From the NEWS-GAZETTE:
Article: http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2007/12/04/senate_tables_homecoming_resolution
Senate tables Homecoming resolution
URBANA – The University of Illinois Senate on Monday tabled a resolution that called for the university administration to sever its ties with homecoming
The resolution was brought before the legislative body of faculty and students a little more than a month after Chancellor Richard Herman announced he had overturned a campus policy that initially prohibited the use of Chief Illiniwek images on homecoming parade floats. Herman said floats, costumes and other decorations are representations of personal expression. Students who support the now-retired Chief Illiniwek ended up marching in the homecoming parade and wearing Chief apparel.
The nonbinding resolution, brought forward from the senate's equal opportunity committee, outlines the UI Board of Trustees' decision in March to end the use of American Indian imagery and retire Chief Illiniwek. It urges UI administration to "dissociate itself from any and all future homecoming displays" and it also states that to claim the right to free speech in order to display Chief imagery at a campus event "jeopardizes the authority of the campus administration to condemn other 'representations of personal expression' that are legitimately read as negative stereotyping of members of underrepresented, historically disadvantaged or marginalized groups within the campus community."
Faculty and students raised a number of questions about the resolution, including what would it mean to dissociate? Could homecoming be canceled? Exactly how does campus administration sponsor homecoming? Who will run homecoming? Students? The UI Alumni Association?
UI junior Frank Calabrese called the resolution "unnecessarily divisive" and asked if the university was prepared to do away with homecoming because some people disagree with what some students say or wear during the parade.
"I think this is a terrible resolution. We have more important things to talk about. ... The university should embrace free speech, not run away from it like a bunch of cowards," Calabrese said.
The senate should seek more input on the resolution, particularly from students, said UI Professor Vernon Burton.
"It bothers me greatly no student spoke in favor of it," said Burton who supported postponing a vote on the resolution during Monday's senate meeting.
In a speech to his fellow senators, Senate Chair Nicholas Burbules said, "we need to draw a sharp line between trying to block or prevent expressions of thought or feeling that might be found objectionable or offensive, before they happen, versus exercising our right to criticize them after the fact. ... We need to defend the right of protest for others because we insist on it for ourselves.”
And that's what will happen over the next three months.
The Senate Executive Committee, headed by Burbules, is expected to discuss the resolution at its meeting in January, before the next full UI Senate meeting on Feb. 25.
