UPDATE: On Tuesday morning the Office of the Provost at UNM distributed surveys via e-mail listserv to UNM students concerning the seal, only to take them down a short time later.
The e-mail offers a brief history of the seal, saying the current depiction was installed in 1969.
The e-mails asks for students' input on its design, as "the University will be reviewing the seal," potentially resulting in the first changes in almost 50 years.
However, as of early Tuesday afternoon, the link provided no longer led to a survey, but instead displays the following message:
"This survey has been temporarily suspended in order to devise a more reliable instrument to further continue the conversation. We will develop other forums to solicit the views of faculty, staff, and students."
The Office of the Provost explained that this was due to technicalities that could lead to inaccuracies in representing the student body.
"The method used to survey could be responded to repeatedly by the same person and could be forwarded outside of the University," said Chief Diversity Officer Jozi De Leon in an e-mail to the Daily Lobo.
MORE: On Monday night, University President Bob Frank took to Twitter to address the seal and the campaign seeking to abolish it. Here is that story.
(The original story published on May 2 begins here)
Last Friday, students and faculty associated with Red Nation, Kiva Club as well as other members of the UNM community congregated outside of Scholes Hall to protest UNM’s seal.
The groups were advocating for abolishing the current iteration of the University seal, which depicts the school acronym between a frontiersman and a conquistador. Opponents of the seal say it neglects to depict the role that indigenous peoples played in New Mexico history.
According to the official University Identity Standards, visual identity is the “keystone” to University communication, and inconsistent imagery confuses the public and undermines University messages, while “a strong, cohesive image projected to our target market audience greatly increases brand name recognition and brand prestige”.
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Kiva Club Secretary Jennifer Marley said the seal contains imagery that is consistent with the “sick irony” of an oppressive past. The conflict over the seal has been a topic of discussion around campus since as early as the 1970s, but the University has consistently dismissed concerns from students regarding the seal’s historically violent, harmful connotations, Marley said.
In the early 2000s, a revamped Kiva Club raised the issue in a series of town hall meetings only to receive no response from stagnant University administration at the time, she said.
“This is about so much more than the seal, and this is not a new movement. It’s getting a lot of media attention now, like it never has before,” Marley said. “This isn’t about hurt feelings, the only people who have hurt feelings as far as this goes are white men, pretty much. This isn’t because we’re hurt, this is because we’re demanding bare-minimum human rights on campus. Like I said, this is a retroactive effort.”
University President Bob Frank was briefly in attendance and said protesters feel that the Native American viewpoint is underrepresented.
“I don’t know a whole lot more about what their concerns are,” Frank said, prior to excusing himself from the demonstration. “I started school with the seal like it is now, so it’s the seal I know, but I want to hear their views about it. This is just a discussion we should have. This is a university, we talk about things, I don’t have strong opinions either way. I’m just hoping to be educated.”
After several speeches were given, demonstrators proceeded to march into the Office of the President in an effort to present Frank with a list of demands,which include the University honoring land and tribal agreements dating back to UNM’s founding as well as lessening the cultural trauma inflicted on certain groups of people within the UNM community, Kiva Club members said.
In a video which can be found on the Kiva Club’s Facebook page, Marley is seen presenting Frank with the list. In the video, Marley can be heard questioning the University’s decision to deny the Kiva Club’s formal request to be included in the agenda for the upcoming Board of Regents meeting on Thursday.
“The regents are interested in what you have to say, but they aren’t inclined to meet with any group until there’s been a campus dialogue, so they’ve asked us to do (that),” Frank said, adding that the Provost’s Office plans to open a dialogue on the issue in the fall, which would in turn make the Board of Regents willing to listen to Kiva Club and other student groups.
Marley spoke with Frank on behalf of the Kiva Club, along with other students in attendance.
“We’ve actually had three opportunities for public dialogue. We’ve hosted three (meetings), on and off campus, that were completely open to the public - that’s why we have media. Of course, the regents, especially, were more than welcome to come, but nobody attended those. Those were highly publicized,” she said.
Frank said he is glad that the groups have had ongoing dialogues.
“That doesn’t mean that groups with views that are different from yours are necessarily there,” Frank said with regard to discussing the issue of there being depictions of a white, American frontiersman and a white, Spanish conquistador on the University’s official seal. “I wasn’t there, so I can’t comment on that.”
Rodney Bowe, director of the Men of Color Initiative at UNM, said that by responding to the outcry of its most historically marginalized students, UNM has an opportunity to thrust itself onto the front lines of the international battle for social justice.
“This is supposed to be an educational institution. I hope we’ve learned from our history,” Bowe said. “We can’t go back and change the history books. What we can do is make people feel included, and we can make people feel valued.”
Johnny Vizcaino is a staff reporter at the Daily Lobo. Contact him at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @thedailyjohnnyv.
