Failure to launch Men’s basketball still searching for new coach SPORTS, 1B
Wednesday March 28, 2012
The Daily Illini www.DailyIllini.com
The independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois since 1871
High: 74˚ Low: 42˚
Vol. 141 Issue 120
|
FREE
Supreme Court to decide on Affordable Care Act BY MATT RICE CONTRIBUTING WRITER
» » » » » » »
Despite mixed opinions among Americans, the fate of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is now in the hands of the nine Supreme Court Justices, with the third and fi nal day of oral arguments taking place Wednesday. The constitutionality of the act is being called into question in the landmark case. The bill will most greatly impact the health care accessibility of young adults ages 18-24 “We now have two and a half million young adults that wouldn’t have coverage and now have access to care,” said Kathleen Sebelius, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services during a phone conference last week. “The number of minority young adults with coverage has seen the biggest increase.” College reporters called into the conference that commemorated the two-year anniversary of the legislation. Beginning in September of next school year, student insurance plans will “become more robust,” added Sebelius, meaning that for over 2,000 schools, student health insurance will provide full coverage. And the benefits continue outside of school, Sebelius added. “After graduation, there will be a whole different marketplace,” she stated. By 2014, all states must establish affordable insurance exchanges, which are marketplaces where consumers can fi nd affordable plans that fit their needs, according to a press release. That is, if the bill is still standing by then. The provision that threatens to sink the bill is the individual mandate, which incurs a penalty on adults who do not have some type of coverage when the bill goes into effect.
More inside: For columnist Jason Febery’s take on the issue, turn to Page 4A.
YOUR VOICE
What’s your view on the Affordable Care Act?
» » » » »
Although numbers still low, e-book sales rise year to year With ownership of e-readers, tablets increasing, e-books may soon replace school textbooks BY THOMAS THOREN STAFF WRITER
E-book sales are growing in the University’s campus bookstores as tablet ownership increases among college students nationwide. In the past year, e-book sales at the Illini Union Bookstore have doubled while
sales at T.I.S. College Bookstore have steadily risen for several years. “It seems like it’s doubling every year for the most part,” said Scott McCartney, senior associate director for retail operations for the Illini Union. In its 2011 fiscal year,
the Illini Union Bookstore’s e-book sales accounted for seven percent of the store’s total sales of new, used and rental textbooks along with e-books. This fiscal year, ending on March 31, e-book sales have increased to account for 14 percent of total textbook sales. This doubling of e-book sales occurred while total textbook sales only increased by 4.4 percent during the same time span. Shirley Barnhart, textbook manager for the Illini Union Bookstore, said the
two most common disciplines for e-books sold are business and the “hard sciences,” such as molecular and cellular biology. She said she does not believe there is a correlation between these fields and e-books sales beyond the fact that they lend themselves well to a digital format and are easier for publishers to produce. T.I.S. is much less reliant upon e-book sales. For the second straight year, e-books
See TABLETS, Page 3A
See HEALTH CARE, Page 3A
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY DARYL QUITALIG THE DAILY ILLINI
STAFF WRITER
»
“There are definitely trade-offs, but I think we’re better off more towards how things were than what they’re trying to be made into.” JOSEPH CAPUTO, graduate student
“I think the right to have affordable insurance is a right everyone deserves. The mandate is necessary to get everyone insurance and keep costs down.” EDWARD WASHINGTON, junior in LAS
“Health insurance should be mandated just like car insurance is. If everyone has to get it, it might bring everyone’s costs down.” ANDREA HUNTER, junior in LAS
Sephardic Jewish folk literature gets preserved for the ages in digital archives
Singing to share beliefs
BY DANNY WICENTOWSKI STAFF WRITER
JOSHUA BECKMAN THE DAILY ILLINI
Shafts of light fall on members of the Clearview and Orchardville Mennonite congregations as they sing choir hymns on the Main Quad. The groups visit the UIUC campus at least twice a year, usually in the spring and fall, to pass out literature, CDs, and spread awareness of their beliefs. They visited campus Tuesday.
INSIDE
COMPILED BY MEGAN PIOTROWSKI
Listen to Rashel Nahol sing. Her voice cracks, splintered in her old age, but the song is far more ancient than her 75 years — it’s at least 600 years old. Nahol’s song, “Ahi Estebas Yerushalaim,” or “There you were in Jerusalem,” now resides in the University library’s new multimedia archive of JudeoSpanish oral literature. The new database is intended to represent a unique window to the ancient oral traditions of Spanish, or “Sephardic” Jews. The collection, which encompasses just under 1,500 ballads, took more than four decades to develop. Professor emeritus Samuel Armistead at the University of California-Davis and his former colleagues Joseph
Silverman and Israel J. Katz began the project in 1959 interviewing Sephardic Jews who had immigrated to the United States. Armistead, the custodian of the collection, also worked with Bruce Rosenstock , associate professor of religion at the University. Together, they digitalized, transcribed and created the database, which holds nearly 2,500 fully edited transcriptions with associated audio fi les. The project was funded by a multiyear, half-million dollar grant from the National Science Foundation Digital Library Initiative, according to a press release. Armistead said he and his colleagues realized that the language and songs that had defi ned Spanish Jewry for cen-
More on-air: To hear more about the project to digitize Judeo-Spanish oral literature, tune in to WPGU 107.1FM at 5 p.m. turies would soon disappear as Sephardic Jews emigrated from communities shattered by World War II and the Holocaust. “There’s an awareness that we’re saving a marvelous poetic, linguistic heritage. This was our motivation from the beginning,” Armistead said. “We knew that when this generation passed on, their language would be lost.” Rosenstock said the story of Sephardic Jews is one that began in peace and ended in crushing tragedy. In the age
» » » » » » »
» » » » »
See FOLK LIT, Page 3A
Police 2A | Corrections 2A | Calendar 2A | Opinions 4A | Letters 4A | Crossword 5A | Comics 5A | Health & Living 6A | Sports 1B | Classifieds 4B-5B | Sudoku 5B
»