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Thursday April 11, 2013
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The independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois since 1871
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Vol. 142 Issue 136
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Sen. Frerichs delays bill for further review University alumni association to vet trustee appointment bill BY NATHANIEL LASH STAFF WRITER
State Sen. Mike Frerichs, D-52, is delaying plans for a bill that would shift a majority of the power to appoint members of the University Board of Trustees away from the governor. Though Frerichs, the bill’s primary sponsor, was unavailable for comment, his chief of staff Laurie Bonnett confirmed that he would wait on the bill that would give the University of Illinois Alumni Association Board of Directors the power to appoint five of the nine trustees that serve on the board. Currently, all members are appointed by the Illinois governor. Vanessa Faurie, spokeswoman for the alumni association, said the organization requested that Frerichs delay putting the bill up to a vote, raising concerns about there not being enough time to fully vet the legislation. Although the senate has until May 24 to pass its legislation, Faurie said the UIAA wants more time to discuss the bill, which is opposed by Gov. Pat Quinn. “Gov. Quinn has appointed one of the best boards in the school’s history and they are doing an
excellent job,” Brooke Anderson, spokeswoman for Quinn’s administration, said in an email. Anderson added that Quinn considers the suggestions from the UIAA and other public university alumni when filling board vacancies. Faurie confirmed that there is a consultation process and said the alumni association is satisfied with the current arrangement. But before Quinn, neither Rod Blagojevich nor George Ryan, both former governors, consulted with the alumni association in making their trustee appointments. “We’ve long supported this concept of a more permanent role of the alumni in the selection,” Faurie said. “It’s never been directed against Gov. Quinn.” Currently, seven of the nine trustees are University of Illinois alumni. But neither board chairman Christopher Kennedy nor retired federal prosecutor Pat Fitzgerald, most recently appointed, are University alumni. That would disqualify them from nomination by the alumni association,
BRENTON TSE THE DAILY ILLINI
Participants of the “Light the Path to Citizenship” march start their journey to the federal courthouse located in Urbana, on Wednesday.
C-U shows support for immigrants ‘Light the Path to Citizenship’ rally brings campus, community together BY RYAN WEBER MANAGING EDITOR
See ALUMNI, Page 3A
How trustees are appointed across the Big Ten Illinois legislators are floating Senate Bill 46, which would transfer the majority of the appointments of the University Board of Trustees to the University of Illinois Alumni Association. Currently, most Big Ten schools follow the governor-appointed model. Nearly 75 percent of trustees appointed by electorate or elected officials
Proposed bill tips the balance for University toward unelected alumni board
Who appoints trustees? Governor
Alumni
Elected
Other organization
University of Wisconsin
Ohio State University
Ex-officio members
Appointed by board itself
University of Illinois
University of Iowa
Purdue University
Rallies brought together thousands in several cities across the country Wednesday, including one in Champaign-Urbana, to add a collective voice to immi-
gration debates on Capitol Hill. As part of a National Day of Action, students, area residents and members of several labor unions, fraternities and sororities held a rally in the rain to shed light on the ongo-
ing national debates regarding comprehensive immigration reform, said Ricardo Diaz, an organizer of the C-U Immigration Forum’s rally. He said he wanted to draw attention to the difficultly of obtaining citizenship in the U.S. Diaz said the fi rst objective of the “Light the Path to Citizenship” rally was to show Rep. Rodney Davis, R-13, community support for immigration reform.
BY JANELLE O’DEA STAFF WRITER
Opening the Alumni Tap last weekend at the Urbana Landmark Hotel was a good chance to bring business to the hotel, said owner Xiao Jin Yuan. But on the night of the bar’s grand opening, Luis BarajasFarias, a promoter for the party’s entertainment, was arrested for breaking one of the hotel’s windows and for getting into a verbal and physical argument with a police officer, according to the police report. “The police have handled the matter,” Yuan said. “In the end, if nobody fixes it (the window), I have to fix it, because it’s my hotel.” Yuan has had numerous unexpected issues come up while
restoring the hotel, and keeping the hotel’s roof over his head became one of Yuan’s biggest challenges with the project. In his first development plan submitted to the city, Yuan said both he and the city realized the roof was one of the first necessary repairs for the hotel. But Robert Skertich, president of Patriot Construction in Chicago, said the company that fixed the roof, said the original slate roof could have lasted another 10-30 years with additional carpentry work on other parts of the building. “It was apparent (to me) that almost all of the areas (of the roof) that leaked were around areas that could have been repaired,” Skertich said. “It was a judgment call
See LANDMARK, Page 3A
Hotel roof $38,000 more expensive than expected When owner Xiao Jin Yuan first bought the Urbana Landmark Hotel, the building was in need of several repairs. One of the more significant repairs required replacing the roof entirely. After reviewing several bids, Yuan hired Patriot Construction to do the work. $250,000
$150,000
$50,000
0
Popular vote
Michigan State University Popular vote
Popular vote
Penn State University
HANNAH MEISEL THE DAILY ILLINI
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Initial roof quote
Actual cost AUSTIN BAIRD THE DAILY ILLINI
Source: City of Urbana through a FOIA request
Easter insists diminishing state funding hurts University’s abilities
University of Michigan
NATHANIEL LASH THE DAILY ILLINI
$180,000
$100,000
STAFF WRITER
University of Minnesota
$218,000
$200,000
BY HANNAH MEISEL
Popular vote
See IMMIGRATION, Page 3A
Urbana Landmark Hotel renovations troubled
Indiana University
University of Nebraska
Diaz said he doesn’t want to wait for Congress to turnover again and for the debates to start over. And the rallies across the country expressed a similar message: Reform is not happening fast enough. As part of his re-election platform, President Barack Obama promised to overhaul the way people become citizens in this
University President Robert Easter briefs participants on the University’s state funding. He stated the proposed budget does not appropriate enough for Illinois.
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SPRINGFIELD — University students, alumni, faculty and staff played the role of lobbyists Wednesday on Capitol Day as over 100 representatives from the three campuses descended on the Capitol Complex in Springfield. The lobbyists’ No. 1 task: Ask lawmakers for $33 million for the University in fiscal year 2014. University President Robert Easter said Illinois Connection, the fourth annual lobby day, which was organized by the University of Illinois Alumni Association’s advocacy group, is a day to remind the Illinois government of the University’s value to the state. “If you look at (University alumni) and their accomplishments ... you can see the transformative power of the University that’s enabled them to do things,” he said. Easter and Illinois Connection leaders said the University cannot move forward with the state’s current proposed appropriation of $634.4 million to the University for fiscal year 2014. According to the UIAA — adjusted for inflation — this fig-
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Percent of University’s operating budget from the state Fiscal year 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003
12.3 percent 13.9 percent 15 percent 16.4 percent 18.3 percent 18.6 percent 21.7 percent 21.9 percent 21.3 percent 23.8 percent 27.6 percent SOURCE: UNIVERSITY BUDGET
ure is below 1965 levels, and in actual dollars it’s around the same amount as 1997. Lobby day participants were instructed to ask for the same level of funding as the current fiscal year’s appropriations: $667.4 million. In the past 10 years, the state’s contri-
See CAPITOL DAY, Page 3A
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