Although Chief Illiniwek has been officially retired for more than six years, the iconic symbol is still making noise for University officials.

At May 13 meeting of the Senate Executive Committee, the issue was again brought up by Chancellor Phyllis Wise.

She provided an update on her attempts to move past the Chief controversy and said despite strong student support for the return of the symbol, she does not believe bringing the Chief back would be constructive.

“I’m a biologist,” she said. “I believe you can’t go backwards. When a baby is born, you can’t put the baby back in the womb. … Any energy we spend going back and trying to restore something is counterproductive.”

A referendum in March showed that nearly 80 percent of students who participated were in favor of Chief Illiniwek as the official symbol of Illinois. Support has been steady dating back to 2004.

In an attempt to rectify the situation and quell the “sideshow” that has become the Chief, Wise has been exploring alternatives to the Chief. She visited the Peoria tribe in Oklahoma as well as meeting with American Indian Studies professor Robert Warrior on further action regarding the Chief. The two plan to visit Miami University in Ohio in late May to learn about Miami’s transition away from the name “Redskins” in 1972.

While the obvious solution is to bring back or replace the symbol with a new “mascot,” Wise suggested a Chief Illiniwek display on the third floor of the Alice Campbell Alumni Center to remind visitors of the Chief’s legendary history at Illinois.

“I know this is a part of our past and I know how important it is,” Wise said. “I’m not going to bury it or call anyone ugly names who is or was pro-Chief but I really believe we have to move forward.”

During the meeting, Kostas Yfantis, member of the Council of Academic Professionals, also expressed his concern with the growing number of audits from the State Universities Civil Service System. SUCSS audits University faculty for job performance semiannually, and each occurrence has seen a rise in the number audited.  In 2009, it audited approximately 100 members; the figure rose to approximately 200 in 2011 and approximately 320 in 2013.

On Jan. 30, the University Civil Service Board voted down a proposal that would give future job classification exemption authority to the director of SUCSS, something Yfantis called “winning a big battle but not the war.”

Yfantis and SEC chair Matthew Wheeler spoke out against SUCSS’s auditing practices because all four people, including Yfantis, who have spoken out at SUCSS meetings will be audited this summer.

“This is just not the proper way to do business,” Wheeler said. “With some 1,800 professors over 300 positions, any statisticians at this table can tell me the odds of all the people that spoke out on this issue are being audited are fairly astronomical.”

The SEC passed a motion with an 8-4 vote that will authorize assembly of three subcommittees to potentially regularly meet over the summer. The committees’ job would be to make progress on development of 10 tasks outlined in a document at the SEC’s last meeting. Then, the committees would submit a final report on their progress when the Senate reconvenes in the fall.

Stephen can be reached at [email protected] and @steve_bourbon.