DS View - Logo Confusion
Administration needs to involve students if change is being considered

As confusion has set in surrounding the future of UND's athletic teams' sport's logos, rumors abound.

People are seemingly in a panic over what the teams will be wearing as they represent the students, faculty and staff of the University traveling across the country defending and competing for national titles. And students are feeling "blind-sided," as Student Body President Chris Semrau puts it. They are feeling as if their opinions have not been sought and are not valued.

First, if we are to take the word of our student leaders, there is no issue to be blind-sided by. So don't panic. Don't take part in some knee-jerk reaction where battle lines are drawn and sides are taken. At this point at least, these measures are simply not necessary.

But the very fact that students are expressing concern about such a minor change in the grand scheme of the University is encouraging.

It isn't a bad thing.

It shows just how important the school is in the lives of students. While it may be easy to dismiss complaints of not having a say in what the logo may look like as a group of people with nothing more to worry about than athletes' fashions, We submit that there's another reason for their concern.

These students have classes to worry about. They have family and friends to be concerned with as the holidays approach. They do have other things to worry about. And yet they take enough pride in their University to be concerned with how it is represented on a national stage.

So, if UND is to consider a new logo, it would be a great disappointment if administrators didn't look to the students for input. A group that takes so much pride in its school cannot have its opinions simply brushed aside. If the school is to consider a new logo, it would be a great disappointment if administrators didn't at least show the perspective logo to the students.

They need to know that they are important enough to know that in this one small aspect of a much larger piece of their lives, their input is valued.