Posted on 12/14/2020 7:13:34 PM PST by nickcarraway
Dixie State University is en route to a name change.
The university's board of trustees voted unanimously Monday to approve a recommendation to change the name of the university, which must be approved by the Utah Legislature in consultation with the Utah System of Higher Education.
Some trustees were choked up with emotion before casting their votes.
"It's been a struggle. It's been a real struggle," said board Chairman Dave Clark, a former Utah Speaker of the House, noting the tug between the area's pride in the institution and tradition but also the need to do what is best for students' and the institution's future.
But he voted for the change along with the other trustees.
Trustee Jon Pike, who is also St. George's mayor, prior to the vote said, "I don't think it's wise to kick the can down the road any further."
Trustee Jill Beck noted her "solid ancestral and personal connection at Dixie State University as an institution."
Advertise with usReport ad But she noted remarks of Russell M. Nelson, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, calling on government, business and educational leaders to review processes, laws and organizational attitudes regarding racism.
Beck said public perception of Dixie State University "is still not taken seriously."
Beck said she spent eight-plus years listening to comments from people "that just tell me that many people perceive us as playing at higher education in Washington County. And that perception cannot continue if we are to grow. Just the fact that we are reluctant to release that name shows that we don't take it seriously."
Tiffany Wilson, an alum of Dixie High School and Dixie College, said she grieved when the school changed the mascot from the Rebel.
She now understands that the institution must work to "create a place that follows the mission that we have created for the university. One of the key components of the mission of Dixie State is to be open and inclusive."
According to a university website, the institution has had six name changes since it was established in 1911, each with "Dixie" in the title except for its inaugural name, St. George Stake Academy.
There has been growing pressure to rename the university, with an online petition calling for a name change, a vote by the university's faculty senate calling for a change, and the NAACP urging a change. There was also an online petition to preserve the name.
In July, Intermountain Healthcare officials announced that Dixie Regional Medical Center would change its name. The hospital that has had some version of "Dixie" in its name since 1952, but starting Jan. 1, it will be known as Intermountain St. George Hospital.
Nationally, "Dixie" has become increasingly problematic as the nation has begun to reckon with racial inequality. In June, the country music group known as the Dixie Chicks changed its name to "The Chicks," acknowledging recent protests led them to reconsider how that word makes some of their fans feel, the Associated Press reported.
This summer, in the wake of the nation's racial reckoning sparked by the death of George Floyd who died while in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25, Dixie State's faculty senate conducted an emergency vote in support of removing the word "Dixie" from the university name due to its racist connotations to slavery in the South.
The university commissioned an impact study by the Cicero Group "to be attentive to the current dialogue regarding racial symbols and terms, and we are likewise sensitive to the affinity that many have for the Dixie name," the school announced in a statement this fall.
"We value and respect the rich pioneering history reflected in the local use of the term, and we understand the negative connotations associated with the term as well."
Earlier in the year, however, the university released a statement that said: "Despite current media coverage, there is no formal process in place to change the Dixie State University name at this time. The power to rename an institution ultimately lies with the Utah State Legislature, which would receive input from the Utah System of Higher Education."
In recent years, the university has taken other steps as concerns were raised by the institution's names, mascot and Confederate imagery removed from the campus, including a statue titled "The Rebels," which depicted a horse and Confederate soldier, one who carried a Confederate battle flag.
Formerly, the university's mascot was the Rebel. It was later changed to the Red Storm. In 2016, Dixie State changed its mascot to Trailblazers and its mascot to a bison dubbed Brooks after Samuel Brooks, the first student to attend St. George Stake Academy.
Next up,
trustees vote to remove the name ‘Jesus Christ’ because it’s too Jesus Christ.
They want to be taken seriously? They are worried about taking Dixie out of their name. How can anyone take them seriously when they even considered such a thing.
I find trannies and homo offensive, is there anyway to change them? Interesting how the left doesn’t mind offending the right and in fact throws it in our face everyday.
It’s meant a little more than that; but this bit from Wiki is interesting:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixie#Origin_of_the_name
—it’s in the southern part of Utah which has always been referred to as Utah’s “Dixie”—
So, the Dixie Chicks........
Mormons ‘r Us University?
Yep
That’s why I say these people are spirit of antichrist
They will do just what you said
I can’t wait until all the universities have their endowments gutted to give refunds to all the precious snowflakes who buried themselves in a hundred thousand dollars of debt for thirty thousand dollar a year jobs.
Should change it to Mountain Meadows state.
Scary how that’s a distinct possibility.
[Next target: Dixie Cup]
Followed by Winn Dixie
Et tu, Utah? The leftist cancer has metastasized countrywide.
There are women named Dixie
“Dixie” actually “Dixie’s Land”... was a minstrel song, and a favourite of Abraham Lincoln’s. There was affection for the land of Dixon. Dixon’s Land in the Southern U.S. ,shortened to “Dixie’s Land”
There is no lyric to the song which is bigoted or “racist” of any reference. It is minstrel song of longing to stay and live in Dixie’s Land. That is all.
This is a ridiculous pretzelized ludicrous cultural destruction for no— absolutely no basis whatsoever. And one, incidentally which will NEVER be explained with any rationality by these “rewriters”. Without even knowing if the college was named after the song, without that fact.
Orwellian, and stupid.
To be more precise the name Dixie was a colloquial shortening of the name Dixon.
It is derived from Jeremiah Dixon, a surveyor of the Mason–Dixon line. The Mason-Dixon Line was drawn by Jeremiah Dixon and Charles Mason who were hired to survey to establish the correct border lines of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Delaware in the American Colonies. The original dispute of the borders began in 1663 and persisted until the Lines were drawn by survey in 1763 & 1767, persisting from squabbles of the proprietary land grants given by English King Charles II to William Penn (PA), and Lord Baltimore (Maryland).
The Missouri Compromise referenced the Mason-Dixon Line. In historical idiocy, Leftists have given a connotation that this Line denotes- “Dixie” as slavery land. And very facile bullcrap about..a song.
Because in the 1860’s, in Southern Utah they grew the only cotton available in the US during the Civil War. Cotton usually came from Dixie and the State of Utah allowed the college to use the name Dixie State.
St George was a great little town 20-30 years ago. It’s since been Californicated. Like much of the rest of the state unfortunately.
Did St. George die from impalement?
Ain’t that a kick in the pants.
And how many black folks live in Utah? Did they have to import some to say they're offended by the name?
Or have white snowflakes, as the ruling class of the Communists, just racially appropriated blacks' right to be offended without even consulting them?
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