INSIDE P o l i c e 2 A | H o r o s c o p e s 2 A | O p i n i o n s 4 A | L e t t e r s 4 A | C r o s s w o r d 5 A | C o m i c s 5 A | L i f e & C u l t u r e 6 A | S p o r t s 1 B | C l a s s i f i e d s 3 B | S u d o k u 3 B

THE DAILY ILLINITUESDAYMarch 4, 2014

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WWW.DAILYILLINI.COM The independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois since 1871 Vol. 143 Issue 87 | FREE

@THEDAILYILLINI, @DI_OPINION, @DI_SPORTS THEDAILYILLINI THEDAILYILLINIDAILYILLINI, DAILYILLINISPORTS @THEDAILYILLINI

BY MIRANDA HOLLOWAYASSISTANT DAYTIME EDITOR

This winter season, the Urbana-Champaign area has seen about 40 inches of snow, which is more than 15 inches than the area average, according to the Illinois State Water Survey.

The added snowfall is more than just a pain in the neck — it is also expensive.

Through January, University Facilities and Services spent $306,535 on snow removal, up from $83,710 through January last year, according to an email from campus spokeswoman Robin Kaler.

This total stems from labor costs and overtime as well as rising material prices and equipment maintenance.

For the University and the cities of Urbana and Champaign, determining the budget for snow removal is based on averages of past years.

Champaign and the University look at past levels of snowfall, and Urbana looks at how much money has been needed in past years. Kris Koester, Champaign Public Works public information officer, said the city of Champaign estimates that it costs around $19,000 to clear each inch of snow.

“We do realize that there will be less than that, and there will be years where we have more, so we just have to be able to plan,” Koester said. “It’s best for us to be able to plan for something that we get on average so we have the appropriate amount of coverage.”

The amount of accumulation is not the only aspect of winter weather that counts toward the costs of snow removal.

This year the cost of salt has risen due to added national demand.

“For example, as of right now, we’ve spent more than $80,000 on rock salt this year, and recently you’ve had prices increase due to supply shortages across the country,” said Steve Breitwieser, Facilities and Services media communication specialist.

Although the cost of salt has risen with demand, it is not the most costly part of the

price tag as staffing and labor payment costs the most.

“The biggest cost we have — granted salt costs quite a bit — but the biggest expense is just the overtime of staff,” said John Collins, Urbana Public Works operations director.

Employing staff in multiple departments who are on call at all hours of the night when weather is inclement is necessary to ensure safe travel.

“We have more than 250 people involved in snow removal operations and (Facilities and Services) working long hours though this winter to make sure that campus stays open,” Breitwieser said. “When you think of the snow removal process it takes all these different units working together as a team to really make it happen.”

Workers have faced an added difficulty this year in dealing with low temperatures, which reduce or eliminate the effectiveness of road salt and calcium chloride salt melt.

“We spend an awful lot of time looking at the weather conditions before, during and after an event,” Collins said.

By monitoring the weather, city officials are able to decide the best way to address the weather, which ultimately reduces costs. City governments also pretreat roads with a brine solution as another cost cutting measure.

About one and a half tons of salt can make 1,000 gallons of brine, and Breitwieser estimates that it takes about 3,000 gallons of brine to pretreat the roads before a winter storm. He added that the brine makes the removal process more efficient by reducing the number of passes plows need to make to fully remove the snow.

This can assist in the process, but warmer weather is the cheapest way to remove snow.

“I think everyone is hoping for some warmer temperatures to help with the removal process,” Breitwieser said.

Miranda can be reached at mwhollo2@dailyillini.com.

Snow removal comes with a hefty price tag

BY ANGELICA LAVITOSTAFF WRITER

The Champaign Police Depart-ment will have help paying for law enforcement on Unofficial St. Pat-rick’s Day, thanks to a grant.

The city made an agreement with Community Elements Inc. that will provide the Champaign Police Department with funds to pay for extra police officers on Unofficial, which will take place Friday.

Community Elements acquired a grant from the Illinois Depart-ment of Human Services and

worked with them to develop a strategy to use the money. The Champaign Police Department then created an agreement with Community Elements to deter-mine how the money would be spent.

“Unfortunately, a lot of the strategies they have focus more on elementary-aged and middle-school-aged (education), so we were kind of limited on choosing what we could,” said Traci Hay-ward, Community Elements coor-dinator I of Community Preven-tion. “We ended up going more

law enforcement because there wasn’t really anything else to choose from.”

The department does not always budget for Unofficial, Sgt. Joe Ketchem said, and uses money from different parts of the budget to pay for extra law enforcement.

The agreement will provide the Champaign Police Department with more than $5,900, specifi-cally with Unofficial.

Forecasts indicate a high of 43 degrees Friday, according to the National Weather Service. Ketchem said weather dictates

the turnout for Unofficial.“If we have weather on Friday

that’s supposed to be (around) 50 degrees from what I under-stand, it’s usually a madhouse,” Ketchem said. “There will be par-ties all over the place, there will be intoxicated people at bars, peo-ple trying to get into the bars that aren’t supposed to.”

Ketchem said the most common problems on Unofficial are medi-cal transports, possession of alco-hol on public property, underage drinking and domestic battery.

“Basically, just be responsible,”

Ketchem said. “If you’re going to have a party it’s one thing. But we get involved when parties get out of control and when there’s peo-ple who are 18 and 19 drinking.”

Ketchem will be patrolling on Unofficial, and Champaign Mayor Don Gerard, who is also the liquor commissioner, said he will be vis-iting the bars on his lunch break and after work “to see how things are going.”

“Take pride in our city. Take pride in our community. If you’re of the legal age, be responsible,” Gerard said. “Look out for your

brothers and sisters, and if you see troublemakers, don’t stand for it.”

The agreement between the Champaign Police Department and Community Elements also provides funds for 38 compli-ance checks, hiring covert units and training two new Training for Intervention Procedures trainers.

Ketchem said his hope is to train 300 workers from liquor establishments through the class.

Angelica can be reached at lavito2@dailyillini.com.

Champaign police receive grant to help pay for enforcement

BY CHRIS PULLAMCONTRIBUTING WRITER

Strict punishment awaits students who participate in reckless celebration of Unofficial St. Patrick’s Day.

Local law enforcement agencies, along with University representatives, held a joint press conference on Monday to discuss strategies for mitigating the risk associated with the event.

Neither the University nor the cities of Champaign or Urbana encourage the celebration of Unofficial. Rather, these groups have actively worked to manage and discourage the event.

“It’s an event that promotes underage drinking and binge drinking,” said Lt. Jim Clark,

of the Champaign Police Department, during the news conference. “Every year, this event accounts for several injuries, and we’ve had fatalities during this event. Many more people have been transported to the hospital for alcohol incapacitation.”

T h e o r g a n i z a t i o n s represented at the conference included the University’s Office of Student Affairs and Division of Public Safety, Community Elements Campus Community Alcohol Task Force Coalition, Il l inois Liquor Control Commission, the Champaign and Urbana police departments, Champaign County Sheriff’s

Police prepare for Unofficial

Statistics from Unofficial 2013 Officers raided five parties and arrested

21 hosts for violation of the social host laws. The largest party was in the 00 block of E. Chalmers Street, where officers arrested six participants and cited 62 individuals for being a minor in possession of alcohol.

An intoxicated male was struck by a vehicle at the intersection of Green and Second streets. He sustained minor injuries and was treated at the scene. The Illinois Liquor Control Commission

cited KAM’S, Joe’s Brewery, White Horse Inn, Red Lion and The Clybourne for Happy Hour and violations of Champaign’s

emergency order restricting bar service. Total calls for service on campus from

5 a.m. Friday to 5 a.m. Saturday were consistent with the same time frame in 2012. Calls increased by 84 percent from the previous Friday, Feb. 22, 2013.

SOURCE: UNOFFICIAL ST. PATRICK’S DAY 2013 — POST EVENT SUMMARY

Dillard said he would announce his plan to make Illinois a “destination economy” for job creators on Tuesday, adding that the state is overtaxed and over-regulated. He said under his leadership, there would be a panel to “overhaul, top-to-bottom, our state’s archaic and over-regulated tax system and regulatory system.”

Jil Tracy, a state representative for the 93rd district and his running mate, will receive testimonies from families, farm-ers and businesses across the state to find out what regulations stifle their economic development.

Dillard said he wants to leave the minimum wage where it currently is and instead focus on well-paying jobs because “no one should be living on a minimum wage or raising a family on minimum wage.”

Education is a priority for Dillard, who said that he is the only candidate with a written plan for education, the “Best in Class” pro-gram. His candidacy has been endorsed by state education associations such as the Illi-nois Education Association, the Illinois Fed-eration of Teachers and the Illinois Retired Teachers Association.

He highlighted agriculture as the most important and largest employer in Illinois, and focused on the family farm, funding agri-culture programs and agricultural research.

Regarding concealed carry laws, Dillard said he sponsored it “before it was cool to do so,” but the state should give the law time to see how it is implemented and wait to make any changes.

KIRK DILLARDIllinois senator

Gov. candidates make their case

FOLAKE OSIBODU THE DAILY ILLINICars drive carefully through the snow on Fourth Street as a snow storm blows through Illinois.

NATHANIEL LASH THE DAILY ILLINIPolice officers interview a suspect on the 1100 block of South Second Street in Champaign. SEE UNOFFICIAL | 3A

Brady said he is the only candidate in the race who has promised to deliver on tax cuts. He plans to balance the budget as governor and does not support cutting or raising the minimum wage. As gover-nor, he will focus on bringing good-pay-ing job opportunities to Illinois, he said.

In terms of economic development, Brady said he and running mate Maria Rodriguez come from small business backgrounds and will focus on support-ing the creation of such businesses.

Brady said Illinois needs a gover-nor who will prioritize education fund-ing and commented that pension reform was important because pensions “were going to eat up over 26 percent of our state revenues.”

He also called for simplifying the cur-rent funding formula by getting rid of grants, for example, so that “the dollars follow the student,” as well as eliminat-ing the State Board of Education’s power.

In terms of agriculture, Brady dis-cussed tax cuts and a 30-year plan to revi-talize the transportation system, as well as research and development and energy resources, such as fracking, to help keep Illinois products manufactured and sold within the state.

He also commented that he has a 100 percent voting record when it come to the second amendment and said that the bill that legislators worked on is fair, thanks to the training and background checks required.

As governor, Rutherford said he would use his power to appoint directors of state agencies and make sure that those agencies help create and retain jobs in the state. He also said the lieutenant governor’s office under Steve Kim, an attorney and his run-ning mate, will become the governor’s office for job creation and retention. Rutherford said he would be the “chief marketing offi-cer” to promote the state of Illinois to both big and small businesses.

In regards to minimum wage, Rutherford said he does not support lowering or raising it in Illinois at this time.

“The minimum wage increase is a man-date from your government telling a small business, regardless of what price you charge for your product and service, your government is mandating you to increase your costs,” he said.

As governor, he said minimum wage is not the target, but well-paying jobs are. He said a minimum wage increase, combined with other initiatives, could be a discussion in the future but it depends on a variety of factors.

In regards to education, Rutherford said pre-kindergarten is a major priority for him. He also called investment in higher educa-tion a good business decision.

As governor, Rutherford said he will look at the agriculture market on both a domestic and oversea scale, and various agriculture programs. Like Dillard, he wanted to watch the progress of the state’s concealed carry law and have a discussion about its imple-mentation in the future.

INSIDE Daily Illini Editorial Board endorses Lucas Frye for student trustee but with some reservations. PAGE 4A

MARCH IS WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTHSpecial University designation receives limited attention on campus

Ekey, Bertrand to play final home game at IllinoisIllini host conference- leading Wolverines

SPORTS, 1BLIFE & CULTURE, 5A

BILL BRADYIllinois senator

DAN RUTHERFORDIllinois treasurer

Currently serving as the Illinois treasurer, previously served as state senator repre-senting the 53rd district. This is his first campaign for Illinois governor.

State senator representing the 44th dis-trict. This is his third campaign for Illinois governor. He won the Republican primary in 2010, where he beat Dillard by 193 votes.

State senator representing the 24th dis-trict. He served as Gov. Jim Edgar’s chief of staff from 1990-1993. This is his second campaign for Illinois governor.

BY ELEANOR BLACKSTAFF WRITER

Three of the four Republican gubernatorial candidates — Bill Brady, Kirk Dillard and Dan Rutherford — met Monday night at the i-Hotel in Champaign to debate issues and discuss their vision of the state’s future. Organizers said they repeatedly invited Bruce

Rauner, the other Republican candidate, to join the debate, but he declined.

2A Tuesday, March 4, 2014 THE DAILY ILLINI | WWW.DAILYILLINI.COM

WEATHERPOLICE

HOROSCOPESBY NANCY BLACKTRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYCreativity, organization and partnership form keys to prosperity this year. Consider energy like gold, and spend thoughtfully. Streamline routines for efficiency, prioritizing fun at home and with family. Summer brings romantic sparks through August, when career takes off. Stick to proven basics, and strengthen foundations.To get the advantage, check the day’s rating: 10 is the easiest day, 0 the most challenging.

ARIES (MARCH 21-APRIL 19)Today is a 6 — Test a new theory. Fill the orders and rake in the money. Don’t believe everything you’ve learned, and watch where you’re going. Start your shopping list. Call if you’re going to be late. Maintain objectivity.

TAURUS (APRIL 20-MAY 20)Today is a 7 — You’re hot today and tomorrow. Take care not to provoke jealousies. Reject a far-fetched scheme in favor of a practical solution. Tempers could ! are. The answer, for now, is negative. Postpone expansion. Soothe ruffled feathers.

GEMINI (MAY 21-JUNE 20)Today is a 5 — Review your data. You’ll be glad you did. Be sensitive to a loved one’s wishes. Family comes " rst. Curtail spending on entertainment. Enter a two-day contemplative phase. Assess your

efforts, and monitor spending closely. Provide motivation.

CANCER (JUNE 21-JULY 22)Today is a 5 — Ask a female for her opinion. It’s getting fun, today and tomorrow. Guard against impulsive behavior. Rushed preparations could back" re. Rest for the busy action ahead. Increase organization. Invite friends over rather than going out.

LEO (JULY 23-AUG. 22)Today is a 5 - Expect new directives over the next few days, leading to a rise in status. Promises alone won’t cut it. Check for " nancial leaks. Move slowly. Encourage the girls to participate. Have the facts. Play passionately.

VIRGO (AUG. 23-SEPT. 22)Today is a 5 — Check for a change in plans. There’s no need for haste. Travel compels but could be complex today and tomorrow. New problems develop. Develop a backup plan, and con" rm reservations. Apply what you’ve learned.

LIBRA (SEPT. 23-OCT. 22)Today is a 5 — Play fair or the victory is worthless. Get ready for more publicity. The next few days are good for " nancial planning with shared resources. Avoid reckless spending. Take strategic, rather than impulsive, actions to save time and energy.

SCORPIO (OCT. 23-NOV. 21)Today is a 6 — Develop strong partners today and tomorrow. Compromise is required, or sparks may ! y. Consider the consequences of words and actions. Avoid waste

and expensive errors. Check out insider information. Don’t go shopping yet. Figure out strategy.

SAGITTARIUS (NOV. 22-DEC. 21)Today is a 5 — Don’t rush the job. Stick rigorously to instructions. Work interferes with socializing; yet resist temptation to cut corners. Ful" ll promises you’ve made today and tomorrow. Think twice before you borrow. You’re learning how to do without.

CAPRICORN (DEC. 22-JAN. 19)Today is a 5 — Unful" lled expectations could provoke an unpleasant situation. Physical changes are required, and delays could interfere with travel. Delegate what you can. Enjoy the game, without taking expensive risks. Walk with gentle steps, watching the path ahead.

AQUARIUS (JAN. 20-FEB. 18)Today is a 5 — Delight in the comforts of home today and tomorrow. Clean and reorganize for practical functionality and beauty. Avoid travel and expense, or stepping on someone’s toes. Shrewd business people do well now. Follow a leader you respect.

PISCES (FEB. 19-MARCH 20)Today is a 6 — Guard against technical glitches, as work action heats up today and tomorrow. Study the angles, map out the path and take notes. Don’t tell everybody your plans. Schedule some private time. Love works wonders. Your heart sings.

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All Illini Media Co. and/or Daily Illini articles, photos and graphics are the property of Illini Media Co. and may not be reproduced or published without written permission from the publisher.

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Night system staff for today’s paperNight editor: Darshan PatelPhoto night editor: Joseph LeeCopy editors: Johnathan Hettinger, Bailey Bryant, Natalie Leoni, Sari Lesk, Klaudia Dukala, Kevin Gibbons, Kieran HamplDesigners: Sadie Teper, Keely Rein-wick, Daniel Chung, Torey ButnerPage transmission: Harry Durden

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NewsroomCorrections: If you think something has been incorrectly reported, please call Editor-in-Chief Darshan Patel at (217) 337-8365.Online: If you have a question about DailyIllini.com or The Daily Illini’s social media outlets, please email our Web editor Folake Osibodu at online@dailyillini.com.On-air: If you have comments or questions about The Daily Illini’s broadcasts on WPGU-FM 107.1, please email our managing editors, Maggie Huynh and Ryan Weber, at onair@dailyillini.com.Employment: If you would like to work for the newspaper’s editorial department, please fi ll out our form or email employment@dailyillini.com.News: If you have a news tip, please call news editor Lauren Rohr at (217) 337-8345 or email news@dailyillini.com.Calendar: If you want to submit events for publication in print and online, visit the217.com.Sports: If you want to contact the sports staff, please call sports editor Eliot Sill at (217) 337-8344 or email sports@dailyillini.com.Life & Culture: If you have a tip for a Life & Culture story, please call features editor Alison Marcotte at (217) 337-8343 or email features@dailyillini.com.Photo: If you have any questions about photographs or to suggest photo coverage of an event, please call photo editor Brenton Tse at (217) 337-8560 or email photo@dailyillini.com.Letters to the editor: Letters are limited to 300 words. Contributions must be typed and include the author’s name, address and phone number. University students must include their year in school and college. The Daily Illini reserves the right to edit or reject any contributions. Email opinions@dailyillini.com with the subject “Letter to the Editor.”

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The Daily Illini regrets the error.When we make a mistake, we will correct it in this place. We strive for accuracy, so if you see an error in the paper, please contact Editor-in-Chief Darshan Patel at (217) 337-8365.

CORRECTIONS

Editor-in-chiefDarshan Patel217 • 337-8365editor@DailyIllini.comManaging editors Maggie HuynhRyan Weberreporting@dailyillini.comCreative directorEunie Kimvisuals@dailyillini.comNews editorLauren Rohr217 • 337-8345news@dailyillini.comAsst. news editorsTyler DavisAustin KeatingNewscast directorEmily WaldronDaytime editorDanielle Brown217 • 337-8350news@dailyillini.comAsst. daytime editorMiranda HollowayCalendar producersLyanne AlfaroImani BrooksSports editorEliot Sill217 • 337-8344sports@dailyillini.comAsst. sports editorsNicholas FortinAlex OrtizTorrence SorrellJ.J. WilsonFeatures editorAlison Marcotte217 • 337-8343features@dailyillini.comAsst. features editorsSarah SoenkeEmma Weissmann

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Check out the Classified Section of the Daily Illini

WPGU 107.1

Champaign Burglary from a motor

vehicle was reported in the 1200 block of North Fourth Street at around 2 p.m. Sunday.

According to the report, an unknown offender threw a con-crete block through a window and stole electronic equipment.

Burglary from a motor vehicle was reported in the 500 block of South Third Street at around 7 a.m. Saturday.

Theft was reported in the 00 block of East John Street at around 2 a.m. Sunday.

According to the report, the victim’s laptop was stolen from her apartment.

University Theft was reported at the

Activities and Recreation Center, 201 E. Peabody Dr., at

around 7 p.m. Sunday.According to the report,

an unknown offender bent the top half of a locker and gained access to the victim’s belongings despite a lock being attached. The victim’s wallet was stolen. It was valued at $125. Damage to the locker is estimated around $50.

Criminal damage to prop-erty was reported near the intersection of Stadium Drive and Oak Street at around 7:30 a.m. Saturday.

According to the report, an unknown offender damaged the windows of two construc-tion vehicles and other items at the site of a contracted proj-ect. The estimated damage is $1,200.

Criminal damage to prop-erty was reported in lot C-5, 905 S. Sixth Street, at around

11 p.m. Friday.According to the report, two

students’ vehicles were dam-aged while parked in the lot. The estimated combined dam-age for both vehicles is $350.

A 41-year-old male was arrested on the charges of possession of drug parapher-nalia and failure to appear in court at the Illini Union, 1401 W. Green Street, at around 9 p.m. Friday.

According to the report, someone recognized the offender from his warrant to appear in court and notified police. The offender was found to be in possession of a pipe believed to be used to smoke illegal drugs. He was also issued a University of Illinois no-trespassing notice.

Compiled by Jason Chun

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BY ELEANOR BLACKSTAFF WRITER

With the March 18 primary approaching, 13th congressional district democratic candidate Ann Callis, former chief judge of Madi-son County, has received a wave of endorsements from elected officials and Champaign County community members.

“I think endorsements are impor-tant because they show a candidate’s ability to build coalitions and bring people together, which is an impor-tant skill to have in Congress,” Cal-lis said in an email. “I am honored to have the endorsement of such dedi-cated public servants who under-stand the needs of this community and believe I am the best candi-date to represent their values in Washington.”

These endorsements include Champaign Mayor Don Gerard and Urbana Mayor Laurel Prussing.

“I am excited to support Ann Cal-lis in this race because she will work effectively to help our community,” Prussing said in a press release. “We need more strong women in Con-gress, and Ann has a proven record of bringing people together and get-ting results.”

She also discussed the importance of working with others as an elect-ed official.

“I was in the Illinois legislature and the women from the Democrats and the Republicans got together and they said, ‘There’s lots of things that we disagree on, what are the things we agree on, and we can work on those and get them done.’ And that’s what we did,” Prussing said in an interview. “That’s the approach you have to take, that you don’t know every-thing and you have to listen to people from very different view-points and try to find common ground.”

Gerard said he is not pleased with the 13th district’s cur-rent representation in Congress, and looks forward to the possibility of Callis serving the commu-nity at the federal level.

“I was not happy with the gov-ernment shutdown, that was some-thing I thought was just reckless and irresponsible and I let Congressman (Rodney) Davis know that,” he said. “But I’m also extraordinarily dis-satisfied as a mayor in the heart of agriculture country, as well as at the University of Illinois where we have several thousand internation-

al students, that there has been no focus on much needed immigration reform.”

As mayor of Champaign, Gerard said he is in a bipartisan position and works with elected officials regard-less of party.

“I do support Democratic candi-dates, but the fact of the matter is,

I support people who have views, plans and ini-tiatives that are going to directly produce positive results for the peo-ple of our commu-nity and this area,” he said. “At this time, and in get-ting to know Ann, I feel very strong-ly that she will be passionate and work to get things

done in Washington.”Callis also received an endorse-

ment from the Champaign Coun-ty Young Democrats. Scott Reden-baugh, president of the group, cited her judicial experience as an impor-tant factor in that decision.

“She is exactly the kind of candi-date we need to run against Rodney Davis,” he said. “She’s got a record of bringing people together, which I

think is the most sought after thing right now in Washington D.C.”

Champaign County residents George Gollin, University profes-sor of Physics, and David Green, who works at the University’s Institute of Government and Public Affair, are running against Callis in the Democratic primary. While Pruss-ing said she liked Gollin, she said she preferred Callis for her level of experience.

Both Redenbaugh and Prussing mentioned Callis’ implementation of a foreclosure mediation program and the first Veterans’ Court in Illi-nois as examples of the beneficial work she has already done as a pub-lic servant.

Redenbaugh also mentioned Callis’ support of marriage equality, repro-ductive rights, alternative energy and strengthening the Affordable Care Act rather than repealing it, as Rep. Davis said he would.

“I am honored to have such strong and broad support in Champaign County,” Callis said. “I’ve come to truly love this community and the people who live here. I am excited to get to work on their behalf and advocate for our shared values in Washington.”

Eleanor can be reached at eablack2@dailyillini.com.

Local officials support Callis for Congress

“I support people who have views, plans and

initiatives that are going to directly produce positive results.”

DON GERARDCHAMPAIGN MAYOR

BRIAN YU THE DAILY ILLINIAnn Callis speaks at a public forum held for candidates for Congressional representation of the 13th district of Illinois on Feb. 20 at Champaign City Council chambers.

Office and Illinois State Police. Together, these organizations will enforce laws regarding underage drinking, private parties, drunk driving and overcrowded balconies.

This year, a grant that Community Elements received from the Illinois Department of Human Services will help fund more than 100 man hours for Unofficial, said Traci Hayward, project coordinator for the grant and Community Elements representative.

In coalition with local law enforcement agencies, the Champaign Fire Department

wi l l conduct ba lcony inspections and cite tenants that fail to comply with overcrowding regulations. The fire department, along with police, will also look for individuals throwing objects from balconies.

“By the Champaign city ordinance, the tenants are responsible for the conduct of their attendees at the party,” Clark said. “So if there is somebody on their balcony and they are throwing stuff, we will cite the tenants if we don’t identify which person it is.”

To mitigate the chances of breaking the law, officials said hosts should adhere to the following safety tips: Keep parties small, allow only invited

guests and ensure that all individuals consuming alcohol are at least 21 years of age. Hosts that violate the law will face state criminal charges rather than a city ordinance violation.

While local law enforcement practices strict zero tolerance laws during Unofficial, extraneous circumstances will affect the assertion of some penalties. For example, individuals should not fear prosecution if dealing with alcohol poisoning or other life-threatening situations.

“We want people to call 9-1-1 when one of their friends is in danger,” Clark said. “You will not receive a citation from any of the local agencies for

calling 9-1-1 for the person who is intoxicated and the Dean’s Office, as long as you stay and cooperate”

In preparation for Unofficial, many of the organizations present at the press conference participated in last week’s Walk as One, an attempt to spread alcohol safety information to the student body. During the walk, student participants knocked on about 4,000 doors on the Champaign side of campus. An additional 20,000 students received the information through their property managers.

To target the largest possible population, law enforcement has also given safety presentations to multiple student groups over

the past weeks and, starting Monday, public safety agencies will utilize social media to spread safety information throughout the week.

Still, much of the problem lies outside of the University’s scope.

“I think that over half our arrests last year came from students who were not University of Illinois students,” Clark said. “We relate this to Super Bowl weekend. There are probably more private parties on Super Bowl weekend in this community than we have on Unofficial, yet we don’t have the problems ... It’s the individuals that come here from other communities, from out of state, that don’t respect the campus,

that have no ties to the campus. They’re the ones that cause the majority of the problems for us.”

The University will not hesitate to contact other schools regarding their students’ actions during Unofficial. While law enforcement and public safety agencies have worked to create the safest possible atmosphere, most of the responsibility lies with the participants.

“The students need to realize that their conduct on Unofficial is reported to the University,” Clark said. “It can lead to sanctions all the way up to dismissal.”

Chris can be reached at pullam2@dailyillini.com.

UNOFFICIALFROM 3A

SENATE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Executive committee addresses budget, strikesBY MARYCATE MOSTSTAFF WRITER

At its Monday meeting, the Urbana-Champaign Senate Exec-utive Committee deliberated on the University budget, non-ten-ure track faculty, strikes at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a new standing committee.

Strikes in ChicagoSenate Executive Commit-

tee Chair Roy Campbell asked the committee to consider the strike that occurred after fac-ulty unionized at University of Illinois at Chicago.

“How do we learn from our sister campus that seems to be upset?” Campbell asked commit-tee members.

Joyce Tolliver, General Uni-versity Policy Committee chair, spoke out about some of her con-cerns for unionization on the Urbana-Champaign campus.

“What we should learn from this is that if you unionize, we

might strike,” Tolliver said. “Beyond that, I just don’t think there is any real benefit to SEC sort of examining the validity of the demands and the validity of the administration.”

Campbell mentioned that the Senate also considered the Uni-versity of Illinois at Chicago strike as an opportunity to look into the Urbana campus’ notions of shared governance.

“I would like someone at least to think about just how the sit-uation occurred and whether there really are any issues that we would need to deal with in the way we think about shared governance to make sure that no one is feeling the same way they obviously feel in Chicago,” Camp-bell said.

Non-tenured track faculty

In light of the debate that arose over non-tenure track faculty at the Urbana-Champaign Sen-ate’s February meeting, Execu-

tive Vice Provost Barbara Wilson decided it was time to ask non-tenure track faculty members what they would like to be called.

“If this is a term that we are going to use with that group of employees, we want to make sure that feels right to them,” Wil-son said. “We want to go back at it for an endorsement of the principles.”

All 770 non-tenure track fac-ulty members received a survey asking what they wanted to be referred to as, including titles such as specialized, NTT and other options.

University budget presentation

The senate also discussed the University budget, which was presented by Chair of the Senate Committee on the Budget Mike Sandretto.

Sandretto said the University has $800 million in excess cash. This excess — money that has not yet been allotted to cover any

specific cost — was the subject of much confusion. The University, however, has a variety of poten-tial expenses that it will likely need to pay for by the end of the year. Excess funds will likely cover these potential expenses, which may include pension funds that need to be supplemented, additional faculty salaries and additional office space.

Because of the confusion, the Senate Executive Committee voted to hold further discussion about making a clear budget pre-sentation before presenting it to the full senate.

“We don’t want people to leave more confused or with errone-ous information,” said Sen-ate Executive Committee Vice Chair Kim Graber. “It is just too important, and people are too, right now, invested in and sensitive to the budget because of the pensions. We don’t want them to think, ‘there is all this money,’ and nobody is thinking about their pension. It is a dan-

gerous time, and we have to be extra careful.”

Information Technology Com-mittee Chair John Hart also raised some concerns about wording in the presentation that suggested that Illinois had no option but to reduce pension benefits.

“(At) Eastern Illinois (Univer-sity), they listed out a bunch of choices that the state could have made to avoid the (pension) situ-ation they are in now,” Hart said. “The use of the past tense makes it sound like the state didn’t have a choice. That is arguable. They could do a lot of things.”

Compensation Review Standing Committee

Senate Executive Commit-tee members also brought up the proposed Compensation Review Standing Committee, which would address faculty and staff compensation as a whole — beyond benefits — which the Aca-

demic Faculty and Staff Benefits Committee will still be respon-sible for.

The main question at hand was whether or not the commit-tee should become its own sepa-rate entity, or whether it should be combined with the benefits committee.

“I’m really not sure why this wouldn’t fall under the Commit-tee for Academic Faculty and Staff Benefits Committee,” said graduate student Calvin Lear. “It just seems to me that it would be easier to fold them into that.”

Tolliver disagreed, saying that the proposed committee would also include key elements such as salary inequities, vacation time, sick leave, tenure rollbacks and other elements.

Choosing members for this standing committee is set to be discussed at the senate’s next full meeting March 10.

MaryCate can be reached at most2@dailyillini.com.

Research Park director shows possible job growth in UrbanaBY ELI MURRAYSTAFF WRITER

At the Urbana City Council meeting Tuesday, Laura Fre-richs, director of the Universi-ty’s Research Park gave a pre-sentation on how the city could improve on technology sectors.

Frerichs detailed Research Park’s Business Cluster Devel-opment Report for attendants. The report calls for a focus on the development of three busi-ness clusters: data analytics, management and computing; energy; and biomedical and bio-engineering. These clusters were chosen for the strong foundation already provided for them by the community and the high growth opportunities for each of them.

Carol Ammons, Ward 3, expressed concern that with the growth of technology-based sec-tors, the community would need to find a way to train potential job candidates. Frerichs said Research Park was in discus-sion with different departments at the University and Parkland College to offer short courses that non-students could register for and gain training to work in the technology field. As an exam-ple, Frerichs cited mobile app development courses offered by Research Park.

Frerichs said she would like to see the community market itself as an attractive location for pro-fessionals who have families. She said the diversity of downtown

Urbana is a start to attracting families, but that Urbana could benefit from a more complete wireless network, as well as an extension of UC2B so that pro-fessionals could conduct business from home.

Bill Brown, Ward 4, said he thought Urbana offers a com-munity that encourages creative development. He cited the suc-cess of NCSA Mosaic, an early web browser created by Univer-sity researchers, which he said received creative support from the community.

With this collaboration in place, he said he can see oth-er businesses thriving in the community.

The meeting wrapped up with a

report on curbanas by Kate Fer-rer, Urbana’s economic develop-ment specialist.

Traditionally called parklets, curbanas are wooden platforms that extend into parking spaces along the street. The structures are not permanent and would only be in use during the late-spring into mid-fall seasons. Along with allowing for public seating, cur-banas would also offer local busi-nesses café-style outdoor seating.

Curbanas are a space for public seating along Main Street. Park-lets have become more common in urban areas across the U.S., Ferrer said.

Mike Madigan, Ward 6, expressed concerns that down-town Urbana was currently in a

state of major growth and that it may not be beneficial to take away parking spots along Main Street.

The curbana pilot program is set to run from April to October of this year.

Other matters addressed during the meeting

— Mayor Laurel Prussing said she was in the process of selecting members for the Traf-fic Stop Study Task Force and would bring it before council for approval at the next Urbana City Council meeting on March 17.

— Urbana City Council approved 7-1 an ordinance allowing for a reallocation of

Tax Increment Financing funds to create a seating area in the northeast corner of parking lot 10-X at Lincoln Square Village. The new seating will primarily serve patrons of Market at the Square, a gathering place for local food growers and venders, artists, and community mem-bers, but also the tenants and patrons of Lincoln Square. The total cost of the seating area, which will triple the current seating capacity, is $22,000. Of the total cost, half is being fund-ed by TIF District #2; the other half is being funded by Market at the Square.

Eli can be reached at ejmurra2@dailyillini.com.

OPINIONS4ATUESDAY

SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS | opinions@dailyillini.com with the subject “Letter to the Editor.” The Daily Illini reserves the right to edit for length, libel, grammar and spelling errors, and Daily Illini style or to reject any contri-butions. Letters must be limited to 300 words. Contributions must be typed and include the author’s name, address and phone number. University students must include their year in school and college.

S ince the dawn of stardom in America, celebrities have formed a reputation of not

always treating their fans with the respect they deserve.

What is it exactly, though, that prompts such disparaging opin-ions about celebrities? Could it be their ignorance to the role fans have in their own financial suc-cess? Perhaps it’s their inability to be punctual to their own per-formances and events. Or maybe it’s their unwavering refusal to sign autographs when confronted in a public space.

Despite these reoccurring mis-conducts, as a society we tend to look at our favorite stars through rose-colored glasses, enabling their immunity from transgres-sions the rest of us would nev-er get away with. Recently, this concept of a “celebrity get-out-of-jail-free card” was personi-fied on our own campus, when The Ellen DeGeneres Show visited the University.

This past Monday, like much of the student body, I found myself making the trek from the com-fort of my apartment all the way to the Quad to respond to a tweet that famed talk show host Ellen DeGeneres had posted the night before.

Word of Ellen’s “big surprise” quickly circulated by word of mouth and across social media. As a result of the excitement gen-erated by this event, students seemed to pay little concern to that fact that in order to experi-ence “Ellen-palooza” they would

be required to venture out into subfreezing weather conditions. According to Weather.com, at 3 p.m. on Feb. 24, Champaign’s tem-perature was recorded at a frig-id 16 degrees, but felt closer to 6 degrees.

However, despite inclement weather, a group of friends and myself left my apartment at a quarter till 3 to see the super star talk show host grace our campus. When we arrived at the Quad our excitement was tangible, playful-ly discussing the endless possi-bilities of what Ellen’s “big sur-prise” was going to be.

However, by 3:30 with the bit-ter cold beginning to make its impact felt and still no Ellen in sight, disappointment, as well as the shivers, began to set in. Near-ing 4 p.m., an entire hour after Ellen had told the student body to come to the Quad, she was still nowhere to be found. As time con-tinued to wear on, it was becom-ing apparent that the waiting students were growing more and more impatient.

Finally, after an hour and 15 minutes, at around 4:15, Ellen’s University of Illinois Spectacular was finally underway. Just like that, in day-and-night fashion, the collective frown of the audi-ence “turned upside down” and Ellen was forgiven.

On my walk home from the Quad, I couldn’t help but reflect on the inconsideration Ellen had demonstrated earlier that day. Why exactly was it OK for her to show up an hour and 15 min-utes late, making 4,500 people wait outside in what feels like 6 degree weather? Yet, for com-mon-folk like you or I, if were to show up 15 minutes late for a date, forcing one person to wait, it would be considered a travesty.

Why is this you ask? It is simple: as a society we are infatuated with celebrities.

According to James Houran, a psychologist from Southern Illi-nois University School of Medi-cine, our love for celebrities has gone beyond infatuation and into obsession. In an interview with ABC News, he referred to this psychiatric condition as “celebri-ty worship syndrome.”

“(Celebrity worship syndrome) is an unhealthy interest in the lives of the rich and fabulous. According to the researchers, about a third of us have it to some degree,” said Houran.

If Houran’s calculations are correct, that means that out of the 4,500 students present at Ellen-Mania, 1,485 of them would be diagnosed with CWS. When this is taken into deliberation, it is no wonder why Ellen feels she has the right to “show up” over an hour late to her own event. This is because in modern day society, celebrities are looked up to in god-like fashion.

According to “The World in a Frame: What We See in Films,” written by University of Southern California English professor Leo Braudy, celebrities often admit to how easy it is for them to begin thinking “they are the greatest thing in the world.”

When looked at from the per-spective of the celebrity them-selves we can begin to see the role fans have in their creation. Similar to the mad scientist who created Frankenstein, we are to blame for creating Kayne West, Tom Cruise and even our very own Ellen DeGeneres.

Jed is a junior in Media. He can be reached at jedlacy2@dailyillini.com.

I consider myself an adopted son of the city of Champaign. I was not born here, nor was I raised here. I began my jour-

ney here in fall 2010, and that is when I became a part of the Champaign-Urbana community.

I am a firm believer that it is important for people within a community to give back to the place where they live.

The Daily Bread Soup Kitchen has been giving back to Champaign since August 2009, and the hungry can find a meals there.

The soup kitchen is currently housed at the New Covenant’s Fellowship Hall and serves lunch to about 250 people on weekdays, according to the News-Gazette. Additionally, about one-third of the guests who come to eat are believed to be homeless. The rest have homes but usually can’t afford to get food.

It is rumored that the soup kitchen is scheduling to move into the old Emerald City Lounge building on First Street. It is about a block away from University Ave-nue and is close to downtown Champaign. But some of the businesses of North First Street have their reservations about the move.

Many business owners said they do not want the type of people the Daily Bread Soup Kitchen attracts hanging around their stores and restaurants. Many of these business owners are presumably afraid that individuals who are home-less, or anyone seeking food from Daily Bread, might turn away costumers from their businesses.

Although not always the case, people tend to generalize homeless individuals as non-ideal citizens. If people see home-less individuals around local businesses, they might assume that it’s a poor area, that there’s a lot of crime or that the presence of homeless individuals is relat-ed to the quality of the business. People, for whatever reason, tend to feel uncom-fortable around homeless individuals, whether it’s because we think they’ll ask for a handout or because we’re guilty of not giving something back.

This speaks volumes to the perceptions of the homeless or impoverished people that some still have. Not all homeless individuals are criminals, poor or drug-users — it is a fallacy to automatically assume any of those things.

It shouldn’t matter what types of peo-ple come out to the soup kitchen because the only thing that is important is how the land is being used. The Emerald City Lounge building could be used for some-thing good that benefits the community.

But it’s this very stigma — held by First Street business owners and its cus-tomers — that is preventing the Dai-ly Bread Soup Kitchen from possibly expanding into its own location. It’s also preventing other businesses that work similarly to soup kitchens from estab-lishing their presences in downtown Champaign.

The soup kitchen’s current location only allows it to operate during the week. Its goal is to find a venue where it has its own building and can serve people seven days a week.

Champaign city officials want to change the rules on zoning, and city council members are to have an upcom-ing meeting in which they will likely change zoning rules so that soup kitch-ens are regulated exactly like for-profit organizations.

The main provision they will have to address is the Zoning Ordinance, or Chapter 37 of the City of Champaign’s Municipal Code, which states that “res-taurants shall mean an establishment in which food, refreshments, or bever-ages are offered for sale for consump-tion in the building or at tables on the lot in which the establishment is located.” Since the Daily Bread does not charge its customers for food, it is technically not a restaurant under Municipal Code.

The zoning change would not only ben-efit the Daily Bread; it would also make room for other soup kitchens to form in business districts that could reach to a wider population of homeless individuals or others. The zoning change could also make room for creative restaurants to open up in the business districts.

Most of all, the zoning change could allow the Daily Bread to have an even bigger impact than it already has. By being in a more central location, not only is it in an ideal spot, it would show that the Champaign community is willing to have a soup kitchen near the heart of its business district.

The Daily Bread Soup Kitchen has been giving back to the community by providing food for those that are hungry. This type of public service gives hope to the community and shows a great amount of respect we have for other humans. As an adopted son of the city, I can only support this change in the zoning law because stigmas toward homeless indi-viduals should have no place in prevent-ing the establishment of a business that can truly benefit the entire community.

Thaddeus is a senior in LAS. He can be reached at chatto1@dailyillini.com. Follow him on Twitter @Thaddingham.

Evidenced by events circling Facebook and a recent local spike in the sale of green

T-shirts on campus, Unofficial is coming as it has every year since 1996, and there is virtually noth-ing that can stop it at this point.

Much to the chagrin of the Uni-versity administration, and the Champaign, Urbana and Univer-sity police departments, recent attempts to stop this high-risk, student-driven event by limiting the sale of alcohol and prohibit-ing guests in the dorms have not succeeded. Last year, Carle Hos-pital and Pro Ambulance together reported 26 ambulance calls and 15 hospital walk-ins — an increase from the 22 medical calls and 1 hospital walk-in reported in 2012.

In order to try and reduce the number of medical calls made on Unofficial, more efforts should be put toward promoting responsi-bility and awareness as opposed to prohibition. For example, with the ACE IT alcohol safety and awareness program required for every new undergraduate and some transfer students at the Uni-versity, students already know the effects and potential dangers that come with drinking alcohol and the consequences that come with doing so illegally. The ACE IT program is only available for

University students, which could account for the fact that 70 per-cent of enforcement action taken on Unofficial last year was against people who were not associated with the University.

The fact that commendable attempts by local administrations have proved ineffective revolves around a fundamental concept: The underage drinker who is already willing to go against state law, as well as the 21-year-old who makes it down to campus to take part in the craze that is Unoffi-cial, is unlikely to pay much mind to any temporary laws enforced by local authorities.

It should be noted that some of these laws are effective. For example, the requirement for all bars to serve drinks in paper or plastic cups on Unofficial is meant to prevent the spread of an epi-demic that could stem from poor-ly washed glassware.

However, laws preventing the sale of alcohol before 11 a.m., lim-iting residents to one keg, and prohibiting pitchers of beer and shots of hard liquor are excessive laws that impede on the rights that residents, as well as bar and restaurant owners, have on the other 364 days of the year. Telling someone that ordering a pitcher of beer or shot of whiskey at 10:59 a.m. is not allowed on March 7, versus purchasing the exact same pitcher and shot before 11 a.m. on any other day of the year, is hard-ly productive.

This is not to say that admin-istrators and police officials

shouldn’t do anything against an event they see as a threat to community safety. Despite the increase in the number of medi-cal calls last year, the severity of the injuries that were reported during Unofficial 2013 decreased. This, according to a report by the Champaign Police Department, is mainly credited to poor weather and the “Walk as One” education-al awareness event conducted last year (and this year), where the University partnered with local property management companies and law enforcement to distrib-ute safety information to local residents and students — prov-ing the effectiveness of raising awareness.

From a safety perspective, the 18-year-old who took one shot at 8 a.m. isn’t as big of a concern as the 22-year-old who chugged 30 beers and doesn’t know his limits. Even with students being aware of drinking hazards, local authorities still aren’t comfort-able looking at the dangerous sta-tistics that plague this annual cel-ebration. With new laws limiting liquor sales passed for this year, we will have to wait and see if they are effective in lowering the medical calls made on Unofficial 2014.

Until then, be safe University of Illinois!

Stephanie is a sophomore in LAS. She can be reached at syousse2@dailyillini.com. Follow her on Twitter @syoussef22.

THE DAILY ILLINI

EDITORIALEditorial Board

endorses Lucas Frye

Does stardom excuse basic faux pas?JED LACY

Opinions columnist

Although the Univer-sity boasts it’s the most diverse Big Ten school, this school is far from being as in-

clusive as it aspires to be.Two University students per-

suaded the Board of Trustees to discuss the addition of gen-der confirmation surgery to the student health insurance plan, which, unlike several of the Uni-versity’s peer institutions in-cluding the University of Illi-nois at Chicago, lags behind on inclusiveness.

This semester, the board also voted to increase tuition by a small 1.7 percent, but that’s an increase that could prevent a lower-income student from af-fording or attending the Univer-sity.

Nearly 30 percent of the stu-dents here are non-white, but, as the January Twitter scan-dal fiasco regarding a potential snow day showed, we are far from accepting and understand-ing these racial differences. The NCAA banned the racist use of Chief Illiniwek almost a de-cade ago, yet a contentious de-bate among students and alumni about the mascot’s use contin-ues.

Among all of this, students will be asked to vote for the next student trustee, who can help to reconcile all of this and more. After Lucas Frye, junior in ACES, and Nick Reinberg, ju-nior in LAS, debated at the Illi-ni Union Thursday evening, and after considering their stances on several issues important to students, The Daily Illini Edito-rial Board endorses Lucas Frye for student trustee. We do so, though, with only a slight reser-vation but knowing he’s the bet-ter choice.

As a highly involved student and campus leader, Frye’s sig-nature campaign point is that he would like to convene leaders of registered student organiza-tions to gauge the most impor-tant issues facing students. It’s a commendable effort, but it’s one that has been echoed by sever-al past student trustees, too, but none of them have yet to cre-ate a forum large enough or ef-ficient enough to live up to their initial expectations. We fear that without a concrete plan already, this is doomed to fail again.

If successful, the convention could unite a diverse campus that does a lot of talking but not much conversing.

Frye wants to increase aware-ness of all of the resources the University has to offer. He said that he alone cannot control if tuition goes up, but he can make sure that we get our money’s worth while we’re here.

But on a slew of other issues, Frye remains wishy-washy on his stances, opting often to an-swer questions with “Every-one has their own perspec-tive,” instead of providing his perspective. Reinberg, for his part, tended to respond similar-ly. Hearing out others’ opinions and ideas is necessary , but it must be done in tandem with ac-tionable objectives.

Because the student trust-ee, with a possibly legally bind-ing vote, is one of the most di-rect routes students have to the Board of Trustees, which sets tuition, approves changes to health care and directs other policies across the University system, we expect that he know the needs of the campus. Frye seems to understand this, and we think he will meticulously consider agenda before vot-ing, even if we think he could take a more hardline stance in promoting inclusiveness and diversity.

Laws not key to safety on Unofficial

Current laws inhibit establishment of

soup kitchensTHADDEUS CHATTO

Opinions columnist

STEPHANIE YOUSSEF

Opinions columnist

What happens when Ellen DeGeneres hosts the Oscars? Pizza. Pizza everywhere. That’s what

happens. We didn’t know Meryl could smile, let alone smile for pizza. Kerry Washington politely declined, citing absence of red wine as her prime complaint. Brad Pitt handed out plates and then had a slice of his own — and we all still want a slice of him. For all we know, this is probably the closest we’ll ever get to

a celebrity — ordering pizza, that is.

Q U I C K COMMENTARY

Quick Commentary delivers bits of relevant and important issues on campus or elsewhere. We write it, rate it and stamp it. When something happens that we are not

pleased with: DI Denied. When something happens that we like: Alma Approved.

On Sunday at a pre-Oscars party, the greatest meeting of two celebrities to ever occur happened between Snoop Dogg — or lion, or tiger, or bear, or whatever — and Oprah Winfrey. The two had a bit of animosity back in the day because Oprah made

a statement about her dislike of rap music, but apparently the air has been cleared between the two. Oprah posted a photo of them on Instagram saying, “Our first meeting. Say WHAAAT??!! #Oscarparty,”

and probably followed that up with, “And YOU get a car, and YOU get a car...” Meanwhile, Snoop Dogg

posted the picture onto his Twitter and appropriately captioned it “a boss n a queen!”

THE DAILY ILLINI | WWW.DAILYILLINI.COM Tuesday, March 4, 2014 5A

EDUMACATION JOHNIVAN DARBY

BEARDO DAN DOUGHERTY

DOONESBURY GARRY TRUDEAU

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

14 15 16

17 18 19

20 21 22

23 24 25 26 27

28 29 30 31 32 33

34 35 36 37 38 39

40 41 42 43

44 45 46 47

48 49 50

51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58

59 60 61 62 63

64 65 66 67

68 69 70

71 72 73

DOWN 1 Relaxing spots 2 Crunchy sandwich 3 Vast 4 Like the Marx Brothers 5 Like some vision 6 Tapestry-making aids 7 Gold standard 8 Its appearance is

deceiving 9 Torahs, for example10 Marker letters11 Aerobics done to

Chubby Checker mu-sic?

12 Forearm bone13 Head-turner21 Eternally

22 Like Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, religiously: Abbr.

26 Farm sound27 Real mix-up28 Didn’t go anywhere for

dinner29 Give a hobbit a ring?30 It’s about a foot31 Prompter32 Raid targets35 Eyebrow shape36 Rank above maj.39 In the vicinity41 One known for talking

back?44 Extreme, as measures46 Orange exterior

49 Channel with the catchword “Drama”

51 South American cow-boy

53 Home of the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building

54 Desktop pictures55 Fours on a course,

often56 Thin strip58 Cinnabon purchase59 Haunted house sound60 Former baseball com-

missioner Giamatti61 Comics canine63 Kimono sash

The crossword solution is in the Classified section.

ACROSS 1 Stern’s opposite 5 Varieties 9 Exercise unit14 One of the Smurfs15 Father of Ham16 Monastery wear17 ___ rock18 Fit ___ king19 Archaeological site20 Celebration dance after a

goal?23 Sr.’s challenge24 “Stop!”25 Oodles27 Combat engineer30 Separated, as a couple33 Degree in math?34 Get through to37 Part of a drum kit38 Many millennia40 Sag42 They’re tapped43 Like many traffic violators in

court45 E.M.T.’s cry before using a

defibrillator47 Network that airs the Soul

Train Music Awards48 Find, as at an archaeological

site50 Hardships52 Stuff in a muffin53 Goddess of the hunt55 Letter before omega57 Punched out

a Disney elephant?62 Ration out64 Slender reed65 It may be checked, in more

ways than one66 “Fiddler on the Roof” charac-

ter67 Rural route68 Politico Gary69 Impassive70 It’s just one thing after an-

other71 Not duped by

NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD

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TECHNOGRAPH

107.1WPGU

Patel said. Additionally, when you are

about to post something onto your Facebook account, Emi-ly Wickstrom, assistant direc-tor of The Career Center, said to assume that everything you post can be seen.

“Even if you change your name, your email is still attached to your account,” Wickstrom said.

She urged students to be more cautious when they post content; even a great resume can be ruined by having inap-propriate and negative posts on your Facebook account. Depending on the company and recruiter, future employers do check social media accounts, she said.

However, Sarah Herberg, sophomore in ACES, said she is not too worried about her Face-book account.

“I have certain privacy set-tings in place, but because I check my Facebook so much I don’t utilize them all,” she said.

Specifically, Herberg said she does not use the “Time-line Review” function because “everything gets around one way or another.” The only time Herberg monitors her privacy is if she does not want certain family members to see what she

posts, she said. The Facebook Desktop Help

section states that “Timeline review is a tool that lets you approve or reject posts that you’ve been tagged in before they go on your Timeline.”

No matter what Facebook privacy settings are in place, everyone has the potential to see what you post.

“Think of it as a permanent record,” Wickstrom said.

David can be reached at rothmun2@dailyillini.com.

PRIVACYFROM 6A

UNIVERSALFROM 6A

Emily Wickstrom, assistant director of The Career Center, suggested fi ve Facebook “don’ts” if one is seeking any form of employment:

Don’t speak badly about anyone.

Don’t mix personal and professional work — use LinkedIn to contact future employers.

Don’t complain about jobs in any capacity.

Don’t have a bad profi le picture — have a professional headshot.

Don’t have false information on your “About Me” section.

ple seven times more than Twit-ter when looking at both PC and smartphone usage, and in the PC-smartphone Engagement Index, Facebook scores the high-est out of other social network-ing apps and sites such as Ins-tagram, Twitter, Snapchat and Whatsapp.

Though Holland Nickerson, junior in LAS, doesn’t spend the majority of her time on the web-site, she is a supporter of it and sees it as a “helpful asset.” She is also not worried about sharing her pictures with others, as she said she doesn’t post anything she wouldn’t want others to see.

“I’m not a conspiracy theorist, I don’t really think people are watching us,” Nickerson said. “I enjoy it and use it at face-value and keep in touch with the peo-ple I want to keep in touch with.”

Nonetheless, Nickerson does have moments in which she realiz-es only an hour and half later that she is still on Facebook. But, she says, these are the symptoms that accompany all social media sites.

“It exposes you to things that you wouldn’t normally be exposed to,” Nickerson said. “Good and bad, I’m defi nitely guilty of being on it way too long.”

Alice can be reached at smelyan2@dailyillini.com.

Women’s History Month has limited awarenessBY MAGGIE O’CONNORSTAFF WRITER

As the calendar fl ips from the month of candy hearts and valentines, President’s Day and Black History to the month of Unoffi cial St. Patrick’s Day, dreaded midterms and the long-anticipated spring break, students may not realize that March has been recognized for more than 100 years as Women’s History Month. And, maybe that limited awareness has to do with the lack of University publicity surrounding the month-long holiday.

In recent years, Jacque Kahn, academic adviser and administrative coordinator in Gender and Women Studies, said that she has seen a decline in the amount of programming implemented to celebrate Women’s History Month.

Although the Women’s Resource Center will continue to offer women-supportive events during March, the International Women’s Day Banquet held in previous years will not take place this year, but the center will host a screening of the fi lm “Girl Rising.” The cancellation of the banquet is due partially to what Rachel Storm , assistant director of the Women’s Resource Center, called a “saturation” of Women’s History Month programming by other departments in the University community. However, the Gender and Women’s Studies Department also does not offer any programming specifi c to the commemoration of this year’s Women’s History Month or International Women’s Day on March 8. A cultural programming fund in Gender and Women’s Studies used to support posters and advertisements, but Kahn said that as focuses have shifted within faculty and student interests, so has the amount of attention surrounding Women’s History Month.

She said that other University and student groups used to step forward, but as time went by, she found less and less units offering events for women’s history, and at some point didn’t have anything to put on the posters.

“(Women’s History Month) is still important, but I think that it’s not something our department wants to focus our time and energy on right now, and it is not where the scholarship is right now,” Kahn explained.

In fact, within this month, the

Gender and Women’s History Symposium seems to be the only major event scheduled to specifi cally address March as Women’s History Month.

Perhaps, said both Kahn and Storm, it is because the major campus units that work with gender issues are immersed in them for 11 other months out of the year.

Or maybe it is the fact that Kahn said “those months are not for those who inhabit those identities; it’s for those who don’t think about them.”

Additionally, Deirdre Ruscitti , graduate student in History and co-chair of the symposium, said people tend to lump women into an one over-arching category, neglecting the ways in which they are complex.

Kahn said the work of early feminists centered on bringing women back into history and literature and to “recover what had been left out.” While this effort is not done completely, the focus has shifted to studying gender as a question of identity, the intersections between gender and race, gender and class, and gender and ethnicity.

That’s one of the reasons why it is fi tting that the Gender and Women’s History Symposium, which ran Feb. 27 to March 1, falls between Black History Month and Women’s History Month, Ruscitti said.

“One of the things we’ve tried to promote a lot is intersectionality — so paying attention not only to gender but also to race within feminism,” she said.

Calling it a “symbolic way to bring together the two of them,” Ruscitti said that it is important to be conscious of the ways that feminism and the study of women have excluded demographics and to work toward a more comprehensive idea of what it means to study women’s history.

“Feminism doesn’t mean anything if people are blocked off because they feel that their concerns aren’t being heard,” she said.

And, while the University’s Women’s History Month programming may not be as visible as in previous years, Ruscitti said she believes history is still an important part of understanding the roots of the shifts in feminist study and fi guring out how to move

forward.“So much of how we act

and the social constraints we feel (come from somewhere),” Ruscitti said. “I think by studying history we get a richer idea of who we are and why we are the way we are. When we understand all the years that have gone into shaping the forces that make us who we are ... I don’t think that’s something we get by studying just the present.”

It is when feminism is defi ned by a narrow set of issues, such as women’s suffrage or jobs outside the home, that a false illusion of progress can distract from the fact that many different kinds of oppression still face women today, Storm said.

However, it is still relevant to study these issues today, she said. Discrepancies in pay and the positions available to women, mass incarceration, violence against women of color, reproductive rights and violence against migrant women are just a few of the prevailing struggles for women-identifi ed individuals, Storm said.

“If you came up in the public education system in the United States, it’s very likely that the stories that you’ve heard were primarily from able-bodied, cisgendered, white men who are relatively middle class,” Storm said. “There’s defi nitely a need to broaden whose stories are told during Women’s History Month.”

Maggie can be reached at oconno36@dailyillini.com.

It’s 2014 and women still face inequality and discrimination.:

Women currently hold 4.6 percent of Fortune 500 CEO positions.

85 percent of domestic violence victims are women.

In 2012, 53 percent of anti-LGBT homicide victims were transgender women, up 13 percent from 2011.

SOURCES: U.S. CENSUS BUREAU, THE NATIONAL COALITION AGAINST

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, CATALYST.ORG AND THE NATIONAL COALITION OF ANTI-

VIOLENCE PROGRAMS

A picture-worthy victory

ROBERT GAUTHIER LA TIMESSteve McQueen pumps his fi st and trophy into the air as “12 Years a Slave” celebrates on stage during the 86th annual Academy Awards on Sunday at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center in Los Angeles.

6A | TUESDAY, MARCH 4, 2014 | WWW.DAILYILLINI.COM

LIFE CULTURE

THEDAILYILLINI

YOUChallenge?

Up To The

Are

BY ALICE SMELYANSKYSTAFF WRITER

As of Jan. 29, according to Digital Marketing Ramblings, there are 1.23 billion people posting statuses, checking their newsfeeds and creating profiles on the website notoriously known for its addictive qualities: Facebook. But as prevalent as Facebook is today, not all are linked in to the site. Hailey Mulliner, junior in LAS, said she refuses to create a Facebook profile, and has been living without one for about a year now.

“I never really used it that often, but when I did have it, I would find myself on it for almost over an hour before (I’d) realize that (I’m) just on someone’s page that (I) maybe went to high school with looking at some pictures,” Mulliner said.

During her freshman year at the University, Mulliner’s parents were involved in a car accident that received media attention. As a result, many students from her high school, even people she did not know, began contacting Mulliner for details about the accident. Feeling as if they were invading her privacy, Mulliner made the decision to deactivate her account and only briefly activated it again for a class group on Facebook.

“I don’t understand how people love it,” she said. “I guess that’s cool, but in my opinion, if someone is important enough to you, you’ll talk to them and know about their life.”

Similar to Mulliner, Mandy Rodio, sophomore in Media, does not feel compelled to go on the site. However, she said she does have an account to stay in touch with groups for her sorority and for registered student organizations.

“Without a Facebook, there’s literally no way I would be able to be a part of anything on this campus,” Rodio said.

In addition to the necessity she sees because of her extra-curricular activities, Rodio is an advertising major, and must stay up-to-date with social media, viewing it as the best way to reach audiences.

“That’s the number one way to reach people, so it’s kind of something you can’t escape at this point,” she said.

Rodio also believes that the site decreases her productiv-ity and has the power to suck her in for hours.

According to “Business Insider,” Facebook attracts peo-

BY DAVID ROTHMUND STAFF WRITER

To sign up for an account, you must enter a name, birthday, gender and email address into the form, and then choose a unique password. After completing the form, it will send a confirmation link to finalize the sign up process.

It is Facebook. In a matter of minutes after signing up, Facebook can help a new user reach hundreds of old friends, colleagues, family members and all the in-betweens.

With more than 1.23 billion users, Facebook has enabled users to share what is on their minds, add photos and videos or even create social groups.

However, when you sign up for Facebook and agrees to all terms and conditions, Facebook has access to more per-sonal information than what you may assume.

Since Feb. 4, 2004 — when Facebook was founded — its privacy terms and conditions have changed, and so have its sharing abilities. You can find tagged photos through search engines, share or embed statuses onto any website or blog without a user’s knowledge, and now most recently — share photos a user hid from his timeline, making them not so “hidden.”

The Facebook Desktop Help section states that “when you hide a photo or post you’re tagged in on your Timeline, or adjust your Timeline and tagging privacy setting, this only limits who can see the content on your Timeline. The photo or post is still visible to the audience it’s shared with other places on Facebook, such as in News Feed or search.”

If a user signs in to Facebook, types “Photos of” with the desired name following after in the search bar, one will see all of the photos of the person mentioned, even if they are not friends.

Neel Patel, sophomore in LAS, said, “It’s partially our own fault for not reading the privacy terms, but it would have been nice if Facebook told us about this new feature.”

Like most people, Patel said that he went through his Facebook settings and altered what certain people can and cannot see.

“I don’t necessarily want my parents to see everything,”

SEE PRIVACY | 5A SEE UNIVERSAL | 5A

Escaping the grid: !e struggle of disconnecting from Facebook

Privacy on Facebook isn’t exactly what you think it is

Honoring Women’s History MonthMarch celebrations should not be limited to Unofficial St. Patrick’s Day and spring break. Turn to Page 5A to read about why Women’s History Month is still relevant.

it’s a small after all

GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY EUNIE KIM THE DAILY ILLINI

It’s March. Although Joe Lunar-di has been making mock March Madness brackets since

November, we’re only now reach-ing the point where we can finally start to make out a fuzzy outline of what the tournament field will look like.

While there is still much to be decided over the next two and a half weeks to Selection Sunday,

one thing is clear: Wichita State doesn’t deserve to be the No. 1 overall seed.

The Shockers finished this week with a perfect 31-0 in the regular season, the best start to a season since UNLV in 1991. They’ll get a No. 1 seed — assum-ing they win the Missouri Val-ley conference tournament — but they are by no means the best team in the country.

I respect the fact that they’ve done the best they can with the schedule they have. It’s hard to get up for every single game, and the Shockers have answered the bell every time.

I don’t respect the teams they’ve played. The Missouri Valley is 11th in conference RPI, according to CBSSports, com-fortably positioned between the Mountain West and Mid-Amer-ican conferences. According to ESPN, Wichita State’s strength of schedule is 111th in the country, which is a side effect from play-ing conference foes like Loyola and Evansville twice a year. The conference boasts only three teams inside the top-100 of RPI, as compared to nine in the Big Ten or the ACC.

The Shockers simply don’t have any quality wins that differenti-ate themselves on a tournament resume. Of the team’s 31 victo-ries, 22 came against foes outside the RPI top-100. Of Wichita State’s three top-50 victories, two came against mid-majors in BYU and Saint Louis — both of which feed off the same cupcake conference schedule that inflates rankings. All top-50 wins came in 2013, which is now a distant memory.

Compare Wichita State’s three top-50 victories against other potential No. 1 seeds. Arizona has

10. Kansas has 12. Florida has six. The selection committee is sup-

posed to rank the top teams in the country in the bracket. You can’t tell me an untested Wichita State team is a safer bet than a hard-ened Kansas or Arizona team —

Nos. 1 and 7 in strength of sched-ule, respectively.

Wichita State isn’t sneaking up on anyone this year. The Shockers lived up to their billing in 2013 by making a run to the Final Four as the No. 9 seed. This year, every-one gave Wichita State its best shot, and it held firm 31 straight times.

They’ll get a No. 1 seed, but I don’t see a deep tournament run again this season. With the right matchup, Wichita State could be this year’s Gonzaga: a No. 1 seed riding high on the coattails of an easy schedule only to be bounced in the Round of 32.

The team that beat Gonzaga in 2013? Wichita State.

Don’t fall in love with last year’s Cinderella. I’ll ride with the teams that earned their records by beat-ing competitive teams instead of cupcakes.

Stephen is a junior in Media. He can be reached at sbourbo2@dailyillini.com. Follow him on Twitter @steve_bourbon.

SPORTS1BTUESDAY

Going undefeated in its regular season, Wichita State deserves the top spot

An undefeated cupcake season isn’t worthy of No. 1 seed in NCAA tourney

POINTCOUNTERPOINTDOES WICHITA STATE DESERVE THE NCAA’S NO. 1 SPOT?

STEPHEN BOURBON

Staff writer

They’ll get a No. 1 seed ... but they are

by no means the best team in the country.

Ekey, Bertrand leave together despite different paths to UI

Statistics can’t show Bertrand’s impact for Illini

BY SEAN HAMMONDSENIOR WRITER

Joseph Bertrand remembers playing against Jon Ekey in November of 2011. Illinois trav-elled to Cancun, Mexico, to play in the Cancun Challenge over Thanksgiving break.

They traveled all the way to Mexico and ended up facing a team that plays its home games 45 minutes from campus. Ber-trand’s Illini met Ekey and Illi-nois State in the championship game of that tournament.

Two years later, when Ber-trand learned his team was adding a transfer from Illinois State, he went back and looked at the tape of that game. What he saw was a 6-foot-7 forward who knocked down three 3-pointers against Illinois and finished with 14 points and six rebounds.

“He was a big part of their system there,” Bertrand said. “I’m really glad he was able to come here.”

But the thing that Bertrand likes to point out about that game is that Illinois won 63-59.

“You can tell him I said that,” Bertrand joked with the media prior to practice at State Farm Center on Monday.

While Bertrand, a fifth-year senior, has been committed to Illinois since Oct. 12, 2007, Ekey announced his transfer destina-tion five and a half years later, on April 16, 2013. Both will play their final game in State Farm Center as teammates on senior night Tuesday.

The Missouri native took advantage of the graduate stu-dent transfer rule, allowing him to play his final year of eli-gibility at Illinois without sit-ting out a year because he had already graduated from Illinois State. Head coach John Groce has loved having such an expe-rienced player, especially with a young team.

“It’d be great to have Jon any year,” Groce said. “But it’s great to have him when you have five freshmen and nine newcomers. You can point to him and Joe and say: ‘Do what they do academi-cally and you’ll be fine. Practice like they do, and you’ll be fine. Do what they do.’”

Nothing speaks to how much Ekey’s teammates like him more than the fact that he was voted a team captain this sum-mer, despite having never worn an orange and blue jersey in a

game. He has led Illinois all year in ‘Matto’ points — the Illi-nois program’s name for hus-tle points, both in games and in practice.

In early February, he was moved from the starting line-up to the bench in favor of those freshmen for whom he has been a role model. It didn’t matter to Ekey; he didn’t complain. Nei-ther did Bertrand, who has been in a similar position.

“Coach said it’s the best for the team,” Bertrand said. “So me and Ekey sat down and cheered from the bench and pro-vided a spark. And we got some wins out of it.”

Talking to Ekey, one would never know he lost his start-ing spot. He is always willing to answer questions and does so with a smile.

He smiles, too, when he’s asked if he will watch the Mis-souri Valley tournament this week.

“I’ll be watching those guys and keep an eye on my friends I have over there,” Ekey said. Illi-nois State is scheduled to play Friday against Missouri State.

Years from now, Ekey will remember this year for the

friends and the memories he has made. He will remember play-ing in the Braggin’ Rights game. He will remember the arenas he’s played in. He will remem-ber the grind of the Big Ten sea-son, which the Missouri Valley could never equal.

But he will remember his time at Illinois State, too. The Redbirds will always have a spe-cial place in his heart.

And he will remember the way the Illini graciously accept-ed him onto their team.

“The way I got here and people had open arms,” Ekey said. “I’ll follow these guys, I’ll always be their friend, I’ll always talk to them. That’s one of the great things about bas-ketball, lifetime friendships are made.”

Ekey and Bertrand will play their last home game Tuesday and their season will end some-time in the near future. They first encountered each other as foes one night in 2011, but three years later they will go out as teammates.

Sean can be reached at sphammo2@dailyillini.com and @sean_hammond.

JOSEPH J LEE THE DAILY ILLINIIllinois’ Jon Ekey drives to the hoop during the game against Michigan State at the Breslin Student Events Center on Saturday.

BRENTON TSE THE DAILY ILLINIIllinois Joseph Bertrand jumps over his opponent for the layup during the Fighting Illini’s win over Georgia Tech at State Farm Center, on Nov. 28, 2012.

Joseph Bertrand is one of the most unique players in Illinois basketball history.

The 6-foot-6 guard doesn’t have statistics that are going to blow anyone away. Bertrand has never averaged double-digit points or even five rebounds per game in any sea-son in his career. He’s also nev-er averaged a block or steal per game, and his career high for 3-pointers made in a season is just 18.

But if you’re looking at statis-tics to help describe Bertrand, you’re looking in the wrong place.

***Trying to explain usage per-

centage to Bertrand was a chal-lenging task. I described to him that usage percentage is the amount of a team’s possessions a player uses while he’s on the floor.

I told Bertrand he ranked just seventh in usage percent-age on last year’s team, behind the likes of Tyler Griffey and Mike LaTulip. I figured this season with the departures of Brandon Paul and D.J. Rich-ardson, Bertrand would have to take on more of a scoring load. Bertrand just laughed it off.

“I don’t even know, I’m just gonna go out there and play,” Bertrand said. “If I have oppor-tunities, I’ll take them. If I have

an open shot, I’ll shoot it. I’m not really worried about usage.”

If he doesn’t have a shot to his liking, he won’t take it.

Bertrand has failed to score in two of his last three games, which leads to some thinking he can’t score. In those two games, he took three shots combined.

Bertrand could lead this team in scoring, if he wanted to.

The senior is the model of efficiency. Bertrand shot over 50 percent for three consecu-tive seasons before this year, a feat that is quite amazing for a perimeter player. He’s shooting 47.9 percent from the floor this season, leading anyone on the team who’s averaging at least 10 minutes per game.

Bertrand’s sky-high percent-ages are a product of his shot selection. Rarely do you see Bertrand shoot a pull-up jump-er or take an ill-advised three. Bertrand prefers letting his teammates set him up in the flow of the offense.

When Bertrand does look to score, he utilizes his favorite weapon: the floater.

Bertrand’s floater is just beautiful. The high-arcing layup is uncommon for a 6-foot-6 player to possess in his arse-nal, but the shot has become a habit.

“When I was younger, I used to play against older guys,” Ber-trand said. “My uncle used to take me out to play and every-one was taller than me. I had to get the ball up there with-out getting blocked. I’ve used it

MICHAEL WONSOVER

Basketball columnist

SEE WONSOVER | 4B

31-0. How many teams can say they finished its regu-lar season unbeaten? Only

one can this year, and only 24 (many of which didn’t play near 30-game schedules) have since the national tournament era began in 1938.

In the past 34 years, only two teams have swept their entire slate, and the last time a team won its first 30 games was 23 years ago. Wichita State is the lone squad without an “L” on their schedule this season and should be rewarded because of it.

Naysayers of the Shockers

attribute the team’s success to lack of competition. Playing in the Missouri Valley Conference hasn’t done Wichita State any favors, but if it was that easy to go undefeated in a mid-major conference, wouldn’t we see it more often? The last time a team went undefeated was in 2004, when the Jameer Nelson-led Saint Joseph’s Hawks went 27-0 in the Atlantic 10, only to lose by 20 points to Xavier in the first conference tournament game.

The Hawks still garnered a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament and proved doubters wrong by reaching the Elite Eight before losing to Oklahoma State by two points.

In a season with a ton of par-ity, just about every top-25 team has a bad loss or two. Wichita State not only doesn’t have any losses, but has breezed through its schedule with ease, winning by an average of 16 points this season. The Shockers have not had a challenge all year other than their overtime win at Mis-souri State, a game where Wichi-ta State rallied after being down as many as 19 points. They have had just 6 games where they’ve won by fewer than 10 points all season. The Shockers’ signature win came early in the year, when they went on the road and beat then-unranked Saint Louis by five.

This season’s national tour-nament will likely require more than just skill to make a deep run, and Wichita State has the skill and intangibles to repeat a Final Four appearance or, even better, win a national champi-onship. Experience will be key in a season where everyone has focused on players with poten-tial, like Kansas’ Andrew Wig-gins and Joel Embiid, or Calipa-ri’s NBA-bound Kentucky squad.

The Shockers return three cogs from their Final Four team, forward Cleanthony Ear-ly, guards Ron Baker and Tekele Cotton, and have turned for-mer role players Fred VanV-leet and Darius Carter into key contributors.

The Shockers also bring more physicality to the hardwood than just about anyone else out

there, rebounding and defend-ing at some of the best rates in the nation. Through 31 games, Wichita State ranks ninth in the country in total rebounds (1201) and rebounding margin (8.1). It also only allows 59.9 points per game to opposing teams, which is good for 12th in the country.

Regardless of whether you think Wichita State is “real” or not, you have to give it credit for its historical run. That includes you, NCAA selection committee.

Blake is a senior in Media. He can be reached at pon1@dailyillini.com.

BLAKE PON

Staff writer

Wichita State is the lone squad without an “L” on their schedule

this season ...

FERNANDO SALAZAR MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNEWichita State's Ron Baker drives against Missouri State's Nathan Scheer in the second half at Koch Arena in Wichita, Kan., on Saturday The host Shockers won, 68-45, to complete their undefeated regular season.

2B Tuesday, March 4, 2014 THE DAILY ILLINI | WWW.DAILYILLINI.COM

Illini football starts spring practiceBY SEAN HAMMONDSENIOR WRITER

The long road to football season begins this week for Illini football with spring practice Wednesday. Like any part of the team’s year — winter work-outs, spring practice, summer camp or the regular season — head coach Tim Beckman has specifi c goals for his team.

Every player posted a piece of paper with his spring goals on the wall of his locker Thursday. In addition, Beckman has set three goals for the team this spring: Create a physical atmosphere, be competitive and let leaders emerge.

With players like Nathan Scheel-haase, Steve Hull, Jonathan Brown and Corey Lewis gone, the Illini are in need of leaders. And with a roster of 90-plus players, there are plenty of names to choose from.

Beckman feels like this is the deep-est team he has had at Illinois. The Illini return 19 of the 22 defensive players on the two-deep depth chart from last sea-son. They return 15 on offense.

But it wouldn’t be spring football

without position battles. Returning talent just means those battles will be more intense.

Offense

Bill Cubit believes Illinois’ offense can be the best in the Big Ten.

That thought would have seemed delusional a year ago. But consider-ing the Illini jumped from 12th to fi fth in total offense in the Big Ten during Cubit’s fi rst year as offensive coordina-tor, it’s not as outlandish an idea.

The key is taking the offense to the next step. Cubit harps to his players about not leaving yards out on the fi eld. A cut here rather than there for a run-ning back or wide receiver can be the difference between 10 yards and 20.

“When I went back and watched all the tape, those things add up,” Cubit said. “And then if we play faster and get some more plays up, then where are we sitting?”

It might not be the fi rst order of busi-ness, but fi nding a quarterback might be the most pivotal. Without Scheelhaase,

quarterbacks Reilly O’Toole, Wes Lunt and Aaron Bailey will duke it out this spring for the starting spot.

Lunt fi gures to be the favorite with Bailey as a quality second option. O’Toole, while stating that he wants to be the starter, fi gures to be the biggest long shot.

Beckman does not have a timetable on when a quarterback decision will be made. He hopes to be close to naming a starter by the end of the spring but didn’t say he necessarily would.

Defense

Tim Banks’ defense was young in 2013, and because of that, its returns all but three key contributors. Seniors Brown and Tim Kynard as well as junior Houston Bates — who recently made his intent to transfer offi cial — will not be back for the Illini.

But the rest of the defense returns. T.J. Neal is a likely candidate to start in Brown’s linebacker spot. Beckman said Earnest Thomas III is being moved from safety to the STAR position. Mike

Svetina, who started at STAR in all but one game last season, has been moved to linebacker.

Beckman emphasized that all posi-tions were being penciled in, and noth-ing is set in stone at this point on offense or defense.

“Every job will be up for grabs,” Banks said. “We’ve got a little bit bet-ter competition this year.”

Departed players

Running back Dami Ayoola and defen-sive lineman Vontrell Williams are no longer members of the Illinois football team. Ayoola was dismissed from the team in September before attempting to work his way back onto the roster in December. Williams did not play in 2013 after redshirting the 2012 season.

Illinois coaches declined to elaborate on the circumstances of either of their dismissals from the team.

Sean can be reached at sphammo2@dailyillini.com and @sean_hammond.

DARYL QUITALIG THE DAILY ILLINIIllinois’ head coach Tim Beckman signals a face mask to a referee during the game against No. 3 Ohio State at Memorial Stadium in Champaign, Ill.. on Nov. 16, 2013. The Illini lost, 60-35. The team looks to fi ll many roles formerly held by graduating seniors, including quarterback, for the coming season.

Power rankingsDAILY ILLINI STAFF REPORTEditor’s note: Every week, The Daily Illini basketball staff ranks the basketball teams in the Big Ten 1-12 and compiles the lists into its own Big Ten power rankings.

7. INDIANA(LAST WEEK 9)

1. MICHIGAN(LAST WEEK 1)

The Wolverines are atop the conference standings and have all but clinched the outright conference title this season. Michigan’s offense is among the best in the country, and the Maize and Blue are on a three-game winning streak.

3. MICHIGAN STATE(LAST WEEK 2)

2. WISCONSIN(LAST WEEK 3)

4. IOWA(LAST WEEK 4)

11. PURDUE(LAST WEEK 8)

12. NORTHWESTERN (LAST WEEK 10)

10. PENN STATE(LAST WEEK 12)

5. NEBRASKA(LAST WEEK 6)

The Huskers are tied for fourth in the nation’s strongest conference but are still sitting squarely on the NCAA tournament bubble after a loss to Illinois and a so-so nonconference slate. Nebraska has two games left, at Indiana and vs. Wisconsin. If they win those, they’ve got their ticket to the Big Dance.

Persistence is key to Illini baseball’s successBY J.J. WILSONASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

Sophomore Ryan Castellanos won his season debut on the mound Friday after-noon when he held Florida Gulf Coast to two runs in seven innings.

In his fourth career win for Illinois baseball, Castellanos struck out fi ve and didn’t give up a walk in 87 pitches. When sophomore Nick Blackburn relieved him to start the eighth, Illinois was ahead 3-2, which would be the fi nal score.

While head coach Dan Hartleb said he doesn’t expect the starting rotation to change — all three earned wins this weekend — Castellanos’ performance does exemplify the depth of the young pitching staff.

Illinois returned its entire starting rotation from last year’s postseason — a sophomore and two freshmen, including Castellanos. When this season began, junior Drasen Johnson moved into the No. 3 slot. But after four strong show-ings in Florida this weekend, the words

of starter John Kravetz seem to be more relevant than ever.

“Especially with the staff being as good as it is, you have to perform or someone else will,” Kravetz said before the year.

Castellanos may not have earned his spot in the starting rotation just yet, but performing well in his season debut will defi nitely factor into the conversation later in the season.

History in MarchIllinois got its record to above .500

for the fi rst time this weekend, but the challenge now becomes that of keep-ing it there.

March has proved challenging for the Illini historically. While they have been able to get out of March over .500 in the three of the last fi ve years, they have been forced to overcome adversity.

In 2009, Illinois took two of three from No. 1 LSU. The next year, it split two

games with No. 12 Coastal Carolina and bowed to No. 19 Eastern Carolina before facing an unranked lineup in 2011.

Illinois faced two ranked threats in 2012, beating only one — No. 18 Oregon. The Illini then bulldozed their way to a 13-4 record against an unranked fi eld in March of 2013. Now, they face simi-lar scheduling this March.

This season, Illinois has topped No. 23 Florida twice; however, none of the remaining teams on the slate for March — Western Kentucky, Southern Illinois, Indiana State, Eastern Illinois, Xavi-er, Illinois State and Purdue — have received any top-25 votes.

But head coach Dan Hartleb’s main concern isn’t the strength of his oppo-nent. Whether Illinois plays the best team in the nation or the worst, he focus-es on his team’s persistence to improve each week.

“We did a lot of things very, very well (this weekend),” Hartleb said. “I think one of the big things that you have to

do is make sure that you learn to han-dle success.”

No trouble in the spotlight

Each time Illinois took the fi eld last weekend in Florida, it played for more than 3,000 fans. Friday night’s game against No. 23 Florida was even tele-vised on Fox Sports Florida. And yet, the Illini didn’t falter.

Whatever caused their previous rut, when they lost four of six games to start the season, it wasn’t because the oppos-ing fans — or the turf.

That lack of stage fright could prove valuable for Illinois come postseason play in May. While the Big Ten Tourna-ment tends to draw close to 1,000 fans per game, the NCAA regional usually posts numbers well above 2,000.

J.J. can be reached at jjwilso2@dailyillini.com and @Wilsonable07.

Teams should discipline athletes for criminal allegations

People who do illegal things should get punished. That’s called the law.

Does that make Raymond Felton an outlaw?

The New York Knicks point guard was arrested for illegal fi rearm pos-session a week ago and, since then, has not missed a game or been disciplined by the Knicks or the NBA. Just yes-terday, NBA Commissioner Adam Sil-ver called Felton’s legal problems an “image problem for the league”.

I respect the legal process, and Fel-ton will have his day in court (and 2-7 years in prison if he is found guilty), but I take issue with the phrase “image problem.” Felton getting arrested with an illegal fi rearm should spark a fi re-storm. The starting point guard for the Knicks was just arrested carrying

an illegal fi rearm in New York City, where recreational hunting doesn’t exist. There is zero excuse for him to be carrying a gun illegally.

I take issue with Silver, the Knicks and the NBA acting like Felton is a col-lege student who got caught drinking at a frat party, like Johnny Manziel. A little slap on the “image problem” wrist, and just head back to the court, where the Knicks have lost nine of their last 10 games.

The NBA’s Collective Bargaining agreement states that teams may not discipline players based on an arrest. A player cannot be denied his worker’s rights, which is fair, right?

Wrong.Felton is making upwards of $3

million this year. He isn’t a work-er by most traditional defi nitions of the word. He has put a lot of effort, time and practice into reaching his current position, but his position is unique in the world of labor; he is not a worker, he’s a player.

The Knicks and the NBA should bring down the hammer on Felton

and any other player who transgress-es this seriously. Bench them. Tem-porarily strip them of salary, I don’t care, but do something that says, “Hey, we don’t approve of this action. This isn’t the kind of behavior we stand for.”

Buying a gun isn’t a morally wrong thing to do. Buying a gun illegally is, especially for someone in Felton’s position.

Kobe Bryant was accused of sexual assault in the summer of 2003. The event and initial hearings fell outside of the basketball calendar, but the tri-al was scheduled for September the following year. Prior to the trial, the Los Angeles Lakers gave Kobe a new $136 million contract that spring. The trial never occurred, but Kobe made a public apology outside of court to the alleged victim.

“Sex Offender” has since fallen down Kobe’s list of achievements, past NBA champion, scoring cham-pion and even insufferable teammate. I bet younger Kobe fans don’t even know their favorite player likely sex-

ually assaulted someone while also cheating on his wife.

Why did Kobe get off scot-free?This isn’t an indictment of privi-

leged professional athletes; it’s one against teams and leagues that are hesitant to make a statement of moral certainty and act on it. The New York Knicks are one of the most visible sports franchises in the world, and owner James Dolan has been silent on the issue of Felton.

Sure, athletes are people, too, and sure people deserve second chances. I’m not attacking athletes. I’m attack-ing teams, owners and professional sports leagues for letting talent win out over morality. It took Aaron Her-nandez allegedly killing someone for the Patriots to release him.

Why should morality take a back-seat to selling tickets? The Knicks suck anyway. Bench Felton.

Peter is a freshman in Media. He can be reached at baileyw2@dailyillini.com. Follow him on Twitter @pbaileywells22.

PETER BAILEY-WELLS

Sports columnist

8. ILLINOIS(LAST WEEK 11)

The Illini move up to eighth place this week after extending their winning streak to three games with a victory over Michigan State and Nebraska. Illinois’ defense has been unstoppable lately, and the Illini have held four straight opponents under 50 points for the fi rst time since 1947-48.

6. OHIO STATE (LAST WEEK 5)

9. MINNESOTA(LAST WEEK 7)

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Hockey seniors say goodbye to the Big PondBY SEAN NEUMANNSTAFF WRITER

When Nick Clarke finally brought himself to take off his home sweater for the fi nal time, he was ready to talk.

The postgame interview didn’t last long, though. Senior team-mate Matt Welch jumped in to hug Clarke, ending the conversa-tion and showing what the week-end was really about: celebrat-ing the Illini seniors’ careers. Statistically, Saturday night’s Illini hockey game didn’t mat-ter. Emotionally, the weight on the senior class could’ve broken through the ice.

The seven seniors stepped onto the Big Pond knowing it would be their fi nal game at home. And by the time they stepped off, the six senior skaters had each reg-istered points while Clarke had earned his fi nal win in front of a crowd that adores him enough to bow to him every time he takes the ice.

“It ’s just been awesome,” Clarke said between sniffl es as tears welled in his eyes. “It’s just hard taking off that white jersey for the last time.”

The seniors scored fi ve of the seven Illini goals in Satur-day night’s 7-1 win over Eastern Michigan, combining for 11 total points.

Forward John Scully earned a hat trick, while captain Aus-tin Bostock had three points (one goal, two assists), Mike Evans had two points (one goal, one assist), and Eddie Quagliata, Matt Welch and Ben Burbridge each had an assist.

“You couldn’t really draw it

up any better,” Scully said. ““It was pretty emotional. In the last few seconds there, I was like, ‘Man, this is it,’ and once that fi nal horn hits, it really kind of catches you.”

Welch made senior night com-plete, earning an assist on Scul-ly’s fi nal goal with just over a minute remaining in the game, putting every Illini senior on the score sheet in their fi nal home game.

“It’s surreal,” Welch said. “It feels like I was just here yester-day. We had a great run, and I wouldn’t have wanted to do it with anyone else but these guys.”

The seniors were honored before the game with a ceremo-ny led by head coach Nick Fab-

brini, who gave a speech about each player as they took pic-tures with their families along the Illini blue line. The home crowd gave the players a stand-ing ovation.

“After four years of putting in a lot of time and hard work with all these

guys in the locker room, you get really close to them,” Scully said. “To have to wrap it up at home is pretty tough, but I couldn’t ask for a better four years here.”

Fabbrini’s starting lineup included Bostock, Scully, Quaglia-ta, Evans and Welch, with Clarke in net. The coach pulled Clarke with a few minutes remaining in the game, allowing the celebrat-ed goaltender one fi nal chance to hear the cheers of his hometown crowd, and put the same start-ing lineup on the ice for the fi nal minute when they added one more goal to their legacy as Scully com-pleted his hat trick.

“It was nice to take a min-ute there and recognize all the seniors you’ve been with,” said Scully after the game, pausing to collect himself. “It was pret-ty cool.”

Freshman Matt Flosi said it was tough for the younger players to watch the seniors go through the emotions of playing their fi nal game on home ice, knowing it was

something they would also have to go through in a few years.

“It’s sad to see them get emo-tional about it being their last game home,” Flosi said. “They happen to be some of my closest friends on the team and the guys I hang out with the most. It’s really sad to see them go through this.”

While emotions were high Sat-urday night, Welch’s mind set is

similar to the other seniors’ in the locker room: Return focus on the upcoming national tourna-ment and extend the season — and their hockey careers — as much as they can.

But for a player like Clarke, who’s started nearly 100 games and played more than 5,500 min-utes wearing an Illini “I” on his chest, it’s diffi cult to say goodbye.

Being able to look back at his time with Illinois will always be easier than it was to leave.

“We accomplished a lot as a class, and those are some of my best friends,” Clarke said. “It’s been an honor to play here.”

Sean can be reached at spneuma2@dailyillini.com and @Neumannthehuman.

MICHAEL BOJDA THE DAILY ILLININick Clarke makes a save in a 4-3 shootout loss against Minot State on Feb. 1. Clarke played his fi nal game at the Big Pond on Sunday.

‘We had a great run, and I wouldn’t have wanted to do it with

anyone else but these guys.”

MATT WELCHFORWARD

BY BLAKE PONSTAFF WRITER

Ivory Crawford didn’t have the greatest game of her career Sunday when Illinois lost its 10th game in a row, but she did reach a milestone only 26 other Illini have before her.

With a little under four min-utes remaining in a blowout loss to Iowa, Crawford made a tough layup in traffic for her seventh point of the game, which put her at 1,001 points for her career.

“I just found out that I went over 1,000 points,” Crawford said after the game. “I’ve been work-ing really hard, and I just keep going, and now I’m at a 1,000.”

Crawford finished the game on a high note. Crawford finished with 10 points and also grabbed 10 rebounds for her second con-secutive double-double, her third of the season. Six of those rebounds came on the offensive end.

As a junior, Crawford is only the 15th player in school history to reach 1,000 points before her senior season.

Illini to face Hawkeyes in conference tournament

The Illini did not know who they would be facing in the first round of the Big Ten Tourna-ment prior to Sunday’s game, but they quickly learned their opponent afterwards. After get-ting blown out by a combined 39 points in two games against Iowa this season, Illinois will get one last shot to redeem itself Thurs-day in Indianapolis.

“It’s a great chance to turn

around and play a team that was much better than us (Sunday) and to see if we can make that change,” head coach Matt Bol-lant said. “We’ll see how much we can improve from now until Thursday and see what changes we make and how we adapt and see if we can be a lot better than we were today.”

The Illini are 1-2 on neutral courts this season. The Hawk-eyes are 3-0 on neutral courts.

“They’re just as skilled as any-body out there,” Bollant said. “They really pass and shoot the

ball extremely well, move the ball really well.

“It’s got to be about tough-ness and grit, and today it wasn’t about those things. If it’s all about skill, we’re probably not beating this team.”

Grant returns from monoFreshman forward Jacqui

Grant, who missed the team’s last six games prior to Sunday, returned to the starting lineup. In 20 minutes of play, she record-ed seven points on 3-of-6 shoot-ing, one rebound and one steal.

“Obviously she didn’t look physically as good,” Bollant said. “She showed some of the things she can do, but it was just hard for her physically, being out for three weeks. It was good to have her back on the court and hopefully today would help her prepare for Thursday. mono is a tough thing to come back from, and hopefully today will do a little bit to help us on Thursday.”

Blake can be reached at pon1@dailyillini.com.

Crawford reaches 1,000-point milestone

DARYL QUITALIG THE DAILY ILLINIIllinois’ Ivory Crawford attempts a shot during the game against Iowa at State Farm Center on Sunday. The Illini will have a chance to redeem themselves in Indianapolis on Thursday.

Dominance in sports is a special thing.

When you witness a dominating performance, you usually recognize it right away. The team or individual on the other end of such a performance has no chance from the start. You know it. They know it. Every one watching knows it.

And make no mistake, the Illinois baseball team’s performance was dominant in its four-game sweep of Florida and Florida Gulf Coast this past weekend.

The Illini pitching staff arrived from the north like a polar vortex and froze its opponents’ bats in Florida. Though the rotation was highly-touted entering the season, a four-game stretch like the one they turned in would probably seem a little too good to be true for any team.

On the weekend, the Illini pitchers allowed a stingy four runs in four games. I’m no math major, but that’s good for a 1.00 ERA. They only walked five batters on the weekend while recording 21 strikeouts. The Illini bats did enough to reward the fantastic pitching, and Illinois downed No. 23 Florida twice to complement its two wins over an FGCU squad that was 5-3 entering the weekend.

These were no slouches the Illini steamrolled. FGCU posted a 37-20 record last season, and Florida was nationally ranked entering the weekend. One would think that with their geographical warm-weather advantage, the Florida teams would have gotten the bat off their shoulders at some point. Even Jameis Winston and his Florida State Seminoles scored three runs against the Yankees

and their major league arms in a recent exhibition.

Longevity was the key in the four wins, as each Illini starter worked deep into the games. Kevin Duchene led the way with a three-hit complete game shutout in the Illini’s 6-0 victory over the Gators. John Kravetz and Ryan Castellanos each logged seven innings to make it easy on the Illini bullpen in their respective victories, and Drasen Johnson went six deep in his winning outing.

I certainly didn’t see this four-game stretch coming. The Illini pitching was bound to break out of its slump at some point after a 2-4 start to the season, but this was quite the turnaround. This was everything head coach Dan Hartleb and pitching coach Drew Dickinson advertised about their much-hyped pitching staff in the preseason and then some. It’s a far cry from the first series of the season, which Hartleb deemed the worst pitching performance he’s seen in a three-game series.

It would be hard to envision the Illini sustaining their pitching success at such a high level going forward. But if they can establish more consistency with a few dominating performances sprinkled in, the Illini will be in good shape. The run production has been good enough so far at 5.7 runs per game. The combination of solid starting pitching and an adequate offense has the potential to take pressure off an Illini bullpen that struggled in its first series.

No one should expect a team 1.00 ERA the rest of the way, but last weekend was very encouraging for a squad looking to shake off its early struggles. The ship seems to be steadying, and the elite pitching is a good sign of things to come.

Alex is a sophomore in AHS. He can be reached at roux2@dailyillini.com. Follow him on Twitter @aroux94.

4B Tuesday, March 4, 2014 THE DAILY ILLINI | WWW.DAILYILLINI.COM

Champaign Mayor Don Gerard talks basketball with Illini Drive

Illini pitching spearheads domination of Florida schools

ALEX ROUX

Sports columnist

ever since. Now that I’m bigger, taller and jump higher, it’s good to use.”

***Bertrand is the jokester on this

team. You wouldn’t know it by his shy persona, but his teammates can back up his funny reputation.

“Mainly with us, his team-mates and stuff, he’s pretty talk-ative,” roommate and junior guard Tracy Abrams said. “But from the outside looking in, he seems really quiet, like he wouldn’t say as much.”

Bertrand’s teammate of four years, Brandon Paul, wanted to share his friends exploits with the rest of the world so he creat-ed the Twitter hashtag #JoeTales to recount the stories.

“Joe does so many crazy

things, I feel like people should know about this guy,” Paul told The Daily Illini a couple years back. “He’s literally one of the funniest kids I’ve ever met, prob-ably one of the funniest kids in the nation.”

With the way this season has gone at times for Illinois, there hasn’t been much to joke about. Still, Bertrand’s maintained his positive attitude.

“That helps a lot,” Abrams said of Bertrand’s mind set. “Just to have a guy like that in general, just to bring that positive energy. If you’re down, just to have a guy like that around, bring a smile to your face, it’s good.”

Bertrand’s team-first mental-ity has been put to the test this season. Illinois head coach John Groce opted to start the fresh-man duo of Kendrick Nunn and Malcolm Hill, moving Bertrand and fellow senior Jon Ekey to the

bench.“It’s best for the team,” Ber-

trand said. “Some things weren’t working. Coach (Groce) brought me in and told me he wasn’t gon-na start me and Jon. We said OK, we’re two seniors, older guys, so we know what’s good for the team and have to roll with it.”

The change has proved to be beneficial, even if Bertrand’s productivity has dropped off. Bertrand hasn’t scored in double digits since Feb. 4 against Wis-consin when he put up 11. By the way Bertrand acts, you wouldn’t know he’s in the middle of a slump.

“Joe’s been here five years, has been through a lot” Groce said. “His experience level, the will-ingness he has to sacrifice for the betterment of the team is admi-rable. He just handles himself so well”.

***

When asked about their favor-ite moments from their careers, most players think about the indi-vidual achievements.

He lists a few obvious choices, the Indiana win, the two tour-nament appearances, stuff any player cherishes. But absent from his top moments are his breakout 9-for-9 performance against Missouri during his soph-omore season, and his 25-point outburst against Nebraska that same season. Bertrand doesn’t mention his many highlight plays throughout his career.

But boy, Bertrand has memo-rable hops.

The senior appears to have pogo sticks for legs whenever he lifts off, gracefully hangs in the air, and throws down a ferocious dunk. Whether it’s off the alley-oop or at the end of a drive, Ber-trand can finish with the best of them.

There’s a lot to choose from when looking back at Bertrand’s top dunks. Even he had trouble whittling down his choices to just three.

“I don’t really remember all of them,” he said.

My personal favorite play of his is when he nearly jumped over Georgia Tech’s Marcus Georges-Hunt for an and-1 layup during the 2012 ACC-Big Ten Challenge.

“That’s up there, that’s defi-nitely up there,” Bertrand said. “It’s kind of a last-minute deci-sion. I didn’t know what I was gonna do with it. Just jumped up and it kind of happened. I’m glad I made it over him.”

***Bertrand may not be one of

the greatest Illini players ever. He’s not going to be found on any leaderboard for career points, rebounds, assists or any-

thing like that. Bertrand hasn’t even been on any particularly good Illinois teams. But there’s still something about him that will be hard to forget.

I’m going to remember the highlight plays that he pro-vided on some Illinois teams that seriously lacked enter-tainment. I’m going to remem-ber Bertrand’s inability to take bad shots, even when his team-mates did. Over anything else, I’ll remember him for being the kind of role player every team needs.

“Hopefully they’ll remember I played hard,” Bertrand said. “I’d like them to remember I’m definitely a team player, always pushed my teammates to be better.”

Michael is a senior in Media. He can be reached at wonsovr2@dailyillini.com.

WONSOVERFROM 1B

DAILY ILLINI STAFF REPORT

Editor’s note: The following is a partial transcript from an Illini Drive interview with Don Gerard, Champaign mayor.

Illini Drive: Have you been pay-ing much attention to the Illini this year?

Don Gerard: Oh, absolute-ly. You know, I’m friends with John Groce. I forced my friend-ship upon him, and he is great. I think he’s the real deal. I thought Coach (Bruce) Weber, I had a lot of respect for him, but Groce is really one of those guys involved in the community. His kids go to the same public school that my kids went to grade school, which I have a great respect for. Some-body comes into town, dumps their kids into the public schools right in the heart of town — that’s

great. He and his wife are just really wonderful people, but I think the guy’s got a passion, a vision. I think people buy in, and he gets a lot out of what he has right now, and I think he has a lot more coming up. I tweeted it the other day, I think the future’s bright. It’s good to see a team playing well at the end of a sea-son instead of falling apart at the end of the season.

ID: What do you make of the freshman class that has come in? You’ve got guys like Kendrick Nunn and Malcolm Hill that have come into the starting lineup.

DG: The hashtag is #NunnBet-ter, I’m really excited about that guy. I think he’s really fantastic, and I like Nnanna. I think Nnan-na slipped under the radar and put up really good numbers last

year because no one expected it, and I think he’s taking a lot more. They’ve been focused on him a lot more, to be honest, is my opinion, and he’s had a lot more pressure. But I think he’ll come around and he’s been coming around. He’s had some good games, but yeah, those young guys and the guys coming up, it’s gonna be a dogfight. There’s gonna be a lot of competition. When you have competition among your ranks, you really push it. One example I would give is former Illini coach Wayne McClain is now coaching Central, and my son played on the JV basketball team, but he real-ly likes the coaching side of it, so he’s a student manager on the team. And he said those guys have average talent, same guys from last year, and McClain just out-

coaches everybody. Those guys beat the No. 2 team in the state, they beat Centennial that has Michael Finke. First game of the season went into triple overtime, and they have beat some teams that they had no business beat-ing, and they really bought into Wayne. And I see that with Groce and these guys, so the opportuni-ty to take somebody and squeeze every bit of talent out of him, and as your program builds and you start to get guys who have a greater potential, and you just push them to that.

ID: How important is U of I bas-ketball to this community?

DG: I think all of the U of I sports are important. I think peo-ple take great pride in volleyball and gymnastics, just all kinds of stuff. I think it’s huge.