Sit-In at Swanlund Adminstration
Building
On April 16, 2004 we won an incredible victory toward the eventual
and inevitable elimination of "Chief Illiniwek" as the name, mascot,
and logo of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Friday afternoon,
we came to an agreement with Chancellor Nancy Cantor and Trustee Frances
Carroll on the conditions under which we would leave the building. Those
conditions, while not including the elimination of "Chief Illiniwek,"
did include monumental victories for the anti- "Chief" movement! We
got the anti-"Chief" resolution back on the agenda of the Trustees'
June 2004 meeting and we left the building to cheering crowds and national
and international media attention in our favor. Please read on for more
information.
Despite repeated attempts to establish contact, Board Chairman Lawrence
Eppley never once picked up the phone to speak with us or bothered to
contact us about the conditions under which we would agree to leave
the building. Clearly, Eppley would rather see the campus in crisis
than speak even once with a broad-based, multicultural coalition to
talk about concerns over racism.
Given the Board's refusal to communicate, knowing that they would eventually
take action to clear the building, and not wanting our participants
to potentially face arrest at the hands of an unresponsive Board, we
made the decision to negotiate with Chancellor Cantor about the terms
under which we would leave the building.
As a result of astonishing and inspiring work on the part of African
American and Latino/a students on the inside of the sit-in to call their
representatives and senators in the Illinois General Assembly, we were
able to win meetings with the entire Black and Latino/a Caucuses of
the Illinois General Assembly -- meetings that Chancellor Cantor scheduled
for us for April 27th in Springfield. We are pleased to have been able
to come to an agreement whereby the Chancellor guaranteed us student
representation of our choosing at upcoming meetings with the North Central
Association, and assured sit-in participants that no disciplinary action
would be taken against them. In addition, we have come to an agreement
with Trustee Carroll whereby she has agreed to place a resolution against
"Chief Illiniwek" on the agenda of the Board's June meeting in Chicago!!!
In exchange for these guaranteed meetings, amnesty for sit-in participants,
and a commitment by Carroll to put a resolution on agenda of the June
meeting, we agreed to leave Swanlund Administration Building. The announcement
was made at a joint press conference with Chancellor Cantor and the
signed statement. For the actual text of the statement, you can visit:
http://www.uiuc.edu/resources/announcement3.html
We will be using the meetings we have won with
the Black and Latino/a Caucuses and with the
NCA to move the Board of Trustees to the inevitable
next step, the elimination of "Chief Illiniwek,"
in name, dance, and logo, and mobilizing the
coalition to ensure passage of a resolution
to eliminate "Chief Illiniwek" at the June Board
in Chicago.
Please take a moment to contact Board Chair
Lawrence Eppley at (312) 372-1121 or email him
via the Trustees' secretary at mthompsn@uillinois.edu
(please copy all emails to prc@prairienet.org)
and tell him that you were outraged by his refusal
to communicate with students and faculty sitting-in,
and that he must take immediate action to eliminate
"Chief Illiniwek."
Recent media on the sit-in included...
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=1784140
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/chief16.html
http://www.nbc5.com/sports/3012996/detail.html
http://www.news-gazette.com/story.cfm?Number=15823
http://cbs2chicago.com/topstories/local_story_107130019.html
http://chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=12154
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/news/041604_ap_ns_chiefill.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-3986910,00.html
and stories ran in almost every major city in
the country (including, Chicago, Miami, Seattle,
New York, San Francisco, and Atlanta) and also
in the UK's Guardian.
As we sat in at Swanlund Administration Building
for over 32 hours, we received an enormous outpouring
of support from the campus, community, and nation
as a whole. Thank you so much to all of you
who came by, brought food, helped run errands,
made calls, donated money, and otherwise gave
very generously of yourself in support of the
sit-in! We would not have made the progress
that we made without YOU!!
Sincerely,
The Swanlund Sit-In Crew
