Chancellor OKs mascot search

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URBANA — Nine years after the retirement of Chief Illiniwek, the University of Illinois is launching a process to choose a “first-ever” athletic mascot.

Interim Chancellor Barbara Wilson announced her decision at the campus Academic Senate meeting on Monday.

Wilson endorsed the recommendation from an Illinois Student Senate ad hoc committee that recently urged the campus to move forward with a mascot. She met with the group on Friday.

She plans to form a committee of 10 to 12 people that will draw up a process and a timeline. It will include representatives from all the stakeholders involved — students, faculty, staff,…