I enjoyed Charlie Mitchell’s March 28 column regarding the history of Colonel Reb and his abolition. Regardless of what in the column is fact or fiction, one truth remains and that is the supreme arrogance of the previous and current chancellors in single-handedly deciding what they want as the image of the institution.

Chancellor Khayat decided to ban sticks at sports events, thus flags, and also decided on his own to banish the mascot, Colonel Reb. And it is Chancellor Jones, following along in Khayat’s footsteps, who has taken it upon himself to rid the campus of other bits of history and heritage.

Jones has also banned a song or two and promises to take it a step further as soon as the heat on him lets up. Jones recently pretended to give the student body a voice by allowing them to “vote” on whether to establish a new mascot and allowed them to choose among several that had passed before him for approval. His sleight of hand, as covered in the print media, did in fact make it appear that the student body played a role in the banning of the mascot. They did not. The decision was entirely dictatorial on the part of the chancellor.  

Jones recently contacted the folks who produce official NCAA logos and other licensed products and asked that they retire Colonel Reb to the archives and make no other use of the image except for special occasions. He doesn’t elaborate as to what he considers a special occasion. It is clear that through this action he believes he can forever control the good colonel’s appearance on campus. That remains to be seen.

 I would like to respectfully suggest another more appropriate use for the archives. Let’s put Khayat and Jones there and bring them out only on “special occasions.” We could trot them out at homecoming halftime maybe every five or 10 years.

Don Drane

Madison