Utah’s Dixie State University name change public survey starts today

"DIXIE" is painted on the Sugarloaf sandstone rock formation Tuesday, June 30, 2020, in St. George, Utah. After years of resisting calls to change its name, Dixie State University is considering dropping the term Dixie as another example of the nation’s reexamination of symbols associated with the Confederacy and the enslavement of Black people. Photo: Chris Caldwell/The Spectrum via AP

ST GEORGE, Utah. — Beginning today and continuing through Tuesday, April 13th, an online survey has been made available to the public for input into the possible new name of Dixie State University. The Name Change Process for Dixie State University, designated as HB 278, passed in the Utah House on March 4 with a substitute recommended by the Senate Education Committee. The substitute requires the public to be involved in the committee responsible for choosing a new name for the institution.

In the anonymous survey which can be accessed here survey takers are asked to enter their zip code when filling it out. The approximately five-minute questionnaire allows participants to answer in a multitude of ways including multiple-choice, numerical ranking, clicking to fill in a small circle next to an answer and open-ended/write in answers. 

The Trailblazers will remain the name of the athletic mascot. People are asked what’s important to them when it comes to the naming process like athletics, student recruiting, staff recruiting, reputation, graduate earning hiring/potential, and heritage.

Location, descriptive, and historical are the three categories within which potential new names for Dixie State and existing names of universities nation-wide derive their names. For example, the survey asks people how confident, on a scale of one to seven, where Rice University is located, what’s the specialty at Cal Poly, and after whom was Stanford University named.

Following are the listed options from which survey takers are instructed to choose their three favorites of each of the three categories:

Location:

• Red Rock University (RRU)
• Snow Canyon State University (SCSU)
• Utah’s Dixie University (UDU)
• Dixie State University (DSU)
• Greater Zion University (GZU)
• St. George University (SGU)
• Southwest Utah University (SWUU)
• Desert State University (DSU)

Descriptive:

• Utah Technological University (UTU)
• Utah Polytechnic University (UPU)
• Southwestern Technological University (STU)
• Southwestern Institute of Technology (SIT)
• Southwestern Utah Polytechnic (SUP)
• Desert Polytechnic University (DPU)
• Utah Institute of Technology (UIT)

Historical: 

• Deseret State University (DSU)
• Lorenzo Snow University (LSU)
• Escalante State University (ESU)
• Pioneer State University (PSU)
• Samuel Brooks University (SBU)
• Trailblazer University (TU)
• George Albert Smith University (GASU)

From their choices, the computer aggregates a new compilation from which participants are asked to choose their top five favorites. The chosen names are not written in proverbial pen rather in pencil therefore survey takers are provided a space wherein they are encouraged to suggest a name they’d like to have represent them.