GRAND FORKS (AP) - University of North Dakota President Charles Kupchella, who leaves office Tuesday, says he considered the UND Fighting Sioux nickname as an issue for healthy debate even though it faces strong opposition.

In November, UND settled a yearlong, multimillion dollar legal dispute with the NCAA. It allows three years for the school to win support for the nickname from the state's Sioux tribes.

"We have to acknowledge we're in a situation now where the world's kind of ganged up on the use of these kinds of symbols," Kupchella said in an interview with the Grand Forks Herald. "Right or wrong, logically or not, they've kind of ganged up on (American Indian nicknames) and said they've got to go. So that's where we are."

Kupchella has defended the nickname and Indian head logo, saying American Indians do not agree among themselves whether it is offensive.

"I didn't think it was a life and death issue like some have made it out to be," Kupchella said. "I've always thought, 'let's talk about this, the up sides and the down sides.'"

Kupchella, looking back on nine years as UND president, also criticized the state Board of Higher Education, saying the board approved programs at North Dakota State University that duplicated UND programs and forced competition between the schools.

"Where you'd like to see policy governance controlled by the board, what I think I saw over most of my nine years is, we were governed by individual decisions, not by a broad, agreed-upon policy of what a system is," Kupchella said.

"That was the biggest (challenge) by far, to deal everyday with, OK, is this board going to make decisions that suggests we're a system, or are we going to be a bunch of Italian city states, each doing basically whatever it wants to?"

Kupchella said he does not blame NDSU President Joseph Chapman.

"If I were (Chapman) and in the same setting with the same understanding of what I could get away with, I'd probably do all the same stuff he did," Kupchella said. "I always enjoyed visiting with him, and he's a biologist too, so we always had a lot in common. But because of all this stuff we already talked about, we were too often pitted against one another when it should have been and could have been different."

On Tuesday morning, Kupchella and his wife, Adele, plan to leave for Pennsylvania's Laurel Highlands near where he grew up and where his mother still lives.

Kupchella said his future plans may include writing novels, working for cancer research groups, accepting temporary appointments at other universities and even running for elected office in Pennsylvania.

"I never like to say goodbye," Kupchella said, "So, who knows, I could end up back doing something here … We'll just take that as it comes."