Trustees Turn Chicken

It’s official. Marquette will not be the “Warriors.” They will not be the “Golden Eagles” either. They will be the “Gold.”

That’s right. The Trustees have chosen a nickname even lamer than “Golden Eagles.”

Judging from the University’s official news release, the decision was motivated by political correctness. It quotes Father Wild as saying:

While I recognize that some people will be disappointed that we are not reinstating the Warriors nickname, we cannot teach one principle about respect for human dignity in our classrooms and then fail to act by that same principle when making decisions. . . .

So the nickname “Warriors” doesn’t respect “human dignity.” Really?

But then Wild adds:

The Warriors nickname will always be part of our proud athletics tradition, and we will honor that tradition. But we live in a different era than when the Warriors nickname was selected in 1954. The perspective of time has shown us that our actions, intended or not, can offend others. We must not knowingly act in a way that others will believe, based on their experience, to be an attack on their dignity as fellow human beings.

Wild’s statements are stupefyingly dumb. If “Warriors” doesn’t respect human dignity, how can it be a “proud athletics tradition” that we are going to “honor.”

Shouldn’t we be ashamed we ever did that?

Then there is the claim that the “Warriors” nickname is something Indians believe “based on their experience, to be an attack on their dignity. . . .”

In reality, the vast majority of Indians don’t believe that Indian nicknames and mascots are an “attack on their dignity.” Over eighty percent of Indians nationwide told Sports Illustrated that schools should not change their Indian team names, and 90% told the University of Pennsylvania’s National Annenberg Election Survey that they didn’t mind the nickname “Redskins” applied to a sports team.

And of course, the Seminole tribe in Florida has explicitly endorsed the use of “Seminoles” by Florida State University.

But none of those Indians count. The only ones who do, apparently, are the noisy racial hustlers who lead Wisconsin Indian tribes. Yes, the same folks who are awash in Indian gambling money.

What About the Republicans on the Board?

In a fascinating analysis, the GOP3.COM blog showed that the majority are members of the Board of Trustees, as judged by their political contributions, are Republicans. This might seem to suggest that they would defy the forces of political correctness. But as we noted:

Just one caveat: people who are successful in business are heavily Republican, and give heavily to Republicans, but are used to having to cave in to the demands of the “diversity” crowd. In fact, these days it’s the prudent way to get the political activists off your back and get on with making money, just as it was once the case in certain neighborhoods in certain cities that the prudent business person bought “protection” from the local Mafia.

Something like this may have happened, since John Bergstrom, Chair of the Board of Trustees, was quoted in the press release as saying:

As an alumnus of the 1960s, it is probably pretty obvious where I stood on the Warriors question when we opened our discussions. But after my own conversations with tribal leaders, I became convinced that the Warriors nickname could not be separated from past imagery. As the Board moved deeper into this process, it became clear to all of us that as stewards of the university’s mission, we had to be guided by conscience, not emotion.

Why someone would consult “Wisconsin tribal leaders” and ignore national polls and ignore tribes like the Seminoles is an interesting question. Did he cave? Was he manipulated? Or is he putting the best face on the fact that he got rolled?

Was it Really the Jesuits?

But are the Republican business people on the Board really at fault? The “talk on the street” has been that this particular vote required a majority of the Jesuits on the Board, as well as two-thirds of the total membership. Fr. Wild said that a number of times.

Based on a conversation with Rana Altenburg, chief PR person for the University we reported that only a simple majority of the Trustees was required? But within 12 hours of the time we reported that, Altenburg’s office retracted it, and said the decision rule was not known, since Bergstrom, as Chair, would decide. But Bergstrom may have been captive of a long-standing understanding as to what the rule would be.

Since yesterday morning, Marquette’s Office of Public Affairs has failed to respond to our request for information as to what rule would actually be in effect.

If the stricter rule requiring a majority of Jesuits was in effect, the Jesuits were known to want to kill “Warriors.” So did they do so, and the Republican business people on the Board simply put the best face on the fact that they didn’t have the votes?

A Fiasco

Regardless, this is a huge fiasco for Marquette. They have chosen a nickname that is already the object of ridicule, at least judging from the men’s locker room at the Helfaer Center and the halls of the Political Science Department.

The students and alumni who wanted “Warriors” back will not be placated, since the process was so skewed and manipulated.

In addition to an absurdly biased poll on the issue, there is the fact that the Office of Public Affairs shamelessly puffed a biased forum on the topic, and the fact that Wild gave essential veto power to the leaders of Wisconsin Indian tribes – notwithstanding that Marquette claims to be a national university.

It was a sham, and a charade, and a transparent one. Marquette will be paying for it for years to come.

And parents who think that a “Jesuit education” is somehow something special will be reconsidering. They can get political correctness a lot cheaper.