University of Illinois

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

UI Extension offering primer for nonfarmers online

Area residents who know little or nothing about farming can get a crash course in agriculture through an online class being produced by the University of Illinois Extension.

The class, called "Agronomy 101 for Landowners," targets landowners who do not have a farming background, according to instructor Dennis Bowman, a UI Extension crops system educator.

Japan House Holiday Sale on Thursday to feature gift ideas

URBANA – The Japan House Holiday Sale will take place from 1 to 4 p.m. Thursday and Dec. 11 and 18.

Tours of the cultural and teaching facility will be available and gifts and artwork will be offered for purchase, including a commemorative Japan House 10th anniversary wool blanket woven by Pendleton Mills and designed by artist Laurie Jacobi, original artwork, books and calendars by Japanese artist Zenkyu Niwa, Japan House tea, and Japan House 10th anniversary commemorative book and note cards.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

UI flash index: No growth, decline in economy in November

URBANA – The University of Illinois flash index – a barometer of the Illinois economy – has fallen to 100, the dividing point between economic growth and decline.

UI economist J. Fred Giertz, who compiles the index, said there's no signal the downward spiral will end soon.

'Map Light' fuses theater, dance into 'performance novel'

URBANA – The University of Illinois Department of Theatre and Dance will present three performances of the original, jazz-influenced process piece "Map Light" at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday in the Studio Theatre at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.

The public performances are the culmination of semester-long work with students led by guest artist Laurie Carlos, an actress in the original production of "for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf."

Monday, December 1, 2008

Web site offers comprehensive look at apartments for rent

CHAMPAIGN – Kevin Chang has developed a new way to find apartments on the Web, using University of Illinois research into how to conduct "deeper" Web searches.

The result is Cazoodle, a Web site that provides comprehensive listings of apartments in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles and other metropolitan areas – including Champaign-Urbana.

Sunday, November 30, 2008

UI group compiles gift guide for children's books

The University of Illinois has published a guide for shoppers in the market for children's books.

Beyond classics such as "The Little Engine that Could," or well-known books such as the "Harry Potter" series, what else is out there?

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Friendly fun precedes the IHSA football championships

CHAMPAIGN – As the music of heavily teased big-hair rock bands of the 1980s provided pre-game, adrenaline-pumping entertainment (think Bon Jovi's "You give love a bad name"), Robert Simmons prodded hot dogs and flipped pork burgers.

By 10 a.m., the shrimp was blackened and the "Iron Horse Cooking Club" from Casey was ready to start dishing out food for the throngs of football fans expected to start arriving throughout Friday morning.

Fundraiser to help Korean group move to its own building

The Korean Cultural Center will host a dinner and benefit show featuring traditional music and dance on Dec. 6.

Currently housed in an office in the University YMCA building, 1001 S. Wright St., C, the group has its sights set on moving one day to its own house near Sixth and Daniel streets in Champaign.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

MTD board approves 7.5 percent increase in tax levy

CHAMPAIGN – The Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit district unanimously approved a 7.5 percent increase in its tax levy Wednesday.

The increase would cost up to $12 more for the owner of a $150,000 house, said MTD Managing Director Bill Volk during discussions about the increase, as long as the value of the house doesn't go up.

Former UI coach accused of setting up video camera in locker

URBANA – The Champaign County state's attorney has filed a felony charge against a former University of Illinois gymnastics coach for videotaping a gymnast in a locker room on campus without the man's knowledge.

State's Attorney Julia Rietz filed a charge of unauthorized videotaping against Jon Valdez, 40, of the 1900 block of Newport Drive, Urbana, on Tuesday. A summons was issued ordering Valdez to go to court Dec. 12 to be arraigned on a charge of unauthorized videotaping.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Illini football fans in prime seats enjoy suite eats at stadium

CHAMPAIGN – "Grapes, someone wants grapes."

Don Block's walkie-talkie is squawking at him. It's about 90 minutes before kickoff at the University of Illinois' Memorial Stadium on the last home game of the season. With more than 2,000 people to feed, the director of dining services for the UI Housing Division is on the move. From the stadium's new second-floor kitchen, he'll make several trips up to the west-side luxury seating areas to assure both the food and the service meet fans' expectations.

"Do we even have grapes today?" asks a food employee, who snatches a moldy blackberry off a fresh fruit tray that's being served as part of a pregame breakfast.

What fans eat at the 85-year-old stadium depends on where they sit. Most buy their sandwiches, popcorn and soft drinks from concession stands positioned through the stadium.

But fans who have spent thousands of dollars to sit in the stadium's new luxury areas have much different food and drink choices.

Video shows UI librarians' quest to settle the West in 1908

A timid, hair-wrapped-in-a-bun, pince-nez-wearing spinster.

Is that the image you have of a librarian from 100 years ago?

Try this one on instead:

Gun-toting, horseback-riding, walk-2-miles-to-work-in-a-blizzard type of woman.

Those were the kind of librarians who settled the West.

Around the turn of the 20th century, graduates of the University of Illinois Graduate School of Library and Information Science (then called the Illinois Library School) headed to places like Texas, North Dakota, Idaho and Oregon.

Mission: to bring culture to the West.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

UI bracing for possible budget troubles

The University of Illinois is bracing for possible cuts in state funding.

Earlier this week, Gov. Rod Blagojevich revealed plans to deal with the state's budget deficit by, among other things, asking higher education to hold back up to 8 percent of general state revenue funding.

University budget staff and campus administrators are, UI spokesman Tom Hardy said, "sharpening their pencils," drafting several scenarios that would detail how the university would deal with any possible rescissions. University President B. Joseph White is expected to review the drafts in December.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Playboy visits UI for input on its new 'mobisode' series

URBANA – The reality show screened at the University of Illinois' Lincoln Hall Wednesday night wasn't much different from those you see on television.

It featured hip-hop music, flashy shots, funny situations, and of course, some conflict.

UI police determine man only had toy gun

URBANA – University of Illinois police detained a Champaign man with a toy gun on campus Wednesday afternoon.

Interim Chief Jeff Christensen said officers questioned a 26-year-old man about 3:20 p.m. Wednesday after being sent to the Quad on a report of a man with a gun. The man is not a UI student, he said.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Intense Foreign Language Instruction Program at UI offered in January

The University of Illinois School of Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics will offer the Intensive Foreign Language Instruction Program this winter.

Classes will be from 9 a.m. to noon Jan. 5 to 16.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Chief Illiniwek event aims for dialogue, not debate

URBANA – So they didn't solve the controversy, but some University of Illinois students did sit down together in the Illini Union on Monday night to talk about one of the touchiest topics on campus.

"What's the deal with Chief Illiniwek?"

Salt Fork deer business thrives, but not all neighbors thrilled

ST. JOSEPH – A thriving deer-butchering operation on the Salt Fork River has been rezoned from family business to "major rural specialty business" after hearings that addressed some neighbors' complaints about odors.

River Bend Wild Game and Sausage Co., 1161 County Road 2400E, was started by a University of Illinois meat science worker, Charles Stites, as a family business.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Large crowd gathers at Assembly Hall for Chief's 'Next Dance'

URBANA – For just over four minutes on a cold, windy Saturday, Chief Illiniwek was back.

As a dozen protesters rallied outside, thousands of supporters rallied inside at the Assembly Hall on Saturday afternoon to watch University of Illinois student Logan Ponce, dressed in a replica Chief Illiniwek costume, dance to the song played by a band of alumni, not the alumni band – an event billed as "The Next Dance."

Contest-winning compositions to be performed in concert at UI

URBANA – A 24-year-old graduate student composer at the Universitat der Kunste in Berlin is the winner of the 12th annual Salvatore Martirano Memorial Composition Award Competition at the University of Illinois.

Abel Paul will have his "fragmentos del vertigo" performed by the UI New Music Ensemble, with conductors Stephen Taylor and Mei-Fang Lin, at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Foellinger Great Hall of Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. After the concert, there will be a reception in the lobby featuring music by the Boneyard Jazz Quintet.

UI researchers using genetic relationships to track evolution

URBANA – The latest computer technology has buttressed a revolutionary look at how life evolved, while offering new potential for medicines.

Carl Woese startled the scientific world in 1977 by positing that there are three essential domains, or types of life. Before, there were thought to be two, bacteria and everything else: eukaryotes, whose cells contain membrane-coated parts, such as the nucleus.

UI professor having blast in ensemble of Bebe Miller piece

As a professor, mother and dancer, Cynthia Oliver has a lot to manage, among them her own dance projects and now as an ensemble member in Bebe Miller Company's new piece, "Necessary Beauty."

But Oliver, an associate professor of dance at the University of Illinois, said earlier this week from New York City that she's having a blast.

"I've always wanted to do something with Bebe, so this is a great, great opportunity," Oliver said from her cell phone in the city, where "Necessary Beauty" was presented at the Dance Theater Workshop.

Friday, November 14, 2008

UI to pursue Global Campus accreditation

Plans to seek accreditation for the University of Illinois Global Campus are forging ahead.

New UI institute aims to combat global warming

On a stop-over in London several years ago, lawyer and University of Illinois graduate Joel Friedman started reading a book about global warming.

"By the time I got done reading the book I was in a panic," he said.

The more he read, the more concerned he became, and the more he wanted to do something.

"Who's going to find solutions?" Friedman had asked. Industry? Think-tanks?

Universities now paying for ethics training program

A new ethics training program will be developed for University of Illinois employees, but at a cost to the university.

The Office of the Executive Inspector General, the state agency that oversees ethics training for tens of thousands of state employees, has asked the state's public universities to handle ethics training for the universities beginning in 2009.

Burnham 310 opens first six floors for tenants

CHAMPAIGN – Tuesday was Move-in Day: the Sequel, for University of Illinois sophomore Jessica Sturdy.

A tenant at the Burnham 310 development, Sturdy moved into her one-bedroom apartment after several months of temporary lodging at a Savoy apartment complex. She's happy finally to be there, but "it's kind of been a nightmare," said her mother, Teresa Sturdy.

Initially scheduled to open in August, then Oct. 31, the 18-story Burnham high-rise opened its first six floors this week. The city recently approved a partial occupancy permit for those floors, said Garry Bowman, Champaign's building safety supervisor.

Green Street to get another high-rise

CHAMPAIGN – A new 11-story high-rise apartment building is likely going up on East Green Street.

Campus Property Management is planning to build a 112-unit apartment building at 201 E. Green St., with ground-floor commercial space and, below the ground floor, a fitness center, according to project architect Josh Daly of Henneman Engineering of Champaign.

Anti-war groups hold march on campus

URBANA – Steven Wyatt doesn't think Barack Obama will be the anti-war president, but he does think Obama supporters could swell the ranks of those opposed to U.S. intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The University of Illinois senior, majoring in physics and astronomy, was an organizer of daylong events at the UI calling for an end to the wars and support for soldiers and veterans.

Vigil message: POWs, MIAs not forgotten

URBANA – Just a few days after Veterans Day, a 24-hour vigil will commemorate those who haven't come back – yet.

Cadets and midshipmen from the Air Force, Army and Navy ROTC detachments at the University of Illinois are holding a POW/MIA Vigil today and Saturday.

Sex offender found to be living inside campus library

URBANA – A convicted sex offender was found to be sheltering himself at a campus library.

University of Illinois police Lt. Roy Acree said Eric J. Kaminski, 21, who gave a Champaign address, was discovered about 2:30 a.m. Thursday at the Undergraduate Library, 1402 W. Gregory Drive, U.

26 cited for underage drinking in Saturday bar check

CHAMPAIGN – Police cited 26 people for underage drinking in a Campus/Tap bar check over the weekend.

State troopers and Champaign police conducted the detail Saturday, resulting in 26 citations for possession or purchase of alcohol by a minor 18 to 20 years old, one for public urination and one for resisting a peace officer.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

24-hour vigil to commemorate military who are POW/MIA

URBANA – Just a few days after Veterans Day, a 24-hour vigil will commemorate those soldiers who haven't come back – yet.

Cadets and midshipmen from the Air Force, Army and Navy ROTC detachments at the University of Illinois are holding a POW/MIA Vigil Friday and Saturday.

UI professor studies factors in child piano prodigy's success

URBANA – After delivering a lecture in Hong Kong four years ago on musical development in children, Gary McPherson walked to a nearby restaurant. He quickly felt someone following him.

It was Tiffany Poon's father, asking for advice on how to help his daughter. She was quite talented at piano but didn't like the pedagogical approach of her former teachers – all 10 of them.

Sensing the dad was genuine, McPherson, now a professor of music education at the University of Illinois, agreed to meet his daughter. Upon first hearing Tiffany, then only 7, the professor was deeply impressed. She played from memory – not just the notes but with great expression.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

UI trustees expected to finalize Singapore partnership Thursday

The University of Illinois is expected to finalize an agreement that would help the university expand its presence on the other side of the world.

The UI Board of Trustees on Thursday will be asked to approve the creation of the UI Singapore Research Limited Liability Company, a university entity that would be able to enter into agreements with the Singapore government. The UI plans to open a research center in Fusionopolis, Singapore's new science and technology complex.

Indiana senator extolls bipartisanship in talk at Illini Union

URBANA – Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., thinks bipartisanship is the answer to getting things done in politics – and thinks President-elect Barack Obama is prepared to use it as he leads the country.

Lugar, who spoke at the Illini Union on Tuesday after winning the 2007 Paul H. Douglas Ethics in Government Award, said Obama and Sen. John McCain showed bipartisanship during their time in Congress. Lugar said he spoke on the phone with the president-elect Monday to talk foreign policy.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

UI board poised to extend president's contract

The University of Illinois is poised to extend its contract with President B. Joseph White.

The board of trustees, which is scheduled to meet Thursday in Springfield, will consider a proposal to extend White's contract by a year and a half, through June 30, 2011.

Monday, November 10, 2008

UI trustees to consider extending contract with White

The University of Illinois is poised to extend its contract with President B. Joseph White.

The board of trustees, which is scheduled to meet Thursday in Springfield, will consider a proposal to extend White's contract by a year and a half, through June 30, 2011.

Anti-war rally at UI to launch other peace-themed activities

URBANA – An anti-war rally set for noon Nov. 13 at the University of Illinois Quad will launch a series of peace events.

From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. the same day, the Quad will have the Eyes Wide Open Boot Display, sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee. That evening at 6 p.m. in Room 103 of Mumford Hall, 1301 W. Gregory Drive, U, a panel discussion, "The Legacy of GI Resistance," will feature Joe Allen, author of "Vietnam: The (Last) War the U.S. Lost"; Joe Miller, UI lecturer and member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War; and Richard Stacewicz, historian and author of "Winter Soldiers: An Oral History of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War." From 7 to 8:30 p.m., there will be testimony by Iraqis and veterans of the global war on terrorism.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

UI College of Media event celebrates books by professors

URBANA – The University of Illinois College of Media will celebrate the publication of books by two faculty members at 2 p.m. Monday in the Authors Corner at the Illini Union Bookstore, 809 S. Wright St., C.

The authors are professors Lisa Nakamura and Anghy Valdivia, and the event is free and open to the public. Their book discussions will be followed by a question and answer session, book signings, refreshments and prize giveaways.

UI black alumni mark Project 500's 40th anniversary

CHAMPAIGN – How time flies.

Forty years ago, Letti Burt-Butler scrambled down the halls of the University of Illinois, a girl of 17 from Chicago, a black student in the UI's pioneering Project 500, which brought minorities to campus in an effort to give all Illinois students access to equal educational opportunities.

When Burt-Butler left campus, she said, she was a woman. In her years at the UI, she had grown up. Those years weren't always easy, but they were so valuable, she said. They gave her the education to become a teacher herself, and she put that education to work in Chicago's inner-city schools.

"It was wonderful," she said. "Just to have the opportunity to come here. It was wonderful, but it was traumatic, too."

Friday, November 7, 2008

Chief group gets trademark warning

Items, logo on Web site were targets of the objection

A student group that supports bringing back Chief Illiniwek has received notice from the University of Illinois that it has infringed on the university's Chief trademarks.

Area events to celebrate 40th anniversary of Project 500

The University of Illinois campus will mark the 40th anniversary of Project 500 with several events this weekend.

Project 500 was the first major attempt by the Urbana campus to provide equal educational opportunity for all children of families in Illinois.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

UI breaks ground on Blue Waters Data Processing Center

CHAMPAIGN – With excavators scooping dirt and dust flying a few feet away, University of Illinois officials and researchers on Wednesday celebrated the building of a facility that will eventually house the world's fastest computer.

"This is where, in many ways, supercomputing was born with the birth of ILLIAC IV," said Thom Dunning, director of the National Center for Supercomputing at the University of Illinois, referring to a previous supercomputer developed at the UI. "The circle's closing with the facility that we're building," he said.

The 95,000-square-foot Blue Waters Data Processing Center is being built at the northwest corner of Oak Street and St. Mary's Road in Champaign.

Administrator at UI selected as LAS dean

CHAMPAIGN – The University of Illinois has named Ruth Watkins as the new dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the largest college on campus.

Watkins has been a vice provost of academic affairs and professor in the Department of Speech and Hearing Science at the university.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

WCIA to air UI College of Law show on 'Economy in Crisis'

The University of Illinois College of Law is partnering with WCIA Channel 3 to broadcast a live one-hour broadcast called "Economy in Crisis: A Local Look" on Wednesday.

The show will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. and broadcast from the Max L. Rowe Auditorium at the College of Law, 504 E. Pennsylvania Ave., C, in front of an audience.

UI president: Global Campus needs accreditation

Not enough students are enrolling in the University of Illinois' Global Campus, and not enough faculty are developing programs for the online education initiative.

As a result, UI President B. Joseph White wants to pursue accreditation for Global Campus, meaning the university unit could eventually award its own degrees, and its staff would be able to work directly with a variety of different types of faculty on developing more programs, specifically baccalaureate-completion degree programs.

UI flash index shows state economy flirting with contraction

URBANA – University of Illinois economist J. Fred Giertz has grim words about the state's economic prospects.

Giertz, who compiles the monthly UI flash economic index, said the index fell to 100.6 in October, the lowest reading since 100.5 in August 2004.

UI alumnus describes new vehicle venture in Cozad lecture

CHAMPAIGN – After 35 years of working for huge corporations, University of Illinois alumnus Mark Hogan is trying his hand at managing a startup.

He's the president and chief executive officer of The Vehicle Production Group, a company that's planning to design and market taxis for the mobility-impaired.