Is Penn's Quaker offensive?

When the NCAA passed new rules regulating the use of Native American mascots in collegiate championship events this past summer, there was a mild outcry over whether other ethnic or religious groups should be similarly considered.

For now, though, the Quaker has been spared as the subject of any such debate.

Representatives of the Penn athletic department, the American Friends Service Committee and the NCAA all said that Penn's mascot has not caused any controversy as a result of its use of the term "Quaker."

Penn Director of Athletic Communications Mike Mahoney said that the athletic department has not "had any feedback pertaining to the Quaker mascot being offensive or anything like that, and certainly not since the NCAA mandate came down."

The American Friends Service Committee, a Philadelphia-based Quaker social justice organization which has offices around the world, has not found any reason to complain.

"We haven't had any objection to the use of the Quaker," said Janis Shields, the AFSC's director of media and public relations. "Kind of like Quaker oatmeal."

Shields added that the Quakers in general "haven't as a group been discriminated against or targeted against" in the way that some Native American tribes have been in terms of mascot use.

Bob Williams, the NCAA's managing director of public relations, said that Native Americans are the only ethnic or religious group to have registered a complaint about mascots with the governing body of collegiate sports.

"There really hasn't been any other effort on any other group's part to come to us about any other ethnically based mascots or nicknames," Williams said.

The question of offensive Native American mascots, however, has been debated within the NCAA "for a long time," he said.

"We asked them to try to work it out with each university -- essentially, over the years; that really didn't get any results," he added. "Then, in 2001, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights sent us a memo which basically asked us to look into it, and that they had concerns over the effects of Native American mascots."

The force of government combined with the force of some member schools made the NCAA decide to do something about the issue.

So on Aug. 5, the NCAA Executive Committee passed a rule "prohibiting colleges or universities with hostile or abusive mascots, nicknames or imagery from hosting any NCAA championship competitions" effective Feb. 1 of next year, in the words of a statement the NCAA issued at the time.

Last month, that policy was amended to include Division I-A football bowl games that the NCAA administers, including the Bowl Championship Series.

A total of 33 schools -- all with Native American mascot nicknames -- were cited by the NCAA for violating the new rule. Fourteen of them immediately complied, 18 did not, and William and Mary was given an extension to study further its use of the "Tribe" nickname.

Three of the schools which did not comply -- Central Michigan, Utah and Florida State -- were able to win appeals against their violations because of their relationships with the specific tribes used in their teams' nicknames.

"What separated those three universities from all of the others is that they had what was known as a namesake tribe," Williams said. "That namesake tribe in the state, it was able to be demonstrated that they had a long-standing relationship with the university and they fully supported the use of the name and imagery."

Williams added, though, that were it not for a sort of college sports federalism, those appeals might not have been successful.

"Although the NCAA still doesn't agree with using Native American mascots because we believe it stereotypes Native American mascots," he said, "we felt we had to respect the wishes of those namesake tribes."

Notre Dame's "Fighting Irish" mascot was not cited for any violations. When asked about this example as well as schools with other ethnic nicknames, Williams said that "we haven't received any input from any other group with a concern."

Mascot mayhem - Central Michigan, Florida State and Utah have been allowed to keep their nicknames of the Chippewas, Seminoles and Utes, respectively, because of agreements with those tribes of Native Americans - William and Mary has been given special dispensation by the NCAA to study the effect of its possibly offensive nickname: 'The Tribe' - No school with any religious or ethnic themed mascot other than Native Americans has come under attack

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