Northern Star Monday, June 22, 2015
Volume 115, Issue 91
The Truth Shall Bear All Light
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project began Sept. 22 and is 40 percent finished with an estimated completion date of early March, said Alan Phillips, vice president for Administration and Finance. The building will include a theatre with a supporting scene shop and a 330-seat lecture hall, according to a Sept. 23 Northern Star article.
Alex Chettiath Staff writer T @Achett2
DeKalb | Construction of the Stevens Building may come to a halt June 30 as state budget issues continue to be problematic for NIU. Illinois legislators started sending budget bills to Gov. Bruce Rauner for approval University operations to Wednesday; however, Rep. Bob continue Pritchard (R-Hinckley) said he NIU can be self-sufficient for doesn’t expect to see an approved several months in Fiscal Year budget before July 1 at a Board of 2016 without new Illinois money, Trustees meeting Thursday. Phillips said. The construction of the SteThe General Assembly’s vens Building is a state funded state budget, which it passed project and development will in May, would allocate $85.2 stop if the capital budget bill is million, down 6.5 percent not approved before July, said from the $93 million for Fiscal Mike Mann, Assistant Vice PresKeith Hernandez | Northern Star Rep. Bob Pritchard, R-Hinckley, talks about the likelyhood of an Illinois budget surfacing before July 1 Thursday at the Year 2015. NIU could initially ident of Budgeting and Finance. Board of Trustees meeting. “I fully expect there to be no budget in place by July 1,” Pritchard said at the meeting. get by without a state alloca“Our hands are tied on it betion because the comptroller will still cause it is a state-funded project and the be able to pay money owed from Fiscal [Capital Development Board] is the state Year 2015, Phillips said. construction management agency, so “Approximately 20 percent of NIU’s technically it is their project and the conbudget comes from state appropriations,” tractors are paid by the CDB,” Mann said. Phillips said. “The rest of the funds come “We have little flexibility in this matter.” from tuition and fees, bond funds, other The Capital Development Board ansources of revenue ... and since the state is nounced on its website all work being perbehind in payments, about six months, the formed under Capital Projects must stop state owes us roughly effective June 30 with$22 million for FY15.” out a budget. NIU will also have “If it is determined tuition and fees from that the funding the summer and fall problem cannot be semesters to give an fixed in a reasonable Alan Phillips Mike Mann added cushion, said time, then the CDB Vice president of President Doug Baker will formally advise Assistant vice Administration president of Budin and email to faculty you that the contract geting and Finance and Finance and staff Tuesday, acis suspended,” accordcording to an NIU Today news release. ing to the Capital Development Board an“I want to be clear that our intention nouncement. is to continue to pay our staff and faculty There has been no precedent for a throughout the budget impasse and to complete shutdown of this magnitude, Keith Heranandez | Northern Star keep our doors open,” Baker said in the Mann said. A partially constructed Stevens Hall sits next to Zulaf Hall on Sunday. Construction may be stalled on Stevens Hall if the FY 2016 Illinois budget is not approved by July 1 email, according to NIU. Construction for the $22.5 million
Pritchard: Ill. budget unlikely before July Stevens Building construction may halt June 30
Club rides 900 miles for ‘hero’ Satta Kendor Staff writer T @SattaKendor13
Keith Hernandez | Northern Star
Tyler Neppl, 10, of Sycamore, sits in his father’s lap, holding a stuffed moose named Moosey. Neppl was born with a rare condition called neurofibromastosis (NF), a genetic disorder that allows tumors to grow in the nervous system.
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DeKalb | A Denver motorcycle club plans to ride to DeKalb nonstop on June 30 to honor a 10-yearold Sycamore boy with neurofibromatosis (NF) and raise money for the genetic disorder. The Smokin’ Guns are preparing for an iron butt ride, an over 900 mile trek to meet Tyler Neppl, who they consider a hero, said Shaun Neppl, Tyler’s father. NF is a genetic disorder where people lack the genes that prevent tumors along the nervous system, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. These tumors grow on nerve endings in or on the body.
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Tyler, who has the rarest form of NF, was diagnosed at 9 months old and is the only member in his family to have the disorder, Shaun said. Tyler has undergone chemotherapy because he developed six tumors on nerve endings, which have caused him tremendous pain — pain so critical that when Tyler falls down due to childlike play, he cries for about 30 minutes, Shaun said. “Cancer alone itself has pretty much ... taken a lot of my family members away and this was just a form of cancer, but it hit me in the heart what it does to kids,” Shaun said. “And then the peer pressure they get from the kids around them that don’t understand, that give them a hard time, that bully them, that you know, don’t understand what they’re
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This disorder affects a lot of people and these kids, we can really change their quality of life from childhood on through adulthood” Allison Cote Children’s Tumor Foundation coordinator
going through and I just, it just hit me in the heart that this is something that I should take on.” All donations from the ride will be given to the Children’s Tumor Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the wellbeing of people with NF.
Read Iron butt ride | Page 3
Q & A with comedian Joe Dzwonnik
Alumnus Joe Dzwonnik talks about what made him want to do stand-up comedy and what audience members can expect from his first two-hour special Thursday at The House Cafe, 263 E. Lincoln Highway.