NCAA Treads Warily in North Dakota

By LINDSAY BOSSLETT

The National Collegiate Athletic Association is considering moving a basketball-championship tournament away from the University of North Dakota because of the institution's Fighting Sioux mascot. The liberal use of Indian-head logos in the university's arena, where the tourney would be played, has spawned the dispute -- and spurred a continuing controversy at North Dakota.

The NCAA's Division II Men's Basketball Committee decided last year to hold its postseason championship, known as the Elite Eight, at the university's Ralph Engelstad Arena from March 23 to 26, 2005. But members of the association's Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee are questioning whether the site really promotes "an atmosphere of respect for and sensitivity to the dignity of every person."

A decision on whether to move the tournament is not expected before April 2003. The outcome could have implications for other NCAA teams whose mascots, logos, or nicknames have been deemed offensive to American Indians.

North Dakota officials reject the NCAA's concerns. Roger Thomas, the athletics director, says the university will not try to appease the NCAA.

"The school is not willing to change its logo in order to make money," he says, adding that he is not sure how much revenue would be lost if the tournament were held elsewhere.

However, Eugene Marshall Jr., chairman of the minority-opportunities committee, says that denying North Dakota the tournament is not the panel's goal.

"Many people think we're trying to keep this championship out of the arena," says Mr. Marshall. "But all we're trying to do is make the situation as amenable as possible for anybody who wants to go. ... We want to make sure Native Americans would feel comfortable going to that arena."

Mr. Marshall, who is also head women's basketball coach at Ramapo College of New Jersey, says the solution could be as simple as taping over the arena's Sioux logos.

"They could cover it up with screens," he says. "There has to be some sort of compromise."

The minority-opportunities committee's interest in the issue is not a recent phenomenon. Following an 18-month study of the use of Native Americans as mascots and logos for sports teams, the panel developed a set of recommendations for NCAA policy, and last month it sent the Division II Men's Basketball Committee a memorandum, based on those suggestions, that specifically dealt with the University of North Dakota's Fighting Sioux symbol. The memo sought a reconsideration of the decision to hold the tournament at North Dakota.

The recommendations call for institutions with Native American mascots to study how their students and faculty members feel about the symbols. If those colleges want to play host to NCAA events, they must submit to similar studies by their athletics conferences and by the NCAA itself.

The NCAA Executive Committee's panel on gender and diversity has suggested that members of the association's three divisions review the recommendations, which have not received official approval.

Other Controversies

The minority-opportunities committee was involved in a controversy last year, when its members persuaded the Executive Committee not to hold tournaments at colleges in South Carolina and Mississippi because of those states' use of a Confederate image in their state flags. At the time, South Carolina flew the flag from its State House. The NCAA reversed its stance on South Carolina after state officials moved the flag to the State House's grounds.

North Dakota officials say they will not comment on the memo until the NCAA makes a final decision on whether to hold the tournament at North Dakota.

The Ralph Engelstad Arena, which opened in 2001, has caused controversy on the campus, in Grand Forks, since before construction began.

The $100-million arena was paid for entirely -- and is still legally owned -- by Ralph Engelstad, a North Dakota alumnus and former goalie for the ice-hockey team. Mr. Engelstad, the owner of the Imperial Palace hotel and casino, in Las Vegas, was rumored to be a Nazi sympathizer after it was discovered, in 1988, that he had previously held two private parties on Hitler's birthday and also had an exhibit of Third Reich memorabilia at the hotel. He was fined $1.5-million by the Nevada Gaming Control Board for damaging the state's reputation.

At the time, Mr. Engelstad had just pledged $5-million to renovate North Dakota's old arena, which was renamed in his honor. University officials were sent to tour Mr. Engelstad's hotel to see if the university should continue its association with him. The officials argued, after the tour, that Mr. Engelstad had merely erred on the side of bad taste and was not actually a Nazi sympathizer. They accepted his donation for the old arena, which eventually led to the big gift for the new one. Mr. Engelstad has pledged to transfer the arena's ownership to the university at some time in the future.

Still, complaints by professors and students about the arena's benefactor -- and the continued use of the Sioux logo -- have persisted. In 2000, the university's president, Charles E. Kupchella, formed a commission to investigate the logo issue. Late that year, when it was believed that Mr. Kupchella was on the verge of changing the logo, Mr. Engelstad sent him and the North Dakota State Board of Higher Education a letter warning that if the logo were altered, he would withdraw all funds from the arena, then only half-built (The Chronicle, February 23, 2001).

The next day, the board voted, 8 to 0, to keep the logo, relieving Mr. Kupchella of any say in the decision. The arena, which was finished in October 2001, contains about 4,000 depictions of the logo, including one embedded in the center of the playing floor.

Fans of the Fighting Sioux logo say the name respects and honors the tribe.

"Lots and lots of people are in favor of the logo," says Mr. Thomas, the athletics director. "We sell out every game, and there are terrific crowds in support of our teams."

Critics of the logo, however, maintain that it is demeaning and promotes anti-Indian behavior on a campus where Native American students are the largest minority group.

Many people also take issue with cavalier uses of the name, such as "Sioux Crew" for a cheering squad, "Siouxper dogs" for frankfurters sold at games, and HsiouxO, a bottled water sold on the campus.

Ellen Staurowsky, a professor of sports sociology at Ithaca College who has done extensive research on colleges' use of Native American mascots, believes that the NCAA's minority-opportunities committee is right to cast a spotlight on the logo issue. Referring to incidents such as an e-mail death threat to a Native American student who spoke out about the mascot in 1999, she says the symbol has fostered a pernicious racial climate on the campus.

"Certainly it is very telling at UND, the very fact that Native American students are targets of hate crimes," says Ms. Staurowsky. "It points out that these images are not inspiring respect. If that were so, Native American students could argue the issue in a safe environment, but it isn't a safe environment when they are being targeted, when they are referred to as 'prairie niggers.'"

Scott Lowe, a professor of philosophy and religion at North Dakota, is a prominent protester of the Sioux logo. He says that despite the university's potential loss of revenue, NCAA officials have no choice but to move the tournament elsewhere -- "if they have any credibility."

_________________________________________________________________ Copyright 2002 by The Chronicle of Higher Education