Sigma Tau Delta, Dante’s epic poem “Inferno” and the Golden Grizzlies have a unique connection.

Oakland University’s motto, “seguir virtute e canoscenza,” Italian for “to follow virtue and knowledge,” is emblazoned on the university’s seal, adorning all official documents and materials.

Kevin Grimm, English professor and expert on medieval literature, gave a talk at the Honors College on Thursday, March 26 to shed some light onto what the motto means to OU and its students.

Pioneers and grizzly bears

OU was founded in 1957 under the name “Michigan State University: Oakland,” with an “aerospace pioneer,” as Grimm described it, for a mascot.

Grimm explained the appeal for a newly founded university in the Cold War era to have a morale-boosting, strong, innovative, male aerospace pioneer as a talisman.

However, this imagery wasn’t realized in a completely correct manner.

An OU student drew up the university’s mascot, depicting this aerospace pioneer as a buckskin pioneer—think Davey Crockett.

The character stuck.

When OU became an NCAA Division I school in 1998, there was reconsideration of the mascot, Grimm said, for this new age of university athletics.

Grimm, who participated in the think tank responsible for deciding what the new mascot should be, was less than impressed with the choice of a grizzly bear.

“You dance with who you came with,” Grimm said, and thought that a change in athletic divisions wasn’t a good enough reason to abandon the old standby Pioneer mascot.

“[But] the Grizz has grown on me,” Grimm said, remembering the exciting billboards that dotted I-75, showing only the fierce eyes of a newly reimagined bear behind a shredded covering just a few years ago as a part of OU’s rebranding initiative.

Although OU changed mascots, the university motto stuck and followed the Grizz into the new millennium, even though it was originally drafted to accompany the Pioneers.

The motto and the Pioneers had a powerful connection so meaningful that it has seemed to transcend time and university changes all together.

Ancient inspiration

Each OU student is expected to log into their “MySAIL” account to access important information on classes, financial aid and university resources, and students have this account for however long they attend OU.

But what does a sail have to do with anything?

“The OU seal was designed bearing a recreation of the kind of sail that was on ancient Greek ships,” Grimm said.

More specifically, OU’s sail is modeled after the sail on the ship Odysseus captained for his final, heroic journey.

“[Odysseus] was one of the most clever and well-spoken Greeks…and is a fitting patron saint for a modern university,” Grimm said.

In Canto XXVL of Dante’s “Inferno,” the poet quotes Odysseus’ final speech to his men aboard that ship in line 120.

“Consider your birth, you were made not to live like brutes, but to follow virtue and knowledge,” Odysseus said.

The OU motto, “seguir virtute e canoscenza,” is the original Italian phrasing from Odysseus found in Dante’s work.

“I’m always fascinated with how great lines of literature can lead their own separate lives from the work they were originally in,” Grimm said, with OU’s motto being a shining example of such a literary legacy.

“[Odysseus’] speech was designed to encourage his men to go with him past the bounds of knowledge,” Grimm said, “and the short speech recognizes the courage needed to go through a thousand perils, just on the brink of launching into the unknown.”

The motto and yOU

Grimm then posed the question of how does each OU student grapple with virtue and courage on their own personal journeys?

Jason Durina, treasurer of honors society Sigma Delta Tau explains that Odysseus’ inspirational words have a special impact on the lives of the English majors who call Sigma Delta Tau home.

“Our membership consists of the brightest and hardest working English majors,” he said. “In essence, our members are the very same persons who are striving after ‘virtue and knowledge’—as the motto states.”

“To our members,” Durina said, “this is not just an inconsequential statement, for they have shown by their academic performance that this is a motto they live by.”

Durina said that the reason Sigma Delta Tau sponsors talks like the one given by Grimm is to inspire this attitude and spirit throughout the OU community as a whole.

“Those who are drawn to [English] study have a keen interest in self improvement and introspection,” Durina said. “I…believe I’m not far off the mark when I say that these are traits of all people who read great literature…English majors or not.”

Durina said that OU’s motto encapsulates the spirit of drawing wisdom from the past in order to grow as individuals, and “therefore is a fitting summation of all those who pick up books through the world.”

Grizzlies would agree that there’s no better place to do just that than at Oakland University.