The Illinois Student Senate’s committee on campus affairs discussed a proposed resolution ensuring that the University will be forever known as the Fighting Illini at its meeting Tuesday but tabled the issue until its next meeting on Jan. 29.
Review of the legislation was postponed to give committee members time to conduct more research on the subject and make changes to the language of the resolution.
The resolution, sponsored by student body President Brock Gebhardt, was introduced via press release Jan. 14.
Gebhardt said the purpose of the legislation is to quell students’ fears that with the potential change of a campus symbol, there may be a move away from the name Fighting Illini.
“It’s part of our heritage, it was not sanctioned by the NCAA in any way whatsoever, so I don’t think this is a hugely debatable issue, and I think it’s important to preserve our history in this way if we can,” Gebhardt said.
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According to University of Illinois Archives, the earliest recorded usage of the term “Illini” appears in a January 1874 edition of the University’s weekly student newspaper, the predecessor of the modern The Daily Illini, when it changed its name from “The Student” to “The Illini.” The name Fighting Illini was given to the University’s football team in honor of drafted Illinoisans in World War I.
The senate is working with registered student organization Campus Spirit Revival to adopt a new symbol for the University. Gebhardt is not concerned that retaining the name “the Fighting Illini” will hinder this selection process.
He said the concern regarding how a new campus symbol and Fighting Illini would mesh will be addressed by the resolution in its amended form next week.
“I’d rather work on my own and with other senators who are interested to really put a lot into it to make sure that it’s both substantive and well-burnished for the senate floor,” he said.
The resolution was tabled in part in order to make it more presentable to the senate and to avoid what senator Christopher Dayton, senior in LAS, referred to as a “maelstrom.”
“No matter what we put into this (resolution), this will probably be a heated debate,” Dayton said.
Shao Guo, vice president-internal, said the most essential part of this process is student input. Without enough student input, he said one of the things that may be amended is the “forever” part.
“The forever part is one of the questionable parts of the resolution. You’re not only dealing with this year, but you’re talking about until essentially the end of this University if you want to take this resolution seriously,” he said.
Nick Larson, senator and senior in LAS, is in favor of the resolution with more research.
“It’s important that we get this out to everyone possible, so it can literally be ingrained in everybody’s memory that this is going to stay forever; we’re not going to change this,” Larson said.
Tyler can be reached at [email protected].
