Illinois students support chief

URBANA, Ill. -- More than 9,100 students at the University of Illinois voted in favor of keeping Chief Illiniwek at the school, while about 4,000 voted against the school's much-debated mascot, student government officials announced Thursday.

The unofficial results are from a student advisory referendum which took place Tuesday and Wednesday.

There are more than 38,000 students at the university's Urbana-Champaign campus, so about a third of the student body cast ballots on the question, which was part of student government elections conducted over the Internet.

"The students have spoken. It was a clear majority," said Nick Klitzing, a vice president of Students for Chief Illiniwek.

The unofficial vote tally was 9,161, or 69 percent, in favor of keeping the Chief and 4,027, or 31 percent, against.

Opponents of the chief said they had won a moral victory.

"While we didn't win, it's still a very important message that it sends to the university that a third of the people are against the chief," said Bryanna French of the Progressive Action Resource Coalition, the major anti-chief organization on campus.