mommamia - I participated in the contest because I read Dr. Tim Hudson's blog, which said NOTHING about employees participating. See for yourself here: http://www.victoriaadvocate.com/weblo...

Do you see ANYWHERE in this blog about who may or may not participate? Neither do I. I saw no press releases other than this one; although, I am sure some were put up at the University. I did not get to see those. I emailed my submission as directed by Dr. Hudson in his blog, and nowhere did I see any contest rules posted. There was not even a deadline date given, nor a date given when the winner would be announced. In fact, some posters asked in the interim if a winner had been selected yet.

I stand by my comments.

Unethical behavior?

Each and every press release clearly stated that the competition was open to everyone, including current and former students and employees. This contest was meant to be a fun way to get the community involved, and the committee selected the name JaX without knowledge of the identity of the submitter. To imply that the university's standards have been lowered is ridiculous and unnecessary.

In the grand scheme of things, I'm sure there are more worthwhile things to complain about.

Thank you, Flounder. I can remember when UH-V was VERY thorough and serious about avoiding ANY appearance of impropriety or unethical behavior. I had to almost literally jump through hoops just to do a research project involving a local school. I had to gain permission through the department in which I was a student, the President (not Dr. Hudson at the time), have consent forms signed by the subjects, and on and on. This was just the way UH-V operated. Everything was above board and transparent.

Has the University and its leadership really changed that much? I sincerely hope not.

Now make shirts with the jaX name!

I love the name!!

We opened the contest to everyone as a fun way to get a lot of entries, which we did! We received about 250 from community members, local school children, and UHV faculty, staff and students. The committee reviewed all entries without knowing who submitted them to make sure our recommendation was unbiased. Jan Wendt was the only person to submit jaX with a capital “X,” so she received the grand prize package and is free to do whatever she wishes with her tickets. We also gave away three UHV Jaguars T-shirts to other people who submitted the name jax (with a lowercase “x”).

Paula Cobler
UHV Communications Manager

I do congratulate Jan Wendt for her winning submission.

However, I do have a comment and a question here. Most contests sponsored by a business (or educational institution) prohibit employees from entering that contest, so that the appearance of bias or "inside jobs" may be avoided. I just "assumed" (yes, I know what happens when one assumes) that the employees of UH-V would not be eligible to enter this contest. Strange.

The winning submission, from my understanding, was to receive a season's worth of tickets to Jaguars games. Well, obviously, this person would already have access to those games. So......? How does that figure? Are the tickets given to a family member? Put back in the "pot" for a future contest?

Could the VicAd and/or a representative for UH-V please answer these questions?

If employees of UH-V will be eligible to participate in future contests sponsored by UH-V and open to the public, I will refrain from entering those contests. No need to waste my time or energy.

Yeah Jan!!! She works really hard for the athletes and obviously has a creative mind.

Too bad old jaX is named after the 2nd most awful beer ever brewed, lol...(I'd say Hamm's is 1st)

As to Mr. Jaguar, I just call him Spot. Now smile...