American Indian Movement Arizona Chapter

Mascots

The Graduate School of Library and Information Science (GSLIS) at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign is consistently ranked one of the best in the field. Our students enter a broad range of information professions, becoming systems analysts, catalogers, human factor specialists, public librarians, database administrators, academic reference librarians, webmasters, school library media specialists, information architects, children's librarians . . . the list grows longer every day. All share a common professional goal of providing access to information in all its formats.

The threefold mission of GSLIS is:

1. Teaching—to educate students to assume leadership in the various fields dedicated to making information more accessible to individuals and organizations

2. Research—to conduct research in library and information science

3. Service—to provide service to librarians and other information service providers as well as to the citizens of Illinois.

It has become increasingly clear that the continuing use of the Chief Illiniwek symbol directly hinders each aspect of the GSLIS mission.

Teaching: The use of the Chief Illiniwek symbol interferes with our primary educational mission in many ways. Not only has it made it difficult to recruit Native American students or to work with Native American communities, the continued use of a symbol now widely seen as racist creates a chilling atmosphere for all students who for whatever reason do not see themselves as in the mainstream. Such an atmosphere is not conducive to learning. Moreover, it directly contradicts much of the content of our teaching, especially when addressing the importance of providing accurate information, adopting a service perspective on providing information, and challenging stereotypes in literature...

--To learn more about this topic or any other topic(s) related to Native American's and mascots, please visit, In Whose Honor? Thank you.