Yesterday's News-Gazette:
A federal lawsuit by Jack Davis, the designer of the Chief Illiniwek logo, against the University of Illinois Board of Trustees was dismissed today.
U.S. Central District of Illinois Chief Judge Michael McCuskey dismissed the suit, ruling that the federal court has no jurisdiction for the breach-of-contract claim by Davis.
I don't think there's anything to say that hasn't been said already, but that won't stop the discussion argument from continuing, I'm sure.
Anybody feel like beating a dead horse today?
Logan Ponce is the latest Chief Illiniwek, and likely will be the second in a row who never gets to perform the famed halftime dance at University of Illinois events.
Ponce, a junior from St. Charles majoring in general engineering, was announced as the 37th Chief Illiniwek on a rainy Monday morning in front of the Alma Mater statue on campus. UI sophomore Rob Zaldivar of Palatine was announced as assistant Chief Illiniwek.
The two were selected this past weekend by the Council of Chiefs, a group of former chiefs, following a weekend audition in Gibson City.
From the Daily Illini:
Despite a nationwide decrease in alumni donations to universities, the University of Illinois reported an increase of $18.8 million.
According to a report by the University of Illinois Foundation, alumni donated $57 million, a nine percent increase from last year.
However, a separate study by the Council for Aid to Education, a non-profit research group, found total gifts dipped nationwide by $130 million between 2006 and 2007.
Given the national anticipation of recession, and the local insistence that funding would be hurt by the removal of Chief Illiniwek, this is very positive news.
From the News-Gazette:
They want the Chief back.
In a nonbinding referendum this week, University of Illinois students gave a resounding "yes" when asked if they want Chief Illiniwek to return as the official UI symbol.
The vote was 7,718 to 2,052, or roughly 79 percent to 21 percent.
More than 10,300 students voted in the two-day elections this week, the second-highest total in the 10-year history of online balloting, said law student David Mangian, co-chairman of the Student Election Commission.
And:
Chief supporter Frank Calabrese, who was re-elected to the faculty-student senate, was jubilant after results were announced Thursday evening at Gregory Hall.
"People cannot ignore public opinion: 80 percent of the student body says we want it back," said Calabrese, a UI junior.
Frank is wrong: The NCAA absolutely will ignore public opinion, and the BoT will do what the NCAA tells them to do.
Effort is admirable, but this will have absolutely no effect on anything.
Some students upset words were added to Chief proposal
By Julie Wurth
Thursday February 28, 2008
http://www.news-gazette.com/news/print/2008/02/28/resolution_raises_new_ruckus
URBANA – A year after his demise, Chief Illiniwek is stirring controversy – this time in a University of Illinois student election.
Some UI students cried foul this week over last-minute changes in the wording of a ballot question asking if voters want the Chief reinstated as the UI symbol.
The measure is nonbinding, and administrators added language to that effect, much to the consternation of its author and some student election commissioners.
"It's telling students, 'You might as well not vote on this,'" said UI law student Dan Bolin, a member of the Student Election Commission.
The resolution's author, UI junior Paul Schmitt, president of Students for Chief Illiniwek and a candidate for student trustee, said the initial language proposed by administrators was worse.
His original question asked, "Do you support the reinstatement of Chief Illiniwek as the symbol of the University of Illinois?"
On Monday – hours before online voting started at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday – Renee Romano, vice chancellor for student affairs, worked with the chairman of the Student Election Commission to add the following language: "The result of this referenda question is not binding on the University of Illinois Board of Trustees, the University of Illinois Administration, or any other body associated with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This referenda question is an opinion poll, and the results of this question will in no way cause the University of Illinois to reinstate Chief Illiniwek as the symbol of the University of Illinois."
That essentially said "this is meaningless, why even bother?" said UI junior Frank Calabrese, a student senator.
After he and Schmitt objected, the wording was changed to this: "The result of this referendum question is not binding on the University of Illinois Board of Trustees, the body legislatively charged with oversight of the symbol."
"It's 100 percent better," Calabrese said, conceding that voters do need to know the question is nonbinding.
"People who vote for this should understand that even if it passes, the Chief won't be dancing at the next basketball game," he said.
Romano said that was her sole intent, not to derail the resolution or influence voting.
All three ballot questions this year – the other two involved fees supporting cultural houses and study-abroad programs – had information added to explain what they mean, she said.
"My feeling was that the voting students need to be fully informed about what they were voting on," she said. "It wasn't my intention to change the meaning of the referendum."
The problem, Calabrese said, is that she added language to the Chief resolution without consulting the author, and "she changed the whole integrity of the question."
The same "not binding" provision could apply to any student ballot question, Bolin added, because trustees ultimately have final approval over all of them.
Romano said she talked to students who didn't understand that the Chief resolution would be advisory. Some even thought the administration had put the question on the ballot.
"It was not my intention to change the vote. I really did feel that around this particular issue it was important for the students to know what the referendum means," she said. "I didn't realize it was going to cause this much concern."
Schmitt and the others noted the county clerk didn't try to add wording to a resolution opposing U.S. military action in Iraq saying it would not be binding on the U.S. military.
"When Jesse White certifies a question as secretary of state, he doesn't add an amendment saying, 'By the way, Rod Blagojevich doesn't care what you think anyway,'" added state Rep. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet. "To me the whole thing seems silly."
Bolin was incensed because he didn't learn of the change until Monday evening. The full commission eventually approved it that night, "probably because it was too late to do anything" else, he said.
Bolin, who was active in student government and pro-Chief groups as an undergraduate but not in law school, said he is just "trying to be fair. I would have the same position on this if it was attached to the cultural fee."
Student voting ended at 11:59 p.m. Wednesday. The results were to be announced today.
Find this article at:
http://www.news-gazette.com/news/2008/02/28/resolution_raises_new_ruckus
From Saturday's News-Gazette:
The creator of the Chief Illiniwek logo has filed a lawsuit in federal court against the University of Illinois in an attempt to obtain control of the image.
The university, however, plans to keep the trademark. In fact, university officials are talking with a licensing company about marketing the Chief logo as part of a program to sell vintage-logo collegiate clothing and merchandise online.
"The university has every intention of maintaining ownership of the trademarked logo and related word marks," said university spokeswoman Robin Kaler.
The most interesting part of this article:
But university officials and lawyers have been working with Collegiate Licensing Company to add the Chief logo to the company's College Vault program. College Vault licenses vintage collegiate logos, emblems and other images.
"We have not made final decisions on specific products or volume going forward, but we will continue to offer merchandise in select apparel, non-apparel and headwear categories," Kaler said.
If the university does not use the Chief logo, it could fall into public domain. As Auler summarized U.S. trademark laws: "You use it or you lose it."
By licensing the logo to College Vault, the UI's trademark rights would be protected.
Have at it. And for the love of God, please try to keep the insults to a minimum.
The University Senate will vote on a resolution today condemning the Chancellor for allowing free speech at the Homecoming Parade. The resolution, authored by Professor Beldon Fields condemns the University for allowing Chief Illiniwek to be present at the Homecoming Parade, arguing this display prevents the University from regulating offensive speech.
Here is the resolution : http://www.senate.uiuc.edu/eq0801.asp
Ugh.
This year's Homecoming parade will kick off at 6 p.m. Friday and will follow the same route as in previous years. However, groups making floats for the parade have a new rule to follow: displaying the Chief Illiniwek symbol in any form will not be allowed, said Jillian Kachel, senior in AHS and parade co-chair.
Kachel said groups cannot use the Chief symbol on their floats, signs, costumes, or T-shirts. She still expects the best of the parade's 35 floats to employ some creative design ideas.
This is going to keep getting more and more ridiculous.
I'm not a big fan of constantly re-hashing the Chief Illiniwek debate, but I do think some discussion of how the UI handled it and continues to handle the aftermath is warranted.
"Because (the Chief issue) was so controversial, one would think that attention would be paid to the Open Meetings Act and it would have been done in thoughtful way and would bring no ridicule on the process, which is not what happened," said Beth Bennett, the group's director of government relations.
When it came down to the Chief Illiniwek issue, "it wasn't just a local story ... you have statewide interest in this," Bennett said.
The idea behind the Worsty Awards is to call attention to and discourage abuses of the Illinois Open Meetings Act and Illinois Freedom of Information Act, said IPA Executive Director Dave Bennett in a press release.
The secrecy is embarrassing. The decision has been made, and everyone knows why. Hiding things (or creating the perception of hiding things) just fuels the distrust and keeps the issue fermenting.
I've been saying for years that the best way for people to "Save the Chief" would have been to endow a huge scholarship fund, tied directly to the Chief's existance, that funded scholarships for Native students, to the UI and elsewhere. This is far too little and too late to save Chief Illiniwek, but I'm excited that it has happened all the same, as it's the right thing to do, regardless of the fate of the Chief.
Students at the college will get some financial help, courtesy of the Council of Chiefs, an organization of University of Illinois graduates who portrayed Chief Illiniwek over the years. The group will announce today the beginning of a fund drive to raise money for the Frank Fools Crow Scholarship.
The scholarship fund is named for the late Mr. Fools Crow, an Oglala Sioux elder from the Pine Ridge reservation who made the headdress and buckskin outfit worn by those portraying Chief Illiniwek. The UI retired Chief Illiniwek last winter, and the Oglala Sioux Tribal Nation has asked the UI to return the regalia. UI officials are still trying to resolve the fate of the items.
While that issue was brewing, Short Bull suggested establishing the scholarship.
"We're not entering into the controversy of Chief Illiniwek," he said. "I know people on the reservation will appreciate having something to remember and memorialize Frank Fools Crow."
Tom Livingston, who portrayed Chief Illiniwek in 1988 and 1989, said such a scholarship had been part of the discussions of the Council of Chiefs while the fate of Chief Illiniwek was being decided.
"We felt it was meaningful to support the Oglala (Sioux) tribe and Chief Frank Fools Crow, who was a true champion of education and opportunity for his people. And he was good to us. We don't forget our friends," Livingston said.
Discuss.
Saturday night I was down in Arthur, watching what absolutely must be the best fireworks show I've ever seen. They had skydivers, paragliders, a helicopter, and an awesome barrage of pyrotechnics. How a town that small can put on a show of those proportions is a mystery- they put all of the West and Northwest suburbs to shame.
The most interesting part, however, occured shortly after a barrage of orange and blue fireworks. A spotlight lit up a figure standing atop the bleachers at the football stadium. He appeared to be wearing Native American dress and had his arms raised as if signaling a touchdown. The crowd yelled something that rhymed with "beef."
It's been 36 hours, and the fecal storm I expected has yet to materialize, so i figured I'd go ahead and poke that hornets' nest...
Finally, a well rounded media report . . .
Sorry it took me a week to find the link.
Some local Greens and friends have come up with a proposal for a new UI mascot.
Of course this information is released on a Friday:
The University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign today told vendors to stop taking orders by mid-April for chief-related memorabilia and to stop selling the materials in June.
The university holds the trademark for Illiniwek-related clothing, souvenirs and other materials, and its board of trustees voted March 13 to rescind the chief as the institution's symbol.
Today, the university said in a news release that it and its Atlanta-based licensing agent, Collegiate Licensing Co., "will put retailers on notice that they may not order any additional merchandise featuring the Chief logo, or products featuring the terms 'Chief' or 'Chief Illiniwek' after Monday, April 16, 2007."
Licensees will be allowed to sell any existing inventory of Illiniwek merchandise for 60 days, from April 16 to June 15, the release stated. All merchandise must be shipped by Dec. 31.
The extended timeline allows companies to fill orders that have already been placed, including those for the winter holiday season.
UPDATE: NG story here.
Kaler said the university will pursue any violations of the trademark regulations "to the fullest extent of the law. ... We will vigorously protect our right against infringement."
I've been busy most of this week, but thought you'd want to discuss this:
Legislation that would elect University of Illinois trustees by district and downsize the UI governing board was introduced Thursday in the state House.
The legislation would ensure downstate representation on the UI Board of Trustees, according to state Rep. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, co-sponsor with Rep. David Reis, R-Olney.
Currently, nine UI trustees are appointed by the governor, and one of three student trustees elected by students also has a vote.
Under Rose's bill, the board would be reduced from 10 voting members to seven. Six trustees would be elected from judicial districts across the state. Two members would be elected from the 1st Judicial District, in Cook County, and one from each of the other four judicial districts. The student trustee would have the seventh vote.
New trustees would have staggered terms initially, and six-year terms thereafter. The governor would continue to have an ex-officio vote.
I wonder if Gov. Edgar will weigh in on this proposal?
The University of Illinois Board of Trustees is meeting today to discuss, among other things, Chief Illiniwek.
The agenda is here.
WDWS (1400 AM) is going to be providing updates all day.
UPDATE: Goodbye, Chief Illiniwek:
University of Illinois trustees today ended Chief Illiniwek's run as the symbol of the university, voting to retire the mascot's name, regalia and image.
Supporters and critics of the Chief packed the regents' meeting in Champaign-Urbana to hear the 45-minute discussion. About 15 students wore orange shirts with the Chief logo, some reading, "Save the Chief."
The resolution lets Chancellor Richard Herman decide details such as how and when the Chief Illiniwek name and image would stop being used and licensed to apparel makers and others.
The school would continue to call its sports teams the Fighting Illini under the resolution.
"Certainly my vote is not intended to dishonor anybody's memories or to deny the fact that it has been a great tradition," said Board of Trustees Chairman Larry Eppley.
Trustee David Dorris voted against the resolution. "When you look at Chief Illiniwek and you see hatred, shame and embarrassment, you should consider where those feelings really come from," he said.
Commence gloating/griping.
Some enterprising UIUC studnet is using this website to push for the Senate to vote against the confirmation of University of Illinois Board of Trustees Chair Larry Eppley and new appointee James Montgomery.
My initial take was that this was a terrible idea, and I used a clumsy analogy to illustrate why: if a guy gives up his wallet because there's a gun to his head, do you blame the guy who gave away his wallet or the guy who held the gun?
However, there's another reason to be disappointed and angry at Eppley and the Board: if, like me, your primary complaint is the clumsiness with which the decision was made and announced.
Dumpeppley.com has this specific complaint, among others:
We found that Article IV, Section 3 of the Board of Trustees By-Laws, clearly states, "The Executive Committee functions as an instrument of the board and shall possess all the powers of the board when in session, provided that it shall not overrule, revise, or change the previous acts of the board, or take from regular or special committees any business referred to them by the board."
Regardless, if your preferred course of action is to call State Senators to ask them to vote against the confirmation of Eppley and Montgomery, I'm afraid you'll be disappointed. Senate President and anti-Chiefer-in-Chief Emil Jones controls the confirmation vote, and the only reason confirmation will be in question is if Jones wants to send a message to Gov. Blagojevich. The only question is which way Jones will tell Sen. Mike Frerichs to vote.
When Kiyoshi first sent this to me, I thought it was a joke:
Just before tipoff, a soldout crowd at Assembly Hall saw a giant egg lowered onto the court as the speakers blared the theme from "2001: A Space Odyssey."
When the egg reached the ground, a giant red-and-gray bird wearing a Fighting Illini T-shirt and blue high-top gym shoes jumped out and started dancing around.
The crowd's response was immediate and vocal, said Tom Porter, who was at the game and is now U of I's director of marketing.
"I just remember everybody booing, and it didn't go over very big," Porter said. "Everybody loves the Chief, and if they have anybody else take center stage during the halftime performance - it had never been done as long as we were here, and it was unusual - and they just didn't accept it."
The crowd chanted "Shoot that bird" throughout most of the first half, and three male cheerleaders rammed him into the basket standard, reported U of I's student newspaper in an article the next day.
Read the whole thing for a good Monday morning chuckle.
The clumsiness with which the University of Illinois reached and announced its "consensus" decision on Chief Illiniwek could have some interesting potential consequences.
David Dorris, a Bloomington lawyer and board member since 2005, says the decision to end the Chief Illiniwek tradition did not constitute an official board action.
That's because there was no public vote by the board. A university statement says board chairman Larry Eppley came to the decision by conferring with board members individually.
With no vote, Dorris maintains, a 1990 board resolution that retained the chief, holds.
"You cannot overturn it by the chairman simply saying in a statement that he read the tea leaves and this is the new policy,'' said Dorris, who would not have supported a resolution eliminating the chief.
A school statement claims an official vote wasn't necessary. But Dawn Clark Netsch, professor emerita of law at Northwestern and a former state senator and comptroller, wondered if the board would make future decisions without an official vote. "That's a little scary,'' she said.
Hmmmm. My assumption has always been that the none of the other Trustees would cause any problems. Now, with Dorris' quote, I wonder if that assumption was mistaken? And I wonder how much havoc he could cause by asking for an official board discussion and vote on the retirement?
How many Trustees would be forced to say, "I support the Chief, but the NCAA is forcing us to do this?"
And how would the NCAA react to that?
(Hat tip: Kiyoshi Martinez)
***UPDATED: Includes downloadable PDF 8 1/2 X 11 "Long Live The Chief" poster.***
The Chief has danced his last dance.
But there's a bunch of unanswered questions out there, some in "our" (unofficial) control, and some out of "our" (official) control.
"Official" control questions:
"Unofficial" control questions:
Please share and expand (or flame me) as you see fit.
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