SCHENECTADY — Union College is collecting ideas for a nickname to potentially replace its Dutchmen/Dutchwomen moniker after decades of use amid an ongoing rebranding effort, the college announced Wednesday.
The college is collecting suggestions for a new nickname through Feb. 24 amid a comprehensive branding update has been in the works since last fall that will help steer how the college reaches out to prospective and current students, as well as staff and the general public moving forward, according to Mark Land, the college’s vice president of communications and marketing who is overseeing the effort.
Land said the rebranding process is the perfect opportunity to reexamine the Dutchmen/Dutchwomen nickname, but stressed that no decision has been made to drop the current nickname at this time. Rather, the college is seeking input from various stakeholders on the idea moving forward.
“We’re looking at how much affinity there is for the Dutchmen among our current and former students, and how much they see it as a rallying point,” he said. “Really, we just decided to start asking these questions, we haven’t made any decisions.”
Land said the process is expected to wrap up by the start of the 2023-24 academic year in September, and that the college is in the process of reaching out to current students and alumni groups to gain input about a potential new nickname.
The college’s president and board of trustees will make a final decision on the name, but Land said the college will release a list of recommendations to the public in order to gain input before any decision is finalized, stressing that the college plans to be transparent throughout the monthslong process.
The college made the announcement Wednesday night on social media, and has created a section on its website explaining how the process will work, the thought process behind the potential name change and a place to make suggestions.
“Discussions with students, faculty, staff and alumni over the past few months have confirmed a lack of strong affinity for Dutchmen and Dutchwomen,” the website reads. “With that in mind, we are inviting members of the Union community to help us take full ownership of a future nickname that represents Union in a creative and positive fashion.”
The college’s athletic teams have played under the Dutchmen moniker since the early half of the 20th century, but the name never came from “Union community sentiment,” the college wrote on its website.
Instead, the college’s teams were previously known as the “Garnet,” a tribute to the color chosen by the college in the 1870s.
It was during the first half of the 20th century when local journalists, in search of ways to “add color to their reporting of Union’s athletics teams” gave the teams the Dutchmen nickname. When the college began admitting women in the 1970s, the Dutchwomen moniker was naturally adopted, according to the college’s website.
News of the potential name change sparked mixed reactions on social media, with some praising the move, while others criticized the college for floating the idea.
“Finally,” one person tweeted in response.
“Leave it alone! Stop with all the nonsense!!” commented another.
Land said the passion is expected, adding that the college is open to hearing from anyone looking to have a serious conversation on the issue.
He also said that the college has not heard from any groups calling for a name change, but is instead using the branding effort to visit the topic in order to be proactive.
“We would rather think through these things on our own terms and be thoughtful about it rather than feel like we’ve been pushed into a decision by any one group of people who are upset or feel the need for change,” he said.
On its website, the college refuted that potentially changing its nickname was another example of a “liberal college caving into the wokeness of some members of its community” and pointed to the fact that the Dutch were not the original settlers of the land the college is built on.
“It’s true that this part of New York is associated with Dutch heritage, but by no means is the region monolithic in regard to those who have settled here,” the website reads. “In fact, the region also is the ancestral homeland of the Iroquois Confederacy, which is thought to date back to the 15th century, well before the first Dutch explorers arrived.”
In recent years, the college has adopted a land acknowledgement statement, essentially acknowledging that Union College was built on land once belonging to the Iroquois Confederacy.
“We acknowledge that we live, work, and study at Union College on the traditional homelands that were originally peopled by the Iroquois Confederacy, including the Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Seneca, Haudenosaunee (The People of the Longhouse), and other tribes,” the statement reads in part.
The move comes just over two months after the state’s Education Department handed down an edict requiring all schools to drop Native American nicknames, mascots and other imagery, impacting dozens of school districts around the state, including Mohonasen, Schoharie and Mechanicville.
“We will communicate our progress to members of our community, including our alumni, in a number of ways including through email, on social media and via our website,” the college wrote on its website. “We also plan to solicit feedback on a short list of finalists for the new nickname once we get to that point in the process.”
Contact reporter Chad Arnold at: [email protected] or by calling 518-395-3120.
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