FINAL PUSH to the House of Representatives

CALL TO ACTION!

FINAL PUSH TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES!

The House committee voted to forward HB 278 to the House floor last night.  The committee meeting was beyond unfair!  Dixie State got all the time they needed to present their lies and fabricated stories to the committee.  Our side, those who want Dixie to remain at the university were each given 60 seconds to speak!    

1. Text, leave a voice message, call or email our local legislators. Tell them that we are counting on them to get to work and line up the others in the House to vote AGAINST THE DIXIE STATE NAME CHANGE! Our great local legislators need to work very hard to get this shut down in the House. Make sure you contact them today.

Lowry Snow 435-703-3688 vlsnow@le.utah.gov

Travis Seegmiller 435-236-5118 tseegmiller@le.utah.gov

Walt Brooks 435-817-3530 wbrooks@le.utah.gov

Brad Last 435-817-0064 blast@le.utah.gov – BRAD LAST VOTED TO REMOVE THE DIXIE NAME at DSU. Contact him and tell him he needs to remember who elected him, it was not Pres. Biff Williams, it was the good people in Southern Utah….Utah's Dixie. Tell him if he does not support Dixie, this will be slamming the door to his political career.

2. Email, call or text EVERY MEMBER OF THE HOUSE. Do this now and ask them to vote to support keeping Dixie at DSU. Ask them how they would feel if we came to their hometown and started erasing things that represent the history and heritage of their own communities. They wouldn't like it, neither do we. Tell them to stop believing the stories and lies that the DSU Marketing Team have shown as factual. Dixie State is a great name, no reason, no valid reason to change it.

Go to our website where you can easily email every legislator to ask them to support us.  This is our final push to the members of the House, please do your part to help us!  Please forward this email to everyone you know.  Ask your family members and friends who are in other areas of Utah to please contact their own Representatives to vote to support the good people in Utah’s Dixie.  Vote AGAINST THE NAME CHANGE AT DSU.

DSUHC.ORG

This message was posted on our Facebook for those of you not on social media to read:

Changing Dixie State's name

House Committee Meeting recap:

The House of Representatives moved Brad Last's and Pres Williams name change bill forward. The Vote was 12-2. THANK YOU REP. LOWRY SNOW FOR VOTING TO KEEP THE GREAT DIXIE NAME.

Rep. Brad Last not only voted to remove the Dixie name, he was proud of his decision to do so. He was the biggest disappointment of the hearing. He voted against keeping Dixie.

Brad could have saved face and voted for his constituents because the bill would have passed regardless. But, he boasted of how happy he was to throw us a bone with the small offering he had prepared for us. It was presented to us yesterday and we told them NO, we were not going to fall for this. Brad had an addendum to the bill….some little signs on the campus that read “Dixie Campus”. 

Last probably thought it would make us all feel a bit better about having Dixie ripped from the school that we love and support. He said that “our” little Dixie signs would be just like the “Hildale” and “Hurricane” campus signs. He said that our pioneer ancestors would be thrilled at what was happening at Dixie State. Evidently, he speaks to dead people. Remember this next time you go to the polls, District 71 in the Hurricane area. We would love to hear from you if you live in that district.

It was hard listening to Dixie State's REMOVE DIXIE presenters as they twisted and tarnished the truth. They were allowed to speak and take up all the time they wanted to push the name change, so they did just that.

Those on our side, who did not want the name to change, were each given 60 seconds to make a case to the 15 member committee. One minute!… our microphones were cut at the exact 60 second mark.

It's not fair, but that's what they said the rules reflect. The vote now goes to the House floor, if they follow the same pattern, the vote will be held as soon as possible.

Our rock star Representatives Travis Seegmiller and Walt Brooks are ready to speak for us!

We hope Rep. Lowry Snow will prepare to speak up for us too. Please tell him thank you for voting for Dixie today! You can post or comment on his Facebook page, Rep. Lowry Snow. We appreciate him! It looks like we can count on him to support keeping Dixie.

Here's what we need pro-Dixie people to do.

Please call, text or leave a voice message for the following local Representatives.

Lowry Snow

Travis Seegmiller

Walt Brooks

Brad Last, don't bother calling him unless you want to tell him he should listen to the people who actually voted for him instead of his boss at Dixie State.

Tell him there is still time to scrape up his integrity and show his honesty and change his vote to support keeping Dixie at DSU. Tell him that if he is not going to support you and keep the Dixie name, the least he should do is recuse himself from voting due to the HUGE CONFLICT OF INTEREST because he works directly for Biff Williams at Dixie State University. ‘

He should either support us or not vote at all. Any other vote by Last will probably be the last time he will have your vote. He will lose all respect by the people in District 71 and the entire Utah's Dixie community.

Call Lowry, Travis and Walt, tell them that you are counting on them to get to work and that you need them to work hard right now. Tell them this is the time to honor their constituents and earn our respect.

Tell them that they need to go to every member of the House or call them that they are being fed lies/stories by DSU.

Tell them that having Dixie on a resume is not hurting anyone.

Tell them that the Dixie name is not racist.

Tell them that the racism was brought to the forefront by Biff Williams and the DSU marketing team to sell their name change to the legislature.

Tell them that recent and seasoned alumni are not embarrassed to wear Dixie apparel outside of Southern Utah.

Tell them that DSU lied to the public about their plans to change the name of the school. They did hold secret meetings, they did plan the name change with their own carefully crafted plan. Tell them that Pres Williams does not care about the community or alumni or he would have held town meetings as promised and been up front about the name change.

Tell them that an administration that sells continuous lies to the community, a community who donates, participates and volunteers, have no business running a university.

Here's what is very troubling.

This is what DSU is using to brainwash the students. (We do not blame Penny Mills in any way for her testimony today. She is young and impressionable and has obviously been coached to tell the committee exactly what they told her to say. She is a great, bright leader and we wish her the very best. Most of all we hope she will be able to look at these lies and be able to see what a beautiful, good name we have in Dixie State.)

Penny Mills, DSU student body president testified today that she is “terrified” for her future with Dixie State on her resume.

She said she is not even comfortable representing Dixie State students who have Dixie on their resume. She told the committee that she doesn't want the students to continue to get pushback on their job interviews because of the racist Dixie word. She said that it's just too much to ask of Dixie grads to have to stop and explain Dixie's history when the go to interview for a job. She said that she cannot wear DSU apparel because of the bad looks she gets when wearing something with Dixie State on it. She said the worst part is when employees can't or won't work with people who attended Dixie State because of the word Dixie.

We couldn't believe the words spoken today. It's an outrage and the community needs to step up and make sure this train wreck stops now. We are not racists, the word Dixie does not mean we are racists. We are not ashamed to wear Dixie apparel and we know that having Dixie on a resume doesn't hurt students.

Pres Biff Williams then spoke to set the record, (his record), straight about the name change. He said in June 2020 Dixie Regional Medical Center hospital approached him to say that they were going to change their name and remove Dixie from their name, and they discussed changing the names at the same time. This statement does not align with what he told us on July 26, 2020. He said they had not even thought or talked about changing the name of the university. He continued today as the victim to say he really does not want the name of the school to be changed, but he simply has no choice. He hired Cicero Group and signed a contract with them for almost $100,000 before the September 23, 2020 speech by Dave Clark at the Burns Arena when Clark proudly announced they had “no secret plans to change the name”. Biff said that the name change process was all up front, a normal process where they did everything with an exact process.

The whole time line is dishonest and DSU's dates keep changing. You can see that they are, indeed, changing the name.

Biff Williams told the committee that once HB278 is passed to remove the word, Dixie, the “healing process” will begin. He said that he knows some of the older local people and alumni really hang onto the history and heritage and it will be hard for them to let go. He said again that he loves our great history of hard working pioneers and that we will still have those wonderful memories.

Pres Williams said that the selection process for the new school name (IF THEY DO GET A NEW NAME) will be…

OPEN

TRANSPARENT

and INCLUSIVE PROCESS

He said he didn't give away the new name because of the backlash he could get and the bill to change the name would be lost in the mayhem.

He said that the community can heal and capture the idea of a new name. He said he feels confident because he has already proven himself as the Red Storm transitioned to Trailblazers. He said they held lots of meetings to make the transition and include the community in selecting Trailblazers as their new mascot.

Biff said that when Rebels were taken away as the mascot and Red Storm was announced, as the cheerleaders threw new Red Storm shirts into the crowd, the crowd threw them back. Biff was not at DSU at the time so he takes no responsibility for that mistake.

Biff said selecting the new name will be great, he will hold town meetings and he will allow the community to be included when they have the new name ready.

We appreciate the wonderful one minute presentations our side was able to quickly make. Jeff Jennings pointed out that Biff Williams' side had taken up 100 minutes and that our side to keep Dixie had taken 6 minutes up to that point.

We especially thank the brave Dixie State faculty members who went to Salt Lake and spoke via zoom to speak out against a name change. We hope they will not suffer repercussions for speaking out against the DSU administration today.

We appreciate the 2 Dixie State students, Kanton and Andrew, who told the committee that the students at Dixie want to keep the name and that the school already has a great name….the best name….DIXIE STATE UNIVERSITY.

We thank Stephen Wade, Daemon Basile, Tim Anderson and Jeff Jennings and former Mayor Dan McArthur who had to leave to go meet his grandson at the airport as he returned home from his mission. We are grateful to those who called in for their entire 60 second statements Bryan Poulson, Natalie Drake and Sharon Snow and others who spoke as quickly as possible to tell the committee that Dixie State is the perfect name for the university.

This is not a done deal!

So, let's get to work, contact our wonderful legislators in the House, Lowry, Travis and Walt! Ask them to help us and remember to thank them for their service to our wonderful Utah's Dixie!

Lowry Snow 435-703-3688   vlsnow@le.utah.gov

Travis Seegmiller 435-236-5118   tseegmiller@le.utah.gov

Walt Brooks 435-817-3530   wbrooks@le.utah.gov

Brad Last 435-817-0064   blast@le.utah.gov – Tell Brad to listen to his constituents, not his boss at DSU!  Tell him to recuse himself from the vote or vote to reflect what the voters he represents wants him to do!

Thank you all for giving up your time and energy to this fight!  We think Biff and his team thought the community would roll over and let them do whatever they wish to the university.  Help us keep fighting.  After the House vote if it is in favor of removing the Dixie name, it goes straight to the Senate for a vote.  There are no more hearings or meetings, just floor votes.

KEEP FIGHTING FOR OUR HISTORY AND HERITAGE!

DSUHC.ORG