Members of AFSCME local 3700, a union representing University support and clerical staff workers, held a rally on Wednesday protesting the planned dismissal of Catherine Nguyen, a library clerk who they claim was unjustly fired because of her disability. 

The rally began in front of the Main Library before eventually making its way to the office of University Dean of Libraries and Librarian Claire Stewart, sparking confrontation between her and the protesters. 

Members of AFSCME local 3700 gave personal testimonies in support of Nguyen, who’s been a clerk at the university for a decade, according to an AFSCME member.

 A letter from members of AFSCME at the Peoria Public Library was read to a crowd consisting of members of various local unions, including steelworkers’ unions and the Graduate Employees Organization.

“An injury to one is an injury to all,” the letter read, echoing the air of solidarity coursing through the rally. “So we will be here and there for you in this fight.”

A large crowd consisting of members and supporters of the union walked to the administrative suite, stood outside of the door to Stewart’s office, and attempted to communicate with Stewart through her assistant. 

About ten minutes later, Stewart exited her office to acknowledge the officers in the administrative suite and the group packed into the hallway.

Gallery • 13 Photos

Lisa Chasanov

Union supporters and members rally outside of main library on Wednesday

 Nguyen stood to the left of the door as AFSCME local 3700 Staff Representative Christina DeAngelo presented a petition with over 500 signatures opposing the firing.

“Catherine’s job still exists here at the library, and you have the power as the new dean to change this — you have the power to reinstate her,” DeAngelo said. “We have collected hundreds of signatures asking to reverse this decision…. Do you have a response or anything to say to Catherine about the layoff?”

The dean then turned to face the group, briefly glancing at Catherine.

“I’m not — we are not reversing the layoff,” Stewart said.

After a brief protest from the crowd, Stewart lifted a cell phone to her ear.

Stewart told the person on the call, “Skye,” that she was “pulled out of her office” and “recorded against her will” by the protesters. 

AFSCME local 3700 President Greg Brannan alleged the person on the phone with Stewart, “Skye,” was a University human resources professional who had negotiated with the union the day before.

“Actually, I do know who Skye is,” Brannan said. “We talked to her yesterday. We had a meeting to prevent this (rally) from happening. Basically, the University dug in their heels — so, here we are today. But Skye was in that meeting.”

Still on the phone, Stewart told the crowd that someone was contacting the University Police Department to remove the protesters from the building because they were “obstructing the work environment.”

The protesters then exited the building, reacting to the news from the dean with chants and “boos.”

“The library, in response to an increase in use of digital content in recent years, has eliminated the Library Clerk job series because there was no longer sufficient work to justify full-time employment of the single individual remaining in this series,” said Heather Murphy, the library’s chief communications officer, in a written statement. “The University administration has had frequent discussions with the appropriate union representatives and had previously agreed to delay the implementation of any layoffs while trying to reach a potential resolution.”

DeAngelo said that union members are dissatisfied with the uncertainty of University responses.

“I am very disappointed that the dean will not use her power to reverse this decision, and that the dean does not think that discussing the loss of a job, a pension and health insurance of one of her staff is important enough to take time to talk to us,” DeAngelo said. “I’m not sure exactly what happened on that phone call, but what I do know is that the dean, Claire Stewart, has the power to reverse the decision — and that’s who we’ll be talking to.”

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In a 6-3 decision released early Thursday, the Supreme Court struck down race-conscious admission in institutions of higher education — a practice known as affirmative action — labeling it unconstitutional.

Although the repeal of affirmative action was never a foregone conclusion, the American higher education landscape has been anticipating the possibility for months.

When it did come — at the tail end of a packed month for the Supreme Court — the decision cleanly split the court down political lines. Each member of the court’s majority conservative bloc moved in support of striking down race-conscious admissions, while all three liberal members — Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson — dissented.

The case, known as “Students For Fair Admissions v. Harvard,” was filed by Students for Fair Admission, an organization founded by anti-affirmative action activist Edward Blum.

Blum represents a group of anonymous Asian Americans who allege they have faced racial discrimination after being rejected from Harvard University and the University of North Carolina. SFFA claims that Harvard utilizes racial quotas that keep the number of Asian Americans at the University artificially low to the benefit of other racial groups.

In a lengthy opinion of the court, Chief Justice John Roberts invoked the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment of the United States constitution in arguing that Affirmative Action infringed on racial equality under law. Roberts then traced the history of the amendment and its relation to landmark cases — from Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education to Grutter v. Bollinger, the now–overturned 2003 case that asserted race-conscious admissions were constitutional.

However, Roberts did write that “At the same time, as all parties agree, nothing in this opinion should be construed as prohibiting universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise”

S.F.F.A v. Harvard is just the latest chapter in an almost half-century-long tussle over how universities, especially public ones, should choose the students and leaders of the future.

Andy Borst, the University’s director of undergraduate admissions, said his department has been exploring different race-neutral admissions alternatives with each new Supreme Court challenge over the years.

“Unfortunately, race-neutral factors such as socio economics or geography do not effectively capture the complete extent of how individuals from different races and ethnicities experience our society, where unequal funding significantly impacts educational outcomes,” Borst said.

In 1978, Bakke v. California marked the first landmark case over what is now known as affirmative action. In this case, the court ruled that taking into account the racial background of students was permissible, although the utilization of specific racial quotas was not.

The plaintiff, Bakke, argued that setting aside a specific amount of seats at the University of California medical school discriminated against white students. Despite this, the state of California banned affirmative action as part of a statewide referendum in 1996.

In Grutter v. Bollinger, a 2003 decision involving the University of Michigan Law School, the Supreme Court came to the same conclusion. The court concluded that the consideration of race in admissions was constitutional, but that it should be phased out in the future once the goals of equality and increased upward mobility are met.

 Just as California had done, Michigan would ban affirmative action three years later in 2006 as part of a state constitutional amendment. The University of Michigan and other Michigan colleges have been operating with race-blind admissions ever since.

Sean Garrick, vice chancellor of diversity, equity and inclusion, said before the ruling that he could see the repeal of Affirmative action causing a decline in the number of black students admitted to the University.

“If we look at what happened at two of our peer institutions where this sort of thing has happened at the state level, … in 2006, I think the population of African American students enrolled at University of Michigan was 7%,” Garrick said. “Then, something akin to an affirmative action ban went into place in Michigan. In 2021, the population of enrolled African American students at Michigan was 4%,” Garrick said.

Garrick said the same thing also happened at University of California Berkeley.

“And those are two institutions that academically are some of our closest peers — and if you look at Michigan, geographically, it’s very similarly situated to Urbana-Champaign. So it would be a surprise if an equivalent thing didn’t happen here. … It’s hard to say exactly what the number would be, but I would imagine anywhere from a 20 to 45% drop.”

The ruling comes as various University organizations have been pushing for more representation for people of color at predominantly white institutions of higher education.

Black students for Revolution has initiated an initiative called Project1000, which seeks to graduate 1000 black students every year and increase black faculty and staff at the University.

“We are under the guise that this community is very diverse, as we see in the numbers specifically, but the Black population here is not as big as we all believe,” BSFR co-lead Khalia Mullin told the Daily Illini earlier this year.

Andy Borst also mentioned the situation at other peer universities.

“Many peer flagship universities, where the consideration of race has been prohibited in college admissions at the state level, have experienced a decline in enrollment among diverse students,” Borst said. “While we anticipate the possibility of experiencing similar enrollment trends, our commitment to promoting access, equity, and inclusion for everyone remains unwavering.”

Borst said that the University will comply with the court’s ruling, but that it will continue to take equity into consideration in its future admissions decisions.

“We will conduct university business in a manner consistent with the Supreme Court’s decision and continue to cultivate an inclusive and welcoming learning environment for all,” Borst explained.

Borst also said that the undergraduate admissions policy considers a student’s background and “various contextual factors.”

“It is essential to understand a student’s achievements within the framework of different external influences,” Borst said. “Academic performance, test scores and other traditional measures of academic merit can vary significantly depending on a student’s background and disparities in K-12 education contexts.”

Carol Ammons, an Urbana-area Illinois state representative, said in a statement that the Supreme Court has proven they are out of touch with the realities people of color face in their everyday lives.

“The issue of race continues to disenfranchise Black, Latinx and marginalized communities especially those trying to go to college,” Ammons said. “I applaud Justices Kagan, Sotomayor and Brown Jackson for standing up for opportunity for all, but I am calling on the justices in the majority opinion to think long and hard about how their decisions will hurt countless prospective Black and Brown students.”

Cori Bush, a St. Louis area and Missouri state representative, called the Supreme Court a “cesspool of corruption,” after the ruling.

“In its dedication to moving backwards, the Supreme court has once again rolled back protections for people in marginalized communities across this country,” Bush said in a statement.

Garrick referred to universities as the “single greatest lever that society has for bringing folks from one socioeconomic background to the next.”

This, Garrick said, is especially important in low income communities.

“I mean, the number of folks who don’t know anyone who’s gone to college in low income communities, both urban and rural is pretty significant,” Garrick said. “If we, if we have the kind of cuts that have been seen at Michigan and Berkeley, then you can imagine the progress that we’re making in those areas is going to be greatly stalled,”

Garrick continued to say that the University’s efforts will have to be “redoubled.”

“There’s a lot of talent out there,” Garrick said. “I think, again, we simply have to redouble our efforts. To find the talent and ensure that they come to Illinois.”

Garrick also said that the University must work to make their resources accessible to students from various backgrounds.

“Illinois is an outstanding institution,” Garrick said. “We have to ensure that the breadth and depth of our expertise, excellence and rigor by which we do this work, we have to ensure that all of that is made available to those who are most underrepresented, who are most disenfranchised.”

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, in a blistering dissenting opinion, criticized the court’s ruling.

“With let-them-eat-cake obliviousness, today,” Jackson said, “the majority opinion pulls the ripcord and announces ‘colorblindness for all’ by legal fiat.”

“But deeming race irrelevant in law,” Jackson continued, “does not make it so in life.”

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Pretension is an affliction common in writers across film, books, television and journalism with symptoms both obvious and curable. 

If you find someone trustworthy and unrelenting to chip away at the stone block of your work, the end result could be profound and insightful. If not, it could remain shrouded in pseudo-intellect.

Despite a tempting setup for what its characters believe to be the tale of the century, Wes Anderson’s new film “Asteroid City” gets caught up in its words, unable to wholly express its thoughts on the imperfect canvas of language. It seems as though Anderson was left unedited.

Across his films, Wes Anderson has managed to mold a universe to portray the ever-moving gears of his imagination. Although he’s previously been able to create an entire visual language – including a palette, symmetry, nostalgia and illusion– to articulate his daydreams, he may be overburdened by his own creativity.  

The film is a lot. Much like the chugging freight train that clangs through the desert into the titular town in the movie’s first scenes, it is overpacked with contents, doesn’t slow down and passes by without leaving much effect. 

“Asteroid City” may leave you overwhelmed, as if you’re listening to an exasperated friend.

This film’s viewing experience feels like you’re watching television but changing the channel once you start getting attached. The viewer may pose the question: “Is this what the inside of Anderson’s imagination is like?” 

Anderson has roped in something of a “who’s who” cast for the project, contributing to its already intense box office appeal.

This movie is at least tangentially about aliens, but it is strikingly multifaceted. “Asteroid City” explores love and grief, pens a love-letter to midcentury television and pays tribute to the theater.

It is a story within a story — and then some. In the main plotline, a town reckons with the brief arrival of an alien at a stargazing event — which is all in reality a television play masterminded by an eccentric playwright. The lives of the actors who are playing the characters in the fictional “Asteroid City” play are then plumbed — albeit tediously — for narrative content. 

Splitscreen shots — an annoying habit Wes Anderson seems to have recently picked up — distract the eye and leave the viewer guessing about what visual gag they could have just missed. 

Just as you’re grasping the charming tale of a photojournalist and his quirky family getting their bearings in a desert town, you’re forced to listen to Edward Norton’s best William Faulkner impression in black and white. 

There’s something like 10 A-list actors in this movie — including Margot Robbie, who is completely wasted on some bit part. Still, 12 actors frankly couldn’t make up for the absence of Owen Wilson, who’d be right at home in a movie about the American Southwest.

Jason Schwartzman and Scarlett Johanson give serviceable and controlled performances as characters modeled after figures of midcentury Americana.

Schwartzman’s “Steenbeck” character bears a resemblance in both name and appearance to a mix of two famous Men’s men: Ernest Hemingway and John Steinbeck. Johansson’s beleaguered movie star evokes Audrey Hepburn. 

There are a lot of characters in “Asteroid City” that seem to be filling archetypes rather than growing on their own. It’s interesting for a while, like in the case of a charming cowboy character in a Canadian tuxedo who drops some salty wisdom with his band of hobos — but after a bit it can lend the feeling that you’ve seen this movie before.

The film’s approach to character development edges a little too far over the line between allusion and cliche, a rail Wes Anderson has walked better in the past. 

Which is a shame, because Anderson’s distinct style has created a cliche — and creating a cliche is probably the most original thing you can do. In “The French Dispatch,” Anderson leans into his cliche and expands upon it, a feat he does not replicate in “Asteroid City.”

Bright spots come about in the small interactions. Tom Hanks showcases his mastery for the mundane as a curmudgeonly grandfather taking care of his grandkids who have just been belatedly told of their mother’s death. Steve Carrell brings a welcome relief as an overbearing hotel attendant who putters about with martinis, reflective visor and all. 

All of this isn’t to say that with his better movies Wes Anderson took fewer creative risks — the opposite, actually. 

In both “The French Dispatch” and “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” Anderson maintained his stylistic integrity and executed Russian doll narratives with a deft and articulate approach. 

Past films employed silence, rumination and sincere emotion between characters as citrus to cut through narrative fat. “Asteroid City” lacked this nuance and sensitivity.

For a film intended to focus on aliens, questions about the implications of extraterrestrial contact are mostly left to wide-eyed school children and a couple of navel-gazing characters. 

The interesting questions Anderson could have asked are left untouched in favor of the big, painfully obvious ones.

“What if there’s a meaning to life?” a character asks, before he — and Anderson, it seems — mostly leave it at that.  

asadovi2@dailyillini.com

The post Column | ‘Asteroid City’ bites off more than it can chew appeared first on The Daily Illini.

Noelle Crawford, junior in Engineering, had everything lined up for her graduation. 

After the fall 2022 semester, Crawford had finished her degree requirements over a year early and was planning to accept a job offer that would start in January — but plans changed.

“Throughout the course of last semester, I ended up deciding that that probably wasn’t what I wanted to do, so I asked to be taken off the degree list,” Crawford said. 

Crawford, who continued at the University for the spring semester, said she received assurance from both the college and the Department of Electrical Engineering that she was removed from the list of students set to graduate and that she could stay at the school and continue studying. However, she was told she would have to be manually re-added to the degree list in December of 2023 in order to hold a May 2024 graduation date. 

The electrical engineering student made plans to stay on campus for the coming year, signing a lease and obtaining a research opportunity. She also postponed and ultimately “completely reneged” on her job offer.

Then, Crawford received an email from a dean that would throw a wrench into her plan. 

The email, sent April 24 — a couple of weeks before the end of the year — would say that because Crawford had completed her requirements and was enrolled for the following semester, there would need to be a “chat” with college administration. The email continued to say that if Crawford didn’t respond by that Friday, her fall registration would be canceled. 

Although Crawford agreed to the meeting, she found that her account was still restricted from registration.

In her conversation with the dean, Crawford learned that the complication arose from a College of Engineering policy that requires students to graduate once they have completed their degree requirements. 

The policy “is focused on allowing students who have yet to complete their graduation requirements access to seats in high-demand courses that are needed to complete their degrees,” said college spokesperson Libby Kasich in an email. “This is in recognition that academic trajectories vary by student. Not all students enter the University with the benefit of college credit already obtained and may have less scheduling flexibility than those who do.”

Kasich said this has been a policy for many years and the school is trying to implement it in a “more purposeful and consistent manner than (they) have in prior years.” 

The College of Engineering, which is arguably one of the University’s most prestigious and well-known programs, has the lowest admission rate of any college at the University. For example, the computer science program — which is regularly lauded in university promotional material for its alumni at firms like Paypal and Youtube, which, in turn, has bolstered the reputation of the University — has an admittance rate of just 6.7%. 

In the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, students are given a maximum of 10 semesters of eligibility for enrollment for completing their degree, while in the Gies College of Business, students are given nine. 

Despite protests from Crawford, the College of Engineering did not budge. 

“(The dean) was, like, ‘There’s absolutely no world in which you’re going to be able to finish out another two semesters as a student,’” Crawford added. 

Crawford said she was told she would not be the only student affected by this policy this semester, with “multiple students” facing similar issues. 

Crawford said her department was supportive of her. 

“My department was pretty on my side about this … and then what I ended up doing was just, like, discussing with a lot of professors, both in my department and in the CS department, on what to do, and the consensus seemed to be just to get people to send emails,” Crawford said.

After trying to figure out ways to circumvent the policy — including possibly transferring majors  — she voiced her frustration on Reddit, encouraging others to write emails to the college’s administration opposing the policy. 

In the comments of the now-popular post, Reddit users expressed discontent and trepidation towards the policy — which many bemoaned as poorly-communicated and unfair. 

“This is terrible,” read one comment “Forcing graduation when a student isn’t ready can be highly detrimental. Not every student wants the diploma and (to) leave ASAP. Some genuinely like to learn and continue enhancing their skills and knowledge.”

Others, through the use of internet archive tool Wayback Machine, pointed out that mention of the policy only appeared at the bottom of the College of Engineering’s degree requirement website about a month after the start of the second semester. Although the archive is unable to pinpoint when the policy appeared on the page between February and April, the archive indicates that as of Feb. 6, it was not present. 

Kasich said that while it is not the intention to “force” students to graduate, the college is “working toward an equitable practice for undergraduate students to make an effort to complete their degree in a timely manner.” 

“I have a lot of friends who would plan to finish the degree requirements early in order to give themselves a buffer but then stay in school while they work on grad school applications and job hunting,” Crawford said. 

Crawford was eventually told she could stay enrolled at the University for another year.

“So in my second meeting … we were supposed to discuss what I was going to do instead of staying in school,” Crawford explained. “I was immediately told ‘Okay, we’ve realized this is maybe not a good idea, so we’re gonna let you stay.’ They made it sound like it (would apply to) everyone.” 

After her second meeting, Crawford said she received another email from a dean insinuating that her case was an exception. 

According to Kasich, “Each semester, we inevitably have students who have completed their degree requirements and do not desire to graduate for a variety of reasons.” 

These decisions are made “in consultation with the Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs.”

“These situations are handled on a case-by-case basis and some exceptions are, indeed, made,” Kasich explained.

Though Kasich did not discuss whether the policy is being re-assessed, she said Grainger “solicit(s) and appreciate(s) student feedback and concerns” and that the administration considers student opinions as they “regularly evaluate academic policies.” 

In the same email, Kasich laid out a timeline for communicating with students whose situations are affected by the policy. 

“Each semester we contact all students enrolled in a schedule that, if successfully completed, will result in them completing their degree requirements,” Kasich explained. “These students are asked to confirm their graduation intentions by placing themselves on the pending degree list. Otherwise, they are asked to discuss with college advisors if they have any unusual or extraordinary situation.”

According to Kasich, this email was sent to those projected to graduate in spring of 2023 near the beginning of the semester, adding that students still not on the pending degree list midway through the semester were contacted again. 

“These students are asked to place themselves on the pending degree list or discuss their situation with college advisors if they have any unusual or extraordinary situation,” Kasich said. “This spring semester 2023, these follow-up emails went out on April 11.”

Crawford said her friend received similar information about the policy in an email from a dean.

“This semester, the notifications started going out in January,” Crawford said, reading from the email. “That’s an interesting thing because I’ve been in the case where I’ve completed all my degree requirements for two semesters now and never received an email.” 

Crawford, who has communicated with other affected students about the policy, said others also hadn’t received the initial email. She also said she received the “follow-up email” on April 24 rather than the 11.

According to Crawford, upper level electrical engineering classes have numerous prerequisite requirements, placing students in a difficult position.

“It creates a situation where you almost have to fulfill your degree requirements, like excluding Gen Eds, in order to even begin taking upper level technical classes,” Crawford explained.

Crawford said that “forcing” students to graduate early means that “significantly less qualified students” are graduating from the University.

“This policy punishes students who are interested in learning, so it is probably not great for the University in general,” Crawford said. 

asadovi2@dailyillini.com

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Memories of the ’80s always appear a bit hazy — often due to the cigarette smoke.    

Erika Rosenberg, although she claims her memory to be a bit fuzzy, remembers the first time she stepped foot in The Daily Illini newsroom in the ’80s. 

“It was a gritty place,” Rosenberg said.

Dirty ashtrays littered the room, and, through the haze, Rosenberg could see student journalists with the “coarse and hard-bitten” quality of grizzled newsroom veterans beyond their years. 

Needless to say, Rosenberg was “terrified,” but also fascinated. 

Rosenberg, once a business major, would succumb to the newspaper itch and switch to journalism, working at The Daily Illini from 1987 to 1991. She would go on to become a campus crime reporter before rising through the ranks to become campus editor and, eventually, The Daily Illini’s editor-in-chief. 

“The paper was really a big part of my college experience,” Rosenberg said. “I obviously attended class and ended up graduating, although, to some extent by the skin of my teeth, because I really just devoted a lot of my time and energy to The Daily Illini.”

In her sophomore year, Rosenberg dove into one of the University’s more insular circles by going undercover at a sorority rush. 

“(Back in those days) The Daily Illini was definitely perceived as anti-Greek,” Rosenberg said. “And it probably was, and I was definitely leaning in that direction. It would be overstating it to call it an exposé, I suppose, but I went through the initial stages of the sorority process.” 

Rosenberg also covered the case of a rapist on campus in the late ’80s. She associated this undertaking with the same double-barreled feeling that plunged her into journalism in the first place: “terrifying and fascinating.” 

Through this story, Rosenberg reported on the first instance of DNA fingerprinting being used in an Illinois court.

“It was very heady stuff, that’s for sure,” Rosenberg said about the story. 

The path that started at The Daily Illini would wind through Arkansas, as Rosenberg would work at the Spectrum Weekly, an alternative paper in Little Rock.

After a year, the Spectrum was shuttered. 

“So right away in my career, as everybody was, (I was) faced with the decline of the industry,” Rosenberg said. 

After working at several papers in Little Rock, Rosenberg moved to Rochester, New York and worked for the Democrat and Chronicle, a newspaper owned by the Gannett Co. Inc. for a total of six years. 

She would move on to become a statehouse reporter in Albany for the Gannett news service. In this role, she would compete in a crowded pool with other papers like The New York Times, jockeying to get the news in one of the most influential states in America.

“It was definitely kind of next level stuff for me, and I really, really enjoyed it and learned a lot,” Rosenberg said.  

Her time in Albany sharpened her interest in policy and its analysis, which — coupled with skills in interviewing, writing and data analysis — would prepare her for an almost 20-year stint at the Rochester-based Center for Governmental Research. 

The CGR, an organization Rosenberg has been CEO of since 2019, specializes in data research and consultation that provides clients with information to make smart decisions and promote community collaboration. 

Rosenberg pointed to the role that the CGR played in Rochester’s racial equity effort as an area of pride. 

In the wake of George Floyd’s killing, as well as the killing of Daniel Prude, a 41-year-old black man killed by police in Rochester in 2020, the CGR worked with the Rochester-Monroe County Commission on Racial and Structural Equity and provided them with a lengthy set of recommendations to better serve the community. Some of these recommendations have made progress, while others have yet to be implemented, Rosenberg said.

The center also recommended a process for certifying minority- and women-owned businesses that local government has since implemented, because New York’s process has been “backlogged” and “choked,” Rosenberg said.  

“And so there were a few 100 businesses in our town that were able to get quick certification and, you know, hopefully that really helps kind of uplift at least a segment of people of color in our community economically,” Rosenberg said. 

Looking back, the skills Rosenberg developed and grew at The Daily Illini have been the foundation for her career, she said. 

The skepticism, for one — Rosenberg recalls a coworker remarking about her propensity to question in a workplace personality assessment. 

Rosenberg, with her years of experience, let her coworker in on a journalist’s favorite maxim: “If your mother says she loves you, check it out.” 

asadovi2@dailyillini.com

The post Erika Rosenberg shares journey from DI reporter to CEO appeared first on The Daily Illini.

At approximately 11:04 a.m. on Monday, a multiple vehicle crash was reported on Interstate 55. Over 20 vehicles were involved in the crash.

The incident occurred due to low visibility from blowing dust, officials said. Illinois State Troops 6 and 8 responded to the MVC and treated injuries of the people in the crash. 

The Illinois State Police responded to a call near mile marker 76 in Montgomery County, a city that is roughly 106 miles southwest of Champaign and on the Illinois side of the St. Louis metro area. The Springfield Fire Department is also dispatched onto the scene. 

Currently, I-55 is shut down from milepost 63 to 80 in both directions. The highway spans from Chicago, Illinois to LaPlance, Louisiana. It passes through Springfield, Illinois and the metro area of Bloomington-Normal. 

Travelers are encouraged to find an alternative route. Divernon City Hall, located near mile marker 80, currently serves as the meeting point for families to reunite. 

UPDATE:

In a press release sent out Monday evening, the Illinois State Police said they had reports of more than 35 people being transported to the hospital and “multiple fatalities.”

“Injuries range from minor to life-threatening and ages range from 2 years old to 80 years old,” the press release said. 

ISP said reports show there are six fatalities, “all occurring in northbound lanes.” The release also said ISP does not have additional information on these individuals at this time. 

ISP said that at 10:55 a.m. there was a crash on northbound Interstate 55 at “milepost 76.” 

“At the same time, there were numerous crashes on southbound Interstate 55 at milepost 76,” the release continued. “The crashes occurred within a two-mile stretch – from roughly milepost 76 to milepost 78.” 

ISP also said approximately 30 “commercial motor vehicles” and “40 to 60 passenger cars were involved,” including two truck-tractor semitrailers that caught fire as a result of the crashes. So far, there are a total of 72 vehicles reported to be involved in the crash. 

ISP continues to investigate the crash, the release said.

mnarag2@dailyillini.com

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Chancellor Robert Jones announced in a Massmail on Wednesday that John Coleman, a dean and political science professor at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, has been appointed vice chancellor for academic affairs and provost for the University, pending approval by the Board of Trustees.

The position, of which Chancellor Jones referred to in the mass mail and in the past “as one of the most desirable academic leadership positions in all of American higher education,” oversees campus academic programs, priorities and policies, working closely with the chancellor, other vice chancellors, deans and the University Senate, according to the Office of the Provost’s website. 

William Bernhard, a professor of political science, served in the position in the interim. 

“(Bernhard’s) collaborative and consultative approach has brought stability with continued forward movement in our academic operations as we searched for a permanent provost,” Jones said.  

Bernhard will continue in the role until July, and Coleman, should he be confirmed, will start on July 19. 

The effort to fill the vacancy, most recently held in a permanent capacity by Andreas Cangellaris, was “extensive,” according to Chancellor Jones. 

“I charged our committee and our entire campus to take the necessary time and invest the extensive effort to find the best candidate to lead our academic missions forward with the vision and urgency our state expects from its flagship university,” Jones said.

The search committee, headed by Jeff Brown, dean of the Gies College of Business, held several public forums and livestreamed meetings in evaluating candidates from what Jones called “an impressive pool.” 

Coleman was selected out of several finalists from across the U.S. including Elliott Cheu, Venetria Patton, Norma Bouchard, Patrick Wolfe and Rosario Ceballo through a process that included several forums over the course of two years.

In an email to the University community, Jones said Coleman has established an “international reputation as an educator, scholar and academic leader.”

“Having served nearly his entire academic career in Big Ten, public, land-grant research universities, he comes to Illinois with a deep and profound understanding of our foundational obligations to translate knowledge, education and exploration into better lives for those we serve,” Jones said.  

Coleman started his academic career at the University of Texas before serving as a faculty member and department chair of the University of Wisconsin Political Science Department. 

He is currently a professor of political science and the dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Minnesota. He holds a doctorate in political science from MIT and has been president of the political organizations and political parties section of the American Political Science Association.

In an email about what he hopes to accomplish in his new position, Coleman said he wants to make sure the university is expanding opportunities for engagement in research, study abroad programs and internships. 

“In the curriculum, we’ll want to find ways to add flexibility through online options, a greater mix of courses beyond the standard full-semester 3-credit hour class, and pull together new interdisciplinary minors and other options,” Coleman added. 

The incoming Provost emphasized the need to be “attentive every day” to how the overall student experience is being improved and “how a campus that truly makes diversity, inclusion, and belonging central to how we operate,” is being ensured. 

Coleman said he’d also want UIUC “to be a campus that models how there can be dialogue, even amidst passionate disagreement, across difference.” 

He said it troubled him to see surveys from across the U.S. showing that students from across the political spectrum are “wary of sharing their views and religious beliefs.” 

“Why wait for other institutions to figure this out?” Coleman asked. “Let Illinois set the model for robust and productive dialogue and discussion.” 

Other areas of focus for Coleman included finances, mental health, and supporting students towards career pathways. 

“Students want a life with meaning and they want to have a positive impact on the world, which is entirely consistent with my interest in having us think about how we as an institution can be the best for the world in what we do.” Coleman said. 

Jones ended his email by mentioning a simple yet profound statement made by Coleman during the evaluation process that became a “defining moment in the search.” 

Jones said Coleman told the committee he believed Illinois should not only be the best University “in” the world, but also “for” the world. 

“This kind of bold thinking — setting the very highest expectations for us when our society’s needs have never been greater — resonated with so many of us because it is so true to the spirit of innovation and service that has defined our university for 155 years,” Jones said. 

Jones also said Coleman’s “appointment is pending approval by the Board of Trustees, and he will hold the title of  ‘designate’ until that time.” 

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On her final stop in a press tour marking her first 100 days in office, Rep. Nikki Budzinski, D-Ill., made her way to the very north end of the 13th Congressional District to chat with The Daily Illini at the University YMCA.  

In the interview, Budzinski looked back upon the highlights of her term and forward to the future of Illinois, discussing issues such as the transition to green and renewable energy, reproductive rights, unemployment rates and health care access in rural areas, as well as the upcoming Farm Bill.

Budzinski, a Peoria native and University alum, represents a freshly redrawn district that spans from St. Louis to Champaign-Urbana.

Although the 13th District is home to parts of Champaign County and other somewhat urban communities, it is mostly rural. The district contributes significantly to Illinois’ agricultural economy, especially in regard to corn and soybean production. 

Throughout the interview, Budzinski reiterated her commitment to the needs of her rural constituency, speaking about several efforts over the past 100 days to represent and support this group.

Bipartisanship 

As a Democrat representing a politically diverse district, Budzinski said that bipartisan collaboration and working relationships across the aisle have been some of her greatest assets in the beginning of her tenure.

“You can’t just say you’re bipartisan and expect that those relationships are just going to happen,” Budzinski said. “When I was in my new member orientation, I made it a point to meet with everyone — all members that surround this district.”

The 13th District, bookended by Champaign in the north and St. Louis in the south, is the only district south of Springfield represented by a Democrat. 

Budzinski emphasized the importance of building connections with Republican members of Congress who represent parts of the state that straddle her district, including Rep. Mary Miller and Rep. Mike Bost. 

Budzinski shares six counties, including parts of Champaign County, with Miller and one county with Bost. 

Budzinski described working together with Miller and Bost on various issues, emphasizing the importance of collaboration across the aisle on bipartisan issues like agriculture and veterans affairs. 

“On the House Agriculture Committee, Mary Miller and I agree on crop insurance … and Mike Bost is actually the chair of the Veterans Affairs Committee, which I serve on,” Budzinski said. “I think it’s honestly (approaching) different issues, meeting people where they are, listening, recognizing that we don’t have to agree on everything, but (agreeing) to find the places where we can work together.” 

Farming/Rural issues

Budzinski discussed the upcoming Farm Bill, an omnibus bill passed every five years. This bill is intended to promote policies that address issues faced by the agricultural sector. 

Budzinski said she was excited to serve on the House Committee on Agriculture this year in particular because of the opportunity to negotiate “really important issues” that could be included in the bill’s upcoming iteration. 

One issue is that of food deserts, or areas with limited access to affordable nutrient-dense food.

Although food deserts in metropolitan areas are more commonly discussed in the media, Budzinski’s work in Congress primarily deals with those facing food insecurity in rural areas.

“There’s a lot of food insecurity in this country, where people do not have access to healthy food options,” Budzinski said. “I would highlight one community that’s more on the St. Louis side of this district called Cahokia Heights. They just got news that this month their Walmart is going to close.” 

Budzinski told The DI that upon hearing about the planned closure, she contacted Walmart executives and explained that people in the town would suffer disproportionately from the decision.

“When I asked Walmart, ‘Well, what does that mean for the people in that community?’, they said, ‘We have five (locations) within a 15-mile radius,’” Budzinski said.

Budzinski stressed that Walmart’s decision to close the Cahokia Heights location would worsen issues far more dire than grocery store commute times.

“If you don’t have access to transportation, the store might as well be on the other side of the world,” Budzinski said. “So what are we doing to incentivize more local food production that are healthy options for people? I think this is something I’d love to be helping lead on in the Farm Bill.”

Walmart has closed and is closing a raft of locations in Illinois in 2023, including four in Chicago. 

When asked about her efforts to support small farmers in the latest Farm Bill, Budzinski touted her creation of an Agriculture Advisory Council at Lincoln Land Community College that brings together a “diverse set of voices,” including small family farmers. 

Budzinski said that another instance where she has made an effort to include varying perspectives in agricultural policy development has been in her work with the Illinois Farm Bureau and the University’s agricultural faculty. 

“I often talk about how from Decatur to UIUC, we are the (agriculture) tech corridor of the country,” Budzinski said, before adding that the University is doing “fascinating” research around agriculture and energy development. The congresswoman recalled meeting with entrepreneurs and “innovators” at Research Park a week prior who’ve been doing work related to precision agriculture and “how agriculture is changing.”

In addition to her position on the House committee, Budzinski sits on the Conservation, Research and Biotechnology subcommittee, where she says she is able to apply the knowledge and perspectives provided to her by the advisory council.

Budzinski said she wanted to see biofuels like ethanol, which is made from corn, Illinois’ premier crop, as a “key part” of the Farm Bill.

Budzinski spoke of the Next Generation Fuels Act, a bill she introduced with Republican colleagues that aims to promote renewable low-carbon, high-octane fuels. 

“What that bill does is … as we are transitioning to EVs … more ethanol gets mixed in with our gasoline, or our fuel,” Budzinski said. 

She described this bill as having a potential threefold impact — a reduction in carbon footprint, economic stimulus for local corn farmers and a decrease in fuel costs for consumers. 

“I liken that to a win-win-win,” Budzinski said.

Budzinski said crop insurance, a policy that financially insures farmers from potential losses due to natural disasters, is something that she hopes to see included in the bill. The congresswoman said that policies like this could act as a safety net for family farmers, who she said deal with a lot of “instability” — including tornadoes, flooding and weather events exacerbated by climate change that can damage crops. 

When asked about difficulties in representing family and small farmers when much of the agricultural industry is dominated by large entities that can wield considerable influence, Budzinski reiterated the need to “look after our small family farmers,” and again mentioned the importance of crop insurance.  

Labor

In Congress, Budzinski has emphasized her personal investment in union interests and labor issues, having been described in campaign materials and on the U.S. House website as a “Trade Unionist and proud member of the labor movement.”

Among her proudest accomplishments on the labor front, Budzinski cited the LEAP Act, which proposes a scholarship program for trade schools across the district, along with tax credits for any small business that employs a graduate of the program.

“Whereas all of us took the four-year college career route, that’s not necessarily the route for everybody, and that’s okay,” Budzinski said. “There’s a lot of dignity in the (trades). I think it’s a meaningful thing to try to get to the issues around workforce development.”

In early March, Budzinski drafted a letter to Akorn Pharmaceuticals, a generic pharmaceuticals manufacturer that is now defunct, criticizing the company for closing down a Decatur plant without giving advance notice to officials and leaving around 400 people unemployed. Budzinski said the closure was in violation of the WARN Act, which requires many employers to provide notice of closures or layoffs to employees. 

“These workers and their families, including single mothers with small children, were left with no time to prepare for their next steps,” Budzinski wrote in the letter. “Akorn knew for over a year that it was operating at a loss and that bankruptcy was a possibility, yet it did not have an appropriate and reasonable plan in place to let go of its employees with the crucial resources they needed.”

Budzinski spoke about the events that led to the letter’s writing, calling it a “sad situation.” 

“You can’t imagine the sense of betrayal you’d have after dedicating your career to working for a company that thought so little of that, that they actually, in the middle of the night, just left (the workers), without any severance, no health insurance,” she said. 

Despite this, the congresswoman said she saw the best of the city of Decatur in a dark moment as they rallied around the affected workers, including a workforce development program in the city that signed workers up for benefits including health insurance and helped them with job placement. 

“Luckily, in this moment, there were, like, 2,000 job openings in Decatur,” Budzinski said. “Other employers like ADM actually intentionally went and sought out these workers to see if they would like employment, because there were so many openings … but what I did in reaction to what happened was to send a letter to Akorn demanding more information about why they made that decision, why they treated the workers that way.”

She said there are state laws that prohibit companies from acting like Akorn did, as well as federal laws that she said she is looking into. 

“If we don’t crack down on that now, other companies are going to get the message that that’s okay behavior and we can’t allow working people to be left out to dry like that,” Budzinski said. “So we’re looking at the WARN Act to see if there is anything that we can be doing at the federal level.”

Environment

Budzinski serves on the House Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition, where she serves as co-chair of the Climate Jobs Task Force along with Rep. Suzanne Bonamici of Oregon and Rep. Mark DeSaulnier of California, according to the House website.

Budzinski said that Illinois’ 13th District is among those leading the charge towards broader renewable energy use and the green transition in Illinois. The district’s assets in this effort, according to Budzinski, include its corn production and the University’s nuclear energy initiatives.

“The University of Illinois is leading in some of this really cool clean energy transition work,” Budzinski said. “We have some of the biggest nuclear fleets in the country, and we are going to be able to hit our 2050 goal because of that nuclear fleet.”

The congresswoman identified the state’s greatest challenge to be harnessing affordable and accessible power during the transition to clean energy, explaining that the University’s research into renewable power sources like hydrogen and solar could result in a solution. 

“I’d love to attract as much clean energy business as we can to this area, so we can create more baseload power,” Budzinski said. “When it is a beautiful sunny day like today, for example, and solar is overgenerating the amount of energy we need at this moment, we (need to) capture that and store it so we can use it during the night.”

If implemented, Budzinski says ideas like this one combined with expertise from leading scientists at the University are going to ensure Illinois’ success in achieving its climate-related aspirations for the future.

“The state of Illinois has set some very ambitious clean energy goals — by 2050, we (hope to) get to zero carbon emissions,” Budzinski said. “But in order to do that, I would say we need to make (the green) transition and be very intentional about it.”

Health care access

When asked about her proudest accomplishments in office, Budzinski primarily cited her work towards health care access in rural communities, explaining that some of her most productive bipartisan efforts have surrounded this issue.

“This doesn’t have to be a Democratic or Republican issue — everybody needs access to health care,” Budzinski said. “And in rural communities, we face particular challenges with attracting health care specialists.”

Budzinski said that the effort to bring more qualified mental health professionals, among other health care providers, to rural Illinois has become a personal passion in the last 100 days.

“We have to make sure that in rural America, folks have access to mental health providers and substance abuse treatment,” Budzinski said.

The congresswoman said her work across the political aisle has helped to jumpstart an initiative, known as the Rural America Health Corps Act, that has given local medical school graduates the opportunity to give back to their communities while relieving student loan debt. 

Along with Budzinski, the bill’s co-sponsors are David Kustoff and Diana Harshbarger, both Republican representatives from Tennessee.

“If you have gotten your training at Carle Hospital, if you have gone to medical school at SIU in Springfield, if you stay in the community for five years and practice medicine, we will help relieve some of your student debt,” Budzinski said. “That’s a way to incentivize the medical community not to leave, but to stay and to help serve (rural areas) and fill some of the vacuum that we’re missing.”

Reproductive rights

Budzinski, a former Planned Parenthood intern and current member of the Pro-Choice Caucus and Equality Caucus in the House, spoke about her work in the 13th District relating to reproductive healthcare access. 

As a blue state amid a sea of mostly red, Illinois is one of the few Midwestern states to pass laws protecting abortion access, in stark contrast to places like Iowa, Missouri, Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio that have enacted legislation restricting or heavily restricting abortion access or, in some cases, banning abortion altogether.

When asked about the role she believes Illinois should play in supplementing the needs of those who live in states where abortion is banned, including many surrounding states, Budzinski explained that she hopes the state is able to adapt to the influx of those coming from across state lines seeking reproductive care.

“I’m really proud that Illinois is a safe haven state,” Budzinski said. “When I was at the University of Illinois … I started an organization at the time called Students for Choice and I was an intern at Planned Parenthood. I have always been very active to make sure that everyone has access to the full suite of health care needs that they deserve as human beings.”

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It all starts with letters. In a neat script on carefully creased paper, one incarcerated writer makes sure to cast a wide net for their request to ensure they get something they like. Film and TV. Cooking. Photography. How-to guides. Philosophy. Math.

In this basement crammed with bookshelves, there’s nearly as much heavy reading as there is light. One soon to be mailed stack of letters is buttressed by a glossy blue textbook on electric circuits. Bibles in various languages, including Greek, are neatly stacked together. 

Another incarcerated individual, who writes of more than a decade spent as a tradesman, asks for trade books — commercial preferred, but residential will do, they say. The prison’s supply of HVAC and mechanic manuals they’ve already consumed are  outdated. 

“They’ll have libraries in prison,” said Rachel Rasmussen, UC Books to Prisoners program and volunteer coordinator. Technology, however, changes. “(The writer) doesn’t need the stuff that came out in the ’90s,” Rasmussen says. 

UC Books to Prisoners is a working group of the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center that works to send books, most of which are donated, to incarcerated individuals throughout Illinois — free of charge.

To date, the organization has sent 174,548 books to 23,894 individuals in custody in Illinois since 2004. They also maintain a lending library in the Champaign County Jail and supply books to the Juvenile Detention Center.

The letters from incarcerated people requesting their desired books come by the hundreds every month. 

While touching the spines of the organization’s highly coveted collection of textbooks, study materials and dictionaries, the latter being the most requested book of all, Rasmussen called education “the most important intervention in a life of crime.”

“So, yes, it’s about giving books to prisoners, but it’s also about helping the whole community understand that we have a large part of our neighbors 45 miles from here, in a prison, and most of them are coming home,” Rasmussen said. 

“Who do you want to come home?” she continued. “I’d like (for) those who got a chance to study and learn pass their GED. You know, explore some career paths and stuff, too.”

Rasmussen, referencing what she called “abominable” health care in prisons, said prisoners also often request books that help them take care of their bodies.

Rasmussen, who volunteered at Danville Correctional Center for five years, emphasized the humanity of those imprisoned. 

“I worked with magnificent (people) that are incarcerated,” Rasmussen said. “They’re human beings.”

Upstairs, even more books were splayed and stacked on tables from one end of the high-ceilinged room to the other. People came in and out and flipped through volumes before purchasing.  

The organization, in partnership with the connected Books to Prisoners RSO on campus, sold tables of books that aren’t requested by prisoners, are in poor condition or that they have enough of on April 8 at the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center.

This book sale, which happens twice a year during the fall and spring, is done in order to “bring the community out” and raise funds, because UC Books to Prisoners is a nonprofit that encounters a lack of storage and a need to unload books every six months. 

University students, according to Rasmussen, comprise at least 75% of the organization’s volunteer labor force. 

“We couldn’t do this without their labor,” she said. 

Syd Mark, vice president of the Books to Prisoners RSO, said each sale has been “amazing.”

“It’s really just a community effort with all the volunteers, whether it’s adults in the Urbana-Champaign community (or) if it’s a lot of undergrad students coming together,” Mark said. “I mean, just this past Thursday, we were hauling boxes of books from downstairs that we’ve collected over to these tables and kind of getting the magic running.”

Rasmussen described a line of volunteers snaking up a set of spiral stairs, passing books hand-by-hand in preparation for the sale.

The RSO is also hoping to host talks by previously incarcerated individuals as well as more events that “engage the community.”

“We also are looking to have guest speakers and probably previously incarcerated guest speakers to talk about what it means to be in the mass incarceration system,” Mark said. 

UC Books to Prisoners tells incarcerated people to write once every three months. The Illinois Department of Corrections limits prisoners to five books per shipment and Books to Prisoners limit shipments to three and a half pounds. 

Although restrictions can vary by individual prison and whether the institutions are lower or higher security, IDOC has restrictions on what book topics are allowed. These include, but are not limited to, not allowing books about tattooing, that promote hate, about assembling weapons and with nudity, according to Rasmussen. The organization also does not send books in poor condition, especially because they can raise suspicion that the book has been tampered with. UC Books to Prisoners makes sure to clean all books they receive.

In 2019, Danville Correctional Center in Eastern Illinois came under scrutiny for removing hundreds of books from their library after IDOC found “racially motivated” editorial cartoons that were used as references in a book about the incarceration of Black people, prompting prison staff to search the library and remove more books they found to have “controversial” content. 

The initial book and others removed were being used as part of an educational program for prisoners led by a University professor. 

According to a report from Illinois newsroom in 2019, IDOC spent less than $300 on books for prisoners in 2017, although previously the department would spend “three quarters of a million dollars per year on books in the early 2000s.” The IDOC director pointed to budget choices made by state lawmakers for the lack of funding at the time.

Back in the basement, Rasmussen unfolded a larger letter where one incarcerated person said they’ve been transferred to a different prison without warning, and their books didn’t follow them. They wrote the organization a week before the transfer asking for more books, but they were moved before a response could come, they say. 

Not to worry, because according to Rasmussen, UC Books to Prisoners keeps close track of orders, and this requester won’t miss theirs. 

“In a world of lackluster support,” they write, “you are doing what’s appreciated.” 

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The University of Illinois Police Department was alerted of an alleged battery incident on the 200 block of East Green Street in Champaign early Sunday morning. 

The UIPD said a student reported  a group of men directed racial slurs at him. According to the UIPD, the student responded by physically engaging the group. 

“The men attempted to push the student away several times, and then one of the men punched the student in the face,” the UIPD said in a blotter summary of the incident.

The student reportedly received “minor physical injuries.” 

Although the restaurant Chopstix was mentioned in the initial UIPD Police Blotter report, UIPD spokesperson Pat Wade said Chopstix “wasn’t really involved in the incident at all, except for the fact that the people involved happened to be walking past the business when it happened.”

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On Wednesday, Wilbur Milhouse III was appointed to the University of Illinois Board of Trustees by Gov. JB Pritzker.

Milhouse graduated from the University of Illinois in 1995 with master’s degrees in both civil and structural engineering. In 2001, he founded Milhouse Engineering and Construction, one of the largest Black-owned engineering firms in the United States.

Milhouse did not run for the position of trustee but was directly appointed by the governor for a term that will last until 2029.

In a wide-ranging interview, Milhouse spoke about his upcoming tenure as a trustee and his business interests.

Milhouse also responded to questions concerning his firm’s projects, including the Bally’s Casino in Chicago and his company’s possible coal plant in Southern Nigeria.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

What experiences did you have at U of I that shaped your career or life?

A lot of them! I was an unusual student. … I got married my freshman year, my second semester there. I had an extended amount of time (at the University), not the four years that most students would have, because I did my bachelor’s, master’s and then a co-op. … I was raising my two girls as well. I couldn’t take full class loads many times, so I was there for a lot of years. 

(The University) shaped the world I wanted to see today, which is a world of diversity. Different cultures, different ethnic backgrounds and different people from different places around the world as well as throughout the United States coming together.

How will you use the experience and knowledge you gained from working in the engineering field in your capacity as trustee?

As you know, as a trustee, we approve … different rehabs and upkeep (of all) three campuses. I hope to be able to … look at the dollars which we spend and making sure that they’re being spent in the most efficient way … the work that has to get done in order for engineers, technicians, scientists and the different folks who work for us to make good decisions. … (I know) how the markets are in my industry, and (once I learn) what could help reduce some of those costs.

What are your goals for your tenure? Do you have any specific action items already planned? 

I just (want) to make our University better, whether that’s better in the way we procure work and how we exercise that work and how we maybe reduce costs … related to how we do things. That would definitely be something (where) I want to use my experiences. 

I haven’t honestly figured out if we’re being wasteful; we could be extremely efficient. So, I would say I’d be looking at those things to make sure that we are being efficient, as well as … wanting to promote diversity, inclusion and equity in what I do and create that harmonious feeling that I had when I was on campus.

Do you intend to work to increase the amount of underrepresented minorities in STEM?

I would definitely welcome help to figure out how we increase our numbers in various facets. It’s not … just with STEM. … And also, with other underrepresented groups like women as well. … Half of our population is built of women, and I think especially in the College of Engineering, having somewhere closer to those numbers is definitely something that we try to inspire today in our company, and just the world itself. Those are things that we look to do and look to encourage for sure. 

You have to have a story to tell, and you have to have people feel welcome. … We have to do a great job at letting all people know, especially the people that live in Illinois, that this is a great institution, and they should come to the University. … We go see a movie because someone said it was great. We go to a restaurant because it has great reviews. I want people to want to come because the experience is great, and they know they’re coming to a place that is opening its arms to people from all walks of life.

Could you tell us about the development of Bally’s Casino?

Note: “Bally’s Casino” refers to the ongoing development of a casino resort in the River West neighborhood of Chicago by gaming and entertainment company Bally’s Corporation. 

In May of 2022, Bally’s Corporation was chosen by Mayor Lori Lightfoot from a group of peer corporations bidding to build the casino. The speed of the casino’s approval process was criticized by River West residents and Chicago elected officials alike, as Chicago Alderpeople were reportedly given less than 2 weeks to read and approve the contract. 

Bally’s chose the Chicago Community Builder’s Collective, a coalition of minority-owned construction companies, including Milhouse, to oversee the project.

It’s a casino, it’s a hotel and there’s a temporary casino on which we’re (Milhouse Inc.) working. It’s a big undertaking for Bally’s … and we help them navigate all of the different pieces of how that works and (how to) get things done from a construction standpoint, from a work employment standpoint, from all facets to make sure that it’s not just one-sided. I like to … do projects where there’s a win-win. … I think Bally’s is … (trying to) be impactful in the community in which they want to make money, and it’s similar to the goals that we have as a company – when we come into a city we look to give back and inspire that city by some of the philanthropic things that we do.

Could you comment on your energy ventures in Nigeria, specifically the Enugu power plant? Is that project still going? What type of energy would that power plant be producing?

Note: “Nigerian energy venture” in this question refers to a Milhouse-sponsored power station project in South-Central Nigeria, a proposed coal plant that was in its early stages of development and approval from 2015 to 2018 and has since stalled. 

Many Nigerian lawmakers believe that new energy projects will increase citizens’ access to electricity and have expressed their dissatisfaction with the number of developments that have stalled since being granted mining licenses in 2015. According to the World Bank Global Electrification Database, 55.4% of the Nigerian population had access to electricity in their homes in 2020. For comparison, in the United States, 100% of the population has access to electricity in their homes. 

Some coal projects in Nigeria have stalled or abandoned development due to concerns surrounding climate change, which is primarily driven by coal and fossil fuel usage. Coal was first discovered in Nigeria in the Enugu region in the early 1900s, and mining and its aftermath have since subjected some residents of the Enugu region to health and environmental hazards.  

Milhouse said in this interview that his company’s project is stalled “but not completely off the table.” 

So, I started going to Nigeria back in 2013 looking to find if we could do work or lend our skills. … What I found is that many different things needed help. … We consider ourselves to be city or country builders, so … we feel we can lend a hand. The issue is having development (in Nigeria) move in that way. … I started to think about how first to build or help that country. (There are) 200 million people and a very high amount of unemployment. 

The first thing you have to do is to create a middle class or create jobs for people. The only way you can do that is to create an industry. … Having many people, not a whole lot of industry, it’s hard to create that middle class. 

Because of the lack of power, a country with 200 million people only produces about 3000 megawatts of power. … The power plant in Champaign produces (at least that much power). So, most of the country uses unregulated generation fueled by diesel fuel. Which, if you’ve seen a diesel truck driving, a black plume comes out of it. It’s dirty fuel. 

Many people feel that any fossil fuel is dirty. You know, I’m 100% behind figuring out ways to create power that is definitely clean, stable and sustainable, but like with any developing country, Nigeria is about 100 years behind America. We built our country on being able to find ways to utilize fossil fuels. 

We looked at … different opportunities of creating power. … Unless you have power in any country, it’s going to be a poor country. And we’ve looked at water or hydro, solar, wind, geothermal … We came to one of the key components of being able to have a good mix. … Having a mixture (like in the U.S.) keeps those costs down. Right now, most of the renewable power that we have is … very expensive to produce, but it will continue to (decrease in price) as we mature and learn more sciences, and figure out more ways of how to produce power cheaply, expressly using renewables, but today, if we had to live off of our renewable power as Americans, we … wouldn’t be able to afford the power, simply put. So when you have a third-world country, like Nigeria, which is very, very poor, it’s hard to produce it (power) unless you have outside resources that are giving you those different things. 

One of the natural resources that they have in that area there is coal. We elected to find that coal and to try to mine that coal to produce power. We have not produced power to date, using coal. We have found coal, but we don’t use the coal to produce power or anything else. We basically have our mining license and our mine as an option to be able to create power. We are still identifying … different sources to possibly produce power, but we’re not doing that at this current moment. 

So, the Enugu plant is stalled, but it’s not completely …

It’s not completely off the table, correct.

In your view of this project, is it more of a philanthropic or business venture for your company?

A combination. From a philanthropic standpoint, I want to help people. When you see the intense poverty there, you want to figure out, well, how can we help it (Nigeria) grow? You look for ways to be able to do that and — frankly — there’s a lot of money to be made in producing power, producing development.

So, I think there can be a marrying of both things. The village in which we’re operating, in Enugu, it’s a very, very poor village. Most of the villagers don’t have power. Each and every individual has their own independent diesel jet, so when they can afford to buy diesel, they have power in their home. Normally they don’t have power in their home. If the grid comes on, it probably comes on for about two hours, three hours a day (or) week.

Most people don’t have large refrigerators. Actually, when I first went there, (residents used) the same size refrigerator that I had in my dorm. … I was really amazed. They were like, “We don’t even try to keep things cold because we can’t afford to run on diesel jets all of the time.”

Finding ways to be able to influence or upgrade those folks … is philanthropic, but I think it can also be financially rewarding as well.

How, if at all, will your capacity in your entrepreneurial ventures change while you’re a trustee? Will the board compromise your business ventures?

I don’t think it will compromise my business ventures. I have an incredible team here, so they kind of run a lot of the things that we do on a day-to-day basis. Like, I’m here right now. … I was thinking of taking off early, but I had a whole bunch of stuff going on. It’s really exciting. I kind of love what I do, so I don’t necessarily feel that I’m working. … I may step down from some of the other boards that I sit on, just to make sure that there’s no conflicts. … But I haven’t made final decisions. 

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As of 7:54 p.m. tonight, an unofficial vote count for the municipal election has been posted to the Champaign County Clerk’s webpage.

According to the results, which will be made official in 14 days, out of 136,443 registered voters in Champaign County, 9,123 cast their in-person and mail-in ballots so far in this election, or around 7%. 

The county is still awaiting mail-in ballots, meaning that final results of most races are still subject to change.  

Mayoral Race

The election day ballot count resulted in a lead for incumbent Deborah Frank Feinen, who received 76% of the vote so far with 3,299 votes. Challengers Don Gerard and Azark David Cobbs received 627 (17% of the vote) and 228 votes (6%) respectively.

City Council Race

Three at-large city council members can be elected in this race.

In the city council race, newcomer Kathy Shannon has received the most votes out of the four challengers, at 2,328, or 27.7% of the vote.

Incumbent Matthew Gladney received 2,265 or 27%, incumbent William Kyles received 2,313 or 23% of the vote, and incumbent Gregory Stock received 1,873 or 22.3%. 

Unit 4 School Board race

Four school board members can be elected in this race.

Unit 4 School Board candidate Betsy Holder received 2,888 or 19% of the vote. Amy Armstrong received 2,888 or 18% of the vote, Jamar Brown received 2,625 or 17%, Mark Thies received 2,177 or 14%, Jefferey Brownfield received 1,980 or 12.6%, Albert Zwettler received 1,758 or 11.23% and Mark Holm received 1,370 or 8.8% of the vote.

UPDATE: APR. 7 2023:

As of Apr. 6th at 3:27 PM, the County Clerk’s office has counted 18,842 ballots.

Mayoral Race 

Incumbent Mayor Deborah Frank Feinen received 6,101 votes, or 74.5% of the vote,  slightly narrowing a significant lead, while challengers Don Gerard and Azark David Cobbs received 1,562 and 528 votes respectively. 

City council race 

Three at-large city council members can be elected in this race.

In the city council race, Matthew Gladney and Kathy Shannon both still hover around 27% of the vote, with Gladney now receiving the most votes at 5,163 (or 27.23%) and Shannon behind with 5,137 (or 27.09%.) 

William Kyles has currently received 4,351 votes (or 22.94%), followed by Gregory Stock with 4,312 (or 22.74%.) 

Unit 4 School Board Race 

Four school board members can be elected in this race.

Unit 4 School Board candidate Betsy Holder received 6,546 votes, or 18.19% of the vote. Amy Armstrong received 6,288 or 17.5%, Jamar Brown received 6,103 or 17%, Mark Thies received 4,785 or 13.3%, Albert Zwettler received 4,553 or 12.7%, Jeffery Brownfield received 4,421 or 12.3%, and Mark Holm received 3,293 or 9.15%.

All results are unofficial and subject to change. Check back for official results when they are made final.

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Monday evening, the Champaign Police Department received notice of an incident on the 400 block of East University Avenue, where Chinese restaurant Golden Wok is located. The incident was described to police as an altercation inside of the restaurant, according to Joe Lamberson, CPD spokesman.

43-year-old Charles Bell was identified by witnesses as responsible for battering multiple employees at the restaurant. 

According to Lamberson, “Officers interviewed witnesses at the scene and learned that Bell had ordered food and left the restaurant with his order, but returned a short time later to complain about it.”

Bell reportedly quickly became agitated, “throwing items from the counter, breaking glass, yelling obscenities and battering staff.”

After CPD’s arrival, Bell attempted to flee from officers but was apprehended. 

Following the incident, Bell was spotted walking away from the business and bleeding from a large cut on his hand. He reportedly showed “signs of an altered mental state” and was transported to a hospital for treatment and evaluation. 

“Bell was treated by medical staff, then transported to the Champaign County Correctional Facility on charges of Aggravated Battery, Reckless Conduct, Criminal Damage to Property and Resisting or Obstructing a Peace Officer,” according to Lamberson. 

This story will be updated as new information becomes available.

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Champaign’s nonpartisan school board elections will also be deciding the new board members of the Champaign Unit 4 School District.

There are seven candidates on the ballot: Amy Armstrong, Jamar Brown, Jeffrey Brownfield, Elizabeth Holder, Mark Holm, Mark Thies and AJ Zwettler.

Amy Armstrong (INCUMBENT)

Amy Armstrong, Unit 4 board president, is running for reelection. She has been on the school board since 2015. 

Armstrong is an advocate for disability awareness as well as multicultural awareness within schools. 

She is associated with The Christie Foundation, an organization that provides grants to health-related community organizations, scholarships for medical students and hosts educational seminars within the community.

In relation to the recent discourse of schools banning certain books, Armstrong believes that it’s not the board’s decision to create the school’s curriculum or decide which books are provided in the library. 

Jamar Brown

Jamar Brown is another member of the Unit 4 Board of Education as well as a lab mechanic at the University. 

One of his goals is creating ties with the community and parents to continue to keep them informed with what is going on within the school system. 

Overall, Brown wants to bring a diverse perspective to the board and be able to be reached by parents and taxpayers to answer their questions.

Jeffrey Brownfield

Jeffrey Brownfield is a lifelong Champaign resident. 

Brownfield wants to increase public participation during board meeting events by moving public comments toward the beginning of the meetings. He believes this will make public commentary more accessible for residents to be involved. 

He encourages data from the school board to be public data for all residents to access. He is in favor of increased transparency between the school board and the public. 

Brownfield was in favor of the metal detectors being put in both Champaign Central and Centennial High Schools. He wants to increase school safety. 

He said in an interview with WICS that he does not advocate for the banning of books, but will review books that are being brought to the school’s attention. 

Elizabeth Holder

Elizabeth Holder is a local injury lawyer and a current partner of Holder Law Group, LLP.

She wants to increase communication between teachers, administrators and the Board of Education. Holder also wants to increase collaboration between Unit 4 and the University of Illinois. 

She is in favor of decreasing district spending to bring in outside parties to do tasks for the district. 

Holder is in favor of putting in school resource officers to ensure students’ safeties. She intends to address school safety differently depending on each grade level.  

She does not support censorship or the banning of books.

Mark Holm

Mark Holm is a Champaign native and attended Unit 4 schools. 

In the 2023 Municipal Candidate Forum hosted by the League of Women Voters, he said that he has served on the board for the Girls and Boys Club since 1985, during which time he says that he has spent a considerable amount of time with students in the district. 

As a business owner, Holm says that the budgetary concerns faced by the school district should be addressed “from a business standpoint.” He intends to approach the issue of students performing below grade level by establishing a system including reading aides at an early age. 

In the candidate forum, Holm emphasized the importance of at-risk student program.

Holm has spoken out in favor of student resource officers, describing early and positive interactions between students and their law enforcement officials as an opportunity to provide children with a necessary life skill. 

Mark Thies

Mark Thies is a certified financial planner and hopes to use his experience and skills in planning the school board budget.

Thies is a strong believer in school choice, working toward small class sizes, technology access for all students and lateral hiring in order to revitalize low performing schools in the districts.

Thies said that the schools in neighborhoods need more attention, affording the opportunity for all students to walk to school. 

“We need to give these kids strong neighborhood schools so that kids can walk to school again,” Thies said in the League of Women Voters municipal candidate forum. “I think that every child deserves an opportunity to learn- and you’re not going to learn by being on a bus.”

AJ Zwettler 

AJ Zwettler is a former student of the Unit 4 district and relative of three Unit 4 educators who called himself a “Champaign-Urbana kind of guy” in a League of Women Voters Forum in February. 

Zwettler is a social worker who currently leads a program for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. 

Zwettler also said all students – LGBTQ+ students, students of color and “multi-language” learners – deserve to have an accepting and functional place to learn. 

Zwettler also advocated for mental health support for students with mental health issues through the LIFT Program. 

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Mayoral Candidates

Deborah “Deb” Frank Feinen (INCUMBENT): 

Feinen has been mayor of Champaign since 2015. Prior to her two terms as mayor, she served as an at-large representative on the Champaign City Council and vice president of the Champaign County Board. 

Feinen told Smile Politely that the most important issue in this election cycle is local gun violence, citing the Champaign City Council’s allocation of 8 million dollars to the Community Gun Violence Reduction Blueprint as one of her solutions. The blueprint provides funding to community organizations and funds social workers at Carle Foundation Hospital who deal with trauma-affected patients.

At the 2023 municipal candidate forum, Feinen explained that the blueprint is one part of the “two-pronged approach” to public safety that her administration has taken. The other prong, policing, involved hiring new Champaign Police Department officers and changing CPD’s approach to hiring for the future.

Feinen also listed a new equity and engagement department as some of her foremost achievements during her term. According to an Illinois Newsroom profile on the candidate, she addressed the flooding in the Garden Hills neighborhood of Champaign, Champaign’s new low-barrier homeless shelter and hired a new CPD chief, Timothy Tyler. 

Feinen contributed to Rodney Davis’s congressional campaign in 2015. 

Update: April 4, 3:08 p.m.

In a call to the Daily Illini, Mayor Feinen called “continuing to address gun violence in our community,” the most important issue in the election. 

Feinen mentioned the 2022 Community Gun violence Reduction blueprint–which she said was funded by “a little over a million dollars” of Federal American Rescue Plan  funds–as an example of this. Feinen also mentioned working with University programs as part of the effort to quell gun violence. 

“So really, it’s evaluating the programs which the University of Illinois is going to help us to do and then determining funding moving forward,”  Feinen said. 

Feinen also emphasized a need for Champaign to become more self-reliant by “figuring out budget-wise how we’re going to pay for all of the programs without federal money.” 

Feinen also cited the creation of the city’s first equity and engagement department under her administration as a “path of equity,” she would like to continue into her next term  should she be re-elected.  

Feinen also responded to allegations from fellow candidate Azark David Cobbs that funding given to the City of Champaign has not been adequately shared and reinvested back into the community. 

Feinen denied these allegations, which she said Cobbs has raised several times.

Feinan maintained that the funds from the plan are being used to support local communities and organizations. 

“You know, one of the things he’s (Cobbs) raised is that we’re paying all these out of town people. I don’t think there’s one out of town entity that we’re funding through the blueprint,” Feinen said. 

“It’s CU tri , DREAAM and  first followers– it is local organizations who, for the most part, we’re doing the work for free on behalf of our community or as local nonprofits that the city has now stepped up to actually fund.”

Don Gerard: 

Gerard served as mayor of Champaign from 2011-2015, after which he was succeeded by Mayor Feinen. 

Gerard worked for the University’s Department of Facilities & Services for 23 years. According to an interview with the candidate on Smile Politely, some of the most important issues he hopes to address are homelessness, the revitalization of Downtown Champaign and environmental issues. 

In his opening statement at the candidate forum, Gerard said that among his greatest accomplishments as mayor of Champaign were budgetary improvements and hiring in police and fire departments.

During the forum, Gerard called for the recruitment of “progressive people of color and 21st century forward thinkers” to serve as “peace officers” in Champaign and stated that improvements in infrastructure have happened in the city as a result of federal funding.

“When I was mayor, I got stuck with Rauner as a governor, for God’s sake,” Gerard said in an interview with the Daily Illini. “She at least has resources from (JB Pritzker).”

He then stated that his goals for the community have remained the same since the last time he ran for mayor in 2015. 

Gerard went on to say that he “doesn’t have time for people” who question the necessity of infrastructure projects like his proposed multimodal pedestrian and bicycle-accessible bridge on Windsor, and that he would work with Gov. JB Pritzker on anti-gun violence initiatives.

In his talk with The Daily Illini, Gerard highlighted the mayor’s responsibility to interact with and respect the University community.

“It’s really important for the mayor of Champaign to dignify the students as not just guests here, but people who live here,” Gerard said.

Azark David Cobbs:

Cobbs, a Champaign native, is making his second run for the mayor’s office after losing to Mayor Feinen in 2019.  

Cobbs is a board member for DREAAM, a Champaign youth mentorship and empowerment organization that describes itself as “driven to reach excellence in achievement, engagement and behavioral health among boys and young men ages 5–24 years old.” 

Cobbs formerly worked as a computer programmer and operator for DHL, as a general manager for Bally’s Total Fitness and as a job recruiter for the Chicago Manufacturing Institute. Cobbs, who called himself “a staple in the community” in a League of Women Voters candidate forum last month, is running on a platform that invokes his connection to the Champaign area, and what he calls “the need for a change.”

In the same forum, Cobbs called for concrete solutions to what he called “a serious crime problem here in Champaign” that he said isn’t being addressed head on.

“We’re kind of throwing money all over the community that’s not really sticking anywhere,” Cobbs said at the forum. “We’re giving money to groups and organizations that do not have any accountability … We got to build up our own economic development. We got to build up our own Wall Street (that) we can be proud of.” 

Cobbs, who lives in the Garden Hills neighborhood, said the community has been dealing with crime, drainage, sidewalk and flooding problems but has not received adequate support from the current mayor. 

“We’ve got cameras everywhere,” Cobbs said. “We’ve got license plate readers … but when you go there and ask, ‘who’s the mayor?’ they haven’t seen the mayor… So, being a mayor, you have to know your community.”

Cobbs said he has a “special touch” with the community. 

“When people talk about folks that’s dying (in shootings), I know these people, I know the families,” Cobbs said.

City Council Candidates 

Voters can vote for up to three candidates. 

Kathy Shannon:

Shannon, a University alum, has served on the Champaign Unit 4 School Board since 2015, holding positions including secretary and vice president, and is currently the finance director at the Champaign Urbana Schools Foundation. Her family has lived in Champaign for over 20 years and both of her children attended Unit 4 schools, according to her campaign website. 

 In an email response, Shannon cited the passing of “the largest school facilities referendum in the district’s history” and “a strategic plan and anti-racism resolution” as her proudest accomplishments as part of the Unit 4 school board. She described the process of developing and implementing the anti-racism resolution as a highly collaborative and data-informed one.

Shannon said that she hopes to promote the “long term sustainability” of the Champaign community on the city council by working towards a less car-centered city. She explained that development centered around pedestrians, bicyclists and wheelchair users will make Champaign more affordable and equitable for both long-term residents and University students.

Other goals Shannon has for the council are to stop widening roads and to “change zoning to allow small stores and restaurants within or close to residential areas, and also allow the housing density that would make those businesses profitable.”

Shannon said she hopes for denser, more affordable housing throughout the city and for the council to pay greater attention to climate change.

Matthew Gladney (INCUMBENT):

Gladney, a Champaign native, has served on the Champaign City Council since 2015, has worked for the University for 16 years and serves on the board of directors for the McKinley Foundation. 

“I would say that public safety is our biggest issue at the moment,” Gladney said in an email.

Gladney said the council has been addressing this issue through developing and implementing the Community Gun Violence Reduction Blueprint. The blueprint, passed in 2022, plans to combat gun violence and its root causes by working with the LIFT program, which increased hiring in fire and police departments.

Gladney pointed to a reduction in gun violence between 2021 and 2022, and said he believes the council’s efforts will “continue to make a positive impact.”

He said he worked to create the first LGBTQ police/community liaison, which makes the police department a “safe and welcoming resource” for the LGBTQ community.

William Kyles (INCUMBENT):

Kyles, who graduated with a degree in political science from the University, was first elected to the City Council in 2009, and then re-elected in 2013 before being elected for an “at large” seat on the council in 2015.

According to Kyles, the most important issue in the election is “making sure that we continue to work towards increasing safety and fostering healthy neighborhoods.” 

In a similar vein, Kyles cited a community gun violence reduction plan and work improving infrastructure in areas such as Garden Hills as some of his accomplishments during his time on the city council. 

Kyles also said his experience serving in both “good and difficult times” paired with an ability to listen to his constituents and work with people from varying backgrounds has prepared him for the position. 

Gregory (Greg) Stock (INCUMBENT):

Stock is a realtor and teacher who moved to Champaign in 1994 when he was offered a job teaching social studies at Centennial High School. He has also served in the capacities of vice president and union steward for the Champaign Federation of Teachers.

In a 2016 interview with Smile Politely, Stock explained that his initial run for city council was sparked by his interest in government, particularly his belief that local government can have a greater impact on constituents’ day-to-day lives than the federal or state governments.

In 2016, and again in 2023, Stock identified gun violence as one of the most important issues facing Champaign residents and has pledged to continue working with the council to identify solutions while continuing to develop social programs throughout the city.

Stock said one of his proudest accomplishments was blocking video gaming establishments from being built in Champaign. He said that his opposition had the tendency to “suck the money out of some of our most desperate residents and neighborhoods” in Champaign, particularly on the north side of the city.

This story will be updated with quotes from candidates.

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Two school officials were shot at Denver’s East High School in a school shooting on Wednesday morning. Several shots were fired in an office area in the front of the school. 

The suspect, a student at the high school, was reportedly being patted down or searched before shooting two school deans. 

The suspect reportedly had a “Safety Plan” in place where they would be checked before entering the building every morning. This plan was put into effect after the student had previously been expelled from another district for weapons. 

The suspect reportedly fled, and a search for them was conducted away from the school. 

In the summer of 2020, the Denver Public Schools board of education removed “student resource officers” — armed police officers who had previously been present in school buildings. This decision has been controversial throughout the city. Denver Mayor Michael Hancock stated that the officers will be reinstated and that removing them was a “mistake.”

About two hours afterward, Denver Public Schools said they received clearance from the Denver Police Department to start releasing students from the school, which was on lockdown. 

The shooting comes six weeks after a 16-year-old student was fatally shot in his car just outside of East High, prompting a school-led walkout to the Colorado State Capitol building advocating for increased gun safety measures.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis released a statement via Twitter around 2 p.m. on the shooting: 

“We know that the two victims have been hospitalized and we pray for their health and swift recovery,” Polis said. “Our students should and must be able to attend school without fear for their safety. Their parents deserve the peace of mind that their children are safe in classrooms and teachers should be able to work safely and without harm.” 

Update: March 23

The Park County Coroner’s office announced on  Thursday that a dead body found Wednesday night in neighboring Park County was that of 17-year-old suspect Austin Lyle.

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Some 30,000 years and an extinction after the ancestors of modern-day elephants may have stomped through prehistoric Champaign-Urbana, a new mammoth is poised to set foot on campus. 

On Monday, an approximately 12-foot-high and 15-foot-long statue of a mammoth is slated to be erected at the southwest corner of the Natural History Building. Currently, a bare wooden plank with the words “UofI Mammoth” marks the lone mammoth’s future home.

It will “display one of the most dramatic mammals ever to live in Illinois,” said Stephen Marshak, a professor emeritus in LAS and a director emeritus at the School of Earth, Society, & Environment. Marshak is one of the people behind the Mammoth project. 

The proposal to erect a mammoth sculpture came from a committee set up by Facilities & Services in 2015, which included Marshak, administrators from the schools who use the Natural History Building, representatives from Facilities & Services and a professor in FAA. According to Marshak, the idea was first proposed by Marshak and Fred Delcomyn, the then-director of the School of Integrative Biology.

Funds to pay for the project came from the state’s “Art-In-Architecture” program, which requires that a percentage of the budget from major construction projects on campus go towards the purchase of art. The Mammoth’s funding stemmed from the renovation of the Natural History Building in 2014. 

“We suggested the mammoth because it reflected the heritage of the Natural History Building, which has always been a home for geology and biology, and for many years hosted a Museum of Natural History, which contained casts of mammoth skeletons,” Marshak said. “It also reflects an intersection of earth sciences and life sciences.”

The project would stall for a few years before an updated committee including Marshak, Delcomyn and the current directors of SESE and SIB pushed the project forward. 

Marshak also credited Facilities & Services planner Erika Lee, whom he said “inherited” the mammoth project and expertly navigated the “logistical details necessary to make the sculpture a reality.” Lee could not be immediately reached for comment. 

Taylor studios, a museum exhibit construction company based in Rantoul, Illinois and one of the “foremost in the world” according to Marshak, was commissioned to build the mammoth. 

“The decision was made to obtain a realistic mammoth sculpture – one that the public could instantly identify and could provide a learning experience – rather than an abstract sculpture,” Marshak said.  

“We presented numerous photos to the artists at Taylor Studios to come up with the final design,” Marshak said. “And we consulted with paleontologists to catch errors.”

Taylor Studios produced a 3D computer model of the mammoth, and after it was approved, they made a scale model using 3D printing. “From that, the full-scale sculpture was made,” Marshak added. 

The sculpture has a steel skeleton underneath a layer of styrofoam, which is then coated by fiberglass. This is then coated with epoxy, a type of resin, which is “shaped to provide the details before being painted,” according to Marshak.

The tusks of the Mammoth, however, came from a mold made from actual fossilized mammoth tusks. 

Marshak lauded the artists for using their skills to “produce a sculpture that looks realistic and dramatic at the same time,” as well as using techniques that make sure the Mammoth will be durable enough to survive the harsh weather conditions of its one-time homeland. 

After installation, the area around the Mammoth will be designed to become what Marshak called a “Pleistocene garden,” with “plantings that are related to those that would have been in the area of Champaign-Urbana when mammoths first arrived here (around 30,000 years ago).”

An informational display with an explanation for the scene and information about mammoths and the Ice Age will also be erected.

“We hope the mammoth will be eye-catching to the University community as well as to the public in C-U and to people visiting the campus,” Marshak said.

Paleontological evidence, according to Marshak, suggests that nammoths went extinct in present-day Illinois about 13,000 years ago. 

“A real mammoth could very well have once stood on the spot where the sculpture will stand,” Marshak said. 

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Following its demolition, Illini Hall is becoming more of a memory every day.

On Feb. 15, a construction crew stumbled upon a time capsule inside of a cornerstone while demolishing the hall, located on Wright street across from Altgeld Hall. Inscribed on the cornerstone is “AD 1907,” the year Illini Hall, then the University YMCA, was built.

Yearbooks from the era leave no mention of the capsule’s existence. Although not actually connected to the University, the connection between the YMCA association and the student body played an indelible role in the University’s history. Several sections of Illio yearbooks from 1906 to 1908 are dedicated to the topic.

Yet, yearbooks and University archives from the era leave no mention of the capsule’s existence.

The University’s Student Life and Culture Archives holds a trove of documents, letters, pamphlets and photos detailing the YMCA’s time on campus.

Some of the earlier documentation includes promotional pamphlets and leaflets for the dedication of Illini Hall. 

One section lists facts about Illini Hall: the building was made up of three floors — two with dorms — and a basement, which housed a barber shop, restaurant, lunch room, bowling alley and “smoking room.”

The collection includes a copy of the songs sung at the dedication of the building, including Christian hymns like “Joy to the World,” “Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty!” and ironically, “How Firm a Foundation.”

The last time a time capsule was uncovered at the University was in 2015, when a capsule from the early 1910s was discovered in the gateway of Lincoln Hall. Inside were business cards, letters and specialty coins of the era.

The latest capsule will remain closed for at least another semester. It will be opened in the fall to commemorate the University YMCA’s 150th birthday celebration.

Although the contents of the capsule will be shrouded in mystery until autumn, at the time of writing there are still small parts of the building still standing.

A week ago, one reddit user posted a photo of an unerased chalkboard still hanging on an undemolished Illini Hall wall in the open air. On it, mathematical theorems and a graph remain untouched from the last time they were taught.

These writings were from approximately February 2020, which is when COVID-19 forced students and professors off of campus. Illini Hall never reopened when in-person classes began in Fall 2021. The writings remained untouched — a mark of the University student experience suspended in history. 

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The Champaign Urbana chapter of the Party for Socialism and Liberation held a rally in front of the County courthouse on Sunday calling for justice for Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man who was beaten and killed by Memphis police officers in early January. 

The assembly would later take to the street and march in the biting January cold to the Urbana city building about 2 miles away. 

“First, and foremost, we’re here in solidarity with the family of Tyre Nichols, the people of Memphis and the larger national Justice For Tyre movement to really shine a light on the issue of systemic police violence,” Derek Briles, a PSL organizer, said. 

Many community members and University students attended the rally. 

“What happened with Tyre Nichols was just horrendous and it just keeps happening over and over, “ said Sandy Hannum, an Urbana resident. “You just have to show up and say something about it.”

Manny Stewart, a senior in LAS, noted the importance of advocating for change. 

“This is a pretty bad extrajudicial killing and I think it’s very important for people to acknowledge (the need for) systemic changes,” Stewart said. 

“Police violence and misconduct is not just a feature of big cities. It also exists in Champaign-Urbana,” Briles said.   

Briles spoke of  a lack of transparency and accountability with the Urbana Police department particularly, and said PSL has been organizing to block the adoption of a new contract for the Fraternal Order of Police and the city of Urbana. 

Briles said the FOP “specifically shields cops who do bad things,” and that the prospective contract doesn’t address police misconduct, as well as contains specific language that limits the authority of a civilian police review board.  

Of the 24 articles contained in the current contract, none are about police misconduct, but the City of Urbana may choose to adopt and maintain a Civilian Police Review Board. 

However, according to the current contract, police officers subject to CPRB proceedings shall not be required to appear before the CPRB; their appearance shall be optional. 

In the prospective contract, there are also no articles that address police misconduct, although there is also an article about a CPRB.

At the time of writing, the Illinois FOP Labor council could not be immediately reached for comment.

In regards to the FOP Negotiations with the city thus far, PSL member and senior in LAS Michael Beckman spoke of a rushed process that he said did not take into account community input. 

“The purpose of what we’re organizing around is how … the FOP just tried to rush (the contract) through without really getting input from community members. They had their bargaining in a closed session. And they’re doing it six months ahead of time,” Beckman said.

The current FOP contract doesn’t expire until June of 2023, and bargaining meetings, as Beckman alluded to, have been held in closed sessions. 

Pamela Van Wyk, an Urbana resident said that she believes that police unions need to change in order to create greater accountability. 

“It’s unless the unions change,” Van Wyk said. “They really tie the hands of people in the police department who want to hold officers accountable, and until we hold officers and everybody else accountable, we continue having problems.”

“The PSL platform on police systems also connects to the party’s larger goals of socialist re-organization in the interest of the working class,” Briles said.

“Police violence and misconduct is a systemic issue,” Briles said. “Our goal is to see a society that is led by working people, not by the wealthy elite, so checking the police force works toward that end.”

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The number of Black students enrolled at the University declined in 2022 for the first time in eight years, according to self-reported statistics from the Division of Management Information.

“Black student enrollment has been positive for a very long time,” said Sean Garrick, vice chancellor for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at the University. “I think we’re still trying to figure out exactly why there was a decrease.” 

In 2021, 3,833 Black students (6.8% of the student body) were enrolled at the University. In 2022, there were 3,686 Black students enrolled (6.5% of the student body).

“Even if (the number) goes down by 10 students, it’s significant,” Garrick said.

Garrick cited effects from the pandemic and the application process as possibilities of what was responsible for the change, but the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion is “still trying to get an exact sense of why or what was responsible.”

In 2021, according to Inside Higher Ed, 4.4% of Black students had canceled their future postsecondary education plans due to the effects of the pandemic, compared to 2.3% of all students. 

Although the exact reason for the decrease is unknown, the end of such trends is something the OVCDEI takes note of.

“We have to make sure that we are making ourselves and the institution available to students from a variety of backgrounds,” Garrick said. “Whether we’re talking about in-state or just out-of-state, international students and so on.”

As far as taking a look inward for possible causes of the decrease, an element that Garrick thinks must be considered is the reputation of the University. 

“If you have students who, as a whole, just say that the student experience isn’t that great, then I imagine they have either siblings or friends or family in their communities, and they’re sharing those opinions,” he said.

This semester, the OVCDEI will be conducting a “campus climate survey,” which Garrick said will “survey all students to get a sense of how they feel welcomed on campus, how they feel that they are respected and/or otherwise seen on campus.”

“Those types of things can really help us get a deeper sense of what the student experience is truly like,” Garrick said. “You could factor into things such as applications and enrollments in subsequent years.” 

Finding the results of such surveys and creating an inclusive environment are among the goals of the OVCDEI. 

“Students want to feel as if this is their campus,” Garrick said. 

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