Save NC State
John Atkins describes how the fight to keep the name "NC State" from becoming "UNC-Raleigh" drew him into the race for the student body presidency. And he recalls meeting with Governor Terry Sanford to discuss the issue.
Interview on 2011-06-14 00:00:00 -0400
Transcript
00:00:00
I tell you what happened is
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there was a movement afoot that went across several years to change the name of North Carolina State,
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which was North Carolina State College, to the University of North Carolina at Raleigh,
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and this was just a foreign proposition.
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I got caught up in that as a student senator and felt very strongly about it,
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in fact I had bumper stickers made that just said "Save NC State"
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so it was going to be UNC-Charlotte, UNC-Wilmington, UNC-Greensboro, UNC-Asheville, and it was going to be UNC-Raleigh.
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We were known as North Carolina State, State College,
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so we're going to take this brand and we're going to make it the University of North Carolina at Raleigh?
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So it was very emotional,
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and so I decided to run for student body president because I wanted to do everything I could to do my part,
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to make sure that we didn't lose the identity of North Carolina State.
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So in doing that I visited with Governor Sanford numerous times
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and that was obviously, because of the connection I made earlier, very easy to do.
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In fact I'd go down and meet with him. This was a different day. He'd send a limousine out, he'd pick me up,
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I'd be driven to the mansion, we'd eat a sandwich,
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I'd be treated extremely well, more so than any student would ever think you'd be treated,
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and we'd sit there and have a great conversation almost about nothing, what was going on and so forth,
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and then he'd look at me and he'd say, "I'll tell you what I want you to do."
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He said, "I want you to go back out to that campus and I want you to tell them you came down here and you told me we weren't going to put up with this name change,
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and that you stood right up to me," and he said, "You tell them as strongly as you want to tell them,"
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and then he said, "Now there's the car. It'll take you on back." And of course
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university general administration finally realized there were more important things to go worry with
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than to try to fight a battle of changing this distinguished university's name and the brand that it had established.
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So we're North Carolina State today.
This video is an excerpt from a longer interview. Contact the Special Collections Research Center to request the transcript of the full interview.
