email from anne today, quoting a herald story about the neverending UND nickname debate. it's funny, every so often i forget that i come from a place where debates like this one actually happen. [the debate, for those of you at swat who haven't heard this story, is about whether the university of north dakota should continue to call its sports teams the "fighting sioux," against the wishes of an overwhelming majority of native american people in the state. most white people in the area seem to think the nickname is fine--more than that, that it's good because it's been that way for a long time. the most outspoken proponent of keeping the nickname is ralph engelstad (who you're about to read a story about), the owner of a las vegas casino that has repeatedly held parties for hitler's birthday. no, i'm not kidding. in any case, during my last year in grand forks engelstad blackmailed the U by saying he would abandon the construction of the new $100 million hockey arena if the name was dropped--needless to say, the name stayed. i'm proud to say that my father left his position at UND over shit like this.] this is (yet another) good reminder of why it would *not* be OK for me to go back. read on:

UND NICKNAME: Tiff over name gets personal, goes public
                    Engelstad says he would fire UND professor if he ran the school
                    By David Dodds
                    Herald Staff Writer

                    A disagreement between a UND professor and the school's biggest benefactor
                    that started over a letter to the editor in the Herald was made public Tuesday.

                    The Fargo Forum quoted a personal letter from Las Vegas casino owner Ralph
                    Engelstad to UND professor Sharon Carson, berating her for statements she
                    made in her Oct. 4 letter to the editor about the school's Fighting Sioux
                    nickname.

                    Engelstad sent copies, marked "Not for Print or Publication," to five others,
                    including Tom Clifford, who sits on the Ralph Engelstad Arena Board, and Earl
                    Strinden, executive vice president emeritus of UND's Alumni Association and
                    Foundation.

                    The Herald also obtained copies last month, but made an editorial decision not
                    to publish information about the personal letters.

                    Engelstad wrote Carson that, if he ran UND, he would "fire (her) ass, and a few
                    others."

                    Engelstad, whose $100-plus million arena for UND's hockey team is peppered
                    with images of the controversial logo and nickname, took issue with Carson's
                    urging that people boycott events at the new venue until the nickname is
                    changed.

                    The tone of Engelstad's Oct. 9 letter was critical from the beginning, referring
                    to Carson's newspaper column as "a piece of trash" in the first paragraph.

                    Carson replied to Engelstad on Oct. 16. Her letter was less caustic but did
                    contain a few barbs.

                    "I am not surprised to hear that you would 'fire (my) ass,' as you put it, for
                    publicly disagreeing with you," Carson wrote. "In the world of private business,
                    that would be your prerogative if I actually worked for you. But I work for a
                    public university, where both dissent and open debate ... are protected and, in
                    fact, highly valued."

                    Engelstad, in his letter, also accused Carson of spreading her personal opinions
                    among UND students.

                    Carson sent a copy of her reply to the same individuals who received copies of
                    Engelstad's original letter to her. She also gave copies to 14 other people,
                    including UND President Charles Kupchella and the members of North Dakota's
                    State Board of Higher Education.

                    Carson said it never was her intention to have the content of the
                    correspondence played out in the media.

                    "Mr. Engelstad chose to make it public by forwarding copies of the letter to
                    other people," Carson said. "Otherwise, it would have remained a
                    correspondence between us.

                    "As I said in my letter, he's entitled to his opinion."

                    Herald Editor Mike Jacobs said he didn't want to make the dispute public either.

                    "We have covered this issue intensively," Jacobs said. "We don't do stories on
                    every charge and countercharge, unless the story would add something to the
                    discussion."

                    In 2001, Engelstad sent an angry letter to UND President Charles Kupchella and
                    select members of the higher education board, stating that he would abandon
                    his arena, which was still under construction, if Kupchella didn't decide to keep
                    the school's nickname and logo.

                    One day after the letters were sent, the board took the decision out of
                    Kupchella's hands and voted 8-0 that the nickname and logo should be kept.