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.

More than ten years ago Charlene Teters stood alone before crowds of sports fans with a simple sign that read Indians are people, not mascots. Then and now, that truth is self-evident and it is nonnegotiable, sir. At least I hope it is evident to you, because unfortunately, it has not been as clear to our Board of Trustees.

Since that time, our elected student government, as well as a special campus wide committee convened by the Chancellor to recommend how to make this campus a better place for people of all cultures to study and work, as well as our elected faculty and Student Senate, all passed resolutions advocating the retirement of Chief Illiniwek. Mountains of testimony have been given.

Sadly, all of these democratic exercises enfranchised by the rules that govern this campus have been disregarded by our administration and Board of Trustees. Moreover, the Board and campus administration refuse to engage in an independent mediated arbitration of this issue. They summarily dismissed without due process grievances charging racial discrimination.

They have refused to include this issue in two self studies, one conducted by the National Collegiate Athletic Association and the other conducted by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools pertaining to academic accreditation. And they have fostered an atmosphere of intimidation in many quarters of this campus.

However, recently, 13 independent senior academics from other institutions that comprised the North Central Accreditation team did review this issue and did meet with both pro and anti-Chief advocates. Their report is an unprecedented condemnation of the institutional integrity of this campus. It severely criticized the University administration for their failure to deal with the Chief issue in a manner consistent with our Statutes, which prohibit invidious discrimination.

In other words, they pointed out the contradiction between having a Native American mascot and the educational mission and rules of this University.

In response to this condemnation, the Board publicly reiterated its firm commitment to maintaining the mascot and then, quote, reaffirmed its commitment to a dialogue. They reaffirmed their commitment to something they previously refused to discuss. Instead of acting to finally end this form of invidious discrimination, they chose to ask the same old question, hoping that if they controlled the process, they would finally get the answer they sought. And so here we are.

Remarkable as it may seem, in response to censure for lack of institutional integrity, the first response of the Board was allegedly to break the law by violating the Illinois Open Meetings Act. Since then they have continued to defy that law, all meetings, including the ones selecting you, Judge Garippo, were held unannounced and in secret by persons who have publicly declared their strong position and interest in maintaining the Chief.

Furthermore, this dialogue process per se clearly violates the Statutes of this University and this is not how we resolve educational issues at this institution. What an astonishing way to confront condemnation of institutional integrity, by breaking the law and violating the statutes of the institution.

But here we are, sir. The question at hand is whether this process is anything more than a charade, or a circus to placate the concerns of the North Central Association Accreditation team. Let's have a look at some of the evidence.

One, the process to date has been closely managed in secret and has included only those who have publicly declared their pro-Chief position.

Secondly, tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars have been spent by the Board to send out messages directed to specific constituencies who might favor keeping the Chief. This includes advertising and personal letters from Mr. Engelbrecht. The source of the letter, Mr. Engelbrecht, has made his position quite clear. And he invited people who feel as deeply as he does to participate in the dialogue.

Moreover, who did not receive this personal invitation from Mr. Engelbrecht is equally important. He did not send it to the Council of Deans, releasing them from the intimidation that they have been under for the past ten years. He did not send it to the University faculty, and he did not send it to Native Americans, either on this campus or anywhere else. Perhaps he isn't interested in knowing how they feel about his honoring them.

Thirdly, although tens of thousands of dollars have been used to target audiences the Board wanted to reach, Mr. Engelbrecht, President Stukel and Provost Herman refused to defray the expenses of Native Americans to come and participate in this intake session today. They denied support to cover the costs of ads and letters to be directed more uniformly. And they denied access to the same mailing lists they used.

And fourthly, perhaps the most egregious act by Chancellor Aiken and Mr. Engelbrecht is that they have refused to provide you with the correspondence they have received prior to the initiation of this dialogue. They have set up a dialogue but are withholding essential evidence from you.

What is this information? There are mountains of it, including testimony from dozens of individuals and organizations, local as well as from around the world, organizations concerned with human rights, including Amnesty International, the National Organization of Women, the NAACP, the Rainbow Coalition, organizations that represent Native Americans nationally, the Minorities Opportunity Committee of the NCAA and all student organizations on this campus that represent people of color. In essence, from anyone who knows discrimination when they see it.

They withhold from you the transcript and audio tape of our Senate proceedings, anti- discrimination complaints dismissed without due process, statements by various campus departments condemning the use of the Chief, and a host of additional documents.

Judge Garippo, I respectfully request, sir, that you advise the Chancellor and Board to forward these documents and an annotated list of them to you without further delay and make that list available to the public. And secondly, that you advise the Board to write the Chancellor, the Provost, the Deans and Directors, inviting their candid input on this issue and guaranteeing them that there will be absolutely no reprisals of any sort should they disagree with the perspective of the Board.

Your Honor, there is intimidation at all levels of this campus where this issue is of concern and that is toxic to the mission of this University and it is wrong. And perhaps, sir, you can help end this.

Judge Garippo, as a scientist, I must say that with the sole exception of conversations with you, there is no data thus far that this process is anything but a charade. I hope I am wrong. But it is up to you to convince us otherwise.

I hope that in your deliberations you remember what is self-evident, that Native Americans are people, not mascots. And that there cannot be any compromise of that, it is nonnegotiable.

In support of the position to retire the Chief, I present you with a resolution signed by 793 faculty of this campus. This includes 10 of the 13 prestigious Swanlund chairs, 17 additional named chairs, 11 of 15 Jubilee professors of the College of Arts and Science, 24 department heads and hundreds of plain old faculty like me. Thank you, sir. I will be happy to answer questions.

MODERATOR GARIPPO: I have no questions. I just want to assure the audience that the -- I have assurances from the administration that anything I seek and I request from the administration will be furnished to me. As I stated earlier, I have no interest in having my report come out on one side or another. My interest is just to present each side fully, document it in every way that I can. I have sought Professor Kaufman's input. I have sought Mr. Wakeland's input, Mr. Haney, Miss Ostrovsky, this is only in the first two weeks that I have been named.

I will continue to seek the input from all sources, this session today is only a fraction of what I will use as the source of my report. And as I stated earlier today before many of you were here, I invite input from anyone, either through the e-mail, the e-mail address which has been published, to the box office, post office box that has been published. Or you could even send it directly to my office. I will fail in my mission if my report comes out slanted one way or another.

Believe me, I will have no opinion, nothing I do, I will have no opinion, nothing I say should be interpreted as having an opinion one way or another on what action the Board shall take. So I just wanted to assure you, and believe me, I will seek your input through the coming weeks and months as I will seek the input of every other person who I see, who I feel can assist me in making this report. We are going to break now -- we'll have a couple more speeches. Then maybe we can break a little earlier this afternoon. If you will introduce yourself.

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