NDSU Homecoming Royalty
Wow. All I can say is that NDSU did themselves no favors by kicking the hornet nest with their choice of Zachary Quirk and Conner Dilse being their school’s Homecoming Royalty. A number of questions popped into my mind about this, and by the looks of social media, I wasn’t the only one asking them.
What happened?
Why did it happen?
Why should we care about it?
Why should NDSU care about the reaction?
By the way, don’t bother trying to look up comments on their Facebook page. They very quickly started deleting negative comments and then entirely shut down the comments section on their post. The last time I checked, it said, “North Dakota State University limited who can comment on this post.” Only five comments were left below the post, and not surprisingly, they are all positive. I’m guessing not all reactions were equally rose-colored.
What happened?Two young men were chosen as Homecoming Royalty (aka, Homecoming King and Queen for all you deplorables) for the 2023-2024 school year. Note that we have found nothing to suggest that these young men identify as part of the LGBT community, so please don’t jump to conclusions. Not that it really changes the issue much anyway.
Why did it happen?I’m going to let Mackenzie Mueller, Student President of Campus Attractions, explain it (as reported by KXNEWS).
“The process for homecoming court is done in two phases. The first part is nominations and an interview process open to the whole student body. After interviews, the 12 court members are chosen by a panel of students, faculty, staff, and alumni. The second phase is out of the 12-member pool, the whole student body votes during homecoming week. From there, the top two vote recipients are crowned homecoming royalty. This process was implemented starting in 2021, and that year two male winners were crowned. Students are really excited for our two winners as they represent our overall bison pride and are involved with a number of clubs and organizations on campus. The student body is excited to have Conner Dilse and Zachary Quirk as our 2023 homecoming royalty.”
The other significant quote on the issue came from NDSU’s Facebook page.
Several years ago, students eliminated the gender requirement for homecoming royalty. The NDSU student body votes for two members of the court to become royalty. The two students who receive the most votes are crowned and honored during the coronation ceremony.
In other words, it seems that it was some sort of student-initiated decision. However, in a 2021 radio/podcastinterview with Student Body President Carl Ludewig, he states, “This was something that was not involved with student government. … It came out of, I believe, the SAO, the Student Activities Office decided to change that and move forward with NDSU’s goals of being more inclusive and more diverse and hopefully getting more students involved, encouraging students to be more involved in the homecoming process.” Hmmm, I think we have two different narratives here.
Why should we care about it? The primary reason is that it’s indicative of NDSU’s, and more broadly, higher education’s disdain for your and my values. It is a symptom of an illness that runs deep in our woke society, and one result is that they are erasing women.
Posts on social media suggested lots of reasons why it shouldn’t matter to us. One I saw repeatedly was that the top two vote-getters should win since it was the only way to ensure a fair process. However, if they had separate votes for King and Queen in the past, I fail to see how that was not a democratic process.
In the run for the White House, parties hold primaries and choose a top candidate to go onto the final ballot. It’s not like every candidate from every party gets on the ballot. So, is the primary system we use in this country not fair? Face it, this was first and foremost a change in agenda by the NDSU Administration, pure and simple.
It’s fundamentally about blurring lines and getting rid of distinctions. You’re not really a male or female swimmer, you’re just a swimmer since you can be on either team. You’re not a boy or girl in school, you can be whatever you want to be today. You’re not a King or Queen, you’re only a person. In our rush to eliminate distinctions, we reduce everyone to the lowest common denominator. Pretty soon we’ll all be nameless, sexless, blobs of protoplasm, which probably still won’t satisfy some enlightened thinkers.
Why should NDSU care about the reaction?They should care for two simple reasons: reputation and money. I’m sure NDSU’s reputation was viewed favorably in academia by moving to “Homecoming Royalty” in 2021. I can guarantee you that it went the other way among the vast majority of North Dakotans in our very red state. North Dakota was built on strong pro-life and pro-family values, and these beliefs run deep. They didn’t care in 2021 as the change was slipped through, but now that they know….
The second reason NDSU should care is because of money. I’m not going to pretend that donations to NDSU will fall off a cliff because of this change. There are plenty of liberal alumni and federal dollars flowing into NDSU to ensure that doesn’t happen. However, they are walking down a dangerous path in North Dakota. I would point them to the countless gender bills passed this legislative session by individuals directly representing North Dakotans – our legislators. If they think this waltz down wokeness lane will continue unabated with no financial consequences, they are very mistaken.
Look at the 2021 legislative session and the bill that stated NDSU could no longer work with Planned Parenthood. They fought it with everything they had, and they lost. They blinked.
NDSU, we know you will always be liberal compared to the majority of us. We can grudgingly accept that. However, let me provide this important piece of advice. Don’t push North Dakotans too far on their deeply held beliefs, and especially don’t throw it in our faces. I suspect that you will be the one blinking, not us.