LOCKER ROOM
Photo by Sam Melquist
ATHLETES, AMBASSADORS, AND ADVOCATES
Burgeoning SAID group fosters inclusive, welcoming campus environment.
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hen UND Football Coach Bubba Schweigert called on redshirt sophomore Jacob Odom over the summer, he wasn’t calling to talk about his performance on the field. Instead, Odom says, Schweigert asked him to take on a different kind of leadership role: as a team ambassador for UND’s Student-Athletes for Inclusion and Diversity (SAID) group. The call came soon after a regular team meeting over Zoom this summer in which UND Football teammates and coaches got to talking about the nationwide focus on social justice following the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by a Minneapolis police officer. “We were creating a dialog and trying to develop more of an understanding between all of us,” said Odom. “There’s such a need for change in our culture, and I think (Coach Schweigert) could tell that I was passionate about that.” SAID was formed at UND in 2019 as a studentdriven organization. The group’s advisor and UND Athletics’ Director of Student Athlete Development Tyler Burmeister says that
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UND Alumni Magazine | Winter 2020
as recruiting strategies branch farther out geographically, the student-athlete population has become increasingly diverse. “We’re starting to see an influx of more international student-athletes, so the early talks were all about how we can make sure they feel welcome, safe, part of our campus community, athletics department, and part of the greater Grand Forks community itself,” Burmeister said. Now in its second year, SAID’s ambassadors represent every sport on campus. During the NCAA’s Diversity & Inclusion Campaign on Oct. 27-29, those ambassadors led their teams’ social media and outreach efforts on campus – the hockey team watched a documentary and held a discussion on race relations, the cross-country team had a Zoom meeting with Professor Casey Ozaki, Department Chair of Education, Health & Behavior who specializes in issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and the football team launched a video stating that they advocate for unity, compassion, and brotherhood. Katie Bierstedt, a founding member of SAID and senior catcher on the softball team, said the softball team adorned smiley-face pins as a
visible and lasting symbol of support. “We wanted something tangible that would mark us, for our teammates and others, to know that we have their backs,” she said. “It kind of marks us as allies or safe people to speak to when things are hard or you need support.”
