From 1916 to the mid-1980s William & Mary athletic teams were known as the “Indians” in an attempt to reflect American history in the area. Since 1978 the school's teams have been known simply as the “Tribe”. During the 2006–07 school year then–College President Gene Nichol removed two tribal feathers from the William & Mary athletic logo to bring the program into compliance with newly passed NCAA regulations. On April 6, 2010, after student discussion and polling, the Griffin was announced as the school's new mascot.

No group of peoples should be represented as a mascot, logo, and/or athletics’ team name and we recognize that the team name of the “Tribe” was an attempt to have a more racially ambiguous derivative of the previous name of the “Indians”. However, this is not good enough. We demand that the College of William & Mary go above and beyond the NCAA regulations and change the negatively connotative name of the “Tribe” to further fight racial disparages in our community.