THE DAILY ILLINI
THURSDAY April 7, 2016
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The independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois since 1871
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Vol. 145 Issue 85
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College of Medicine approaches finalizations DEAN SEARCH DOWN TO SIX FINALISTS
BY MEGAN JONES
Around 50 people from across the country applied or were nominated to serve as the first dean. The search committee is comprised of seven representatives from Carle, seven from the University and three external members. The committee began looking at applications in January, held interviews in March and narrowed the search down to 11 candidates. These candidates were interviewed in person by the search committee and six were selected to come to campus for on-site interviews in May, said Matthew Gibb, Carle Health System’s chief medical officer. Finding a founding dean has differed from past searches, Cangellaris said. When he applied, he was able to meet with faculty, students and the community surrounding the college. Without a location yet or people able to
STAFF WRITER
While the Carle Illinois College of Medicine’s timeline to initiate its first class in 2017 has been pushed back to 2018, Carle Health Systems and the University are working to ensure accreditation, dean selection and fundraising are all in place. This is the first new college the University has established in over 60 years, said Robin Kaler, campus spokeswoman. It will combine medicine with bioengineering to transform the way the medica l field is taught, said Andreas Cangellaris, dean of Engineering.
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give perspectives, the committee is looking for someone with a vision of what this college will be. Cangellaris said they are looking for individuals who have been involved with innovative research in the medical field and are able to combine the campus environment with the private environment of Carle Hospital. Most medical colleges tend to be silent and separate from the campus, he said, but the University’s college will be embedded, not isolated somewhere north near Carle. “We believe that moving forward, healthcare — not just medicine — but wellness is something that is everyone’s business,” he said. “We would like the College of Medicine to be close to the campus so faculty from psychology to social sciences to applied sciences to engineering can see
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In Memoriam: Honoring the life » of» Professor » » » Baer » » BY ALEX RICH CONTRIBUTING WRITER
He said that we would meet sometime next week for coffee; that he expected to be out of the hospital by Friday. But on Thursday, March 31, distinguished Economics professor and my personal friend Werner Baer, passed away following “a sudden and brief illness.” Two days earlier, he had emailed me from Carle Hospital saying that he was hoping to be out by Friday. As I write this piece, it is currently “sometime next week” when Professor Baer and I were supposed to have met. I was fi rst introduced to Werner Baer three semesters ago when I took his ECON 103 Macroeconomics class during my fi rst semester here at the University. I was a single person in a sea of hundreds of other students to see Professor Baer speak on the dullest of topics — Macroeconomics. I will never forget that class due to the fact that our class absolutely dominated the University of Illinois Yik Yak feed. It seemed like every second there was someone in that class posting about Baer’s quirks (i.e. his sayings, his drawings, his dress) as he stood up on the stage and handwrote notes that were projected onto the large auditorium screen. He was a strong believer in having students give their undivided attention and regularly come to class. It was very difficult to pass his class if you didn’t attend lecture, because he didn’t post any of the class material online. Students were expected to know all of the major topics covered in lecture because he only did essay question tests. At the end of my fi rst semester, I decided I was going to transfer to a school back home in Kentucky for the spring semester. When I went into the Economics Department in David Kinley Hall to meet with my advisor, I was told to wait until she made it back from lunch. As I waited, Professor Baer came into the room.
He saw me waiting and asked if he could help me. We got acquainted and I informed him of my intention to transfer back home. He pleaded that I give the University another semester before I decided to transfer. When my advisor fi nally made it back from lunch, Professor Baer told me to meet with him in his office down the hall after I was fi nished. But as I was talking to my advisor, Professor Baer burst into the room to inform me of another option, stopping-out, which meant I could come back to the University in the future. I walked down the hall to talk to Professor Baer and ended up staying for quite some time as he tried to convince me to stay. He even offered me a spot on his annual trip with students to Brazil. I told him that my decision to transfer was already set in stone. But in spite of this, he wanted to stay in touch. We exchanged emails while I went to school back in Kentucky. And when I told Professor Baer of my plan to return back to the University for the fall 2015 semester, he was ecstatic and suggested that we meet for lunch once classes started. We would go on to meet various times throughout the semester for coffee and dinner. In one of our discussions, I brought up my interest in movies and I learned that he, too, had an interest in movies, especially classic and international ones. Professor Baer said that he had an extensive library of movies at his house, and he asked if I had any interest in watching one of his movies sometime. That semester, I ended up watching three movies at his house. We watched some of his favorite Australian movies, “Breaking Morant,” “The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert” and an old, American coming-of-age fi lm, “Breaking Away.” We even went to see the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Krannert after he gave me a free ticket to go with him.
Matisyahu’s concert motivated by politics receives mixed reaction BY AARON NAVARRO ASSISTANT DAYTIME EDITOR
“Every politician is a human in disguise,” Jewish Reggae artist Matisyahu, — real name Matthew Miller — sang as he opened his set at the Canopy Club on Tuesday night. It’s a bit of a lyric and a bit of a statement that appears to resonate with Matisyahu as of late. Last August before performing at the Rototom Sunsplash festival in Spain, Matisyahu was asked to sign a letter of support towards a Palestinian state and a promise to not bring up Israeli politics on stage. What followed was a series of controversy and criticism against both the festival and Matisyahu. Tuesday afternoon, a couple of hours before the con-
BY SAMANTHA JONES TOAL ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
Corresponding with thousands of tired students and midnight deadlines, coffee shops are abundant on campus. Corresponding with the abundant coffee shops are copious quantities of leftover coffee grounds. In the spring of 2013, members of Enactus, a social entrepreneurship organization on campus, realized the sheer amount of excess coffee grounds available. Leftover grounds become an environmental nuisance in landfi lls, so the student group sought a solution. “The coffee grounds that are thrown out release methane gas, which is bad for the environment,” said Kasturi Pantvaidya, freshman in Business and project associate for Grounds for Growth. Grounds for Growth, sponsored by Enactus, has created a use for coffee grounds to help the community without harming the environment. “When you put coffee grounds specifically in a landfi ll, with the compres-
RYAN FANG THE DAILY ILLINI
Isabella Lilley, Daily Illini reporter, interviews Professor Werner Baer in his office on Oct. 14.
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cert, Matisyahu, his manager David Serber and opener Nadim Azzam stopped by the Illini Hillel to talk with a selected group of student leaders. Questions about the incident in Spain came up and Matisyahu emphasized his disapproval of it, and politics in general. “They basically coerced me into signing a political document,” Matisyahu said. “I’m not a fan of being coerced into something, and I’m also just not a fan of politics. So I tried to stay away from that as much as possible.” Azzam, an Arab-American artist, echoed Matisyahu’s statement. He doesn’t “agree with the approach of treating Matisyahu as an extension of the Israeli government.”
sion and everything, it makes it much worse for the environment. But it could be very helpful as a fertilizer,” said Nathan Gaertner, junior in Business and project management. Grounds for Growth originally collected the grounds and gave them to local farmers as fertilizer; however, as the project grew, members of Enactus began researching other projects. “There’s many other uses for coffee grounds, too, which is how we got where we are now,” said Tom Jager, junior in Business and project manager. Now, Grounds for Growth has a new endeavor: collecting coffee grounds from Espresso Royale to make coffee-scented soap. Through this new project, the group is tackling two recycling sectors: coffee grounds and soap. “We go to the I-Hotel and we collect all the soap that is either unused or very lightly used and we take that to recycle for our project,” Pantvaidya said. They then take the coffee grounds and use a special process to melt them down
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and mold them into soap, she said. While the project focuses on recycling and environmental sustainability, it also aims to benefit the community. “Our partner is an organization of the UrbanaChampaign community called Restoration Urban Ministries (RUM),” Pantvaidya said. “These are people of the community who don’t have the necessary economic or social skills or job skills to get back on their feet.” Grounds for Growth teaches the members of RUM how to create the coffee-scented soap. “The idea is that they can use those skills that they learned from us in our business workshops and apply that to make their own soap and sell that for a profit out in the community,” she said. Additionally, Grounds for Growth visits RUM twice weekly to teach members of the organization basic skills, such as creating a resume and using certain Google products. Opportunities for sale
ets for his Thursday, April 7 show in Florida cost $30. At around 10 p.m., Matisyahu came on stage, donning the same long blue tie-dye sweatshirt from his stop at the Illini Hillel. His themes of unity dominated his Q&A and echoed through his lyrics during the set. For Elan Karoll, freshman in Engineering, the messages about “building bridges” and “finding commonalities” are inherent to the tour. “That is what a lot of this tour embodies, is having a Jewish artist tour with a Palestinian artist to show we can be united through music,” Karoll said. It was a message that was never explicitly said by Matisyahu in between songs. He
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in the community include local farmer’s markets and boutiques. For Moms Weekend, Grounds for Growth project members plan to sell the soap on the Quad to gauge community interest and reaction to the soap. “There’s a few different needs this project addresses,” Gaertner said. “The main need is helping to enrich the people of RUM so that they’re better able to contribute to society in a meaningful way and get back on their feet.” Jager said the project came about because the organization hopes to fi nd long-term solutions to meet the basic needs of the community. Enactus currently gives 100 percent of its profits from the soap to RUM. “It’s different from volunteering. Volunteering in a soup kitchen for example, you donate two hours of time, but a week later you do the exact same thing again,” Jager said. “This project is instead creating a sustainable solution to these issues.”
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In the session, Matisyahu said this experience spurred his current nationwide college tour, which was co-sponsored by Hillel chapters at colleges. “We started this tour based off an idea we had to try and bring together different groups on campuses, pro-Israel and pro-Palestine,” Matisyahu said. “Trying to bring them together and have an event they could share and could inspire some understanding or conversations as opposed to, ‘You’re on this side’ and ‘I’m on this side.’” The Illini Hillel teamed up with several RSOs such as the Illini Public Affairs Committee to help run the event. Tickets were five dollars with a valid student I.D. Comparatively, tick-
Students produce soap from coffee grounds
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BRIAN BAUER THE DAILY ILLINI
Matisyahu performs in a show organized by Illini Hillel at Canopy Club on Tuesday.
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