EDITORIAL Body cameras would hold police accountable for their actions and promote fair treatment. Page 4A
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State pushes for police cameras Ferguson, Mo. events inspire legislation for less subjectivity BY JOSH WINTERS STAFF WRITERS
Illinois legislators are advocating for additional patrol cameras for law enforcement agencies by adding surcharge fees to traffic violations or guilty pleas for criminal offenses. An amendment to House Bill 3911 is currently pend-
ing in the House of Representatives. It would add a $6 surcharge fee to fund grants to law enforcement departments to purchase body cameras for their officers. The increase in revenue will also allocate funding to the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board.
The bill has already established a grant program for agencies to receive vehicle cameras and the proposed amendment would add body cameras to the program. State Sen. Bill Haine, D-56, and State Rep. Jehan Gordon-Booth, D-92, introduced the amendment earlier this month and commented on the events in Ferguson, Missouri, in their remarks. “I hope that the tragic
recent events in Ferguson ... may serve as a catalyst to enact legislation that protects our brave police officers as much as it does the public,” Booth said in a press release. If the amendment to HB3911 were to pass, law enforcement agencies that received grants for body cameras would have to follow specific guidelines for their use. Police officers would
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turn their cameras on when engaged with a member of the public and their agency would be required to store footage from the body cameras for a two-year period. This stored footage must be made available upon the request of the state’s attorney, or any officers or civilians that were recorded. While the body cameras could raise privacy concerns, University Police Department Deputy Chief
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Skip Frost said that the opinion of the public is always taken into account in his department. “There were a lot of concerns when we started up with the security camera program at the University,”
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‘Mini home’ project kicks off BY ANGELICA LAVITO STAFF WRITER
Going from homeless to homeowner can seem unachievable. Restoration Urban Ministries is hoping to help make this change more achievable with the creation of “mini homes.” A groundbreaking ceremony, held on Sept. 10, marked the beginning of construction for Restoration Urban Ministries’s first mini home, a 400-square-foot affordable house for low-income persons. Restoration Urban Ministries also provides transitional housing for those who are struggling financially. Residents are given temporary food, shelter and childcare, along with services such as self-sufficiency classes and job counseling. Pastor Ervin Williams, executive director of Restoration Urban Ministries, said the mini home project could help encourage residents, “to be able to have something, to spark that drive to say ‘Look, this isn’t the end of the road. You can continue to progress and get better.’” Staff encourages transitional housing residents to search for permanent housing, which typically means a rental property. Williams said he has been exploring different ways to encourage residents to eventually pursue purchasing a home and started working on the mini home project nearly two years ago. Assistant Program Director Roscoe Brown and Williams have worked with a variety of people including groups from the University to develop the mini home project. “For the last couple of years that’s where we’ve been,” Williams said. “(We’re) really educating the community [and] getting this to the place where we could actually build these.” The city of Champaign was looking to sell two irregularly sized vacant lots around the
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Columbia Law Professor Katherine Franke cancelled a speaking engagement at UI following the University’s decision against the appointment of Stephen Salaita. Franke attended a panel Thursday at an off-campus location to discuss the controversy.
Law prof. speaks on Salaita Off-campus panel focuses on academic freedom and dissent BY ANIKE OWOYE CONTRIBUTING WRITER
In the wake of the Board of Trustees’s decision against appointing Steven Salaita to a tenured position in the American Indian Studies program at the University, approximately 100 students, faculty and Urbana-Champaign community members attended a discussion led by Columbia Law Professor Katherine Franke. She was joined by a panel of University graduate students and professors to discuss academic freedom and political dissent surrounding the Salaita controversy. Less than one month ago, Franke sent a letter to Chancellor Phyllis Wise cancelling her prior speaking arrangements at the University. Franke relocated the discussion to
an off-campus location, the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center, and traveled on her own expense. Franke said it was important to hold the discussion because she said she wanted to “stand with you (audience members) in outrage.” “For me to come after what had happened in the last month and, in a sense, validate an academic and intellectual community by giving speeches or lectures here seemed corrupt to me,” Franke said. Franke criticized Wise’s description of Salaita’s tweets, which Wise described as being uncivil. “Whatever else civility may be, it is not an academic norm,” Franke said. Franke went on to discuss the constitutionality of the
controversy and she said she believes Salaita would have an “easy case” if he followed through with a lawsuit against the University. “The constitutional protection of speech rights protects all speeches, even speech we might find odious or offensive,” Franke said. “The uncivil university is something to applaud, not condemn.” Each panel member discussed his or her viewpoints on the Salaita issue and how it has affected them, including Eman Ghanayam, graduate student in LAS. “He’s a Palestinian living in diaspora, still has relatives who are subjected to persecution in Palestine and his tweets commented on one of the most atrocious crimes of 2014, if not the 21st century, that resulted in the killing of almost 2,900 people,” Ghanayam said. During the presentation, Franke said President Robert
Easter, the Board of Trustees and Wise’s decision to not reinstate Salaita will lead to longer term implications. She said this decision will lead to making “people now wonder whether it’s a school to which they should apply as a student or as a faculty member.” Franke said that the problem with attempting to censure the University’s scholarship is that it does not give University students enough credit. “They can take it; they need to develop the critical skills to engage in arguments they disagree with or find offensive,” Franke said. During her lecture, Franke questioned how relevant faculty members’s extracurricular speech is in relation to their ability to perform and function well in the classroom. Erik S. McDuffie, professor of African-American Studies and member of the
Illinois Faculty for Freedom and Justice, said this case has “profoundly impacted segments of faculty and administration” and added that some departments have gone so far as to suspend job searches. McDuffie said the whole issue surrounding the Salaita case is “catastrophic” and reiterated that more than 16 departments have issued votes of no confidence in the chancellor. Erica Melko, graduate student in LAS, attended the event and said that academic freedom is vital to the University in order to “function and serve as active and vibrant.” Franke said it is important for students to demand a stimulating, diverse and intellectually cutting-edge faculty. “Students have to make noise,” Franke said.
Anike can be reached at news@dailyillini.com.
Cans on Quad support food drive BY MEGHAN WEBBER STAFF WRITER
PHOTO COURTESY OF OFFICE OF VOLUNTEER PROGRAMS
The cans will go to the Eastern Illinois Food Bank for those in need. Those who donate the most cans could be eligible to win cash prizes or a gift card for Einstein Bros. and Bagels.
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As a part of September’s Hunger Action Month, the University’s Office of Volunteer Programs is organizing the 7th annual food drive, Cans Across the Quad, which will donate goods to the Eastern Illinois Food Bank. Cans Across the Quad, which takes place from Sept. 21 to Sept. 29, is a week-long event that encourages registered student organiza-
tions, RSOs, campus offices and individuals to donate canned goods to benefit the food bank and promote hunger awareness. “They distribute about 70 percent of the food that is used for agencies like food pantries and homeless shelters throughout 14 eastern Illinois counties,” said Lindsay Okazaki, staff member at the Office of Volunteer Programs and junior in LAS. John Race, program advi-
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sor at the Office of Volunteer Programs, said their goal is set high at 25,000 meals, representing its 25th anniversary as an office. “Each 1.2 pounds of food is six meals, so with the number of interested groups who are participating, we believe we can hit our goal amount,” he said. In order to promote awareness for the event, the office set different monetary awards for those who donate
the most cans. Winners in the RSO category will be rewarded $200 for first place, $100 for second place and $50 for third place. The winner in the campus office category will be rewarded with an Einstein Bros. and Bagels breakfast, while the winner in the individual category will be rewarded with a $25 gift card to Einstein Bros. and Bagels. “We have decided to part-
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