ND' somehow or with other text and branding it that way.

I'd have no problem with just being the "University of North Dakota", but not sure I'd like "The U". Every time I hear someone on an NFL monday night game introduce themselves and what school they went to and they say "The U" it makes my stomach turn.

Also, we'd be coming up with that name ourselves and trying to market it. That's like a guy thinking he's cool and giving himself a "cool" nickname and hoping it sticks. University of Miami is "The U"? The Dallas Cowboys are "America's Team"? Detroit is "Hockeytown"? Says who? I don't think so. I think all 3 are LAME.

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I'd have no problem with just being the "University of North Dakota", but not sure I'd like "The U". Every time I hear someone on an NFL monday night game introduce themselves and what school they went to and they say "The U" it makes my stomach turn.

Also, we'd be coming up with that name ourselves and trying to market it. That's like a guy thinking he's cool and giving himself a "cool" nickname and hoping it sticks. University of Miami is "The U"? The Dallas Cowboys are "America's Team"? Detroit is "Hockeytown"? Says who? I don't think so. I think all 3 are LAME.

The Cowboys didn't dub themselves America's Team, NFL Films and CBS did. You may not like it, but it's pretty tough to dispute.

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How about other schools that have changed? Arkansas State? Who else is there? There must be others.

Looks like about 139.

A few notables: Arizona State, Dickinson State, Hawaii, Iowa State, IUPUI, Lehigh, Marquette, UMASS, Oral Roberts, Oregon, Rutgers, St. John's, Syracuse, UCONN....................

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(if it happens)

What small group of people get to decide the fate of this great university?

What has history shown us at other universities changing their names?

Any way for the people at UND to have the most powerful voice?

I'd guess the usual round of focus groups, committees and marketing research consultants to come up with some benign, boring and "non-offensive" brand. But I'll stay with UND Fighting Sioux, regardless what happens.

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I think "the U" is an awful idea. Why? Because it is so regional.

Every time I heard of "the U" around ND and MN, it was in reference to Minnesota.

My brother's in-laws know of "the U" as Michigan.

In Florida, visiting my grandparents, I talked about "the U" in reference to my sister's acceptance (at the time) to Minnesota and they said, "What, Coral Gables? Congrats! Go Hurricanes!"

USD is calling themselves the U now.

The only time where it has actually caught nationally is sort of a tangent of it. Of course, I'm talking about THE Ohio State University.

So, here's my take:

Question #1 - Going by what the PResident said, I suspect UND students will get the lowest priority. Alumni will get a sugar coated mid-level importance. The most important voice? The PR department. So, the minority of the minority is going to get the loudest voice. Not saying their choice will be selected, but I bet the options put forth by the anti-nicknamers will get a lot more attention than those put forth by pro-nicknamers and especially students.

Question #2 - This is VERY dependent upon the name. I know nothing about the UMiami Ohio Redhawks, but I do know about the Marquette Golden Warriors. They decided to change their nickname to "The Gold" the Alumni decided to change their donations to savings accounts under their own name. Marquette changed their name to their current moniker, The Golden Eagles. I'm not sure as to how much they recovered in terms of Alumni contributions, but no one supported the initial nickname change....except the person that implemented and came up with it.

Question #3 - No. The liberal agenda (sorry politicos, but how else can you explain the PC crowd suddenly getting more powerful than the majority?) prohibits the word of the people en masse from being heard. They only go towards those that were "downtrodden" to make sure their voice is heard above all else. So, no. Not a chance.

The nickname's a'changin and I dread what abomination they'll come up with. I don't have faith in those people.

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  • 8 months later...

Has a committee been formed?

Its extremely unfortunate it will never be put to a popular vote or should I say its unfortunate that not enough people will protest for a vote.

President Kelley has not formed the committe for the new name yet. Therefore they have not decided on the process that will be used. Kelley is concentrating his efforts on the process that will honorably retire the name. We don't know if a vote of some kind will be held or not, because that decision has not been made.

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At Boosters last Friday, Hakstol gave his opinion on what UND should do in the short term with the name. He said for the next couple of years go with "North Dakota".

Kelley has pretty much said that UND would just use North Dakota for at least 1 year. I haven't seen or heard whether he has made any commitment on anything past that. I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to get a new name in place for the first year of Big Sky competition, but I also wouldn't be surprised if they waited another year after that.

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Oh man, don't get my hopes up! Can you elaborate on this?

With just 22 days until the retirement. Don't get your hopes up. Its gone. In 2011-2012 I also see us as the University of North Dakota. But for 2012 when we become the newest Big Sky member and have a shot at playoffs we wil have a new identity. If we wait longer they will pick a name out of desperation and it will not a be a good one.

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