WRESTLER CLAIMS NATIONAL TITLE
ILLINI BASKETBALL NET HIGHS, LOWS
IT’S TIME FOR A NEW SPRING WARDROBE
Delgado becomes first Illini in 56 years to win back-to-back NCAA wrestling championships. 1B
Relive the men’s 2014 basketball season from top-recruit fakeouts to crushing defeats. 1B
Winter is gone. Greet spring with ’90s throwbacks, bright colors and flowing fabrics. 6A
THE DAILY ILLINI
MONDAY March 31, 2014
67˚ | 42˚
he independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois since 1871
WWW.DAILYILLINI.COM
Vol. 143 Issue 98
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Quinn pushes for an increase in minimum wage
University research shows that $10 minimum wage could stimulate economy BY EDWARD GATHERCOAL STAFF WRITER
Recently released University research has found that pushing the minimum wage up to $10 per hour could stimulate economic activity. The study’s findings are in line with Gov. Pat Quinn’s push for a minimum wage increase in the state of Illinois. The current Illinois minimum wage is $8.25 per hour, which is less than half the average U.S. hourly wage. According to a recent press release from Quinn, a full-time worker at this wage will earn about $17,000 in a year, which is below the federal poverty threshold of $19,790. Robert Bruno, professor of labor and employment relations and co-author of the study, said increasing the wage from $8.25 to $10 per hour could generate new economic activity. “If you give hundreds of thousands of people a couple thousand dollars in pay raise and they spend the vast majority of it, that has a positive modest impact on the economy because that money then becomes an expenditure,” he said. “And then it becomes revenue for businesses, which then can make decisions about products and new technology.” Bruno added that while there wouldn’t necessarily be any new jobs created as a result of the boost in wages, he believes it would help the state of Illinois overall. “Even if no additional people were to get hired, the people who
SARI LESK THE DAILY ILLINI
Brad Atkinson, top, a deputy at the Champaign County Sheriff's Office, practices the trap and roll technique during a control tactics class with Daniel Tallman, bottom, chief of the Mt. Auburn Police Department.
MAKING OF A COP
TO PROTECT AND SE RV E
Once slated to close, UI’s police academy graduates 56 officers BY SARI LESK
In its review of the Police Training Institute, the project team STAFF WRITER was asked to determine how consistent PTI was with the Editor’s note: This article is the first of a two-part series. University’s mission as a land-grant university. Of the 56 police officers and sheriff’s deputies certified last PTI’s mission states that the institute is “a unique member Thursday by the University’s Police Training Institute to wear of the University of Illinois campus community combining the badge and serve their communities, one stood out among the rest. The recruits in the basic law enforcement class voted for training and education to provide students with the one of their classmates to walk across the stage in the auditorium philosophical base, skills, and decision-making abilities of The Vineyard Church in Urbana to stand between the flags of requisite to maintaining an ordered and safe society within the United States and the state of Illinois and receive the Ervin the guidelines of the Constitutions of the United States and H. Warren award. the State of Illinois.” The award is presented for excellence. It was named for the first director of the 59-year-old police academy — the oldest in The project team identified that the University perceives the state. The award’s recipient is determined through input itself as “among the preeminent public universities of the from classmates, instructors and PTI administration to recog- nation and strives constantly to sustain and enhance its nize academic achievement and responsiveness to instruction, quality in teaching, research, public service and economic as well as unimpeachable moral character, professional conduct development.” and integrity. The recipient of this award sat in the front row. He stands near- According to the U.S. Code, land-grant institutions will “teach ly 6 feet tall and wears a light brown uniform shirt paired with such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and dark brown pants, patches on his shoulders and a gold, six-point the mechanic arts, in such manner as the legislatures of the star badge on the left side of his chest. Brad Atkinson is the new- States may respectively prescribe in order to promote the est sheriff’s deputy to take on the streets of Champaign County. A Champaign County-native, Brad was sent by the sheriff’s liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the office to train in basic law enforcement through PTI’s January several pursuits and professions in life.”
BY ALEX SWANSON STAFF WRITER
Gov. Pat Quinn delivered his 2015 budget address Wednesday afternoon and announced plans to increase higher education scholarships and extend the temporary income tax rate for Illinois residents. He started his address by reflecting on his past five years in office and said that under his leadership, state funding has been cut by more than $5.7 billion, and more people are working in Illinois today than when he took office. Quinn added that his proposed budget stipulates that every Illinois homeowner will have a guaranteed $500 property tax refund each year. Quinn came out strongly in favor of education; he argued that making severe cuts to state education funding will certainly harm students, but it would also increase local property taxes for families and businesses. Quinn also announced that he aims to double the amount of Monetary Award Program (MAP) grants available for students and plans to make higher education more accessible through dual enrollment and early college programs.
A passion that started as extra credit
New editor-in-chief hopes for reader participation in coming year
Editor-in-chief
I
started working at The Daily Illini for extra credit in Journalism 200. I never wanted to be a journalist. I didn’t have anything against journalism, but I never even considered it a career. For some reason unbeknownst to me, I signed up for Introduction to Journalism during my first semester freshman year to fulfill my advanced composition requirement, and instructor Jennifer Follis
liked this journalism thing. I wanted to do more. I wanted to get better. I covered the men’s golf team and the women’s basketball team. I became assistant copy chief. I worked five nights a week, staying for more than eight hours each night. I wrote three or four stories a week. But it wasn’t until I became the University administration reporter that I realized how much The Daily Illini meant to campus. Last April, I went to a town hall meeting with Chancellor Phyllis Wise and Provost Ilesanmi Adesida. The general public was allowed to ask questions, and three of their
SOURCE: “MINIMUM WAGE, MAXIMUM BENEFIT: HOW A $10 WAGE FLOOR IMPACTS ALL WORKERS AND THE ECONOMY”
are working would have more money and they would spend it,” he said. “And if you can reduce the poverty level by almost 1 percent, that rate of economic performance helps the state.” In a March 20 press release, Quinn praised the company GAP Inc. for deciding to raise its minimum wage to the proposed $10 per hour for all of its U.S. employees.
SEE WAGE | 3A
Budget calls for permanent income tax hike
SEE POLICE | 3A
offered extra credit to people who worked at Illini Media, so I joined The Daily Illini. I started as a one-night-aweek copy editor. Why a copy editor? Again, I don’t know. I was always good at grammar, and the copy chief seemed like a nice person. Plus, headlines are cool, and reporting — and talking to strangers — is scary. I was in awe of the people around me at The Daily Illini. They all seemed so knowledgeable, light years ahead of my knowledge of ledes and nut grafs. These people helped me improve; they helped me overcome my fears. I started reporting, and I realized I
A recent University study indicates that the state and federal economy would benefit from increasing the minimum wage, which supports Gov. Pat Quinn’s and President Barack Obama’s goals of increasing wage to $10 per hour. If increased, effects include: Labor income increases by $5.39 billion for the overall Illinois economy Within 10 years, a total tax revenue increase between $31.1 and $63 million for Illinois local and state governments An increase in annual Illinois income tax revenue between $141.2 and $192.2 million.
Gov. Quinn proposes increasing MAP grants, access to education
class. Although he was just hired in December, Brad’s dream to
JOHNATHAN HETTINGER
Economic benefits may result from increased minimum wage
four questions were about stories I wrote. In shock, I heard campus dialogue shaped by things I had written. I realized what I was doing affected people, and I realized I wanted to do this forever. I wouldn’t have had this epiphany if it weren’t for you, the readers. If you hadn’t read what I wrote, the stories wouldn’t have mattered. But you did read them, and they did matter. Over the past few years, I’ve seen my fellow employees devote their entire beings to this paper. I’ve worked with some of the hardest working,
SEE HETTINGER | 3A
Michael Lotspeich, a member of the Student Advisory Committee under the Illinois Board of Higher Education and a sophomore at the University’s Springfield campus, said an increase in MAP funding could be beneficial for college students. “I can see that as a substantial benefit,” Lotspeich said, “not only for students to be able to go to college, but also getting a lot of firsttime college students into the work force with a college degree.” Lotspeich also expressed that he felt the proposal could have a positive effect on the University of Illinois system. “Coming back to a school like the University of Illinois, I have to really consider that there are a large number of students who receive MAP funding,” Lotspeich said. He added that in 2010, the Urbana campus had about 20 percent of undergraduates receiving MAP scholarships. Quinn said he also intends to invest $1.5 billion in the Birth to Five initiative, which aims to improve early childhood education and prenatal care in Illinois. Addi-
SEE BUDGET | 3A
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