The small group of students who started those chants crossed the line, period. Would the line be somewhere else if UND had a different mascot, sure. But the students are not mindless drones, they chose a specific historical event to use as a cheer knowing it was going to get a reaction. As adults (presumably somewhat educated adults) they should know when they've crossed that line from funny innuendo into the vulgar/offensive/obscene. The school took appropriate action and members of the student section have since sent out an apology.
I think a lot of the defensive mindsets from tPB and others is that UMD is taking a lot of heat for this when many fanbases have made similar chants in the past. I have been at Gopher-UND games and heard such chants, as well as Wisconsin-UND games. That does not make it ok, but I understand people trying to defend it as "why are we getting blasted by national media?" The nickname is a very hot issue and many who are opposed to it are using the initial blog that started all this as ammo in their attempts to remove the nickname. Like it or not, UMD is being used as the proof that the nickname creates a hostile and abusive environment. UMD fans should simply file it in dumb things college kids do/have done and move on. Yes it makes us look bad, but it was our student section that got caught and put in every headline. Attempting to deflect the blame simply looks as if you're condoning the actions.
I should emphasize that from all accounts the vast majority of the student section did not chant these cheers and due to a lack of participation they quickly faded away. In the end, I think that this type of peer pressure works best to discourage poor sportsmanship. Everything else becomes overkill and will likely receive pushback.
