The Dixie College Board of Trustees will decide this week whether to dump or save the Confederate battle flag as a school symbol.
Flag supporters say it represents a harmless college tradition, but opponents say it brings to mind slavery and a terrible period in U.S. history.Alumni particularly are worried that this could lead to future changes in the name of the athletic team, the Rebels, and ultimately a name change for the school itself.
"I like to term it the political correctness movement gone a little awry," said Scott Lovell, the past president of the Alumni Association.
Lovell insists that the flag means different - and positive - things to people in southern Utah, compared to the Deep South.
"I spent a couple of years in Mississippi and I've seen both sides of the issue. There is racism there, but I've never, ever experienced that here in southern Utah," Lovell said.
"Historical icons tend to take on different meanings in different eras. While the flag still means certain negative things in the South, the flag used by Dixie College really has come to represent something very good. It represents the college experience for many of the alumni. When they're in Utah and see a rebel flag, they think of Dixie College," Lovell said.
He contends that "a few overzealous students influenced by a few overzealous faculty" have turned this into a symbolic issue that is basically a tempest in a teapot.
However, Robert Slack, a professor of history and political science, thinks this is a serious matter.
"We should be sensitive to our students, and if it does offend people, it is our obligation to discontinue use of the flag," Slack said. "I think, overwhelmingly, my students, both Caucasian and black, indicated they felt it's time to forget the flag."
Slack doesn't foresee any other changes, such as changing the name Dixie, if the flag is no longer used.
Slack agrees with Lovell that a Confederate flag means something different in St. George, Utah, than it does in the South.
"I personally feel that in some of the other states, in Mississippi for example, it was flown for the very reason that it did remind them of what they fought for in the Civil War. But I don't think there is any racism at all on campus. People of all ethnic backgrounds fit in and are accepted well. But now that the issue has come up, it's time to abandon the Confederate flag," Slack said.
Last summer, the Student Executive Council voted not to use the flag, and the faculty association took a similar stand. On Monday, the Dixie College Council (which has student, faculty, staff, alumni and administration representatives) voted 7-2 to eliminate the flag. However, the Alumni Association has voted 14-1 to keep it.