The following transcript is from the 4/14/00 Chief Illiniwek dialogue "intake session". It is an unedited excerpt from the original U.I. document.

For the most part, I can take much pride in this institution, in which I have spent so many years as a student and as a professor. But there is an area that I find shameful. When I was an undergraduate here, there was no critical reflection on the Chief. Whether it was an accurate portrayal of the Illini Indians or whether it would be offensive to Indians was just not an issue at that point in time. Some of us on this campus were still trying to get barbers in Campustown to cut the hair of African-American people. African people were in our midst, too few as students, but many in the community. We were just waking up to that.

While we have very few Native Americans on our campus, most of those who have come as students, and others they have called in from outside the University over this issue, have told us that this portrayal of the sacred dance is inaccurate and that even if it had been accurate, it would be offensive to trivialize it in a sporting event. After all, how would Jewish people react if we had a rabbi dancing across the athletic field or a Christian cleric performing feats with a cross. I think you would agree that this would be harmful, mentally if not physically, to Jews and Christians. Why would it be any different with the sacred rites of Native Americans.

Indeed, it is even more serious with Native Americans in this country. This is because physical genocide has been perpetrated on them. I say physical, quote, unquote, because the 1951 UN Convention on Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide includes, quote, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, unquote. Article II B. I am going to leave with you copies of the convention on genocide as well as my statement.

The use of an ethnic or religious symbol for fun at a sporting event is always offensive. But it is doubly wrong and in violation of the UN Convention when that mental harm is perpetrated against a group that has also suffered close to physical annihilation. Moreover, the NCA is quite right that this is an educational issue, the denial of some or all of you on the Board notwithstanding.

I teach and write in the area of human rights, am on the Editorial Board Review of the major human rights journal in this country, "The Human Rights Quarterly" and am an organizer of one of the two panels on human rights at the year 2000 World Congress of the International Political Science Association meetings to be held this August in Quebec.

How in the world am I supposed to explain to other human rights scholars, and even more importantly, to students here that their own University, which makes claims to a universalistic vocation of learning, engages in an act, which under the UN Convention is involved in, quote, complicity in genocide, unquote, Article III B, and refuses to learn and to change when that complicity is called to its attention?

I am asking you to recognize that universalistic respect for other people ought to be the hallmark of any educational institution. And to put an end to the shameful violation of human rights and compromise of its educational mission by the University which calls itself the flagship institution of higher education of this state. To whom should I direct these documents?

MODERATOR GARIPPO: If you just leave them on the stage. Ralph Trimble.

See the U.I. Dialogue on Chief Illiniwek page for more transcripts and information.