Faculty Senate President Amber Wilson has proposed a name change for the UCA women’s basketball and volleyball teams from Sugar Bears to just Bears. 

The women’s volleyball and basketball teams at UCA are the only ones who are referred to as the Sugar Bears. This name does not apply to any of the other women’s sports teams.

Wilson believed that “by women’s sports being named something different meant that the men’s sports teams would be the default. She felt as if we should all be bears,” the Student Government Association President Mya Hall said. 

Wilson had not spoken to any players because she was worried about a power differential. 

Alexis Stumbough, a player for the Sugar Bears volleyball team, is against the name change. “It’s disappointing that someone who wants to make this change does not even come to our games,” Stumbough said. “We are proud to be Sugar Bears and do not find this change necessary. Being a Sugar Bear gives us an identity that is different from a male sport, but not any less than.” 

The name change was originally brought up to the Faculty Senate where it passed with 18 in favor, two against and two abstain. The resolution was then discussed at the Student Government Association meeting that took place on Monday, October 18, 2021.

“I was approached by Faculty Senate President Amber Wilson about recommending the name change. She had been doing so much research on the topic. She wanted the name change because she felt as if sugar was an outdated term that should not be used to represent our sports teams,” Student Government Association President Mya Hall said. 

Wilson spoke at this meeting about why she felt it was necessary for the university to change the name. Wilson was asked several questions by members of SGA about the resolution. One of those questions was for her to describe further how the term sugar diminishes women. 

“Sugar has connotations…a talking point that I did not come up with, but that somebody brought up in Faculty Senate the other day, is that if someone, either students or faculty members, were to call me sugar in the course of our regular everyday interactions, I can take that to HR as creating a hostile and unwelcoming work environment,” Wilson said. 

Senator Montana Cramer then brought up how sugar is not the only term that is sometimes used to refer to specific teams at UCA. For example, the dance team is referred to as the Honey Bears. Cramer wanted to know whether Wilson could foresee this resolution being applied to those team names as well. 

Wilson said, “I hope we can start a conversation about all of the teams. Honey has many of the same problems that sugar has… we stuck with the two athletic teams because these are our NCAA sanctioned teams, so that was where we focused. However, we would definitely be open to conversations about other team names.”

Ultimately, SGA voted to table the resolution until they could talk to players on the teams and get their opinions. 

SGA will discuss this again at their Nov. 8 meeting after conferring with students.