Official statement from UND:
Should note: according to the UND president's statement, he made the call after talking to Miller himself. Just in case you might be thinking this is a knee-jerk cancel culture moment.
I’m okay with the professional sports team dumping him. But college is for kids. He’s already a student there, half way through his first semester. He’s been with the team and the coaches, getting ready for the season.
I think UND made the wrong choice, here. And I do think it was the weak choice. I look forward to the day when organizations finally realize that online mobs only have power if you allow them to. That statement is not specific to this situation and this particularly situation isn’t the best example, nor the one I’d choose to make my case with, however.
I work for a digital marketing firm. I sell digital advertising services to organizations for a living. I very much hope that companies will start dealing with social media backlash by simply deleting their accounts and carrying on with business as usual.
Again, all of that is fairly irrelevant to this situation.
I don’t see UND and Arizona as equals here. Arizona is a business. The Coyotes are a company. UND is supposed to be more than that. They should be working to shape Miller. Pro sports is a cut throat business. Should a university be also? This feels gross to me. Really.