At SFU, a push to change Clan name

VANCOUVER — For more than 50 years, Simon Fraser University’s sports teams have played under the name the Clan, to honour the Scottish heritage of the school’s namesake.

But now, amid violent neo-Nazi marches in the United States, some professors and students are sounding the alarm that the name evokes a very different clan — the Ku Klux Klan.

Philosophy professor Holly Andersen has launched a petition to persuade the university to change the name, saying the word “clan” sounds the same whether spelled with a “C” or a “K” and is associated with a horrible history in the U.S.

She said SFU is the only Canadian school to play in the National Collegiate Athletic Association, a league dominated by American teams, and it’s disrespectful to competitors, especially African Americans, to force them to play against a team named the Clan.

“It is not that the term clan is itself racist. The issue is the context: in Canada that term is neutral, but in the U.S. it is as bad as a pretty bad swear word. Quite literally, it is a term that silences normal conversation,” she said.

“U.S. teams know we don’t mean that Klan. But they also know that we know what it means in the U.S., and choose to play under that name anyways, which makes us look quite naive and disrespectful.”

The university was founded in 1965 and named after Simon Fraser, who explored the Pacific Northwest in the early 19th century.

The school embraced Fraser’s Scottish roots with a pipe band and by adopting the nickname “Clan” for its athletic teams.

In the Scottish tradition, “clan” means a kinship group, such as the Clan Fraser.

SFU spokesman Kurt Heinrich said the concern about the team name is not new, but it has been given new impetus by recent events in the U.S.

The university is sensitive to the issue, especially given its commitments to equity and diversity, Heinrich said.

More than 300 people have signed the online petition.