|
Comment on this article |
Email this Article
|
|
Hidden with code "Submitted as Feature" |
|
News :: Civil & Human Rights |
|
"Anti-Chief " Sit-in in Progress |
Current rating: 0 |
by tarkusinc
(No verified email address) |
15 Apr 2004
|
This morning, a multicultural coalition 40 University of Illinois students, faculty, alumni, community members, and Native peoples have occupied Swanlund Administration Building on the Urbana-Champaign  campus
of University of Illinois in protest of the continued use of  "Chief Illiniwek" and the U of I Board of Trustees' disregard for  democracy.
We need your help and support!
1. Contact Trustee Eppley at (312) 372-1121 and tell him "I support  the occupation and urge the Board to end the controversy and eliminate the "Chief" today!" You can also leave a message for the  Board at their office at (217) 333-1920 or at mthompsn (at) uillinois.edu.  Please copy all emails to prc (at) prairienet.org.
2. Come to Swanlund Administration Building (601 E. John St, on corner of 6th & Wright) now to show your support for the occupation! Â
We will be picketing and rallying all day outside of Swanlund. If  you'd like to lend additional support, we desperately need money for  food,
supplies,other essentials for the occupation, and (potentially) bail money if arrests occur. Checks can be made out to "PRC" with "occupation" in the memo. |
Statement from the PRC:
Today, April 15th, 2004, is the day the Board of Trustees was supposed to hold a Board meeting on the Chicago campus, yet the Board cancelled this meeting to avoid addressing a resolution seeking to eliminate "Chief Illiniwek." Perhaps they thought that if there were  no meeting, there would be no controversy - nothing could be further  from
the truth! In an attempt to ignore the concerns of Native peoples and avoid charges of racism from communities of color, the  Board has put the University's mission, future, and democratic ideals  in jeopardy, and eroded the trust of the students, staff, faculty,  and alumni of this institution. This is unacceptable.
The Board has sought to ignore and trivialize this issue for over 15 years, but today they can ignore it no longer. Chairman Eppley, in
canceling today's meeting, was reported to have said that, "there  wasn't sufficient new business to warrant a new board meeting (in  April)."
Perhaps the current occupation of their main administrative  building will give the Board "sufficient new business" to call a meeting and address this issue.
After 15 years, we have exhausted every other available means of educating the Board about what the rest of the world already knows:  that "Chief Illiniwek" is racist, offensive, and must be eliminated  now to make this University welcoming to students and communities of  color.
But the Board has not listened, and we regret that their actions and inactions have made this occupation both necessary and inevitable. |
This work is in the public domain |
