• Chief Illiniwek was banned as the mascot of the prestigious University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2007 due to its “hostile and abusive” portrayal of a Native American.
• Nine years later, the University has yet to anoint a new mascot and students persist in dressing as Chief Illiniwek and displaying his image.
• Documents obtained by Heat Street under public records laws show students enraged at the continued “hostile and offensive” presence of Chief Illiniwek.
• Non-students also railed against a fraternity for dressing a Halloween jack-o-lantern in stereotypical Native American garb.
• Now the University’s Board of Trustees are reportedly mulling drastic and severe punishments for students who continue to display the mascot.
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign banned its mascot, Chief Illiniwek, in 2007 after the NCAA deemed it portrayal of a Native American as “hostile and abusive.” And earlier this year, the chancellor announced the university will choose a new mascot. Despite those efforts, the symbol simply won’t disappear.
Now the University is reportedly considering severe new penalties for students who persist in dressing as Chief Illiniwek or displaying his image — penalties up to and including expulsion.
Fans have persistently continued to don apparel displaying the Chief’s visage, and some show up at games dressed up in stereotypical Native American garb. A Facebook group called Students for Chief Illiniwek has nearly 2,000 likes, and on its page, one alumnus wrote that he “will support the Chief Illiniwek until the day I die. I’ve had about enough with the ‘thought police’ and all that they stand for.”
The mascot’s loyalists have outraged others on campus, according to numerous records reviewed by Heat Street.
“The University administration has been unconscionably weak in its lukewarm response to the continued propagation of this dehumanizing symbol,” one student, whose name is redacted, wrote. “The dangers to the indigenous members of our campus community should be clear: they see visual statements EVERYWHERE that tell them that their history and their identities don’t belong to them; that they are not welcome here; that we have decided their pain isn’t a priority.”
He wasn’t the only complainant. Another student wrote that it was “hurtful and offensive that the University … has not taken a firmer stance on the outright racism on campus concerning this issue.”
Non-students also voiced concerns, with one complaining that a fraternity had advertised an event by featuring a jack-o’-lantern in traditional Native American ceremonial garb.
By deadline, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, as well as its Board of Trustees, had not responded to Heat Street’s queries about how they would handle students who continued to display Chief Illiniwek’s image, as well as whether the symbol constituted a free speech issue.
But a CBS Chicago columnist wrote in May that some trustees want to ban the symbol from campus altogether—and if they get their way, “any student perpetuating the character will soon be subject to penalties pursuant to the standards of conduct, up to and including expulsion.”