(CAMPUS REFORM) -- Students at the University of Oklahoma are working to remove the school’s “Boomer” and “Sooner” nicknames out of concern that the words are offensive to Native Americans.
According to the OU Daily, the Undergraduate Student Congress met Nov. 12 to mandate a name change for the “Sooner Freshman Council”, citing the words “boomer” and “sooner” as offensive to the Native American community.
The university uses the nickname “Sooners” for its athletic teams and other purposes, as well as similar references to “Boomers.” Both words, in this case, refer to groups of settlers who arrived in the late 1800s to what is now the state of Oklahoma.