REFLECTING ON FIRST SEMESTER
Start bugging out Professor May Berenbaum explores our consumption of insects on purpose, or not.
INTERESTED IN WORKING WITH US?
Opinions columnist Yunjo Jeong looks back on feeling more like a tourist and less like a student.
LIFE & CULTURE, 6A
Like what we do and want to learn more? Come to The Daily Illini info night in English Building Room 160.
WEDNESDAY, 8 P.M.
OPINIONS, 4A
THE DAILY ILLINI
32˚ | 29˚
MONDAY _ January 26, 2015
5he independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois since 1871
WWW.DAILYILLINI.COM
Vol. 144 Issue 65
|
FREE
University approves solar farm
PHOTO COURTESY OF CITY OF CHAMPAIGN
SEE SOLAR FARM | 3A A rendering of the 2016 reconstruction of Green Street, which will feature wider sidewalks, improved traffic design, safer pedestrian crossings and new street trees.
W WINDSOR RD
Champaign plans Green St. revamp Improvements will include new safety, aesthetic features BY EDWIN HSIEH
PROJECT AREA
POWER: 5.87 megawatts
S 1ST ST
STAFF WRITER
LOCATION: This site is on 20.8 acres, located along the south side of Windsor Road between First Street and the railroad tracks, to the west of the existing pond.
2 percent of electricity for campus based on FY15 projections
ILLUSTRATION BY KELSIE TRAVERS THE DAILY ILLINI
Study: Fields that call for ‘brilliance’ lead to gender gap BY JANE LEE STAFF WRITER
A recent study found an emphasis of “brilliance” in certain fields led to an underrepresentation of women. Andrei Cimpian, associate professor of psychology, and Sarah-Jane Leslie, philosophy professor at Princeton, recently conducted research on the gender gap in the fields of science technology engineering and math, humanities and social sciences. “There are all sorts of stereotypes that have to do with gender, but in particular, we are focusing on the stereotypes about intellectual capacity because these stereotypes, combined with fields whose cultures emphasize that brilliance is needed for success, could lead to female underrepresentation,” Cimpian said. Researchers surveyed around 1,800 academic respondents in 30 fields about what they thought was required for success in their fi eld. They then studied the relationship between the beliefs of those respondents and the percentage of women who
earned their Ph.Ds in those fields. That relationship showed that fields that emphasized the need to have something special intellectually — “a spark of brilliance” — had fewer women. “That’s kind of the main fi nding of the study, which suggests that an atmosphere that emphasizes these innate intellectual traits combined with the stereotypes in our society that portray women as being less likely to possess these traits, is likely to discourage women’s participation,” Cimpian said. This idea, he said, was then compared to other research, which looks at underrepresentaiton of women in STEM and humanities fields. “The hypothesis that was most able to explain the pattern of where women were underrepresented across this large stretch of academia was that in certain fi elds, their culture values brilliance and genius, and therefore women feel unwelcome in those fields,” said Cimpian. Diane Schnitkey, sopho-
DAILYILLINI, DAILYILLINISPORTS
INSIDE
engineering fi rm. The reconstruction will feature wider sidewalks, improved traffi c design, safer pedestrian crossings, new street trees, improved lighting, improvements to the railroad viaduct and an overall improved aesthetic. “The fi rst thing is really to create a dynamic and exciting streetscape and environment,” said Ernest Wong, principal in charge at Site Design Group. “We thought that is very important, beside our fi rst priority, which is to make it a safe environment.” The project is expected to cost $8 million and is being funded by a combination of City Food and Beverage funds and a
SEE GENDER | 3A
Champaign is planning a complete reconstruction to the section of Green Street between Fourth and Neil streets in 2016. To present a brief overview of the third phase of the Green Street Streetscape Project, the city held an open house at Venue 51, 51 E. Green St. Thursday night. The project will be designed by a team led by Clark Dietz Inc., a multidisciplined consulting
80 70 60
In the study, Andrei Cimpian and his co-authors found that women were underrepresented in fields that valued brilliance. Around 1,800 academics in 30 fields were surveyed for the research.
BY ESTEFANIA FLOREZ
54.4 49.8 49.4
45.4 41.6
40
STEM Studies 37.8
36.2 29.2 28.6
30
22.2
20
18.6 18.0
10 0
80 76.8
60
72.1 .3 69
Social Sciences and Humanities 2 64.
4 62. 61.3 0.9 .9 .6 6 59 59 59.2
50 40
3
52.
0 45. 3.1 .8 4 41
1
38.
4
34.
30 20
4
31.
8
15.
10 0
Source: Leslie, S., Cimpian, A., Meyer, M., Freeland, E. (2015, Jan 16). "Expectations of brilliance underlie gender distributions across academic disciplines"
@THEDAILYILLINI, @DI_OPINION, @DI_SPORTS
» » » »
Editorial: Green Street repairs will improve and strengthen campus life for students. Page 4A
resulted in property damage only. The project hopes to decrease that number. “Of those accidents, approximately half of them have occurred in First and Green Street intersection,” said Sean Widener, Clark Dietz Project Manager. Rashod Johnson, president of the Roderick Group and University alumnus, described Green Street as “the Michigan Avenue of Champaign.” He said
» » » » »
STAFF WRITER
50
70
»
federal TIGER grant. The city’s goals are to enhance and beautify the Green Street corridor, promote economic development and increase connectivity within campus town and to city districts. “We need to accommodate, we need to have multi mobile transportation, (Green Street) needs to be attractive, it needs to be the gateway from the Champaign side to campus,” said Champaign Mayor Don Gerard. During the Dietz presentation at Thursday’s Open House, it was pointed out that out of 101 total reported accidents during the span of 2009 to 2013, 69 percent of accidents
SEE GREEN | 3A
University reflects, gathers feedback on outcome of first winter semester
University professor investigates explanation for gender gap
cB io Ev oB Ne io uro s Bio ci ch em Sta tist ics Ch em Ea rth S As tro ci no my M a En gin th ee rin g Co mp Sci Ph ysi cs
N DUNL OP ST
Solar Farm
Percent Female Ph.Ds
The University is continuing a trend of investing in sustainability projects with the approval the construction of a solar farm. This month, the University signed a power purchase agreement with Phoenix Solar Inc., which will manage the facility for the first 10 years of its energy production.
Mo le
STAFF WRITER
Percent Female Ph.Ds
BY JOSH WINTERS
The farm will be located along the south side of Windsor Road, between First Street and the railroad tracks, the 20.8 acre solar farm will be one of the largest on-site university solar farms in the country. “We are very pleased to see this long awaited agreement completed and signed, so the installation can begin,” said director of Facilities and Services Al Stratman in a statement. “This unique and challenging project was only made possible through the dedi-
Psy Art H ch ist ol Co Educ ogy mm ati S on En tudi gli es So sh Li cio t lo Co gy mp An Sp Lit thr an op ish Lin olog Arc guis y ha tics elo g His y tor Po y li Mi Cla Sci d E ssi ast cs Stu Ph Ec d ilo on Mu soph sic y Co mp
UI’s solar farm furthers campus sustainability goal
THEDAILYILLINI
Over winter break, the University ran its first winter semester, offering eight courses online in a variety of subjects. Feedback from the trial session will determine whether more will be held in the future. A survey will be sent to students who registered for the session, and a cross-campus group will examine the feedback closely to determine how to improve the program for students and faculty. Students were able to earn up to four credit hours in four weeks, and 767 students enrolled. Adam Fein, associate director of The Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning, said it looked like the winter session was a success. “First of all, and most importantly, early returns are that there was a lot of high quality teaching and learning,” Fein said. “For example, in (Joseph) Petry’s ECON 203 course, the median final grade was over 89 percent, which was the highest median score achieved in his 203 course, ever.” Emi Rosanwo, sophomore in Business, took the ECON 203 class to satisfy one of her requirements and said she found it to be a challenging, yet rewarding course. “I like that it was kind of on your own time, like one day I could work in the morning, the next day I could work at night, depending on when I wanted to,” Rosanwo said. “It was definitely beneficial, and I would do it again, because
if I can lighten my workload, I will.” However, Rosanwo did not like how hard it was to get in contact with the teacher or TA or how fast-paced the class was. She said students take one midterm and final, just like a regular class. “I didn’t like how it was
“It’s important that we have options for our diverse student body.” ADAM FEIN
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR FOR THE CENTER OF INNOVATION IN TEACHING AND LEARNING
crammed. We learned all the material that everyone else learned in 6 weeks,” Rosanwo said. Fein said instructional designers spent months researching the best practices peer institutions use to design “high quality shortformat” online courses. Bill Sieczkowski, sophomore in Engineering, took BADM 310 in order to stay on track to graduate in four years, as he added a minor to his curriculum. For him, it was a great way to earn three credit hours. “I liked how well the class was organized and how smoothly the entire
@THEDAILYILLINI
SEE WINTER | 3A THEDAILYILLINI
Police 2A | Horoscopes 2A | Opinions 4A | Letters 4A | Crossword 5A | Comics 5A | Life & Culture 6A | Sports 1B | Classifieds 4B | Sudoku 4B