Week of May 6

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Week of May 6.

-- Anonymous, May 05, 2001

Answers

" "Majority Rules," "Always Respect, Never Racism" and "Stop Letting Hippies Run Our Schools" read some of the signs students carried. They said they would stay outside as long as it took to get their message across. Some remained until after 2 p.m." --- from an article on a pro-mascot protest at Blacsburg High in Roanoke.

We'll know if the pro-mascot forces network here if we see that last sign...

-- Anonymous, May 05, 2001


New school logo follows U.S. trend

By Chris Moran UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

May 10, 2001

CHULA VISTA -- The Southwestern College board of trustees changed the name of the school's athletic teams and mascot from Apache to jaguar last night.

The board's action comes less than a month after the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights called for an end to the use of Indian mascots and team names. On May 2, a task force at San Diego State University recommended changing the image of mascot Monty Montezuma from loincloth-clad warrior to ambassador of ancient culture.

San Diego State began considering the issue after the Native American Student Alliance on campus called for an end to the use of Aztecs as the team name because it is "dehumanizing, demoralizing and blatantly racist."

Board members at Southwestern unanimously passed the resolution implementing the name change without comment.

No student or Indian group called on Southwestern to abolish the Apache. Coaches and student government leaders endorsed the change.

President Serafin Zasueta recommended the change. He spent three summers on Indian reservations researching a doctoral thesis.

Two years ago, Zasueta directed the college's athletic department to consider a new nickname. Since then, all depictions of Apaches have been removed from athletic uniforms and from the football field.

"You are doing the right thing for the college," Gus Chavez of the Chicano Federation told the board. "Most important of all, what you're doing by adopting this new mascot is begin to pay respect and honor to the indigenous people of the Americas. There are many battles being fought across the country on this very issue, including (in) our own local community."

Zasueta's report to the board recommended the jaguar name because of its place in Mayan lore as a symbol of royalty and authority. Southwestern's campus architecture has a Mayan motif, the new student center features a depiction of a Mayan ballgame and the college's auditorium is called Mayan Hall.

Several universities across the country, including St. John's University in New York, Stanford and Miami of Ohio, have abandoned Indian team names as gestures of cultural sensitivity. In 1998, students and staff at Mountain Empire Junior-Senior High School voted to change their team name from Redskins to Redhawks. In 1997, the Los Angeles Unified School District banned the use of Indian nicknames.

-- Anonymous, May 11, 2001


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