Dive Brief:
- As campuses have evolved to be stages for conversations around cultural inclusion, institutions have had to reconsider their controversial mascots — like the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, which decided in 2007 to stop using its decades old American Indian mascot Chief Illiniwek, following a 2005 ultimatum from the NCAA that "hostile and abusive," symbols would not be tolerated, reports the Chronicle of Higher Education.
- The University of Illinois' Board of Trustees would discover that simply getting rid of a mascot, however, could not account for student pride around the symbolic value of the Chief — the image of which, though trademarked by the institution, is still in unofficial use and continues to stir protests on campus.
- Other institutions, like Florida State University, have maintained their American Indian symbols on campus by reaching out to local tribes for which they are named to receive blessing for their use and increasing education around the tribe's heritage, while reducing instances of stereotypical use, reports The Washington Post. Others like the University of Louisiana opted for a less perceptibly offensive mascot, with the same symbolism — replacing an American Indian image with the Warhawk.
Dive Insight:
As the University of Illinois' experience will show, simply eradicating the mascot altogether or keeping the icon without steps to address the hostility surrounding it is not an effective strategy and can lead to protests and a perceived hostile environment on campus.
Schools like the University of Miami, sharing a geographic connection and name with the local Myaamia people — officially recognized as the Miami tribe today — have sought to embrace more socially and culturally inclusive attitudes by interacting with the tribe members and building academic programs around their traditional language and history, so classes are also accessible to them. Bobbe Burke, the student affairs staff member for the Myaamia Center at the institution told Education Dive the programs are about "becoming rooted in who Miami University sees themselves to be, and that’s connected with the Myaamia tribe."
Similarly, schools in the South, like the University of Mississippi, have sought to confront their confederate pasts and racist symbols on campus by focusing on the education of them, while trying to preserve institutional pride by reorienting it around diversity and inclusion. In 2016, the institution's Chancellor Jeffrey Vitter set out to “offer more history, putting the past into context” and to do so “without attempts to erase history, even some difficult history.” Vitter told the Daily Journal at the time, “Throughout this process, the university has sought to listen and engage in constructive and transparent conversations with all university stakeholders."