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Dixie State Professor Calls For School To Change Name

Dixie State
dixie.edu

Questions have arisen about the name of Dixie State University following the shootings in Charleston, South Carolina.

Amidst the aftermath of the shootings in Charleston came word of a discussion a bit closer to home.

Dixie State University in St. George is facing calls from one of its faculty members to change its name.

Dixie, after all, is a colloquial term for the antebellum south.

Dannelle Larsen-Rife is the former chair of the psychology department at Dixie State, and she wrote an editorial for the St. George Spectrum saying the university needs a name change.

Larsen-Rife isn't the first to call for a change; recently, a former president of the university's student government said the same.

She said the university has not done enough to break from Confederate heritage, and that alumni in a recent homecoming parade were allowed to drive a float featuring the Confederate battle flag.

Dannelle Larsen-Rife, assistant professor, Dixie State University

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Casey Morell is the coordinating producer of Nevada Public Radio's flagship broadcast State of Nevada and one of the station's midday newscast announcers. (He's also been interviewed by Jimmy Fallon, whatever that's worth.)