Wolverine pride in apparel

During the UVUSA election campaign Tyler Brklacich, Student Body President candidate of Team RISE, said he didn’t want to see BYU shirts on campus anymore. Why does this matter and why should we care?

Sadly, UVU has a misguided reputation for being “BYU-lite” in Utah valley. Nothing could be further from the truth.

UVU has a vastly different culture than BYU, a culture that I love and was at the top of my list when I decided to become a Wolverine. Our student body is colorful, broad, inclusive, diverse and amazing.

I’ve been blessed to be exposed to a wide range of students during my time at UVU. From ex-convicts, transgender persons, a large number of members of the LGBT community, people with purple hair, tattoos, piercings and more. Try finding that at BYU.

Why does it matter than we shun the Cougar apparel and learn to bleed green?

“We are blessed to be around such a diversity of people and we are still able to transfer,” said Elisha Ward. “Overall, we are just as good as BYU and U of U, we just don’t have to pay as much.”

UVU graduate Krystal Guerra applies this idea to the business world. She said, “It wouldn’t be socially appropriate to wear logos of other direct competitors in our line of work.”

For student Jeremy Buck this is one of his biggest pet peeves he has when walking around campus.

“If people can’t have pride in their own school then they should go somewhere else,” he said. “I can understand that a lot of people grew up cheering for other schools before they came to college, I did too, but once they’re here at UVU, they should take pride in the school they’re attending.”

“At what other college in the nation would it be acceptable to wear a different school’s apparel?” said student Annie Hansen.

Some students don’t feel as strongly and believe Wolverines should be able to wear whatever logos they choose, BYU or otherwise.

“While we are at it, let’s ban buttoning the top button without a tie and Aztec leggings,” Jonathan Turnbow said comparing this to any other trend people might not be a fan of. “What else don’t some people like?”

Krystal Guerra also played devil’s advocate about this subject when she said, “I love UVU and bleed green and was heavily involved but seeing as UVU does not have a football team and there are students who are big supporters of said team, I feel like its unfair to not allow them to wear their football pride.”

While it’s true that UVU doesn’t have a football team and maybe never will, we have an amazing basketball team as well as other sports teams we should support with our Wolverine green. School pride should not be reliant on football.

We are still a fairly young school and an even younger university, which is all the more reason to feel proud of being one of the founding Wolverines and supporting the school even with something as simple as wardrobe.

After all, we mighty Wolverines have an X-Men and a movie franchise which is much cooler than the Cougars anyway.