URBANA — Professor Jay Rosenstein plans to ask the University of Illinois Academic Senate to vote on a resolution calling on the UI to stop Chief Illiniwek appearances at campus sporting events.
He'll do so over the objections of Chancellor Robert Jones, who is concerned about losing the trust of Chief proponents just a few weeks after his first campus "Critical Conversation" on how to move forward without the Chief.
The resolution calls on State Farm Center and Memorial Stadium personnel to treat Chief appearances as protests, which aren't allowed at those facilities.
The Chief appearing "is clearly an action of protest against UIUC's decision to remove Chief Illiniwek from the court and from the playing field" in 2007, the resolution says, adding that UI personnel should therefore "enforce the no-protest policy and not allow a Chief Illiniwek character to appear.