UND President Pounces On "Siouxper Drunk" Controversy To Distract From Other Problems

Earlier today University of North Dakota President Robert Kelley released the video above, along with incoming UND Student Body President Tanner Franklin, condemning yet again the “Siouxper Drunk” tshirt controversy and promising that he’s totally going to do stuff about it in the future.

What kind of stuff is he going to do? Well, who knows. When is he going to do that? Uh, we don’t know that either.

Neither Kelley nor his spokesman Peter Johnson is offering specifics (activists vowing to demonstrate later this week want mandatory sensitivity training for all students and a ban on supporting the Fighting Sioux logo/nickname at the university because apparently they have no idea what the 1st amendment is).

So I think it’s pretty safe to conclude that this was Kelley grandstanding on an issue that has grabbed the media’s attention, and he’s no doubt hoping it distracts from some of the other recent controversies.

Like Kelley’s administration ripping off the taxpayers on the REAC building sale. And his removal of a long-time head of a research institution on campus without any sort of explanation to the public. And his administration’s handling of funding for the UND library.

You really have to admire the public relations play. Kelley grandstanding on this issue keeps it in the headlines. And the longer it’s in the headlines, the longer we’re not talking about all of UND’s real problems.

Well played, President Kelley.