GRAND FORKS - University of North Dakota and state officials will meet April 22 with the president of the NCAA to determine whether the athletics association is open to revising its position regarding the Fighting Sioux nickname and Indian-head logo.
Grant Shaft, a Grand Forks attorney and vice president of the state Board of Higher Education, said Gov. Jack Dalrymple, Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem and leaders of the North Dakota House and Senate have been invited to the face-to-face meeting.
Board President Jon Backes, UND President Robert Kelley and Athletic Director Brian Faison also have been invited.
Shaft said NCAA President Mark Emmert and Bernard Franklin, a longtime NCAA vice president and head of its governance committee, have agreed to attend the meeting in Bismarck. Additional NCAA officials may also participate.
It will be a closed meeting, Shaft said, adding that Stenehjem and Pat Seaworth, the board's attorney, have indicated the assemblage as anticipated "would not require" that it be open under North Dakota's open meetings law.
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"I leave that to (the attorney general and others more familiar with the law)," Shaft said. "My personal view is that a meeting like that would be more productive as a closed meeting. We're not going to be taking testimony."
He said the meeting likely will take place outside the Capitol, on somewhat neutral ground, but Emmert's decision to come to North Dakota himself suggests an openness to consider the changed circumstances.
"The NCAA said they'd come to Bismarck, which I thought was good of them," he said.
Emmert was president of the University of Washington before he became head of the NCAA in late April 2010, about three weeks after the state Board of Higher Education directed UND to drop the Sioux nickname.
The association had adopted a policy in 2005 aimed at getting member schools with American Indian mascots, nicknames and logos to drop such names and imagery.
Some schools, including UND, appealed, and the North Dakota higher education board sued when UND's appeals were denied.
Stenehjem negotiated a settlement of that lawsuit in 2007, which gave UND three years to get authorization from the Spirit Lake and Standing Rock Sioux tribes to continue using the Sioux name. In a referendum and tribal council action, Spirit Lake said yes, but Standing Rock's council reaffirmed earlier decisions opposing use of the name. Efforts to arrange a referendum at Standing Rock also failed.
When the North Dakota Supreme Court ruled on April 8, 2010, that the state board did not have to let the full three-year grace period run out - despite an appeal by Spirit Lake nickname proponents - the board later that day directed UND to drop the name. The university immediately embarked on a transition, which was to be completed by Aug. 15.
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The situation changed dramatically, however, when the North Dakota Legislature - heavily lobbied by UND alumni and others who wish to keep the much-cherished name - adopted a state law that orders the university to maintain it.
The law, signed by Dalrymple and set to go into effect on Aug. 1, also directs Stenehjem to sue the NCAA again if it seeks to penalize UND through sanctions or other actions.
Chuck Haga writes for the Grand Forks Herald
