UND’s Nickname and Logo Task Force is moving forward with gathering public comment on the process of choosing a new mascot for the school.
At a meeting Wednesday, the group approved a subcommittee’s recommendation to schedule an online town hall meeting. Various locations in major cities in the state would act as gathering points for people to view and comment through an online video meeting system.
“The alumni certainly want to be engaged in this process and if we can get them together in a group, ... I think it’s going to add a lot of credibility to what we’re doing here,” task force member and alumnus Chuck Horter said.
Only tentative dates for the online meeting were mentioned Wednesday. For a schedule and more information, visit http://bit.ly/1DytRk8 .
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The task force was appointed in September and charged with developing the process UND will use to pick a new nickname after the controversial Fighting Sioux was retired in late 2012.
The task force sent out surveys to 53,000 email addresses to find stakeholders, such as students, alumni and employees, who would like to attend and participate in forums scheduled for Nov. 6 and 7.
Task force member Sue Jeno, who is also a UND faculty member, said there were 2,069 survey responses as of Wednesday afternoon and 967 of those responses were people affirming they would like to be part of the gatherings.
After the survey closes Thursday at 5 p.m., 80 attendees will be randomly selected from those who said they would like to attend.
At the meeting, the group also approved details of the letters that will be sent out to those who will be selected and rejected for the open forums.
There are time and space limitations, but the meetings are open to anyone who would like to attend. Those attendees will be able to leave their comments and suggestions separately from the selected stakeholder groups.
The task force also discussed the possibility of sending out a more comprehensive survey in late November, which would be completely different than the one sent out this week.
While it’s currently in rough draft form, the final version of this more comprehensive survey would utilize information gathered at the two open forums and town hall gathering.
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The next full task force meeting will take place at 2 p.m. Friday in UND’s Twamley Hall, room 404.
