URBANA — A resolution calling on the campus to stop appearances by an unofficial Chief Illiniwek at University of Illinois sporting events will be taken up by the Academic Senate next week.
A second proposed resolution urges the campus to use an upcoming "critical conversation" on Native American imagery in April as a "springboard to further action putting the 'Chief' in the institution's past."
"(A)fter 10 years it is time for the University of Illinois to move on from offensive Native American imagery," the resolution states.
Co-sponsored by Professor Jay Rosenstein and 10 other students and faculty members, the first resolution says the "appearance of a person dressed in an identical costume to that of Chief Illiniwek, who walks out during the Chief's theme music and mimics many of the Chief's movements," is clearly a protest of the 2007 decision to retire the Chief.