The Daily Illini: Volume 143 Issue 53

BY ELEANOR BLACKSTAFF WRITER

The University has announced its opposition to a pension bill that admin-istrators say will put the University at a “competitive disadvantage.”

The bill , which will cut pension bene-fi ts for state employees, aims to address the worst state credit rating in the coun-try and will be discussed at a Tuesday meeting of the General Assembly.

University President Robert Easter, along with the chancellors of all three campuses, signed an email to Univer-sity faculty Monday. The email stated that they “are profoundly disappointed

that in nearly three years of engaging the legislative process on this crucial issue, the state’s nine public univer-sities’ counterproposals will not be included.”

State lawmakers agreed on the pro-posal last week after years of discussion in an attempt to fi x the state’s pension system that faces an estimated defi cit of more than $100 billion . Under the pro-posal, state employees will lose a num-ber of benefi ts. Using 10 percent of the money saved from these cost-cutting measures, as well as annual payments of $364 million in Fiscal Year 2019 and $1 billion from Fiscal Year 2020 to 2045,

the state will fully fund the pension sys-tem by Fiscal Year 2044 .

Professor Harriet Murav, president of the Campus Faculty Association, said the bill would have a negative impact on faculty recruitment at the University. In April, the Urbana campus announced plans to hire 180 employees this year and 500 new employees over the next fi ve years .

Murav said the University wants to recruit not only those in early stages of their careers, but also those in advanced stages of their careers. She added that a disadvantageous pension plan would not attract potential employees who are

planning for their retirement. “When you’re in the middle of your

career, one of the fi rst questions you ask about a prospective place of employ-ment, ‘Well, what’s the pension like? How will I be able to plan not only for my child’s college education, but for my own retirement?’” she said. “If they can’t plan for their family’s future, they’re not going to want to come here.”

Murav said the plan would not only affect potential faculty, but it would also affect current employees at the Uni-versity. Under the proposed changes in the bill, a salary cap of $109,971 will be placed on all faculty. She said pres-

tigious faculty who have made signifi -cant contributions to the University who make more than the cap will not be giv-en a fair pension in return.

In its September report, the Task Force on Faculty Concerns and Issues said the Urbana campus does not pay its faculty members as well as its com-petition. The campus ranks 16th out of four-year public universities in aver-age full professor salary with $141,000.

Even ranking 16th, these faculty members make more than the pro-posed pension salary cap. Currently,

State to fully fund pensions by 2044

The state will fund 100 percent of the pension system by the end of Fiscal Year 2044. The state will contribute $365 million in Fiscal Year 2019 and $1 billion annually through Fiscal Year 2044 and 10 percent of the saving from pension reform, beginning in Fiscal Year 2016.

Cost of living adjustments

Annual cost-of-living adjustments will be equal to 3 percent of years of service multiplied by $1,000 ($800 for those coordinated with social security). The adjustment is for retirees and current employees. Retirees with annuities fewer than years of service times $1,000 will receive a 3 percent increase until it reaches that amount.

Missing adjustments

Employees will also miss future annual adjustments based on age. Employees 50 years or older will miss one adjustment. Employees age 47-49 will miss three adjustments. Employees ages 44-46 will miss four adjustments. Employees under 44 will miss fi ve adjustments.

Changes in retirement age

The retirement age will increase by four months for each year that a Tier I employee (an employee hired before Jan. 1, 2011) is under the age of 46. The maximum increase in retirement age is fi ve years, making the maximum retirement age 67, the same age as Tier II employees.

Pension salary cap

The Tier II salary cap of $109,971 will be applied to all employees. Salaries that exceed the cap or will exceed the cap because of raises in a current collective bargaining agreement will be grandfathered in. Currently, 2,984 faculty in the University of Illinois System make more than the salary cap.

Other changes

Employees will contribute 1 percent less of their salary toward their pension. All pension matters, except

pension pickups, are removed from collective bargaining. The state pension systems

cannot use pension funds to pay health costs.

BY MEGAN JONESSTAFF WRITER

After deciding against allocat-ing funds to the Black Chorus for robes, the Illinois Student Sen-ate now faces what Student Body President Damani Bolden calls “a dangerous precedent” in regards to not being able to fund other reg-istered student organizations.

“The senate needs to undergo a fundamental reexamination of its principles and standards when it comes to serving the students at the University of Illinois,” Vice President-External Carey Ash said. “No student group should ever come before the student sen-ate and leave empty handed.”

While considering funding the Black Chorus, the senate addressed what it would do if each of the more than 1,000 RSOs on campus asked for funding.

“The senate needs to come up with clear and articulated stan-dards as to what types of proj-ects are funded and by what amounts,” Ash said. “The Com-mittee on Internal Affairs and the Committee on Financial Affairs should take a strong look at the principles of student government, and we should publish those to the student body at large.”

If all RSOs asked the senate for money, the senate would be bank-rupt, which Ash said sheds light on the larger issue of expanding the senate’s budget.

“The body has set precedent that we are not in the business of allocating funds to student orga-nizations,” Bolden said. “This is

a dangerous precedent, as we are called upon multiple times throughout the year to lend a help-ing hand to a multitude of student organizations.”

RSOs typically receive fund-ing from the Student Organization

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

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PUJA PATEL THE DAILY ILLINICrystal Ramirez, junior in LAS, laughs as she decorates her wish jar as a part of an Illini Art Therapy workshop at the Women’s Resources Center on Monday.

When you wish upon a jar

University administrators oppose pension bill

University YMCA to participate in #GivingTuesday

ISS looks to create RSO funding policy

BY ARIANA CONNERCONTRIBUTING WRITER

Following Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the University YMCA on Tuesday will par-ticipate in #GivingTuesday, a national social media move-ment aimed to encourage peo-ple to give back to their com-munities, donate to charities and support various causes.

The University YMCA used Facebook and Twitter to pro-mote the event, and the social media platforms continue to be the primary tools through which the community can donate. By following a secure link on the YMCA’s Facebook page or Twitter account, @Uni-versityYUIUC , online users can donate money by inputting their credit card information and choosing a recipient for their donation. The Universi-ty YMCA also sent out tweets and Facebook posts leading up to the day-long event, which encouraged its viewers to give, said Alicia Beck, devel-opment director of the Univer-sity YMCA.

The movement was found-ed in 2012 by a core group of founding partners, one of which includes the United Nations Foundation.

“Giving Tuesday is a coun-ter narrative to Black Friday and Cyber Monday because it reminds us that the spirit of the holiday-giving season should be about community and not just consumerism,” said Kathy Calvin, CEO of the UN Foundation, in a press release. “The most meaning-ful gift we can give our chil-dren, loved ones, friends and neighbors is the commitment to work together to help build a better world.”

Beck said that in this sea-son of generosity it is impor-tant for people to remember that they are participants in a community. She said that “as community members, our gifts can make our community stronger, and when we partic-ipate together in that, giving the gift is even greater.”

Beck said the YMCA’s goal is to raise $25,000, which will go toward a number of student programs that engage with the community. The programs

include tutoring programs in Champaign-Urbana public schools, Alternative Spring Break service projects and other causes. The donations received by the University YMCA will also help with the organization’s global health initiative and environmental sustainability issues. “The money that we raise helps sup-port those students programs, and in turn those students pro-grams give a lot of volunteer hours,” she said. “Online is an easy arena for people to participate in because they don’t have to write a physical check or come in and give a donation.”

Sally Feng, Student Board chair at the University YMCA and senior in LAS, is a member of Alternative Spring Break, a registered student organiza-tion on campus and one of the organizations that will receive donations from #GivingTues-day. Feng said that partici-pants of ASB travel across the country to learn about and combat social justice and environmental issues. Through ASB, students have the chance to both grow as individuals and give beyond the local commu-nity, she said.

“#GivingTuesday is an excel-lent reminder to be grateful. We always want what we don’t have, but we may not realize that what we have is more precious than what we don’t have,” Feng said.

Another RSO that will benefi t from #GivingTuesday is Invisi-ble Confl icts, which is “commit-ted to exposing the ‘invisible’ confl icts overlooked by main-stream media, governments, and international institutions,” according to the University’s RSO database.

“My hope for this year is able to sustain our resources for our staff and personnel and that we continue our activities despite budget cuts,” said Paul Dolmon, Invisible Confl icts president, sec-retary on the University YMCA’s student board and senior in LAS.

Beck said she hopes people will value #GivingTuesday because the campaign will help create tomorrow’s leaders and improve their communities.

Student Organization Resource Fee funding standards for 2013-14SORF funds a variety of registered student organizations that request funding based on the following standards:Does fund: Up to 50 percent of

contract fees, for example hiring speakers, performers, referees for games and judges to host competitions Travel and lodging costs

Does not fund: Coaches, teachers or

instructors defi ned as the same individual leading the same group in multiple similar workshops or activities Internal meetings,

leadership activities Retreats, practices,

rehearsals Costumes or uniforms

SOURCE: 2013-2014 SORF STANDARDS

MEGAN JONES THE DAILY ILLINISenator David Mischiu, senior in FAA, speaks with members of the Black Chorus about their request for funds to purchase new robes at the Nov. 20 senate meeting.

Under proposed changes, state would fully fund pensions by 2044

SEE RSO FUNDING | 3A SEE YMCA | 3A

SPORTS, 1B

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WEATHERPOLICEChampaign

Residential burglary was reported in the 1100 block of South Fourth Street at around 4 p.m. Sunday.

According to the report, an unknown suspect entered an apartment and stole jewelry, elec-tronic gaming systems and elec-tronic game accessories.

Sexual criminal abuse was reported in the 00 block of East Chalmers Street at around 11:30 p.m. Wednesday.

According to the report, the female victim reported being sex-ually abused by a male suspect.

A 33-year-old male was arrested on the charge of aggra-vated battery at Tumble Inn, 302 S. Neil St., at around 2 a.m. Thursday.

According to the report, the suspect battered two male victims.

University A 30-year-old male was

arrested on the charges of pos-session of a controlled substance in the 100 block of East John St. at 9:30 p.m. Saturday.

According to the report, the suspect was in possession of near-ly 54 grams of powder cocaine and $1,200 in cash.

Damage to a vehicle was reported near Memorial Stadi-um, 1402 South First St., at 1 p.m. Saturday.

According to the report, wind had blown a steel truss onto the victim’s truck. The cost of the damage is estimated to be $3,000.

Urbana Theft was reported in the

1200 block of Vine Street at around 1 p.m. Sunday.

According to the report, the offender took currency from a desk in the victim’s apartment without permission.

Burglary from a motor vehi-cle was reported in the 500 block of South Busey Avenue at around 1 a.m. on Monday.

According to the report, the offender damaged the rear soft top plastic window to gain entry to the locked vehicle. The victim reported that nothing was taken from the vehicle.

Compiled by Lauren Edstrom and Hannah Prokop

HOROSCOPESBY NANCY BLACKTRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES

Today’s Birthday Love is this year’s holy grail. Embark on an adventure for spiritual, philosophical and ! nancial growth. Capture springtime creativity on paper and screen. With respect and focus, partnerships grow and your career thrives (especially late summer, when communications pop). July 25 and 26 ! nd special favor and bring extraordinary luck. Mix passion with contribution and " y on golden wings.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 an 8 — Today could mark the beginning of something wonderful. Push beyond old limits. Your brave acts may also push someone else’s buttons. Understand their point of view and stay respectful.

TAURUS (APRIL 20-MAY 20)Today is a 7 — From the ashes, the phoenix rises. New opportunities open up in your education. Do the homework to succeed. You have the resources to try something you’ve always wanted to do. Accept support and acknowledge your team. Give thanks.

GEMINI (MAY 21-JUNE 20)Today is an 8 — Tackle a renovation or makeover project. Do what you promised, even if

it seems impossible. A friend or partner would love to tell you how. Gather up info and customize to suit. Contemplate advice from an elder.

CANCER (JUNE 21-JULY 22)Today is a 9 — Show your appreciation to someone. Start a new phase this week by completing an old one. Get rid of the dead wood and discover forgotten treasures. Clean, sort and organize. Connect with neighbors. Allow yourself a reward.

LEO (JULY 23-AUG. 22)Today is a 7 — Get into the competition. You’re learning quickly. Write down what a wealthy, older person told you. Respect the advice you receive. Turn down an expensive proposition, though. Be humble, as well, and you’ll score. You’re radiant.

VIRGO (AUG. 23-SEPT. 22)Today is a 6 — Keep long-term goals in mind. Each ending allows a new beginning. Your team is making advances quickly, and your applause is greatly appreciated. Sing out praises! You’re respected for your common sense. Soak in the love.

LIBRA (SEPT. 23-OCT. 22)Today is a 7 — Your mate helps you get your message out. Give a ! nal mighty push. Discover another fringe bene! t. You’re determined to succeed; keep the momentum going and victory is natural. Celebrate, then get right back to it.

SCORPIO (OCT. 23-NOV. 21)

Today is a 9 — You want to be ! nished. Do the research so you’ll know the best path. You’re making money for others. Your mind is clear, and a shift in priorities arises. Lead your team to victory. Archive what worked.

SAGITTARIUS (NOV. 22-DEC. 21)Today is a 9 — A dream reveals a completion and a new beginning. Work a little magic; believe you will succeed, even without proof. The pressure’s on to ! nish up, and there’s a call to action. Revise your routine. Keep sharing ideas.

CAPRICORN (DEC. 22-JAN. 19)Today is a 6 — True love’s worth the cost. Compromise and take action. Begin a new course of study, or pursue a passion. New skills look good on you. You’re motivated to learn more. A new personal phase begins.

AQUARIUS (JAN. 20-FEB. 18)Today is a 7 — You’ve been contemplating the future. List desired domestic improvements; the odds are good to accomplish them. Don’t let a grumpy mood spoil the moment. Push to ! nish a job. Get the family to help and the work will go faster.

PISCES (FEB. 19-MARCH 20)Today is a 7 — Bring out your secret power. Talk about how it can be applied to a work project for long-lasting results. You’re learning as you go along, and a brilliant discovery changes the game. Celebrate what you’ve accomplished.

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In the Nov. 21, 2013, edition of The Daily Illini, the map accompanying the article “ACES offers help to East African farmers” incorrectly showed the borders of Ethiopia covering the borders of another country, Eritrea. The map also excluded the landlocked country of Lesotho. Additionally, the caption for this graphic mistakenly labeled four African countries “counties.” The Daily Illini regrets these errors.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.

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the University system has 2,984 faculty members above the cap. This salary cap already exists for new hires.

“The faculty who are at the top of the pay-scale, the most prestigious faculty who bring in lots of grant dollars and are very accomplished and do a lot for the University, whether it’s in the form of their scholarship or the grants, those people will have a cap put on the income that can be used as the basis for their pension,” Murav said.

Aside from the major effects the pension bill would have on state employees, Murav believes

it will affect everyday life for retirees.

Under the bill, all employees will miss cost-of-living adjust-ments on their annuities based on age, with younger employees missing more adjustments.

“The cost of living adjustment that the reform proposes will not keep up with the cost of infla-tion. So that when the price of gas changes, foodstuffs, medi-cine — all those things that you need when you’re a retired per-son — your pension isn’t going to keep up with increased costs, and you’re going to have a severe loss in your quality of life,” Murav said.

Ricky Baldwin, chief negoti-ator of the Service Employees International Union, Local 73,

which represents about 800 Uni-versity service employees, said the overhaul unfairly pins the costs on government employees and not the government itself.

“It is the employer that has not paid their share, and now they’re asking the employees to pay more to cover the employer’s share that wasn’t paid. That’s wrong,” he said. “You’re tak-ing it away from people who’ve already done their work all with the understanding that they would have that retirement.”

Austin Keating, Johnathan Hettinger and Maggie Huynh contributed to this report.

Eleanor can be reached at [email protected].

“A lot of students find what their passion is in life here at the Y,” she said. “Students will find out that they are really passionate about health, education issues or

environmental issues. They dis-covered that here at the Y, and they will go on and engage in those things for the rest of their life, whether it’s through their work or through their volunteer activities.”

This is the first year the Uni-versity YMCA participated in

#GivingTuesday. Beck said The University YMCA wanted to be a part of #GivingTuesday because it’s promoting giving to the com-munity during a time of year that focuses on giving gifts.

Ariana can be reached at [email protected].

Resource Fee, SORF, which con-sists of a board of both students and staff members who facilitate reimbursements to organizations for event costs, permanent equip-ment purchases and more. SORF is funded through a student fee of $5.50 per student per semester.

Senator Shao Guo, senior in ACES, was one of the first to rec-ommend that the senate should create a funding policy for these situations to guide their decisions in the future.

“It’s imperative that the ISS creates funding policies if they wish to allocate toward RSOs,” Guo said. “For example, SORF’s mission is to be just and fair and not be arbitrary, and my fear is that if there is no funding poli-cy for the student government ... (it) does not give ISS a favorable light.”

He believes that ISS should form an ad-hoc committee and appoint members to host an advertised meeting, where all RSO members are invited to give input on creating a funding policy.

“The purpose of the student government is fundamentally to serve and meet the needs of the student,” Ash said. “Now, I rec-ognize, as do others, that the stu-dent senate can’t meet every need, but that is no excuse for not con-tributing something. I recognize that members of the senate have different feelings about financ-es, but politics and ideologies do not trump service to the student body.”

In 1985, the previous form of government on campus, the Stu-dent Government Association, had established funding policies for organizations.

“It was pretty flexible, but they still had policy,” Guo said.

The precedent came after the

senate’s Nov. 20 meeting, where it denied the Black Chorus the requested $18,390 for chorus robes. The allocation vote failed 9-17 with two abstentions.

Bolden said this precedent does not align with his goals for the sen-ate and campus outreach. He feels they need to spend time reflect-ing and “step up from the petty politics that (have) been created.”

SORF funds are allocated on a request basis, and not all RSOs are given an equal amount of money. All funding requests must be sub-mitted before the event or pur-chase, and SORF can reimburse RSOs.

Guo said due to the require-ments of SORF’s reimbursement process, RSOs would turn to the senate for funding when they are unable to fundraise enough mon-ey to make the initial purchase or host the event.

“In terms of financially poor RSOs who are unable to come up with the money beforehand, ISS can essentially co-sponsor their event or purchase,” Guo said.

He added that SORF also only funds RSOs, so organizations such as the Illini Union Board may turn to ISS in order to cosponsor events such as Illinites.

“The highest title on campus is not that of chancellor or president, it’s that of student,” Ash said. “Stu-dents have the right to demand any and everything of their fel-low students, faculty, staff and administrators because at the end of the day, we are here to serve the students. Just because the SORF organization exists does not mean ISS may be derelict in its duty to serve the students it represents.”

Megan can be reached at [email protected].

BY JAMES BARRAGAN, SAMANTHA SCHAEFER AND ADOLFO FLORESLOS ANGELES TIMES

LOS ANGELES — Officials on Sunday said it could take some time before investigators know how fast a Porsche was travel-ing when it crashed on Saturday, killing “Fast & Furious” actor Paul Walker and his friend Rog-er Rodas.

Walker, 40, and Rodas, 38, took a red Porsche out for a spin as a charity event in Santa Clarita, Calif., held in support of Walker’s organization Reach Out World-wide was winding down.

Witness Jim Torp, said he heard a loud boom, and he knew his friends had been in an accident. The smoke from the crash was vis-ible from Always Evolving Per-formance Motors, which Rodas owned, where car enthusiasts and supporters were still gathered — some thinking it was just a fire on a nearby hill.

Jim Torp’s son, Brandon, 28, grabbed a fire extinguisher and headed up the hill, followed by about 20 other workers, the elder Torp said.

“There was nothing they could do,” he said.

The Los Angeles County Sher-iff’s Department on Sunday con-tinued to investigate the single-car crash but did not reveal any details on a possible cause.

Speed may have been a factor in the crash, which occurred about 3:30 p.m. on Hercules Street, a normally quiet road with a 45-mph speed limit, authorities said. Walk-er was apparently the passenger in the 2005 red Porsche Carrera GT.

The four-lane road up the hilly street has signs warning drivers to slow down as they approach an uphill curve near the site of the accident.

The fiery crash left charred trees in the secluded area near a business park, and a burned smell lingered in the air Sunday. The car, which was reduced to an ash-en hulk, had toppled a tree and a concrete lamp post, which crews from Southern California Edison removed Sunday. Looping tire tracks were visible on the asphalt nearby.

Investigators are looking at whether the tire tracks are relat-ed to the crash, but the investi-gation is ongoing, said Sheriff’s Deputy Peter Gomez.

Because of the condition of the bodies, which were badly burned, dental records will be used to pos-itively identify the victims, said Los Angeles County coroner’s investigator Dana Bee. Autopsies have not been scheduled.

A video taken moments after the accident shows black smoke billowing from the crumpled

red Porsche, which caught fire, and debris scattered about the roadway.

“The car is in half. I can’t tell if there is someone in there,” one person on the video is heard saying.

Seconds later comes an answer: “Yes, there is someone in there.” At least one person heard on the video expresses concern that the burning car could explode.

Torp said his son saw his two friends burn in the car before the Fire Department arrived. Officials at the scene held back a childhood friend of Walker from pulling his body from the burning car, and firefighters had to pull Rodas’ young son away from the wreckage, Jim Torp said.

“They just didn’t want to believe this happened,” Torp told fans and media at the crash site on Sun-day. “It was ‘Fast and the Furi-ous,’ that’s what it is. Both race car enthusiasts, both loved speed, both knew how to handle cars, and this had to happen.”

Walker’s death was confirmed by a statement posted to his Twit-ter account Saturday.

“It is with a truly heavy heart that we must confirm that Paul Walker passed away today in a tragic car accident while attend-ing a charity event for his orga-nization Reach Out Worldwide,” the statement said. “He was a pas-

senger in a friend’s car, in which both lost their lives. We appreci-ate your patience as we too are stunned and saddened beyond belief by this news.”

At the time of his death, the

“Fast & Furious” star, who also appeared in “Pleasantville” and “Varsity Blues,” was working on the seventh film of the franchise.

Dozens of fans gathered in Santa Clarita early Sunday at

the crash site, where a makeshift memorial was growing. “Fast & Furious” memorabilia was placed alongside candles and flowers. One sign read, “Paul Walker Race in Heaven.”

BY MITCHELL PROTHEROMCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE

BEIRUT — A long-feared influx of rebels fleeing Syrian battlefields for Lebanon was being blamed Monday for week-end violence that saw fighting spread throughout much of Syr-ia’s tiny neighbor.

The ongoing battle between forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad and anti-Assad rebels for the rural mountain-ous region of Qalamoun, along the Syria-Lebanon border, has pushed scores, if not hundreds, of fighters from a variety of Syrian rebel groups into Leb-anon, where security officials say their presence is desta-bilizing an already-volatile situation.

“Some rebels seem to have decided that operating directly in Lebanon is safer than Syr-ia,” one exasperated Lebanese security official said, speak-ing only on the condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to talk to report-ers. “Some of these are nor-mal rebels tired of war who

have entered Lebanon with their families as refugees, but we’re seeing evidence some are with al-Qaida or the Nusra Front,” an al-Qaida-affiliated rebel group.

At least 10 people died and dozens were wounded over the weekend in Tripoli, the predom-inately Sunni Muslim city that’s Lebanon’s second largest. The city has seen violence before between poor Sunni neighbor-hoods that are sympathetic to the rebels and a small enclave of Alawites who support Assad, but the weekend’s fighting was especially bloody and left the city shuttered Monday.

“The guys (on both sides) have gone insane,” a resident said by phone, asking that her name not be used in order to protect her family. “It’s not just (the usual) sniping. It’s rockets, mortars and grenades. Nobody in Tripoli slept Saturday or Sunday night.”

The fighting began Saturday after apparent Sunni gunmen wounded a municipal worker for being Alawite, the same Shi-

ite-related brand of Islam that Assad follows. That attack was reportedly in revenge for this summer’s double bombing of Sunni mosques in Tripoli asso-ciated with the rebels, which killed scores of people and wounded hundreds and which many Sunnis and parts of the Lebanese government have blamed on the main Alawite Lebanese political party, the Arab Democratic Party.

An Alawite militia leader, Ali Eid, promised more fighting.

“If the fighting does not stop by (Tuesday), we will see something new that will destroy Tripoli,” he said. “We are capable of closing this city and burning it.”

The weekend fighting in Tripoli spread to nearby Akkar province as snipers and rock-et-propelled grenade attacks on traffic closed the highway that connects the area to Syria. The Lebanese army announced that it would take steps to block access to Lebanon through the mountains along the border, to keep Islamist rebels out.

THE DAILY ILLINI | WWW.DAILYILLINI.COM Tuesday, December 3, 2013 3A

MICHAEL ROBINSON CHAVEZ MCCLATCHY TRIBUNEPeople gather on Sunday to leave flowers, candles and other offerings at the crash site where actor Paul Walker was killed on Saturday afternoon.

DAVID TORRES THE MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNEA New York commuter train derailed on Sunday in the Bronx borough. The train was traveling over the limit.

Illinois faculty leaders support IT Strategic Plan

Investigation continues in car crash that killed movie star

Fighting erupts as more Syrian rebels flee country

New York City train crash kills four, injures dozens

BY JOHNATHAN HETTINGERSTAFF WRITER

One month after hearing a presentation from the Univer-sity’s chief information officer, the Urbana-Champaign Senate Executive Committee voted in favor of a resolution in support of the 2013 IT Strategic Plan.

The resolution was written by the Committee on Informa-tion Technology, and John Hart, committee chair and SEC mem-ber, presented the resolution at the SEC meeting Monday.

Paul Hixson, Chief Informa-tion Officer, presented the IT Strategic Plan for 2014 through 2016 in November, highlighting the strides the University has made in information technolo-gy but also showing that this is a “critical time” for the Univer-sity when it comes to investing in technology.

“We are currently underin-vesting,” Hixson said at the

November meeting.According to Hixson’s presen-

tation, the University is underin-vesting by $7 million in IT and has been the victim of many cyber attacks that disrupt the University’s workflow and harm its reputation.

The number of average dai-ly wireless users has skyrock-eted in the past two years, while infrastructure has only increased slightly, according to the presentation. If the current pace keeps up, the University soon won’t be able to support the number of mobile devices wish-ing to connect to Wi-Fi, Hixson said.

The resolution said “the stra-tegic plan will make Illinois a leader in online education.” The resolution will be voted on by the full senate at its meeting next Monday.

In addition to the IT resolu-tion, SEC chair Roy Campbell

said the senate should pass a resolution regarding pensions after it was announced that state lawmakers reached a deal on pension reform, and the commit-tee decided to have the senate vote on the University Senates Conference’s resolution.

John Kindt, chairman of the Faculty and Academic Staff Benefits Committee, said it is not too late for people to give input regarding pensions to state legislators.

In addition to the pension discussion, Campbell also pre-sented many other ideas he has for the SEC in the upcoming months, mostly housekeeping items, such as not mailing out hard copies of senate materi-als and increasing technology use by the senate.

Johnathan can be reached at [email protected] and @jhett93.

SORF board another option for RSOsAnother way registered student organizations can receive funding is by asking the Student Organization Resource Fee board for funds for

events, permanent equipment purchases and more.

EUNIE KIM THE DAILY ILLINISOURCE: Shao Guo, Illinois Student Senator and the SORF Handbook

RSOs must submit an application at least three to four weeks before the event or purchase occurs. RSOs can receive a maximum of $6,000 per year

or 5 percent of their annual revenue.

After fundraising the money on their own, RSOs are reimbursed by SORF.

After applying, RSOs are assigned a pre-reviewer, a member of the SORF board, who looks over the request and makes recommendations to the board.

1

2

3

RSOs must submit proof of their event or their purchase in order to receive the reimbursement.

4

BY TINA SUSMANLOS ANGELES TIMES

NEW YORK — A passenger train that derailed in New York City, killing four people, was trav-eling 82 mph as it entered a curve where the speed limit is 30 mph, and the brakes were not fully applied until seconds before the cars came to a stop off the tracks, federal investigators said Monday.

Earl Weener of the Nation-al Transportation Safety Board stressed that the information so far was “preliminary,” but he said the details of the Metro-North train’s speed and brakes came from two “event recorders” that

investigators were able to retrieve after Sunday’s crash in the Spuy-ten Duyvil neighborhood of the Bronx.

Four passengers were killed and dozens of people were injured, several critically. After the Sun-day morning crash of the Metro-North 8808 train, which had left Poughkeepsie at 5:54 a.m. EST, some survivors said they felt the train was moving too quickly.

The derailment occurred on a curve along the track, where the speed limit drops to 30 mph from 70 mph on the straight section of track.

At a news briefing, Weener said

the train’s engineer had been interviewed, but he did not give details of the interview.

He also said it was not yet known if the speed and the late application of the brakes were the result of mechanical failure or operator error. “That’s the ques-tion we need to answer,” Ween-er said.

He was joined at the news con-ference by Sen. Charles Schum-er, D-N.Y., who said NTSB inves-tigators had not indicated there were any major problems with the tracks.

“When I heard about the speed, I gulped,” Schumer said.

RSO FUNDINGFROM 1A

YMCAFROM 1A

PENSIONFROM 1A

My parents, who are alumni, recall how many years have passed since the days of fried chicken and macaroni and cheese in

University dining halls. Then, the Freshman 15 was the exception. The

Freshman 30 was the norm.University Dining still offers those options.

When it does, the line at Gregory Drive Diner at Ikenberry Commons is nearly a mile long.

Yet there are many healthier options nearby.I will never forget my mom’s surprise when

I brought her to brunch at the Lincoln Avenue Residence dining hall my freshman year. On one of the counters laid fresh salmon with blocks of cream cheese, capers and lemons.

We feasted on salmon and lox and my mom declared her money was being spent well — not just on the quality of food, but on the meal plan itself.

And I agree with her. Students in Univer-sity Housing can eat at any of the University dining halls. They can choose from four meal plans, and non-University Housing students can also choose a six-meal-a-week plan. Meals are all-you-care-to-eat.

Credits can be used at A La Carte locations when you don’t have time to sit down for a meal. Specialty restaurant nights add vari-ety to the menu. All these options make the University’s meal plans one of the higher price tags in the Big Ten, but, like anything, improvements can be made.

Based on an informal survey I made and posted on Facebook, I found trends in the likes and dislikes of students’ dining halls across the Big Ten. Some unique aspects of schools’ meal plans caught my attention.

University of Minnesota Students at the University of Minnesota

are given guest meal passes, where they can swipe in others for meals. They also like the freedom that the “FlexDine” option gives them.

Students can use FlexDine Dollars (mon-ey allocated from meal plans to eat outside of the dining halls) at campus restaurants. Con-versely, every meal plan includes FlexDine Dollars, something that student James Pawlo-wicz says can make you lose money because the money will be returned to the university after one year of inactivity on the account.

“I’d rather just spend regular money and not convert it into perishable FlexDine,” Pawlowicz wrote in the survey.

University of IowaThe University of Iowa switched to semes-

ter-based plans this year. Student Alexandra Carlson, who now lives outside university hous-ing, would have liked to have this plan because her schedule varied week to week.

“Some weeks I needed more (meals), and some weeks I would barely eat at the din-

ing hall. It was often a waste for me,” Carlson wrote in the survey.

University of MichiganStudents at the University of Michigan have

a lot to say about the bad food quality, but they do appreciate that some of the dining halls are open continuously from 7 a.m. to 8 or 9 p.m.

Indiana UniversityIndiana University runs on I-Bucks, with

which students buy individual items. If they want to get seconds, they must use more of their I-Bucks.

I think I can speak on behalf of most students at the University of Illinois when I say that I’m thankful our meal plan operates on an all-you-care-to-eat basis when swiping into a dining hall.

But University of Illinois students would appreciate being able to swipe a guest in for a meal using a classic meal. Northwestern is one university that offers a meal plan that gives stu-dents two guest meal passes per quarter. Cur-rently at the University of Illinois, students can swipe a guest in using credits, not meals. This is a nice option, but meals are lost after a week if not used, while credits carry over.

When I lived in University Housing, I had the

10 classic meals and 45 cafe credits plan. Typi-cally, I ended up using 8-10 meals per week, and almost all of my credits each week. If I want-ed to swipe in a friend for dinner, it would cost 12.59 credits and I’d have to budget my remain-ing credits for the week. I would have liked to be able to put one of my unused meals to use.

It would also be worthwhile to look into a pro-gram like that of Minnesota’s, in which a certain amount of money from the meal plan could be used at local restaurants.

The vendors in the Illini Union would be a good place to start, because it is a central loca-tion on the Main Quad that many students could easily use. As the University Dining menus can be repetitive, being able to eat at outside restau-rants would add variety to students’ food options.

University of Illinois students’ responses to the survey were overall very positive, indicating that there is widespread satisfaction with Uni-versity Dining. But as food is very important in a student’s life, we would love to see even more options in meal plans.

Kirsten is a junior in Media. She can be reached at [email protected].

It is now the most glorious and wonderful time of the year! Thanksgiving is over, the people who took advantage of all the

Black Friday deals are ready for the holidays and the war on Christmas is in full force.

Fox News went live with their “War on Christmas” page so they can report when the “right to celebrate Christmas is under attack” and to see “where the latest challeng-es to religious freedom are taking place.”

Every year, around this time, there is a battle cry from some followers of the Chris-tian faith that Christmas is under attack and that their rights to celebrate the holiday are being torn from the fabric of American traditions.

When talking about the war on Christ-mas and other controversial topics, I find it important to recognize and validate the concern of the opposition. As someone who believes the war on Christmas doesn’t exist, it’s important for me to realize that the Christians who do agree with it believe so because of some attempts by others to do away with some public traditions and make the holiday less mainstream.

I’ve spent a lot of time this semester learn-ing about the relations between majority

and minority demographics, and I’ve come to learn that every single person has their own unique set of experiences. These experi-ences shape a worldview and due to the wide array of experiences, there is a wide array of worldviews.

Christmas is inescapable. There are Christ-mas-themed commercials on many channels, some of the biggest store sales only happen around this time of the year and students get a winter break, which is conveniently placed right around Christmas time. There is really no significance to this other than for the con-venience of those who celebrate Christmas.

For those who are in the Christian majority, this privilege is a very normal occurrence.

But because of this dominance, some peo-ple attempt to push Christmas out of the pub-lic sphere by ensuring that governments do not fund any displays of Christmas imagery, as it is seen as a violation of the First Amend-ment, which prohibits the establishment of any national religion.

A public school district in Wausau, Wis. restricted the amount of Christmas music their high school choir could perform at their Christmas concert, and in Cheboygan, Mich., the city council banned all private displays of Christmas imagery on city-owned land.

What Christians are experiencing when their holiday is being “attacked” is called dis-tress of the privileged.

Distress of the privileged occurs when the norm is challenged — in this case, celebrat-

ing Christmas in the public sphere — and there are attempts made to make society more equitable to the people it serves.

Christian privilege is deeply embedded in American society. Jews don’t get school off during Yom Kippur, and Muslims don’t have door buster sales that are themed after Eid al-Adha.

In other words, the war on Christmas is an attempt to protect the non-Christian minority from having a tradition thrown in their face that has little to no relevance to them. The “attacks” on Christmas are not attacks, but attempts to protect religious freedom.

Public entities are established to represent and serve their citizens, regardless of reli-gious affiliation. When a local government creates an ordinance to restrict Christmas imagery on city property, or a public school district limits the amount of Christmas music that can be performed at a holiday concert, it is an attempt to be unbiased and to be repre-sentative of all of its citizens.

Well-intentioned efforts to push Christmas out of the public sphere are not done to strip Christians of their right to celebrate Christ-mas, but to push society into adapting with the changing times. With a population that’s becoming more and more diverse, it’s neces-sary to realize that you cannot assume every-one celebrates Christmas.

Matt is a sophomore in LAS. He can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewPasquini.

OPINIONS4ATUESDAY

THE DAILY ILLINI

EDITORIALGreek houses not ‘rushing’ to !x housing

violations

On a campus with more than 60 certified fra-ternity and sorority houses, the Univer-sity of Illinois boasts

one of the largest Greek system in the country. So, in a Greek system as large as ours, one that involves nearly 25 per-cent of the undergraduate student popu-lation, maintenance and safety of Greek houses should be of the utmost concern.

The combination of relatively tight liv-ing quarters, masses of students away from home for the first time and the newfound freedoms of a college campus — building violations are inevitable.

But last week, CU-CitizenAccess re-ported that many of these violations take weeks, even months, before they are ad-dressed and fixed.

If these violations are going unen-forced, then there is a clear need for stricter enforcement. But stricter en-forcement shouldn’t be dependent on a mishap; it is something the University should be pushing from its end, even if it comes down to considering whether to de-certify a house.

Although required by law, fining Greek houses for unaddressed safety violations will inevitably make it tougher to get the safety hazards addressed in a timely manner. Many times the money was nev-er allocated in the house’s budget or they must seek approval from their property managers.

Violations, in almost any residential building, shouldn’t come unexpected, though. Too often you see a multitude of electrical cords plugged in, seeping ev-ery last bit of power, and items hang-ing from the ceiling or the most common one: the dysfunctional smoke (and some-times carbon monoxide) detector.

This is a matter of convenience for students, one that becomes a slippery slope for other chronic habits.

Consider this example: Many Univer-sity Housing residence halls and Private Certified Housing facilities are relative-ly strict about appliances and often have resident advisers or another type of su-pervisor inspect living spaces; yet CU-CitizenAccess still reported a handful of violations in these private-certified and University residence halls.

As aforementioned, violations are bound to happen in almost any building. But the urgency to fix some of those is-sues by the houses themselves, starting with the most critical, when possible, is missing. That’s the real issue at hand.

With a quarter turnover in Universi-ty student population each year, it’s diffi-cult, if not impossible, to educate every-one on what is generally considered safe.

In some cases, it’s up to the property owner whether to allow a certain item — and much of that falls on the students to be proactive in seeking out the informa-tion, which is often buried in the hand-book on move-in day or written in fine print in the lease.

That’s where enforcement comes in, especially with the Greek houses, which arguably pose a greater danger to those who live in them because of the high number of students living in a tight area. Fining isn’t a solution that would neces-sarily fix problems in a timely manner.

The money for violations may not be allocated in the house’s budget, and many students may not be aware of what is considered a violation and how to cor-rect the violation.

So the next step lies on the shoulders of the vice chancellor for student af-fairs, whose office has the authority to de-certify Greek organizations if the vio-lations go unaddressed.

If de-certified, a Greek house does not have the ability to provide living space to first-year students, namely second-se-mester freshmen. Although this would be an unfavorable alternative, it’s some-thing that is seriously considered — as it should continue to be — when city of-ficials tell the housing office that a certi-fied house isn’t putting forth the effort to correct its violations.

Whether a shorter timetable or a tight-er leash on repeat offenders makes a dif-ference, the wait-and-see approach by officials appears to be falling short, just like some of the Greek house’s efforts.

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.

UI meal plans serve up satisfaction, but room for growth

Addressing privileged for more inclusive holidaysMATT PASQUINI

Opinions columnist

KIRSTEN KELLER

Opinions columnist

Meal plan prices vary across Big Ten universitiesThe prices of the most popular meal plans at Big Ten schools range by almost $3,000. Popularity is

based on the most frequently purchsed meal plans. The University of Michigan is not included because it does not have individual meal plan rates, and the University of Wisconsin is not included because it does not offer traditional meal plans. The rates are based on prices for housing residents.

EUNIE KIM THE DAILY ILLINISOURCE: Compiled data from Big Ten universities’ dining websites

$6,000

$5,000

$4,000

$3,000

$2,000

$1,000

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$4,928

10 Classic 45 Cafe Credits

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Standard

$3,150

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$5,170

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Black Plan

$2,950

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12-Meal Plan

$4,794

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WildCat Weekly

14

$5,670

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Block 350

$3,750

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14 meals/ week

enhanced

$3,782

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7-day

$4,250

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$4,180

As the sobs of 15-year-old Jo Bro fans continued over the band’s breakup, Joe Jonas recently released an essay in New York magazine, “Joe Jonas: My Life as a Jonas

Brother.” And for the first time, we see him stripped of the squeaky clean Disney image as he talks about what life on the road was really like, his trials and tribulations with girls and even some of his encounters with drugs. Props to Joe for joining the collection of other Disney stars who proved

that they are actual people with actual problems.

It looks like Bismarck, N.D. won the lottery for luckiest news station EVER. On Nov. 30, its local KXMB evening newscast

was graced with the presence of the one, the only, Ron Burgundy. Will Ferrell made an appearance, in character, at the station’s news set last Saturday and delivered local news alongside one of KXMB’s regular anchors, inevitably

cracking jokes along the way. Meanwhile, other news stations across the country became infinitely

more boring that night.

in. Environmental effects, such as time of day or manner of test taking (i.e. standing, reciting, sitting, etc.) can help stimulate memory.

“Think of studying as practice and the test as the game. The way that you practice is the way that you’ll play in the game,” Chris-tianson said

Make broader connections

With students taking such a diverse range of classes, it can be easy to question how Spanish class can relate to U.S. History. However, Professor Christianson advises students to do just that.

“Make broader connections about the things you’re doing, rather than compartmentaliz-ing,” Christianson said. “These connections between materi-al and also the way you study and perform on the test are important.”

These connections can be developed through similarities between terminology or the use of mnemonics — anything to reinforce the learning of subject matter. It may take some creativ-ity to make connections between different subjects, but it will be beneficial for exam time.

Just say ‘no’

With YouTube, Facebook and smartphone technology, it can be hard to steer clear from tempta-tion and focus solely on study-ing. But research has shown that multitasking is not only distract-ing, but it can also cause one’s performance and learning abil-ity to suffer.

“Despite many people swear-ing that they learn better when studying with music playing,

studies reveal otherwise since multitasking divides attention,” Mestre said.

Aside from this, multitasking also creates an environmental schema that may not be consis-tent with the one provided for the actual exam.

“If you’ve gotten into this implicit habit of jumping back and forth between things, and if part of your schema is going back and forth to a phone and you can’t do that during the test, it’s going to feel weird,” Chris-tianson said. “It reinforces hab-its that you’re not going to be able to operate under during a test.”

Write your worries away

Instead of wallowing in stress and anxiety before an exam, stu-dents can spend five minutes to free write. This will reduce stress levels and result in bet-ter performance.

“(By free writing,) you off-load all of these worries from your working memory and you take them out of the attention of the active maintenance you’re doing in your brain,” Christian-son said. “You put them on an external memory source and it gets out of your head.”

A study conducted by Gerardo Ramirez and Sian L. Beilock has shown significant improvements in student exam scores, especial-ly for those who are habitually anxious about exams.

Exercise, eat and sleep well

When it comes to eating, exer-cising and sleeping, there is no specific regimen that will work for all students. Much like pref-erence in interest and motiva-tion, these areas depend heavily on individual preference.

“The habits that you get into should probably not be changed

too dramatically come testing time,” Christianson said. “Go with whatever pattern you gen-erally feel good with.”

Simply put, Christianson believes it is best to stick to a simple schedule. If students are tired, sleep. If students are hun-gry, eat. But most of all, don’t ignore the importance of get-ting a full night’s sleep.

While there is a lack of sub-stantial research about super foods that stimulate brain activ-ity, Christianson advised stu-dents to avoid indulging in stim-ulants like energy drinks.

“I’d go with traditional cof-fees or teas. Research suggests that they can be, in moderation, even good for you,” he said. “I don’t see any research that sug-gests that these energy drinks are anything but generally bad.”

Exercise is another activi-ty that is helpful for studying because it increases the blood and oxygen flow throughout the body. This improves circula-tion and brings more blood to the brain, providing more glu-cose for the brain to metabolize, Christianson said.

Exercise also helps natural-ly regulate one’s caloric intake and sleeping patterns. General-ly, people tend to eat better and sleep more when they exercise regularly, he said.

Additionally, exercise is an optimal way to test whether you’ve fallen for the illusion of recognition memory. Instead of mindlessly listening to music while exercising, students can utilize that time and test themselves on upcoming test material.

“The more times you recall, the easier it gets to retrieve it from memory,” Christianson said.

Stephanie can be reached at [email protected].

THE DAILY ILLINI | WWW.DAILYILLINI.COM Tuesday, December 3, 2013 5A

EDUMACATION JOHNIVAN DARBY

BEARDO DAN DOUGHERTY

QUE AND ANGIE JOHNIVAN DARBY

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

DOWN 1 “There oughta be

___!” 2 “Alas” and “ah” 3 Curly hair or hazel

eyes 4 Haile Selassie dis-

ciple 5 Bad-mouth 6 Actress Jenna of

“Dharma & Greg” 7 Moron 8 Almost any charac-

ter on “The Big Bang Theory”

9 Fencing blade10 Radio format11 Shrink in fear12 Deflect

13 Word with canal or control

19 Place to get free screwdrivers, say

21 Free throw, e.g.24 Said, as “adieu”26 “___ for octopus”27 “Yeah, like you have

a chance!”28 Regulatory inits.

since 193429 ___ around with30 Winter driving haz-

ard31 Wide strait32 Word of qualification33 Priest’s garment34 Org. with a prohibit-

ed-items list

35 Sharer’s opposite38 Parisian assent41 Yule libation43 Quarantine45 & 46 Quite bad 47 Effect’s partner48 Something acquired

by marriage?49 Shore fliers50 Shore fixtures51 “Snowy” wader52 ___ Valley, German

wine region54 ___ girl55 Regrets56 Senators Cruz and

Kennedy58 Machine part

The crossword solution is in the Classified section.

ACROSS 1 “Ad ___ per aspera” (Kan-

sas’ motto) 6 Fine pillow stuffing11 Car with a checkered past?14 Turkish money15 Parkinson’s treatment16 Egg: Prefix17 Audibly shocked18 Military muscle20 Sign of change at the Vati-

can22 Prell rival 23 Ogle24 Ship slip25 RR stop26 Chief Norse god28 Saffron and ginger32 Functional lawn adornment36 Per person37 Word that can follow both

halves of 18-, 20-, 32-, 40-, 54- and 57-Across

39 Plus40 Take every last cent of42 Inflatable safety device44 Curt denial45 10 Downing St. residents46 Scoring 100 on49 One who keeps plugging

along53 Fade54 “Go” signal57 Using all of a gym, as in

basketball59 Eagle’s home60 Network that aired “Monk”61 007, for one62 News that may be illus-

trated by a graph63 Fictional detective ___

Archer64 Like the north side of some

rocks65 ___ Park, Colo.

NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD

BY MATT RUBY STAFF WRITER

Artist, photographer and phi-losopher Dylan Trigg, a post-doctoral researcher at the Uni-versity College Dublin focusing on the philosophical field of phe-nomenology, will deliver a lec-ture Tuesday at the Krannert Art Museum called “The Place of the Ghost: A Phenomenology of Genius Loci.” The lecture will be held in the auditorium at 5:30 p.m.

Trigg studies a subfield of philosophy known as phenom-enology, which primarily aims to describe “experience” and what it means to feel a given emotion or have a given reac-tion toward something. William Schroeder, emeritus professor of philosophy who has a back-ground in phenomenology, said Trigg’s work is much less theo-retical and more practical. He will be attending Tuesday’s lec-ture and said he believes the lec-ture has the potential to interest and help students and faculty in a wide range of studies.

“(Phenomenology) is one of the most interesting approach-es to philosophy because it gets very down to earth and is closely connected to how people actually live and undergo their lives,” he said. “It’s not abstract, imper-sonal, theoretical or objectify-ing. In that way, you can really help people think more deeply about what they’re experiencing, as their experiencing it.”

Melissa Pokorny, associate professor of painting and sculp-ture, nominated Trigg to give the lecture as part of The School of Art and Design’s “Placemak-ing” series. Every year, Art and Design has a theme for its visi-tor lecture series, chosen by a committee that aims to combine suggestions from graduate stu-dents and faculty. Speakers are chosen based off their work or research related to the theme, and the talks are open to the public.

Pokorny nominated him because of his important con-tributions to research on the relationship between humans and places.

She said in an email that Trigg’s lecture will be direct-ed mostly toward “anyone who likes to think about how we expe-rience the world, how our per-ception informs that experience, and how our imaginations play a role in the formation of memo-ries of our lived experiences.”

Trigg’s talk will focus specifi-cally on his research as it relates to the significance of place, and what it means for a place to have a life of its own.

“The lecture is an attempt at understanding how a place

comes to life and can continue to have a life long after the people who lived there have departed,” Trigg said in an email.

A place, he said, can contin-ue to carry meaning by way of humans “projecting memories and images” onto it or because a “ghost of a place” may go on liv-ing there. In his lecture, Trigg said he hopes to help attendees better understand what plac-es are significant to them and what relation they have to those places. He will do this by using his research and photography to explore the relationship between people and a place’s spirit, or “genius loci.”

“Places have a life outside of us, and perhaps philosophy can attend to this strange ‘after’ life,” he said.

Schroeder said phenomenol-ogy relates to Trigg’s research of “place” because the branch of philosophy tends to point out the added significance that distance and place take on. For example, the more scientific way of view-ing the world would be to say there is a pair of glasses six feet away from a person with a book. The phenomenological point of view would say that the glass-es feel far away to the person because they are interested in the book and need the glasses to read. In other words, our pur-poses dictate the way we view the world.

According to Schroeder, it is vital that scientists and people studying various fields have a good understanding of this more basic way of viewing things before going on to research and apply knowledge in their specif-ic field.

“It’s the most kind of direct everyday understanding of how people relate to world, experi-ence the world and are conscious of the world,” he said.

He said the students study-ing psychology, geography, dance and art, among other sub-jects, would most benefit from the information. Psychologists, he said, aim to understand the

causes of certain thought pro-cesses, geographers aim to understand the relationship of people to place, and dancers and artists aim to draw significant connection between their work and human emotion. Schroed-er said the information Trigg has to offer will benefit these fields because it will help show the significance of experience and place as a prerequisite basis for studying the human mind, societal relations and artistic expression.

Schroeder said it is rare that a philosopher can express him-self so well through art and that it makes Trigg’s research all the more approachable and interest-ing. Trigg said he feels art can offer something words cannot and that art and philosophy are intertwined.

“Both art and philosophy, as I see it, are concerned with locat-ing something prior to our full awakening,” he said. “In some cases, art comes to the scene before philosophy does. For example, we know more of the world from the hairs that stand on the back of our necks than the conceptual tools deployed to ana-lyze those hairs.”

By using his research and his photography, Trigg said he hopes to discuss topics like how a strip mall in Dayton, Ohio, can hold a similarly significant feeling for one person as a chateau in France might hold for someone else, or how people feel more at ease when they are alone in an elevator rather than in elevator with one other person in it. He said he will also discuss nostal-gia and how it shapes the way we perceive our surroundings and draw significance from our experiences.

“As I see it, art, memory and place are not here to reinforce our sense of well-being in the world,” he said, “but to give us insight into what it means to be human.”

Matt can be reached at [email protected].

Visiting lecturer to discuss phenomenology, emotions

working out, eating healthy and sleeping for at least seven hours each night. The consistency in his regiment helps him stay focused. By accomplishing his goals and being healthy, he his able to alle-viate stress.

“When people are consistent with stress management tech-niques, when faced with difficult

times of increased intensity or feeling a little bit more anxious, they’re going to be able to manage those situations a lot more effec-tively and hopefully in a more relaxed manner,” Carson said.

McKinley will host another event called Stress Free Finals on Dec. 10 at the Weston Explo-ration Center at noon. This pro-gram is meant to help students become prepared and organized for finals. They also offer online relaxation exercises that students

can download from McKinley’s website for free and use as a por-table relaxation tool that focus-es on things like deep breathing exercises. As the stress manage-ment coordinator at McKinley, Carson also sees students one-on-one for stress management appointments and talks to them about stress-related concerns that they might have.

Saher can be reached at [email protected].

STRESSFROM 6A

STUDYINGFROM 6A

PHOTO COURTESY OF DYLAN TRIGG

How does a ‘place’ come to life?

6A | TUESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2013 | WWW.DAILYILLINI.COM

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BY SAHER KHANSTAFF WRITER

Claire Young is stressing out. With fi nals just two weeks away, the junior in AHS is swamped with end-of-semester papers, assignments and tests.

“Stress feels like having on an extremely heavy backpack that you just can’t take off,” Young said.

Young manages her stress by going for long runs or crocheting, but said she is always open to new methods to keep herself stress-free. McKinley Health Center’s upcoming Break Away from Stress event is meant to inform Young, and students with simi-

lar concerns, on how to decrease and manage stress before fi nals week. The event will take place Tuesday from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Student Dining and Residential Programs Building.

“It is a great way to take a break from studying for a little bit, get your mind off the books and focus on taking care of your-self,” said Jennifer Carson, stress management coordinator and wellness promotion specialist at McKinley.

Carson said that the event is designed like an open house. There will be a variety of stations that focus on different types of stress management.

McKinley’s Stress Manage-ment group collaborated with Body Work Associates to bring a few representatives to give shoul-der and neck massages for stu-dents. There will be a table for students to make their own stress balls and a station for additional stress management information.

“Massages at this event? Heck yes, I would defi nitely like to go,” Young said.

The stress peer mentors will also be available to help students plan out their schedules for fi nals week. Young said she believes learning about time management is an important skill.

“Time management is not only

important for college students, but is essential for us as future professionals as well,” she said. “All students can benefi t from this, and it really does help us relieve stress because we have more time to get things done.”

This is the fourth annual Break Away from Stress event McKin-ley has hosted. The stress man-agement group tries to host events like this every time stu-dents’ stress levels peak, which tends to happen during fi nals, midterms and holiday seasons, according to Carson. Their hope is that students will use these programs to learn and imple-ment techniques that can help

relieve their tension and make them more relaxed.

“Stress is normal. We all have it day-to-day. There are millions of times when things become over-whelming and are looming over us, where we feel like, ‘Oh my gosh, I need to do something!’” Carson said. “So being able to put things in place prior to handling those situations is going to help you manage that much better.”

Stress management is individu-alized; what works for one person doesn’t work for another, Carson said. This is why the Break Away from Stress program is offering a variety of different techniques to fi t the needs and interests of

different people, so students can follow through on what works for them and stay consistent with those methods.

Peter Alemis, junior in LAS, has an established routine for how he manages stress.

“One of the biggest factors affecting stress is the inability to reach goals, small or large,” he said. “To handle this, I always plan out my weeks and make a list of what needs to be accomplished in order of importance.”

On top of methodically com-pleting set goals, Alemis also maintains a healthy lifestyle by

McKinley to host programs on handling stress

Artist and philosopher Dylan Trigg, a post-doctoral researcher at University College Dublin, will be addressing this question during his lecture at the Krannert Art Museum on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. He will be speaking as part of the School of Art and Design’s “Placemaking” series. Turn to Page 5A to learn more about phenomenology, Trigg’s topic for Tuesday.

W ith fi nals looming, students now have to put on their thinking caps — the right

way. Students can adopt certain techniques and habits for exam studying to best avoid end-of-the-semester stress.

While a great deal of research surrounding educational psychol-ogy exists, “the psychology sci-ence underlying what makes good studying is still not as well devel-oped as one might hope,” said Kiel Christianson, associate professor and associate chair of the Univer-sity’s department of educational psychology.

“Individual differences, such as motivation and interest, will vary widely from person-to-person and student-to-student,” Christianson said.

For this reason, there are practi-cal obstacles to researching how to study, even with a large study pool of homogenous people. There is also

the issue of determining the length of study sessions and their frequen-cy over a certain time period.

“One of the best pieces of advice that comes up in research is to study over periods of time,” Christianson said. “So, no cramming.”

Instead, it is best that students take good notes, pay attention in class and revisit their notes through-out the semester — a technique that can seem straightforward, but may be hard to put into practice.

“It’s not exactly exciting or doesn’t seem like something you desperately need to do because it’s not assigned,” Christianson said. “But refreshing your memory about the old (information) right before and after you put the new (informa-tion) in your head is really helpful.”

This technique is better known as “distributed practice” in the world of educational psychology. Distributed practice was found to have greater impact on test performance com-

pared with other techniques, such as highlighting, rereading, summari-zation and self-explanation, accord-ing to Improving Students’ Learning With Effective learning Techniques: Promising Directions From Cogni-tive and Educational Psychology, a study conducted by John Dunlosky .

These four techniques showed lit-tle to no effect on test performance and information retention.

And yet, students still might fall into the cramming trap. What is a student to do? Thankfully, there is still hope.

Practice makes perfect

As well as “distributed practice,” another effective learning technique is “practice testing,” or developing a sample of what the test may be. For this technique to be most use-ful, students should not look at the answers or rely on self-checking.

“One of the biggest pitfalls that

people have is that they mistake rec-ognition for knowledge or compre-hension or mastery,” Christianson said. “Recognition memory is dif-ferent from actual recall and opera-tion over things you don’t actually have provided for you in external memory like a book.”

This issue is one that Jose Mestre, chair of the University’s department of educational psychology, encoun-ters with his students in his physics and educational psychology classes.

“Many students tell me that they study hard yet do poorly on exams and they do not understand why,” he said. “They never tested them-selves on whether they could solve problems, so it is diffi cult for them to tell whether or not they were well prepared. It turns out that poorly performing students over-predict their performance on tests.”

This may also involve studying in an environment similar to the one that the exam will take place

HITHITHITHITHITHITHITHITHITHITHITHITHITHITHITTHETHETHETHETHETHETHETHETHETHETHETHETHETHETHE

SEE STRESS | 5A

SEE STUDYING | 5A

BY STEPHANIE KIMSTAFF WRITER

ILLUSTRATION BY SCOTT DURAND THE DAILY ILLINI

Students can adopt techniques, habits for optimal studying BOOKS

The road to the Final Four runs through Champaign.

Members of the Illinois volleyball team huddled around a TV Sunday night during the NCAA Volleyball Tournament selection show, March Mad-ness style. The brackets were released, the players cheered, and the Illini’s tournament prospects got much brighter.

With the Illini earning a No. 13 seed, Huff Hall will host

fi rst and second round match-es of the NCAA tournament, with State Farm Center in Champaign set to host region-al rounds. If the Illini end up making it to the Final Four, they will have done so with-out playing a match away from home. This is an unbelievably favorable path for Kevin Ham-bly’s squad. It’s 2005-esque, when the Illini basketball team made it to St. Louis’ Final Four after playing regional and semifi nal rounds in Indianapo-lis and Chicago.

For any team, the ultimate goal is to win it all. The 2011 version of the Illini nearly did it, falling in the champion-

ship match to UCLA. This 2013 team is not the same, not even close. The Illini posted a 16-14 overall record after slugging through one of the nation’s toughest schedules. They played strong down the stretch, which likely contributed to their favorable seeding.

The Illini fell on Senior Night, getting swept at the hands of Minnesota. Now they have a chance to shine on two unoffi cial senior nights at Huff Hall, which is sure to be packed and loud on Friday night when Morehead State comes to town.

Huff is old. Huff is cramped. Huff is deafening when fi lled to

capacity. Seniors Jennifer Bel-tran and Courtney Abrahamov-ich should relish the opportuni-ty to play there one, hopefully two, more times.

With the path to the Final Four now in front of them, rea-sonable expectations for this team come into play. The Illi-ni have shown they can com-pete with the top teams in the country. They hung tough with perennial powerhouse Penn State and took No. 1 seed Texas to fi ve sets. Illinois is ranked 18th in the country and will be playing at home. I expect the Illini to benefi t from their home-court advantage this weekend and move on to the

regional round.If the Illini can make it to

the Sweet 16 at State Farm Center, this season should be considered a resounding success.

If they can advance that far, then momentum will undoubtedly be on the Illini’s side. They’ll have converted a unique opportunity into a special one. People would be pumped about heading over to the home of Illinois basketball for a volleyball match.

Let’s fast-forward to Dec. 13. Illinois is taking on a 36-0 Mis-souri team at State Farm Cen-ter. The arena is rocking. Spike Squad is in full force. Even the

elderly fans in the reserved seats are on their feet. It feels like 2011 all over again.

Maybe I’m getting ahead of myself. But this is my dream scenario for the Illini now that the brackets are set. A berth in the Sweet 16 coming off two home postseason wins. A chance to advance to the Elite Eight, then the Final Four, in front of the home crowd. Any-thing can happen with momen-tum on your side.

The Illini can’t ask for much more than that.

Alex is a sophomore in AHS. He can be reached at [email protected] and @aroux94.

SPORTS1BTUESDAY

BRENTON TSE THE DAILY ILLINIIllinois head coach John Groce looks up toward the scoreboard during the game against Chicago State at State Farm Center on Nov. 22. Groce was disappointed with the team’s start against Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne on Friday, despite winning 57-55.

Rice leads Illini into Big Ten-ACC Challenge game BY SEAN HAMMONDSENIOR WRITER

It starts between the ears. At least, it does for John Groce. The head coach of Illinois men’s bas-ketball wasn’t happy with his team’s start to Friday night’s game against Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne. For Groce, the slow start was mental.

He didn’t think his fi ve fresh-men handled their Thanksgiv-ing Day practice well, following a west coast trip to UNLV. He said the freshmen “weren’t real good” in practice Thursday.

“Often times you play like you practice,” Groce said. “Hopefully it’s a great learning experience for them, and they learn that you have to prepare for every game the same.”

If the veterans on Illinois’ ros-ter feel like they’ve prepared for Tuesday night’s Big Ten-ACC Challenge matchup versus Geor-gia Tech before, that’s because they have. The Illini (7-0) play the

Yellow Jackets (5-3) for the sec-ond straight year in the Challenge, this time in Atlanta.

Illinois beat Georgia Tech 75-62 last year at the State Farm Cen-ter, in large part thanks to Joseph Bertrand’s personal 10-0 run. The fi fth-year senior has never lost a Big Ten-ACC Challenge game.

“I’m the last one here,” Ber-trand laughed Monday, referring to Brandon Paul, D.J. Richardson and Tyler Griffey, who were in Bertrand’s freshman class before he redshirted. “So I’m going to try to keep that going.”

The Yellow Jackets return with almost the same roster from a year ago. They are led by seniors Trae Golden, who averages 13.5 points per game, and Daniel Mill-er, who is scoring 10.3 points per game and grabbing 8.1 rebounds.

Georgia Tech started off the season 5-1 before losing to Mis-sissippi and St. John’s at the Bar-

With Beckman saved, Banks’ status looms

News broke Monday that Tim Beckman would be retained as the head

coach of Illinois football, though it’s not really “news” so much as “confi rmation of our expectations.”

I have no idea what Beck-man is like on a personal level with his players, what kind of a mentor he is for guys like Nathan Scheelhaase and Jona-than Brown and other players he didn’t recruit. I don’t know whether the father-fi gure man-tle he insists he’s always taken up has been a media mirage or a genuine mission. But we see his impact refl ected in the attitudes of his players, and the change in the program from last year’s slog to this year’s spirited cam-paign is undeniable. The deci-sion to bring Beckman back was a no-brainer.

Numbers don’t tell the story. The 2012 team’s record of 2-10 doesn’t capture the badness, the 2013 record of 4-8 doesn’t cap-ture the improvement.

Beckman came in last sea-son talking, seriously, a Big Ten

championship. The shirts hailed a new era, the buzz reached a roar, and Illinois fans gave foot-ball a chance. Briefl y.

It was apparent early and often that Illinois was not good; the ONE bracelets that refer-enced the Big Ten title game were either thrown away or worn as a scarlet letter of mis-guided expectations. Blowout loss after blowout loss, Skoal-gate, and enough failed read-options to fulfi ll some absurd, nonexistent metaphor — it was as bad as it could have possibly been. Beckman struggled with the pressure, but he persevered, and he was not let go after last year.

Then the buy-in occurred from the players, and the new era began in earnest.

Most people probably don’t realize that Illinois beat a team in Cincinnati that is now 9-2 and playing in a major conference title game. The Big Ten losing streak is over, whether Purdue deserves to be in the FCS or not. Illinois suffered several losses, but only one was a blowout of the caliber that 2012 seemed exclusively comprised.

Beckman has the attention of his players now. And he may not be the most eloquent or the most disciplinarian of coaches, but his enthusiasm and passion have

started to take effect and those traits are invaluable in a college football coach.

There are questions on both sides of the ball for Illi-nois going forward. How will Aaron Bailey and Wes Lunt share quarterback duties? Who will replace the three senior receivers from this year’s squad?

The biggest question, howev-er, is at the top of the defense: Beckman has been retained, but what about defensive coor-dinator Tim Banks?

Banks’ unit was terrible all season long. Jonathan Brown played excellently, leading the team with 119 total tackles. Second on the team in tack-les was Earnest Thomas III with 101 — Thomas is a safety, the team’s last line of defense. Zane Petty, another safety, came in fourth with 75.

Banks had to face the media game after game and tell them some combination of the fol-lowing: my team is really young and not that good yet, I’m not coaching well enough, we had several bad plays but also had good plays. That’s tell-ing the media, respectively: It’s not my fault, it’s not their fault, we’re actually playing

ALEX ROUX

Sports columnist

1. Ohio State (last week: 1)

7. Nebraska (5)

Editor’s note: Every week, The Daily Illini football staff ranks the football teams in the Big Ten 1-12 and compiles the lists into its own Big Ten power rankings.

Wisconsin made a statement Saturday with a convincing 35-6 win over Northwestern, and may have become the fi rst team that really deserves the second spot on The Daily Illini’s Big Ten power rankings. All season long it has been a question which team will fi ll the slot behind Ohio State, but this week it was never in doubt. The Badgers (4-2, 2-1 Big Ten) boast the Big Ten’s best offense in terms of total yards and best rushing attack. Next up for Wisconsin is a meeting with Illinois (3-2, 0-1) under the lights at Memorial Stadium in Champaign on Saturday.

2. Michigan State (T2)

Preseason dreams of a return to Indianapolis for the Big Ten Championship are a distant memory as Nebraska lost its fi nal regular season game at home to Iowa 38-17. Speculation now surrounds the program and the Cornhuskers’ head coach Bo Pelini. The head coach lashed out in his postgame press conference: “If they want to fi re me, go ahead,” he said. While Nebraska athletic director Shawn Eichorst offered a statement to back up Pelini’s job security, the combination of a disappointing season and off-fi eld issues puts Pelini on a very short leash in the near future.

11. Illinois (11)

5. Iowa (7)

Power rankings

4. Michigan (6)

9. Indiana (9)8. Penn State (8)

DAILY ILLINI STAFF REPORT

The Boilermakers fi nished the season 1-11, with their lone win coming against FCS foe Indiana State. This is not how fi rst-year head coach Darrell Hazell envisioned his fi rst season at the helm of the program and the Boilermakers will have a lot of work to do in the offseason. Ten of Purdue’s 11 losses came by double-digits and the combination of the 119th-ranked scoring offense and 111th-ranked scoring defense made Purdue one of the worst statistical teams in the FBS.

3. Wisconsin (T2)

10. Northwestern (10)

6. Minnesota (4)

12. Purdue (12)

Illini volleyball has unique opportunity in tournament

ELIOT SILL

Sports editor

SEE BASKETBALL | 3B

DARYL QUITALIG THE DAILY ILLINIIllinois’ head coach Tim Beckman watches the game against Northwestern at Memorial Stadium on Saturday. The Illini lost 37-34.

SEE SILL | 3B

A funny thing happened Monday morning.

We are almost a quarter way through the NBA season and getting ready for the Christmas Day games. What’s so comical about that?

Well, at 1:59 a.m. Monday, I discov-ered there is a grand total of two teams above .500 in the Eastern Conference. I repeat, two.

Talk about top heavy. This is pushing it to the limit.

The Indiana Pacers sat at 16-1 prior to their game against Portland. They have the best record in basketball. The two-time defending champion Miami Heat are 14-3. Then there is a major drop off. Compare that with the West-ern Conference, which has 12 teams that are at least .500.

How is this possible?The Pacers and Heat were expect-

ed to perform marvelously from the beginning of the season, so their quick starts are no surprise. Even if the East were more competitive, these two clubs would still have a similar start to the season.

There is a multitude of factors, however, to account for the terrible imbalance.

For starters, the Eastern Conference has a lot of flat-out bad teams.

The Milwaukee Bucks are a perfect example. They have the worst record in the conference at 3-13 and rightfully so. This is a very young team with the majority of its players having little to no playoff experience, and it shows. None of these players has ever been a No. 1 option outside of Caron Butler, but he is on the downside of his career. A mas-sive roster overhaul over the summer has not panned out well.

In addition to bad teams are inexpe-rienced coaches.

There are eight NBA coaches in the Eastern Conference that had never coached a game before this season. The adjustment to the professional game has been rough for these new coaches. Having that many coaching changes within a conference is signal-ing a win-now philosophy; however, that misplaced desire by ownership has placed a lot on inexperience on the sideline and has decreased their chanc-es of winning, as well as the quality of basketball.

Injuries in certain cases have derailed some teams in the early season.

The Chicago Bulls were happy to wel-come back All-Star point guard Derrick Rose after he missed all of last season with a torn ACL. Unfortunately just a month into the season, Rose fell vic-tim to yet another knee injury. A torn meniscus in his right knee will side-

line him for the rest of this season. The Bulls have had a tough time adjusting to yet another season without their anchor.

Some Eastern Conference teams are stuck in basketball purgatory.

The Toronto Raptors and Atlanta Hawks support this claim. The Raptors feature Rudy Gay and DeMar Derozan, the second coming of Vince Carter and T-Mac. Much like the Raptors teams of Carter and McGrady, this team’s ceil-ing is a .500 season. They draft a lot of international players and obtain a lot of athletes, but it never seems to mesh and produce wins. The Hawks face a simi-lar dilemma. Simply put, they are what they are. Atlanta never attracts big-name talent and usually is shipping bet-ter players out and not getting a huge return on them. They do not draft par-ticularly well, either. They will never be better than a middle-of-the-pack team, which this year could mean finishing the season 40-42 for a playoff spot.

There’s also the state of New York.This is the epitome of failed expec-

tations. The New York Knicks actu-ally found a way to downgrade their strength from last year, three point shooting, and actually get worse defen-sively. Carmelo Anthony is taking his usual number of bad shots, but judging by the lack of effort of his teammates this season, you can’t really blame him.

The Brooklyn Nets are a prime example of how big names do not guar-antee success on the court. Kevin Gar-

nett has not been the K.G. of old. Paul Pierce just broke his hand. Joe John-son fades in and out as he typically does. Deron Williams has not been the top-tier point guard he’s been in past years. Oh, and Jason Kidd has a problem holding on to his cup.

Every team outside of the Pacers and Heat suffer from one or all of these ailments. These teams are wild-ly unpredictable. They beat up on one

another because they are all consid-erably inconsistent and level the play-ing field on any given night.

It’s funny how six of these teams that are currently underperforming will be in the playoffs.

It will be no joke when they land in Indiana or Miami.

Spencer is a senior in LAS. He can be reached at [email protected].

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Illinois wrestling wins 3 duals, suffers 1st loss of season to Cornell

Smith’s return boosts women’s basketball

BY STEPHEN BOURBONSTAFF WRITER

While the Illinois women’s basketball team was blown out in two of its three games during the Cancun Challenge, the Illini did get a boost from Alexis Smith.

Smith, a junior point guard, appeared in her first games of the season last week after suffering a stress fracture in her foot in the preseason. Smith averaged 8.0 points and 3.3 assists per game in the three contests. Having Smith back in the rotation adds depth to an Illini team that had been primarily playing only seven or eight players.

“I thought Alexis was a good shot in the arm for us,” head coach Matt Bollant said. “She brings some toughness and another ball handler for us. She can get to the rim and make plays, as well as

one of our best on-ball defenders.”Bollant said Smith is near 100

percent healthy; although, her conditioning still needs work after sitting out four weeks. She replaced Taylor Tuck in the starting lineup in games against Arkansas State and North Carolina.

Illini offense slows downFor a team that entered the

week averaging 92.4 points per game, the Illini’s offensive output in Cancun was not up to par.

Illinois had its three lowest scoring outputs of the season during the trio of games at the Cancun Challenge, and it was poor shooting mixed with poor decision making that slowed down the Illinois offense.

In the team’s two losses to Arizona State and North Carolina, the Illini shot 31.8 percent and 28.8 percent from the field, respectively. From behind the line, Illinois couldn’t find the range, as the team shot 8-42 from deep in the combined three games.

“I think we got sped up a little bit against Arizona State and didn’t take great shots,” Bollant said. “We didn’t shoot well from outside.”

While Bollant said he was

pleased with the 70 points against “a really good defensive team,” in Arkansas State, he wasn’t happy at all in the team’s two losses. The Illini combined for just 12 assists in losses to North Carolina and Arizona State to 41 turnovers.

Foul trouble limits IlliniAnother mitigating factor in

the Illini’s trip was foul trouble, specifically with guard Ivory Crawford. The junior guard fouled out against Arizona State and North Carolina, and picked up four fouls in the team’s victory against Arkansas State.

Crawford fouled out in just 16 minutes of play against the Tar Heels and has reached five fouls in three of the team’s eight games so far this season. Crawford has struggled with fouls in her career, as she set the school record last season with 130 personal fouls.

“One big thing for her is to stop trying to steal the ball out of the ballhandler’s hands. If we can get her to change that thing about her game, that would help us a bunch,” Bollant said. “She’s really important to our success, as our second leading scorer.”

Stephen can be reached at [email protected] and @steve_bourbon.

JIM RASSOL MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNEMiami Heat’s LeBron James and Dwyane Wade smile after pulling away from the Indiana Pacers during the third quarter in Game 7 of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals on June 3 at AmericanAirlines Arena in Miami, Fla.

BY DANIEL DEXTERSTAFF WRITER

With the score tied, the Illinois wrestling team had one more match to decide the winner of its duel against Cornell under the lights of one of the world’s most famous arenas: Madison Square Garden.

Heavyweight Chris Lopez took to the mat against Cornell’s Stryker Lane. Lopez was able to score off a takedown in the first period, but Lane came back to tie the score by the end of the third period, forcing the match into sudden victory. The match’s length proved to be too much for Lopez as he gave up an escape to Lane, losing the match 4-3 in the second overtime period and resulting in Illinois’ first loss of the season.

“I think a little bit of the nerves got to me, and toward the end I was getting a little tired. I kind of wrestled a heavyweight match, and I didn’t open up as much as I like to sometimes,” Lopez said. “Instead of moving around and getting shots, I

was kind of hand fighting, which is what a lot of heavyweights usually do.”

The 18-15 loss to Cornell came after defeating Bloomsburg 29-18 earlier Sunday at the second annual Grapple in the Garden in New York City. This was the first time the Illini were invited to compete at the event.

Head coach Jim Heffernan felt the team gave the Cornell dual away after being in the lead ear-lier. Along with the team’s health, he attributed the loss to poor decision making on the part of the younger members of the team.

Redshirt freshman Nikko Reyes was caught in a pin with five seconds remaining in the 184-pound match. Heffernan said Reyes should have stayed basic toward the end of the match with his oppo-nent controlling his leg, instead of trying a move that eventually ended up costing the team six points.

Despite the disappointing team finish against Cornell, 125-pound Jesse Delgado came away

with a 6-2 victory against No. 2 Nahshon Garret, an opponent Delgado defeated at the semifinals of the NCAA tournament last year en route to his national championship. Although he was named Outstanding Wrestler of the event, Delgado criti-cized himself for his foot movement and not being able to get off clean shots.

Heffernan praised the performance of 165-pound Jackson Morse, who scored an 11-0 major decision victory against Bloomsburg’s No. 6 Josh Veltre. Morse is still undefeated this sea-son and feels that he has finally figured out his routine in his fourth season at Illinois.

“I followed my game plan pretty well,” Morse said. “I have been able to take down guys early and let my wrestling on top go to work.”

Aside from the competition aspect, the event also offered the opportunity for the wrestlers to take center stage in Madison Square Garden, the location of some of the most historic sporting events in history. Lopez said that was something

he discussed with his team in the locker room as the Illini were getting ready.

“A lot of professional teams have been in there, and a lot of historical moments have happened in there,” Lopez said. “It’s crazy to be in the same area, warming up in the same area as they were in. We had a pretty packed crowd, so it was a lot of fun.”

The weekend also marked the end of the team’s nonconference duals, as it will be taking on Wis-consin on Friday in Madison. Heffernan believes Cornell was a good preview as to what they will see against Wisconsin.

“Wisconsin, matchup-wise, is very similar to us, like Cornell, where they are very solid team,” Heffernan said. “They have some strong individu-als that match up well against us. So it’s going to be another dog fight.”

Daniel can be reached at [email protected] and @ddexter23.

NBA Eastern Conference worse than usual this seasonSPENCER BROWN

Sports columnist

BRENTON TSE THE DAILY ILLINIIllinois’ Alexis Smith (23) rises to the basket for a layup during the Illini’s win over Indiana at Assembly Hall on Feb. 23.

!e junior averaged 8 points over the weekend

DAILY ILLINI STAFF REPORTEditor’s note: The following is a partial transcript from an Illini Drive interview with Illinois volleyball head coach Kevin Hambly.

Illini Drive: When Illinois flashed up on the screen, what was going through your head? What was your reaction?

Kevin Hambly: Well, so I had a pretty good idea we’d play Mis-souri once I saw Missouri was the No. 1 seed (in the region-al). Because of the location, we thought Penn State would be in Kentucky and Missouri would be here. So once Missouri came up, I expected to play in some place that was seeded against Missouri. I thought we’d be playing the 13th seed, I thought it’d be Marquette. And then Marquette came up and they weren’t seeded, I had a pret-ty good idea it was going to be us next and it popped up and there it was. I talked to a couple people in the committee and a lot of it had to do with our schedule, just

we had a lot of great wins, and they said we had too many good wins to not be seeded compared to everyone else in the coun-try. It wasn’t just about who we played, but we did have a lot of great wins. It was just we played a lot of great teams, so our record was not great.

ID: You ended up having the No. 1 overall strength of sched-ule, right?

KH: Yeah, No. 1, and we played five more top-25 teams than any-one else, so by a lot. I know, I’ve been told I’m crazy. If you asked our girls, they would do it again. They liked that there were no games, no matches, that you had a break. Everyone wants to be challenged. I don’t know if they knew how big a challenge we actually put in front of them. With all that said, we earned the tour-nament, there’s no question. We didn’t back into the tournament. According to the committee, we were in the seed as well. It was interesting, and I was surprised.

ID: Surprised at the seeding?KH: Yeah, because I thought

we had to beat either Penn State or Minnesota to be seeded, and we lost both of those and still got it.

ID: You guys did win six of the final eight.

KH: We were 9-12 some-thing like that coming down or the stretch, we had a good run at the end and took care of the business against the teams we should. Two of the teams we lost were the teams ahead of us in our conference.

ID: Obviously, you had the last game of the season was Minne-sota and you lost, how do you feel about the team as a whole and how they’re playing? Do you feel like this is where you want it to be?

KH: Against Minnesota, a couple of our kids were pretty sick. Especially Birks, and she’s a big deal for us. She struggled. It wasn’t the typical Birks, it wasn’t the Birks you saw against Northwestern. But we still could have played a whole lot better with some more energy. How we played against Northwestern was as good as we’ve played all year. So I’m going to think about that match and just what we were doing, because we were at 100 percent and did a nice job. We’ve had a nice job here at the end, and I feel confident we can con-tinue it.

Illini Drive can be reached at [email protected] and @IlliniDrive.

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BY SEAN NEUMANNSTAFF WRITER

Playing on the Big Pond can give the Illini hockey team home ice advantage, but it can also be a big problem.

The Big Pond is the widest rink in the ACHA, stretching across 195 feet by 115 feet, compared with most rinks that measure 200-by-85, which is regulation size for the NHL. With more width, offenses have more room to make plays, and it challenges defenses to cover more space on the ice.

For senior goaltender Nick Clarke, playing on the Big Pond forces him to play a complete-ly different game than he does when playing on a regulation-size rink. Clarke, like most of the Illi-ni, grew up playing on a smaller rink than the Big Pond and had to make adjustments when first coming to Illinois.

“There’s not much space

behind the boards,” Clarke said, pointing out that a lot of visiting teams tend to shoot wide of the net on purpose in order to deflect the puck in front of the net.

Defenseman Kyle Clark said the boards behind the net cause the puck to take funny hops, which can sometimes cost the Illini defensively.

“You’ve got to be ready for it and anticipate the bad bounces,” Clark said. “Just be in position and hope for the best if it takes a wild jump on you.”

But when visiting teams do take shots on net from the out-side, Nick Clarke said he has a better advantage when playing at home on the wider rink.

“Things happen a lot faster on a smaller rink, so you have to react faster and there’s less room to make plays,” Clarke said. “If a guy’s shooting from the boards on a regulation-size rink, it could be a real quality shot, but here

you’ve got a lot of time to react to it.”

On the road, most Illini play-ers said they don’t have to make many adjustments, having grown up playing on regulation-size rinks. When playing a series on the road, the Illini prepare dur-ing the week in practice by play-ing on squared-off sections of the ice on the Big Pond. The team also gets an opportuni-ty to make adjustments on vis-iting teams’ rinks during Fri-day morning skates and during warmups before the game.

“Generally, it takes a couple shifts (to get used to the differ-ence) on a smaller ice,” head coach Nick Fabbrini said. “Being mentally prepared is so impor-tant on the road, because you know it’s going to be a complete-ly different game than we play here at home.”

Illini captain Austin Bostock said the team usually plays very

different when they’re on the road by better utilizing its speed.

“It’s a little faster paced and harder-hitting game,” Bostock said. “At the Big Pond, if you go and make a big hit, it might be a good thing, but at the same time you’re taking yourself out of the play. Whereas on a small rink, a big hit can lead to two-on-one or three-on-one chances and in some cases can lead to goals.”

Defenseman Cody von Rueden said the smaller sheets of ice at visiting arenas also allow the Illini to utilize the pow-er of their forecheck with less space between defenders and forwards, putting pressure on teams trying to advance the puck out of their defensive zone.

“There’s a lot less time to make plays out there,” von Rueden said. “You’ve got to move the puck a lot quicker and we’ve got to use our body a lot more. We’re a very skilled team

and we’re a fast team, so when we’re on the forecheck we defi-nitely use a lot of tenacity to get pucks in.”

But as an experienced player, von Rueden knows that smaller rinks mean more opportunities for bigger hits and less time to react, since there’s not as much room for players to escape an incoming body.

“You need to have your head on a swivel at all times,” von Rueden said. “Playing on The Big Pond, you get a lot more time and space, and we can use a lot more of the ice. On these smaller sheets, you just don’t have time to do that. You need to know what you’re going to do with the puck before you get there.”

While the Illini play 22 of their 39 regular season games at home, they must make the quick adjustments during their 17 games on the road.

Bostock said the Illini are one

of the teams that deal with ice disadvantages the most, coming from playing on the Big Pond. But the captain knows Illinois tries to exploit its lessons from playing on The Big Pond when playing on the road.

“We’ve got the skilled guys to be able to make the plays quicker and more efficiently,” Bostock said. “Going from a big rink to a small rink is easier than going from a small rink to a big rink.”

Fabbrini said the players are looking forward to playing on a regulation-sized rink again this weekend at Robert Morris.

“I think we tend to almost play better on a small rink than we do on the big rink out here,” Fab-brini said. “We just simplify the game a lot more, which works out really well for us.”

Sean can be reached at [email protected] and @Neumannthehuman.

Big Pond’s size not necessarily advantageous for Illini

clays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., back-to-back last week.

“They’re a really good defen-sive team,” center Nnanna Egwu said. “They pack it in and force you to make tough shots. The same thing they did last year. They’re just tough; they grind it out.”

Oddly enough, the trip to Atlan-ta will be the first of two trips to Atlanta for the Illini in a five-day span. Illinois plays Auburn at Philips Arena in Atlanta on Sun-day, a neutral-court location.

Last week’s road trip to Las Vegas may have prepared the freshman for what they are going

to experience this week, but for junior Rayvonte Rice, it was a breakout performance. Rice’s 25-point, 10-rebound perfor-mance, along with his 17-point, six-rebound game against IPFW earned him Big Ten Player of the Week honors.

“It’s really like a team award,” Rice said. “A lot of people think it’s just about scoring, but it’s about rebounding, steals and all of that.”

“I’ve seen that from Ray play-ing in the Valley,” added forward Jon Ekey, who played Rice while both played in the Missouri Val-ley Conference — Ekey at Illinois State, Rice at Drake. “He got off against us a couple times. I know what he’s capable of and sitting out (last year), he’s gotten even

better. He’s got a high ceiling.” Groce knows he doesn’t have

to tell his veterans that it starts between the ears. They need to get off to a better start than they did against IPFW, especially on the road against an ACC opponent.

But he also said, as he’s said all year, that he’s going to need con-tributions from the entire roster.

“We’re going to have to come ready to compete and throw the first punch,” Rice said. “Coach has been talking about that all sea-son, coming out and throwing the first punch.

“It seems like lately other teams are doing that to us.”

Sean can be reached at [email protected] and @sean_hammond.

BASKETBALLFROM 1B

well. He’s had to balance out those three answers as more and more people begin to won-der about his job security.

The sentiments about Banks usually fall into three cate-gories: The results speak for themselves, fire him; he’s had nothing to work with, give him another chance; and, he’s had nothing to work with, but the results speak for themselves, so fire him anyway.

In general I find myself want-ing to give coaches more time to implement their systems and stake their culture into a program. I find no exception regarding Banks.

He could easily be fired, used as a scapegoat for the season. But as he did with Beckman, Mike Thomas should exer-cise patience with Banks. Let his players develop under him and see whether he can turn it around.

Having said that, I would be somewhat surprised if he remained on as defensive coor-

dinator because that’s how col-lege sports work. But I’ve cer-tainly been wrong before.

Anyone who thought Beck-man would be fired after this season wasn’t following the program very closely. The real question for the Illini is if the one leading its defense will get the same chance for a turn-around that was afforded to its head coach.

Eliot is a senior in Media. He can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @EliotTweet.

SILLFROM 1B

Hambly talks tourney with Illini DriveVolleyball coach re!ects on NCAA seeding, season

4B Tuesday, December 3, 2013 THE DAILY ILLINI | WWW.DAILYILLINI.COM

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