Last Friday, the chairman of the University of Illinois's Board of Trustees, Larry Eppley, announced the retirement of the school's mascot, an American Indian named Chief Illiniwek.
The Chief stands as an 81-year-old pillar in the university's history of school spirit. But by the end of the last men's basketball game, scheduled for this evening, its ritual halftime performance will only be a memory among disheartened students and faculty.
The reason for this movement? Yet another gray area in the realm of political correctness.
According to an article in The New York Times, the NCAA in 2005 deemed the Chief "an offensive use of American Indian imagery" and threatened the school's ability to host postseason events if it didn't ban the mascot from future athletics.
University of Illinois students met the decision to retire Chief Illiniwek with fierce opposition. They feel that one of their most prized school traditions has been taken from them without fair consideration and they have received no word as to whether they will get a new mascot in the future.
Several students were quoted lamenting their beloved mascot and, as could be expected, approximately 130 Illinois students united under a Facebook group titled "If They Get Rid of the Chief I'm Becoming a Racist."
Alumni of the university are also outraged by this decision. One alumnus, going by the pseudonym Milt, wrote a fervent response to an article in The Daily Illini, the University of Illinois's student newspaper, which covered the announcement to dispose of the Chief.
Milt stated that "The [Board of Trustees] has made a cowardice and spineless decision to bow to the hypocritical NCAA demands." He has resolved to no longer donate money to the university or attend any of its sporting events. Later responses to the article displayed similar resolutions made by other previously-benevolent alumni.
In the same article, Trustee David Dorris defended the college by saying "the decision was forced on the board" by the NCAA. "We didn't want this," he told the Illini. "It's pretty obvious [we opposed it]. We appealed twice, and told [the NCAA] we did not agree, and those appeals were denied."
Simply put, the NCAA needs to chill out.
True, Chief Illiniwek embodies the typical American Indian archetype: buckskin, headdress, face paint. But most of you could have probably pictured the mascot with substantial detail just from hearing his name.
We all have mental representations of Native Americans and people of other ethnicities. This isn't because we actively advocate the upholding of stereotypes or because we are inherently racist, but because we grew up with children's movies and storybooks that portray Indians (and others) in stereotypical manners.
By employing further use of these images, we do not mean to offend anyone; we're simply upholding tradition.
The Chief mascot has come to represent something so far removed from a racial stereotype that the claim made by the NCAA, 81 years after the mascot's creation, seems ridiculous.
Illinois's mascot represents what all mascots represent: tradition, strength, pride, spirit and unity for members of an educational community. It motivates athletes and energizes fans. And, in the case of the University of Illinois, its halftime dance is a featured presentation.
With the removal of this tradition, the school stands to lose significant school spirit and alumni donations.
Admittedly, there is substance behind the debate over stereotypical imagery. But the leak of this debate into the world of college athletics has crossed the line into unnecessary.
Fortunately for Penn students, no reasonable challenges to the Quaker mascot can be foreseen. We were smart enough to remain within PC boundaries. But when schools are expected to forfeit the most frivolous aspects of student life for questions of political correctness, there's no telling where the line will be drawn. Independent student unions and event flyers may be future targets for misinterpretation, and thus attack.
It seems the black-and-white regions of political correctness are fading into an eternal gray. Students, beware.
Jamie France is a College freshman from Plantation, Fla. Her e-mail address is france@dailypennsylvanian.com. Le Petite Freshman appears on Wednesdays.
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