October 13, 2006

Mascot Flap Leads Illinois Professors to Urge Sports Recruits to Stay Away

Don’t come to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. That is the message 14 Illinois faculty members are sending to some of the university’s athletics recruits because of a controversy over Chief Illiniwek, the Illinois mascot that some people feel is hostile to American Indians.

Led by Stephen J. Kaufman, an emeritus professor of cell and developmental biology and a longtime critic of the university’s use of an American Indian mascot, the faculty members wrote letters to prospects advising them to “think twice about whether the university is a good environment for you to further your education and athletic career” because of the chief, according to today’s Chicago Tribune.

“After 16 years of debating the issue the Board of Trustees still refuses to take the necessary action, and no end appears in sight,” the letter says. “Do you want to play at a school that refuses to commit to equality for all races and that places more value on an outdated and divisive mascot than on a winning athletic program?”

More than 1,300 students have signed a petition asking the professors to send letters of retraction to the recruits and to resign from their university posts.

The university is facing the loss of NCAA tournament appearances if it does not drop the controversial mascot. A rumored deal in August that would have transferred ownership of the mascot to Illinois alumni appears to have gone nowhere. And a lawsuit was dismissed last month by a state court (The Chronicle, September 20).

Comments

1. I think this is phenomenal, kudos to Kaufman! I am an Illini alum and was horrified by their mascot while I was there, and even more horrified at the insistence of members of the alumni association of keeping it, despite the overwhelming desire from the students and others to remove it. I remember being thrilled when hearing the news that UIUC was definitely going to eliminate the racist mascot, and then shocked to find out it never happened.

   — former Illini    Oct 14, 07:38 PM    #

2. My reaction is totally different from Former Illini. I believe that the NCAA has gone amok with its political correcness enforcement policies. Go Illini! And if liberals don’t like it, they can stay home.

   — William    Oct 14, 11:54 PM    #

3. I lament the loss of the terms “human kindness”, “respect for others” to the term “political correctness.” It is a term of dismissiveness often used by those who whine about not being able to remain unpleasant, boorish, racist, sexist or just plain mean. They claim to not understand how they or what they support is wrong in a humane context just because there are a bunch of them who like the erroneous status quo. To them I say, “Poor baby. Suck it up. Get over it. This is the 21st century already. The Illinois mascot was the sappy invention of some wrong-headed boy scout for white people hiding from their nation’s guilt. If you don’t like confronting the truth go back to where you came from. Heck, even an old racist and segregationist like Strom Thermond accepted the inevitibility of enlightened change – at least on the surface. Enough of the retro manufactured nostalgia for a way of thinking and living that was wrong from its begining. Shine a light on your 19th century “might makes it right” and “mine, mine, mine” mentality. Then clean it out of your system. You may not even miss it.

   — Mvto    Oct 16, 07:00 PM    #

4. I’m Irish/German American…what about the “Fighting Irish”...
   Frankly, I think the Chief is not to be ridiculed. He is worthy of respect. I think he is a symbol of all that history, spiritual, or real, of what Native Americans embodied, before we white folk pillaged and plundered. I fail to see what is so repugnant about a beautifully clad fellow, agily dancing across a football field. I suppose the drum beats will be the next to go.

   I’m a liberal, democrat and find this argument against the chief insane…and deeply flawed.

   If I were native American, I’d want the chief to symboloize my past instead of the casinos symbolizing my present.

   — jo    Oct 26, 01:19 PM    #

Previous: Harvard Economist Accused of Misconduct Seems to Escape Penalty
Next: Wisconsin-Madison's Band Put on Probation for Hazing and Crudity