On February 1, Union’s Office of Communications and Marketing sent an email to the campus community announcing plans to change Union’s nickname. The office then asked the community for input, and generated a final list of mascots based on the input. Currently, Union’s mascot is the Dutchmen and Dutchwomen, and players on sports teams are commonly referred to as such. But unlike other colleges and universities, Union does not have a mascot in a costume at sporting events.
Mark Land, Vice President of Communications and Marketing, and President David Harris explained the history behind the mascot. “In the first half of the 20th century, Union’s athletics teams became known as the Dutchmen when local sportswriters began using the name as a way to add color to their coverage. Although the College eventually began using the term – and later Dutchwomen – the moniker was neither selected nor endorsed through any formal or consultative College processes.”
“It is clear that relatively few current students have an affinity for the nicknames, and they do little to connect the College to prospective students. Additionally, not having a strong nickname – and the accompanying mascot – puts the College at a distinct disadvantage from a marketing and branding standpoint.” Harris and Land continued.
Union’s Office of Communications and Marketing allowed members of the campus community to submit potential new nicknames from February 1 to February 24. In that time frame, “[They] received more than 2,200 submissions from more than 1,100 individuals. In all, more than 400 unique ideas were presented and a few themes emerged: ideas around our school color, garnet; the history of Schenectady; nature/animals; and versions of our current nicknames,” Land said.
On May 2, Land updated the campus community and announced four finalists for Union’s new mascot. All of the names feature Union’s school color, garnet. “One of our guiding principles in this work has been the understanding that to move away from the status quo we had to have alternatives that allow us to embrace our tradition and history while enabling us to better engage with our current and future community. The overwhelming consensus to that challenge was to lean into our school color, garnet.” Land explained. More than 200 submissions mentioned the word “garnet” in them as well, but Union cannot choose the nickname “garnet” because it has been trademarked by Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania.
The four finalists for a new mascot and nickname are: the Garnet Chargers, the Garnet Griffins, the Garnet Hawks, and the Garnet Storm. “All four also give us a single nickname (as opposed to the dual nicknames we have today). And they are all action-oriented names that offer possibilities for effective mascots to help better promote the College,” Land explained. Many community members also suggested that the college keep its current nickname, but the communications and marketing office chose not to include it in the options. “We had questions about whether having gender and ethnically-specific nicknames resonated with our community members – for example, the term ‘Dutchwomen’ is used sparingly by our female population and many have told us it feels like an afterthought to ‘Dutchmen.’ We also had concerns about our lack of a usable mascot from a marketing and branding perspective – we haven’t actually used a mascot in about a decade.” Land said in an email to Concordiensis.
In regards to the decision to retire “Dutchmen” and “Dutchwomen,” Land said “We didn’t make this decision lightly. Rather it came after careful consideration of all our options, and much interaction with members of our community, including our Trustees, alumni ambassador groups such as President’s Council, student-athlete captains and other student leaders.”
Students and community members had mixed feelings about the news. “I think that it’s pretty stupid. It doesn’t really affect anybody but the sports teams,” Grace Goddard ‘25, a member of Union’s Field Hockey team, said. Similar sentiments were echoed on social media platforms such as YikYak.
Some students saw this as more of a positive change. “I don’t really care for Dutchmen. It does have some bad connotation for it, so I’m up for any change that the school recognizes as bad to turning to good,” Jenna Goldstein ‘24 said.
“I think school spirit and building community is important, so if name change helps with that, I’m interested in it. But if it’s not, then it’s not anything that really deals with me,” Sienna Dunham ‘25 said. Other students believed that the name supported the fact that Union’s campus is built on land previously owned by the Iroquois Confederacy, including the Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Seneca, Haudenosaunee (The People of the Longhouse), and other Native American tribes. Union also has a land acknowledgment statement in many course syllabi and other official documents to acknowledge this fact.
“I think it’s important to have a more inclusive name that’s more mindful of the history of the area and of our school,” Misha Teixido ‘24 said. “I think the current names pertaining to the history of colonization just aren’t positive. It’s ignorant of the fact that we’re on stolen land. Before a lot of speakers and things come, we have someone come out and say a statement acknowledging that this is land that used to belong to natives, but we would continue to have a name that supports something that the school is simultaneously acknowledging.”
The communications and marketing office accepted feedback on the mascot choices from May 2 to May 8, and plans to announce the final mascot choice by the beginning of the Fall 2023 trimester.
This article was originally published in the print edition of Concordiensis on May 25, 2023.
