Change Comes To All Things, Including UND

BOTTINEAU, N.D. - We'd like to add our voices to those calling for changing the UND nickname.

Each role must change. Each change must come, wrote the great North Dakota poet Thomas McGrath. In the pages of the Grand Forks Herald, the letters and articles written in support of changing the Sioux nickname are resonant. In contrast, the arguments in favor of keeping the nickname in the interest of tradition and pride sound like someone kicking an old tin can.

We hope that the new UND president will respond to the strong, ethical voices on campus and in the community, and make a change. We hope that enough people speak up so the new president understands he must lead people in rising above the manipulation of wealthy alumni, and, more generally, facing their fears of change.

Jane Varley, Gary Atkins

Varley is a 1998 graduate of UND.

Grand Forks Herald, December 19, 1999