‘SHARK TANK’ FAME FOR ISU START-UP
Illinois basketball tops Boston in NIT 1st round, 66-62
Three ISU graduates created a company that allows students to rent textbooks cheaply
Rice scores game-high 28 to lead Illini back from 17-point 1st-half deficit
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THE DAILY ILLINI
THURSDAY March 20, 2014
5he independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois since 1871
WWW.DAILYILLINI.COM
New bill could fix Greek houses Proposed act permits organizations, such as fraternities, to accept tax-exempt donations STAFF WRITER
Last semester, a female student fell off a fire escape at a fraternity house during a party, but there isn’t enough money to make necessary safey improvements within nonprofit housing to prevent accidents like this, said a proponent of the Collegiate Housing and Infrastructure Act. The act aims to address safety and other issues by changing the federal tax code to allow tax-exempt donations for organizations such as fraternities, sororities, Hillel or Chabad, to make housing or infrastructure improvements to off-campus collegiate housing.
Illinois leads in renewable energy use
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A newly released report states that Illinois is leading the nation in renewable energy use, with 91 communities, including Champaign County and Urbana, achieving 100 percent renewable electricity. The report, titled “Leading from the Middle: How Illinois Communities Unleashed Renewable Energy,� states that since 2013, the 1.7 million people represented in Illinois reduced pollution levels “equivalent to taking more than 1 million cars off the road or 250,000 homes off the grid.� Illinois communities have been able to achieve 100 percent renewable electricity using the Community Choice Aggregation, an energy model also known as municipal aggregation, which was passed in 2009. The savings and cleaner energy options stem from the amount of demand from residents, which allows the municipalities to negotiate pur-
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Police work to combat use of fake IDs in area BY BRITTNEY NADLER STAFF WRITER
Editor’s note: The name of a student who uses a fake ID was changed in this story to protect her identity. Before Mallory came to school, her sister offered her this advice about going to bars: Bouncers are going to know your ID is fake. It’s their job to decide whether they want to let you in or not. Fake IDs like Mallory’s are a problem for local police. “I don’t know if it’s peer pressure, I don’t know if it’s the need to go along or what it is, but obviously (students aren’t) thinking about the long run,� said Cham-
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the end of their four years, seniors are often asked: “So, what are you doing next?� Recently, it’s been a different question directed my way: “How does it feel?� How does it feel to be almost done? By the end of Friday, I’ll no longer be the editor in chief of The Daily Illini. When friends ask me how it feels to be done, I react similarly to seniors giving an impromptu answer to the post-graduation question. I stare off into the distance, trying desperately to collect
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Eleanor can be reached at eablack2@dailyillini.com.
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mental issues, including the Climate Action Plan, as well as a Sustainability Advisory Commission. “We just have a very long tradition of thinking environmentally, so this is not something that was suddenly sprung on Urbana. It’s just a long tradition in this city,� she said. “I think also that the real action on climate change is taking place in cities around the world — local governments are the ones that are kind of taking the lead on this.� Gerard said that there are a number of reasons why Champaign supports the use of renewable resources. “Number one, we want to reduce our carbon footprint of course, because that’s the right thing to do,� he said. “But it’s also (that) we have these resources, we have the wind farms and so forth. It’s taking advantage of resources that we have right here.�
my thoughts, before giving a broken response that usually starts with “Uhh...� I take a deep breath. It will be bittersweet, I take a guess, usually in a soft voice, making eye contact. This has been one of the most rewarding experiences I will have in my life, yet also one of the most demanding. It’s helped open up many doors to my future, no matter whether I work at a newspaper or television station. Over the past year, often via trial and error, I’ve learned what works and what doesn’t when leading a news organization. I’ve learned what people want to read about and even what people don’t, what does well on the newsstands
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ing said while both cities go through Ameren, their aggregation coalition has more cities than the one Champaign decided to join. As a result, when the prices first came out, Urbana’s rate was slightly lower than Champaign’s, and she hopes the price will stay that way for renewal. Prussing also described the city’s use of Renewable Energy Credits, which in combination with CCA programs helps communities move toward 100 percent renewable energy. “What it does is you buy credits on the market and it helps – ours are totally wind energy, so it helps that industry develop,� Prussing said. “It’s a system that you don’t necessarily have to have it right in your background, but you can help the industry and it’s one planet, so it doesn’t really matter where the energy is actually produced.� Prussing also discussed the various ways that Urbana has taken action regarding environ-
Editor-in-chief Darshan Patel bittersweet, ready to step down
Tell-tale signs of a fake ID
paign Police Sgt. Joe Ketchem. “To them, I’m sure it seems like, ‘Hey, I can’t get caught, it’s not a big deal.’� According to reports obtained from the Champaign and Urbana police departments, Champaign police confiscated 23 fake IDs in 2010, which fell to 16 confiscated fakes in 2011 and then jumped to 233 the following year. In 2013, 138 fake IDs were confiscated by Champaign police. Due to a lower number of bars, Urbana hasn’t confiscated more than four fake IDs per year between 2008 and now, for a total of nine. There are two types of fake IDs — real IDs being used by different people and fraudulent IDs
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chasing rates and energy sources. The city of Champaign uses what they call a Municipal Electric Aggregation program, a decision that had economic benefits as well as environmental, Mayor Don Gerard said. “At the time, the MEA program was very attractive because it was considerably cheaper than the Ameren default rate,� he said. “Currently, the Ameren default rate has dropped while the cost of the program we were using has risen. So we will be talking about whether or not we’re going to renegotiate that contract to continue with the program.� According to Gerard, Ameren is a conduit that purchases electricity and then provides it to Champaign residents. He said that 10 percent of their sources are renewable, and the city took advantage of the aggregation program to buy energy in bulk from those sources. Urbana adopted a CCA program by referendum two years ago, though Mayor Laurel Pruss-
BY ELEANOR BLACK
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PHOTO BY BRENTON TSE THE DAILY ILLINI
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Jordan Buckner, a graduate student representing Chopbox, speaks to an audience at the Illini Union for SocialFuse, an event that aims to bring ideas together. Attendees can pitch start-up ideas and find teammates as well as form connections.
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Vol. 143 Issue 97
SocialFuse: Fusing entrepreneurial ideas together
“A lot of people don’t realize how much it costs to make infrastructure and safety improvements to these houses because lots of sorority and fraternity houses are hundreds of years old,� said Matt Hill, Illinois student senator, supporter of the act and sophomore in LAS. “When you add up that cost of installing a new sprinkler system, it becomes very expensive in addition to the taxes.� Kurt Zellner, president of the University’s Interfraternity Council, believes the bill could reduce the cost of living in Greek houses, depending on the impact of the tax-deductible donation. “I think from the fraternity perspective, a lot of houses who get more donations think about expanding how they can better the houses, whether it’s for safety, aesthetic reasons,
BY MEGAN JONES
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