Mascot IssueTuesday, October 01, 2002Date: Tue, 01 Oct 2002Subject: Organizations confront trustees over chief ***Send letters to letters@dailyillini.com*** Friday, September 20, 2002 http://www.dailyillini.com/sep02/sep20/news/stories/news_story03.shtml Organizations confront trustees over chief Anne Gleason Contributing writer Margo Mejia The Daily Illini Clara Thornton, senior in LAS and Progressive Resource/Action Cooperative member, leads chants during the anti-Chief rally Thursday on the Quad. Protesters marched to the Board of Trustees' office chanting "Your racist chief insults me — this is not diversity." Despite sporadic downpours of rain, community organizations and students gathered on the south patio of the Illini Union Thursday afternoon to "grade the Board of Trustees." Organizations — including the Progressive Resource/Action Cooperation, the National Association of the Advancement of Colored People and the Graduate Employees' Organization — graded the board on several issues, including its handling of the Chief Illiniwek debate. Students and community members have been protesting the Chief since 1989. Since Trustee Roger Plummer presented his suggestions to the board in March, it has yet to vote on whether to keep the Chief. "The BOT has been promising to vote since March," said PRC coordinator Brooke Anderson. "We are calling on the board to take immediate action." During the rally, speakers voiced their dissatisfaction with the board's failure to take action with the Chief issue, but also brought up other issues including campus diversity and the board's allocation of funds in relation to the Chief Illiniwek debate. "The rally is the visual translation of our demands," said rally organizer Frank Stec, junior in communications. "We're going to try to get a response (from the board)." Speakers and organizers graded the board on four aspects: the promotion of diversity, engagement with the local community, responsible use of University funds and taxpayer money and the responsiveness of the board to concerns. The group gave it failing grades in all four aspects. "The Chief was created by non-native people, for the profit of non-native people, and for the entertainment of non-native people," senior in LAS Sarah Jayne Dipert said. "(The board) has the power, at any time, to remove Chief Illiniwek." After the rally, protesters marched to the Henry Administration Building to present a giant report card displaying grades and a letter asking the board to take action. "If the Chief offends even one student on this campus, it needs to be removed," University NAACP president Sean Hunter said. Graduate student Keri Kles said as an American Indian, she is offended by the Chief and wouldn't have come to the University had she known he was the mascot. "He's not real and he's not honorable," she said. "We need to make a statement to the nation and say, 'get rid of him, get rid of him now.'" Not everyone listening to the rally agreed with the protesters. Many mentioned they might pay more attention if the protesters were American Indians. "I think if Native Americans made a very strong presence on the campus it would persuade me more," senior in LAS Zachary Cravens said. Freshman in LAS Matt Petersen had a similar sentiment, saying the Chief doesn't offend him because he's not American Indian, but "neither are any of those protesters." Freshman in LAS Kevin Ealy called the Chief a time-honored tradition and said anti-Chief groups are making it into an issue and creating divisions on campus. Related Links Progressive Resource/Action Cooperative Students for Chief Illiniwek DI Coverage of Chief Illiniwek posted by: Webmaster@ 3:35 PM
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