Local outcry over a proposed name change could derail a plan to merge Dixie State College of Utah into the University of Utah system, the St. George, Utah, Spectrum reported.
The University of Utah’s Board of Trustees has told Dixie State that it must change its name to the University of Utah, St. George, for the merger to proceed.
“Dixie has connotations of the Old South, the Confederacy, and racism,” said the university’s chief trustee, Randy Dryer. “That is something the University of Utah, being a national and global university — we don’t want that baggage.”
Many St. George residents, however, embrace the “Dixie” label, which dates to the pioneer days, when local farmers raised cotton in the temperate southern Utah climate.
