Opinion: Editorial
Forward progress
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Also by Badger Herald Editorial Board:
- The Invisible Man Award: Wyndham Manning (May 7, 2009)
- The People's Choice Award: Jacqueline Hitchon et. al (May 7, 2009)
- The Lifetime Achievement Award: ASM (May 7, 2009)
- Honest representation (May 5, 2009)
- Junger for ASM Chair (May 5, 2009)
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The debate over offensive American Indian mascots and team names
first entered the public discourse in the early 1970s at colleges and
universities around the country. In September 1993, the University of Wisconsin
took action on the issue when the Faculty Senate adopted a policy prohibiting
athletic competition with any nonconference school that used derogatory
American Indian imagery.
At the time, UW's was one of the strictest policies within
the National Collegiate Athletic Association and was widely praised as a model
for progress regarding the matter.
In 2005, the NCAA enacted its own policy concerning the
issue and has specifically outlined certain schools that are banned from
hosting NCAA championship events because of their offensive nicknames. In the
past two years, the NCAA has designated some schools as exempt from the policy
because local tribes have endorsed the use of their names.
At UW, there has been occasional uncertainty about what
schools and mascots specifically fall under the category of "offensive" and
should therefore be avoided for competition — raising questions about whether
the policy should be tweaked.
In this light, the Faculty Senate recently altered its
stance regarding which schools UW should compete with by making eligible
universities whose team names have been endorsed by their affiliate tribes. UW
athletics will now be permitted to play such schools as the Florida State
Seminoles and University of Utah Utes, for example.
Long has our university been at the forefront of this issue,
and we are pleased to see the Faculty Senate hold firm in its noble ideology.
At the same time, we are also glad to see UW adapt to refined situations, when
a name was once considered derogatory but has since been deemed otherwise by
those who would be most directly offended.
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Too bad the Badgers played Florida State last year… I guess the policy didn’t carry much weight.
“Too bad the Badgers played Florida State last year… I guess the policy didn’t carry much weight.”
You’re ignoring the fact that the Florida State Seminoles fall outside the policy because they have permission from the Seminole tribe.