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Our FIU Cheerleaders are in Daytona Beach, FL, April 6-10 competing in the NCA/NDA Collegiate Cheer and Dance Championship. These quick pics were snapped yesterday as they were prepping their caravan to leave.
Originally posted on Twitter.
What do you think of the window decor, might make for a cool shirt.
[poll id=”12″]
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The FIU brand is FIU, not ef-ay-ju
I am not in favor of this, nor would I support it.
I think it’s hilarious! I graduated from FIU in 2009 and now attend a predominantly White university far far away for grad school. Despite the fact that my current university has way more school spirit, I have to say I miss it more and more and FIU’s strong Latino presence will always make me feel at home. I think this shirt is an endearing icon of our history and makeup. There is no formal title for predominantly Latino schools (we’re not quite as cool as HBCU’s just yet) but I always make it a point to distinguish that feature for FIU. I would totally buy this shirt, but I think it would also be good to actually print FIU somewhere on it, like maybe underneath the Ef Ay Ju. But yes, sign me up!
Phonetically, I read this shirt as “Ef A Jew” which isn’t something we should be sporting around with a saying that can be so easily mistaken… Bad idea.
Please do not do this
Everyone is overreacting to this question, especially on the FIU facebook page. Most people are saying that as a higher institution we should not sport a t-shirt like this, others say it’s offensive and some are just saying bad idea with no explanation. In my opinion it is not a completely bad idea, however there are ways to improve on it. But before I explain how to improve this idea I’d like to voice why it is not a bad idea.
Florida International University is an institution of higher learning located in Miami,FL which if you have not noticed is not like the rest of America. I lived in Miami until age 13 and only came back to attend FIU. When I moved from Miami it was to a small, and predominantly white town in northern central Florida. Where I come from there are no malls and until 2 years ago there was no movie theater. None of the people I met there knew what black beans and rice or flan was. As a Hispanic American who grew up in Miami I never felt like a minority until I left Miami. I learned through my experience that most of America is like the town I came from and I am fortunate that I have experienced the best of both worlds, the Americanized and Hispanic one. I am a firm believer that this is America so people should make the maximum effort to learn English but I am also conscious enough to know that it is not the easiest thing to do when you come to this country to provide for your family but financially and emotionally to the point where learning a new language is an after thought. When I came back to Miami to attend FIU my mentality was different than to the one I use to have prior to moving away from Miami. I was and continue to be more in touch with the American me than the Hispanic me but I acknowledge that in Miami English really is like a second language. I truly believe that FIU is a far more accurate representation of Miami including Hialeah, South Miami, Kendall, Miami Lakes, etc. compared to the University of Miami and as such I do not think that we should find this t-shirt suggestion so outrageous. I have come across countless Spanish speaking only people in Miami while wearing an FIU shirt and having them ask me what my shirt means and not knowing that FIU is the university of this city is frustrating. I love my university and I am so very proud to be a Golden Panther but I hate that the city we live in does not who we are and can’t even pronounce our letters, or that go as far as to cal us “la universidad de la florida” because that is not us, that is not our name. A t-shirt like this could help educate our community to better understand how to say our name and make us an institution more accessible to recognize.
In order to make this shirt better I would suggest to Include FIU and then the pronunciation (Ef Aye Yu) written in this new form and in parenthesis and perhaps include other shirts with pronounciations for other languages because after all we are Florida INTERNATIONAL University. For International Students who have to go back to their countries a shirt like this may seem easier to wear in their native country where others (locals) can read, learn and explore FIU simply because a t-shirt helped them pronounce something they had never heard of.
I do not support this idea either, it is definitely a terrible idea unless it’s an April Fools day joke, but if that’s the case the joke is a few days late.
Wow. Interesting and thoughtful answer Stephanie. I like it. I also agree with maybe making it a straight phonetic spelling. Lets see what comes of this.
I agree with with Amado. Let’s not try too hard guys…it’s funny if you live here but otherwise…not really.