Goodbye Chief

Ahh, the Chief. The University's silence on the issue has been dividing the campus for long enough. On Friday, Board of Trustees Chairman Lawrence Eppley finally issued a press release and broke that silence.

To those unfamiliar with the issue, Chief Illiniwek has been the mascot for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign since he was invented in the early 1920's. He is meant to embody the "indomitable human spirit," and his halftime dance has been performed since 1926. It is hard to deny that the Chief is not part of UIUC history and tradition. As a mascot, it has represented the University for almost a century, and it has presented an image for people to rally around when supporting sporting events. It is easy to see why students and alumni could be so attached to the image.

It is equally difficult to deny that the Chief presents a stereotyped, and some would say racist, image. When the very Native Americans that the image is supposed to portray are decrying its use as a mascot, one must question whether it represents an accurate portrayal of their culture. Think of things like the "authentic" Fancy Dance, which has been said to be a perversion of traditional dances. Think of things like the regalia that the Chief wears, which the Oglala Tribe has asked to be returned by the University. Realize that organizations like the Peoria Tribe of Indians, the NAACP, the NEA, and pretty much every cultural group on the UIUC campus are all opposed to the continued use of the Chief.

The biggest problem on campus is just the prevalence of apathy to these, and many other, issues. Compounded with the administration's silence on the issue, most people aren't aware there is a problem and subscribe to a "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentality. But the campus is broken, and something needs to be fixed. People need to know that Native Americans are not all ululating, combative casino owners. However, this is not only a problem for the Native American community. The use of the Chief is a symptom of a larger problem on campus: a lack of cultural awareness causing the fragmentation of our campus along cultural lines. When people don't take the time to fully understand a cultural they are relating with, both cultures risk alienating themselves from one another. This is why all the minority student groups that I know of are opposed to the Chief.

I'm glad the Board of Trustees finally broke their silence on this issue. To tell the truth, I expected them to end or severely limit the use of the Chief this semester, but I had no idea it would be so soon. During the STOP forum, President White could not have made a statement but clearly said that his conscience was clear on the issue, which I took to mean an opposition to the Chief. I firmly support the University's decision to end the Chief as a step in the right direction. At the same time, I still believe that a compromise could have been possible if people had spent more time communicating and less time pointing fingers, calling each other racists or muckrakers.

In the end, even though one might lament the loss of a part of University history, we just have to realize that a mascot is meant to unite a campus and to represent it in the best light. Clearly, the Chief was not accomplishing either of those two things, and we are better off without it.