Uproar in Utah's Dixie

I get the local paper on Fridays so that I will know the true movie times, which can be wrong online.  I know this by experience. 

The top two stories on the front page in last Friday’s paper were about the agony created in St. George by renaming Dixie State College (DSC) after it merges with the Utah University system. 

When moving here, I think I was one of the few new people who understood where the name “Dixie” came from.  In 2005, when we put our Fairfax, VA house up for sale to move to St. George, Utah, our realtor handed us a recent Washington Post article about Dixie State College.  “You have to read this,” she said in a shocked voice.   Here it is:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/04/AR2005100401349.html

In summary, this article describes the Confederate symbols on the DSC campus:  a statue with 2 Confederate soldiers, one holding a flag; the Rebel nickname with a Southern Colonel mascot; a recently eliminated Confederate flag as the college flag; slave auctions as fund raisers, etc. etc.  It was a play on the word “Dixie,” which originally referred to the warm climate in SW Utah, the soil color (instead of being southern red mud, it’s red sand here), and the fact that the original Mormon polygamous pioneers grew cotton.  Among these pioneers were a few southerners.

We moved to St. George right after DSC changed the Rebel mascot from a good-old-boy southern Colonel to a Hawk (a red-tailed hawk, to be exact).  With a new college president came another change.  The nickname, against popular vote, changed from “Rebel” to “Red Storm.” 

As one student put it, the nickname "Red Storm" reminds her of “that time of the month.”

The new mascot became a cross-eyed bull coming out of a tornado as the mascot.  The doe-eyed bull costume failed at its introductory game.  Here is a link that may give you a chuckle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fnxe_eeqIis

So, seven years later, the town is once again divided.  The locals want to keep “Dixie” in the name; most of the people from outside the area want to eliminate “Dixie” from the name.  And the college is now spending tons of money on a consultant who is gathering data and opinions about the new name. 

It’s true that this area also has a Dixie National Forest and many businesses named a “Dixie” this or a “Dixie” that.  But I don’t think any of them ever raised a Confederate flag or held slave auctions.  Nevertheless, remaining on campus to this day, is the Confederate soldiers holding a Confederate flag statue, which shows that the college still hasn’t completely rid itself of negative Confederate symbolism.  I’m surprised how many people don’t understand that. 

It will be interesting to see what happens.