DS View - Nickname Commission
All concerned parties should afford commission time and courtesy

UND President Charles Kupchella has now appointed a 16-member commission to study the issue of whether or not UND should continue its use of the Fighting Sioux moniker.

While it will be up to the commission to examine as many angles of the issue as possisble, it will be up to the rest of us to do something that may seem even more difficult than their task at hand.

We will have to wait.

The key will be to wait patiently.

The key will be to afford these members the courtesy of allowing them to do their jobs as effectively as possible without adding more outside pressure than they already will feel. Kupchella, hoping to deflect some of that pressure, has already said that he will be making the final decision in a no-win situation. He knows the task of the commission will not be an easy one.

And the commission members also seem to know the task ahead of them.

Concerns of media attention are already on the mind of at least one member. And impending outside influences are on the minds of others.

There is no doubt that we all want to know what the commission is thinking. We will find out soon enough.

There is no doubt that those of us who feel strongly about the Fighting Sioux logo, no matter what our opinions are, would want to have our way. That simply won't happen. Some of us are going to be disappointed.

But the last thing our school and its community should want is for the commission to hastily go through the motions and miss important information relevant to the issue.

In a "no-win" situation, this would be the ultimate loss.

This would make losers of us all.