In 2002 a resolution was drafted, and later signed by over 240 students, 25 law professors and the outgoing (Dean Strickland) and incoming (Dean Kirkpatrick) law school deans, calling for the University of Oregon to refrain from contracting sporting events featuring teams that used Native American imagery without tribal affiliation and oversight. The two NCAA teams with tribal affiliation and oversight are the Florida Seminoles and the Utah Utes. The University of Oregon has intermittently scheduled games with the Utah Utes, and this was permissible under the constraints proposed by the resolution.
The resolution was presented (summer of 2002) in a private meeting with myself, Debra Merskin (from the journalism department) and President Frohnmayer. In this private meeting, President Frohnmayer (a member of the NCAA panel reviewing the use of Native American imagery in the NCAA) promised that the panel would be meeting that summer to resolve the issue at the NCAA policy level, and that the University of Oregon would honor the resolution’s ban on scheduling teams not affiliated with tribes.
Not only has the NCAA panel pushed debate on the issue into 2005, it has just been announced that the University of Oregon basketball team will play the University of Illinois “Fighting Illini” the next two seasons, including participation in the University’s annual Papé Jam held in Portland. As many of us know, the University of Illinois’ mascot (Chief Illiniwek) is one of the most controversial and contentious representations of Native Americans in American sports. President Frohnmayer’s tolerance of this scheduling is a complete affront to the spirit of the resolution, the University of Oregon’s minority communities, and the University’s stated commitment to honor diversity.
Please join me in encouraging people from around the country to express their anger at President Frohnmayer and the University of Oregon athletic department’s disrespect and dismissal of the resolution, and the will of minority and sympathetic members of the University’s community at large.