MONDAY September 11, 2017
THE DAILY ILLINI
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The independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois since 1871
WWW.DAILYILLINI.COM
Vol. 147 Issue 5
DACA students persevere
ZHANG TRIAL
BY AARON NAVARRO ON-AIR NEWS EDITOR
PHOTO OF YINGYING ZHANG COURTESY OF UIPD
Christensen’s defense withdraws from case ney Bryan Freres at the hearing. “Attorneys reasonably anticipate that such additional charges may implicate the prospect of capital punishment,” the Brunos wrote in the motion. If prosecutors can prove that Zhang’s death resulted from Christensen’s kidnapping, he could face either life in prison or the death penalty. According to the motion filed, Christensen is unable to provide sufficient funding for the Brunos to represent higher charges. The Brunos argued that any delay in their motion could cause harm to Christensen’s defense, saying that future defense attorneys would need sufficient time to prepare for the February trial.
BY JESSICA BURSZTYNSKY NEWS EDITOR
Attorneys representing Brendt Christensen have withdrawn from the case after a federal court judge granted their request on Friday. Judge Colin Bruce appointed the office of the Federal Public Defender to take over representation of Yingying Zhang’s alleged kidnapper. A specific public defender has not yet been appointed. Christensen’s attorneys, Thomas, Evan and Anthony Bruno, filed a motion Sept. 1 asking to stop representing Christensen after prosecutors suggested they are seeking a superseding Grand Jury indictment against the alleged kidnapper. Higher charges could come in October, said Assistant U.S. Attor- burszty2@dailyillini.com
Ana Rodas, senior in FAA, knew the announcement of the rescindment of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program was coming. So, as an undocumented student, she prepared herself. She logged out of FaceBook to avoid the long political posts, focused in her classes, talked to her church friends and continued on with her day. It was business as usual. “When it was 10 o’clock, which was I guess the time (the White House) was going to announce anything, I was just chatting with a friend, pulling jokes and stuff. It was a very natural conversation, which was better than just anticipating that something was going to happen or just waiting for something to happen,” Rodas said. The DACA program allows immigrants who were brought in as children to establish residency in the U.S. for two years at a time. Last Tuesday, the White House announced the program will be phased out over the course of six months, and new applicants will not be accepted. It’s not a reaction of panic but readiness that has allowed cultural houses and organizations to advocate for resources and information for undocumented students. At the center of that effort is the La Casa Cultural Latina, headed by director Gioconda Guerra Pérez. In the immediate wake of the DACA announcement, Pérez said the University administration contacted them to continue their efforts in supporting and providing resources to undocumented and DACA students. Some of these resources include informa-
PORTRAIT OF NANCY RAMIREZ-BLANCAS BY BRIAN BAUER THE DAILY ILLINI
LAS senior Nancy Ramirez-Blancas is an undocumented student and president of the Illinois Coalition Assisting Undocumented Students’ Education. She says that based on what she sees and who she talks to, there’s hundreds of other undocumented students at the University.
tion on renewing their permit and connecting students with immigration lawyers. Pérez said that La Casa is available for any student who needs help relating to DACA. “We want all students to
understand that this is not a Latino issue. That just because our center is the one helping the campus ... ‘Oh, we’re just helping Latino, Latina students.’ That is not the case,” Pérez said. “We want any DACA undoc-
umented students who right now need our help to contact us. And we want to know what their needs are.” LAS senior and DACA holder Nancy Ramirez-BlanSEE DACA | 3A
Allowing medical marijuana on campus
BRIAN BAUER THE DAILY ILLINI
A memorial for Yingying Zhang on Goodwin and Clark.
Chinese community retains a positive outlook BY KAREN LIU STAFF WRITER
It has been over three months since the disappearance of visiting scholar Yingying Zhang. Although the local Chinese community was heavily impacted by Zhang’s kidnapping, they’re remaining positive about their safety on campus. “I don’t think Champaign is a dangerous place. I won’t be worried to walk on the streets after this event,” said Yujie Li, junior in Business. “I think it’s just an accidental event. It won’t affect our regular life.” Yujie’s opinion is mirrored by other students. Ruiyang Chen, sophomore in DGS, said the kidnapping case doesn’t make him feel unsafe, but it’s important for students to learn how to protect themselves. “International students are sometimes seen as easy targets because they are new here, and they don’t know about the American society,”
Chen said. “If they learn how to protect themselves and learn how to defend themselves, I don’t think that will be a problem for them.” Robin Huang, the vice president of public relations for the University’s Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA), said the organization strongly recommends all students to familiarize themselves with the school’s many resources to keep them safe. CSSA also created books for incoming students that contained different school resources listed in Chinese to spread the message, Huang said. CSSA was also heavily involved in the kidnapping case from the beginning. Huang said the organization had volunteers helping out with different aspects of the search, and CSSA held a walk and a concert to convey the message and spread SEE COMMUNITY | 3A
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No bailouts for CEO-in-chief
goPuff eliminates errands
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AUSTIN YATTONI THE DAILY ILLINI
A shortened winter break means students need to stay on top of their courseload.
Shorter winter break adds challenges BY LUKE COOPER STAFF WRITER
University professor Stephen Altaner has taught GEOL 118: Natural Disasters twice as a winter semester course. Though Altaner said he will be teaching the course again this winter, he acknowledges this year will bring more of a challenge. “It’s going to be more intense,” he said. “I’m going to be working faster and more furiously, no question. And that’s the way students are going to have to be as well.” Unlike previous winter semesters, which have had 24 to 25 instructional days for courses, this year’s winter semester allots only 21 instructional days, the minimum amount required for a winter semester. The reduction in winter semester instructional days is partly due to this year’s fall semester start date having to be on a Monday, 12 weeks before Thanksgiving week as opposed to a Monday, 13 weeks before Thanksgiving week.
Altaner said his fourweek online winter course usually doubles the amount of work students have in a week when compared to his eight-week online course, both of which are expected to be equal to an inperson 16-week course in subject matter and overall workload. “A four-week format requires students to be on top of the course work the whole time,” he said. “And a three-week format is going to be even more so. With an eight-week online course, you could go multiple days without logging in or doing anything and still do fine, but that would be challenging for a four-week format and practically impossible with anything less than that.” Christmas and New Year’s also complicates winter semester course planning, said Altaner, because few students wish to do school work so close to the holidays. “You can’t schedule anything on Christmas, and nobody likes to work on
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Christmas Eve,” he said. “And the same thing applies with New Year’s and New Year’s Eve, so you really have four days which are compromised (during a winter semester).” Assistant Provost for Educational Innovation and winter semester overseer Adam Fein said even though the overall winter break is shorter, maintaining the minimum 21 instructional days assures little variance in course planning. “While the learning can be intense,” Fein said, “due to the overwhelming success of the first three years, we don’t anticipate any issues.” Angharad Valdivia, professor in media and cinema studies, has taught online and in-person winter semester courses before and said that it’s hard to make a four-week course any shorter given their nature. “I feel like that semester is already so short,” said
Student Senator Tara Chattoraj introduced a resolution to the Illinois Student Government last Wednesday supporting medical marijuana in University Housing. The resolution would urge the University to revise the Student Code as well as University Housing regulations to allow for the possession and use of nonsmoking medical marijuana products on campus. Illinois’ medical marijuana program, which became effective in 2013, allows for eligible individuals diagnosed with one or more debilitating conditions to apply for a medical cannabis registry identification card. Even with a prescription, however, students living on campus have few options when it comes to their medical marijuana. Because medical marijuana remains illegal on a federal level, public universities in states with medical marijuana programs are hesitant to allow medical marijuana on their campuses with concerns about how it might impact federal funding. Chattoraj, senior in LAS, said that this poses a problem for University Housing residents with a prescription. “Basically, (the only way to take their medica-
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