To: All Faculty & All Academic Professionals & All Civil Service Staff
           <everybody@illinois.edu> 
    From: "Chancellor Richard Herman" <chancellor@uiuc.edu>

Reply-To: chancellor@uiuc.edu
 Subject: MASSMAIL - NCAA Policy Matter

Dear Members of the University Community,
 
The Presidents and Chancellors on the Executive Committee of the National 
Collegiate Athletic Association recently adopted a new policy to "prohibit 
NCAA colleges and universities from displaying hostile and abusive 
racial/ethnic/national origin mascots, nicknames or imagery at any of the 
88 NCAA championships." As those of you in the University of Illinois 
community know, we have been debating and discussing the Chief Illiniwek 
issue for many years now. The Board of Trustees has been actively engaged 
in addressing the matter and 18 months ago set about an effort to reach a 
consensus solution to the issue. The Board is now considering what 
response it will take to the University being included on the NCAA list of 
schools with imagery deemed "hostile and abusive."

To those who honor and revere the Chief, these harsh words will seem a 
terrible distortion. To some of those who oppose the Chief, these harsh 
words will ring true.  The NCAA recommendations also seem to argue that 
the very names "Illini" and "Fighting Illini" are themselves hostile and 
abusive references. I believe that this is an unwarranted extension of the 
debate.  We are evaluating the NCAA recommendations now and will seek all 
necessary clarification in what appear to be ambiguities in the decision. 
In the meantime, no change is being made in the use of the terms "Illini" 
or "Fighting Illini" or in the Chief Illiniwek tradition.

The University of Illinois is dedicated to an environment of respect and 
dignity for all individuals. Exactly what that means, of course, is the 
nub of our long debate. As a great university, we cannot shrink from 
freewheeling debate. That commitment is at the core of our mission, the 
core of our nation's value of free speech, and the core of our national 
character. Yet let us acknowledge that our varying beliefs about the Chief 
are sincere matters of the heart and the head, and let us resolve to 
continue to work respectfully across our differences to find common ground.
 
Very truly yours,

Richard Herman
Chancellor
This mailing approved by:
The Office of the Chancellor

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