THE DAILY ILLINI
THURSDAY February 1, 2018
34˚ | 9˚
The independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois since 1871
WWW.DAILYILLINI.COM
Vol. 147 Issue 37
LONGFORM: PART ONE
Enrollment increases despite state trend
They, them, theirs
Following the experience of a gender non-binary student BY BROOKE EBERLE SPECIAL SECTIONS EDITOR
A constant conflict
BY HEATHER SCHLITZ
CJ Seymour is exhausted with teaching people how to respect them. Seymour, junior in Media, identifies as non-binary. Every day, Seymour struggles with making people see them for who they are. “It’s like every day I have to come out,” Seymour said. “Some days I definitely pick my battles, but every day I’m battling with, ‘Is that a he or a she?’” Seymour is battling in all parts of their life: at work, at home, in class and in daily interactions. The constant fight for the right to exist as a person takes a toll on Seymour. “I have to be like, ‘These are my pronouns. You’re getting it wrong. This is who I am. Listen to me,’” Seymour said. Seymour’s assigned sex at birth was female. Seymour always knew they were not like other little girls, starting with how they liked to dress. “I loved getting cornrows because my hair would be flat on my head and look more masculine,” they said. Slowly, Seymour started to find themselves expressing their identity in nontraditional ways, like always picking a boy character in the Sims, a life simulation videogame, or only looking at boys’ clothes in catalogs. If a younger Seymour had to pick what to wear to church, it wouldn’t be a girly dress. “It wasn’t necessarily that I wanted to be a boy; it was really just that I would rather wear the suit and tie over the dress,” Seymour said. Rejecting the social norm of what girls would wear at an early age caused a rift between Seymour and their mother, who is from Nigeria and holds a strong Christian faith. It’s no secret that the major religions have reservations about going against the norm. Seymour experiences this rift with their mother. Seymour was born in Germany and lived there until they were 8 years old. They moved to England before moving again at age 13, when they moved
STAFF WRITER
While enrollment at colleges and universities across Illinois has steadily dropped, the University’s prestige and large size has allowed it to keep its head above water in the face of a rising tide of out-of-state competition. Sitting in front of a large map of Illinois in his office, representing high school visits by admissions representatives up and down the state, Andy Borst, director of undergraduate admissions, lays out the University’s recruiting strategy for the future. A constellation of stars marking major feeder schools, or schools where many students go on to higher-level education, rings Chicago, while circles denote the increasing number of high school visits downstate, where the University sees its biggest potential for growth. Largely reflecting patterns found across the country, Illinois’ larger universities continue to maintain or to increase their sizes, while small and regional schools suffer as their student populations dwindle. The University’s population has increased by 2,431 students from 2012 to 2016 while public universities in Illinois have dropped by 10,002 students from 2012 to 2016. With early action decisions sent out in December and the next wave of acceptances being sent to prospective students this SEE INCREASE | 3A
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Deron Williams returns to campus PAGE 1B
ADAM ZHANG THE DAILY ILLINI
SEE NON-BINARY | 4A
CJ Seymour, junior in Media, identifies as non-binary, and they want people to see them for who they are.
University battles out-migration with fourth straight tuition freeze BY OLIVIA WELSHANS STAFF WRITER
For the fourth year in a row, the University of Illinois has frozen its tuition rate in order to staunch the flow of Illinois’ college-bound freshmen from leaving for out-of-state institutions. The tuition freeze was
enacted in 2015 after the University went through several tuition increases in years prior due to a decline in state funding. This year marks their longest freeze since 1974. Recent years have seen very little increase in University in-state tuition and fees. Although Illinois
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is behind only Pennsylvania State University for the highest tuition compared with other peers and Big Ten universities, other colleges are catching up. University tuition and fees have risen only 1.7 percent, or $266, since 2014. This is severely less compared with the Universi-
ty of Iowa’s 11 percent, the largest increase of all Big Ten colleges. The University hopes continuing to freeze tuition will move them “back towards the pack,” as other schools increase their tuitions, said Kevin Pitts, vice provost for undergraduate education, in an email.
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Over the last several years, Illinois institutions have seen a decrease in enrollment as nearly half the college-bound residents chose to go out of state. According to new data from the Illinois Board
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2018 Grammys: No justice for Kesha
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