ILLINOIS FOOTBALL OPENS BIG TEN PLAY
PYGMALION BACK IN CHAMPAIGN
C-U celebrates 10 years of the college town’s favorite festival
Illini take on Cornhuskers in Nebraska
SPORTS, 1B BECKMAN WELCOMES STUDENTS WITH EDUCATIONAL SESSION ON FOOTBALL, 1B
LIFE & CULTURE, 6A
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THURSDAY September 25, 2014
THE DAILY ILLINI 5he independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois since 1871
WWW.DAILYILLINI.COM
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Vol. 143 Issue 020
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CFA pushes for union to protect academic freedom CONTRIBUTING WRITER
The Campus Faculty Association believes the creation of unions will help protect University faculty members’ academic freedom. Some members believe that unionization could have helped resolve the controversy over Steven Salaita’s recently rescinded job offer at the University in a more straightforward manner. According to the organization’s website, it aims “to create an open and democratic university by balancing the power of the administration with a strong faculty voice, through an open process of collective bargaining.” A union for full-time nontenure-track faculty, Local 6546, was created earlier this year by CFA. However, the union is still in its early stages and hopes to have a contract by sometime later this year. Dorothee Schneider, member of CFA and the Local 6546 steering committee, said due to the way the controversy is being handled, “the University will have to pay both in dollars and in reputation, whatever the outcome.” Schneider said that the renewed interest from the Salaita controversy could help with efforts to form a union for tenure-track faculty and improve how unionization is perceived in general. “Many now see the union as an expression of who they are as educators here, and not as some other organization that interferes.” Schneider said. Many CFA members have
recently been wearing buttons to identify themselves as part of the organization, to show their support for the group’s goal in creating the unions. Schneider said the unions would install a regularized process to clarify how to resolve disputes with professors. She said a union would provide a much clearer path in following employment law and employment contracts, since the faculty would be working under a contract in a union. On Sept. 11, the Board of Trustees voted 8-1 to deny Salaita’s appointment to join the American Indian Studies program. Although the University never officially hired Salaita, CFA believes Salaita’s position would still have been protected in such a union. CFA is collaborating with the American Association of University Professors to investigate the board’s decision. Bruce Rosenstock, president of CFA, said that unionization would protect the academic freedom of faculty at the University. “The only way to protect faculty against this kind of heavy-handed abuse of power is for faculty to have a contract that stipulates exactly how and when tenure is vested, and what the rights of the faculty members are when they’re fired,” he said. Rosenstock said tenure itself is not enough to guar-
BY TEA LOJANICA CONTRIBUTING WRITER
University students now have the chance to help stop the largest Ebola outbreak in history, which is currently spreading through West Africa at an epidemic rate. The Ebola outbreak is the first in West Africa’s history and continues to escalate, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The University’s YMCA has partnered with the University organization Scientific Animations Without Borders Organization to launch a campaign to raise $20,000 to help the victims of the Ebola virus in Sierra Leone,
Liberia and Guinea. They are asking the student body to raise the money for this effort. Half of the money will go toward assisting the countries through humanitarian means, and the other half will go toward the production of educational videos provided by SAWBO. SAWBO creates animated videos that are assisted by voice technology to educate people on topics such as health care or agriculture. These videos work as an alternative education source for countries with largely illiterate populations through audio and visual format. “In the case of the Ebola animations, we work with groups of experts around the world to develop a script on what is Ebola, how you can prevent Ebola, what are the symptoms of Ebola and other basic health care issues around
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INSIDE
Arena renovations on track
State Farm Center to open Nov. 7 for exhibition game BY SEAN NEUMANN STAFF WRITER
State Farm Center’s renovation process is going according to plan. In some ways, the athletic department said construction crews are ahead of schedule. “We’re definitely where we need to be,” said Warren Hood, senior associate athletic director. “We’re actually doing some work that was supposed to be done next year. We’re doing it now just to try to get ahead a little bit.” According to Hood, the current phase of the arena’s renovation will be completed by Illinois’ Nov. 7 home opener, an exhibition against Quincy. The project SEE CFA | 3A as a whole won’t be finished
University YMCA funds Ebola relief Videos meant to educate on how to contain, treat virus
JASMINE DINH THE DAILY ILLINI
Senior director Warren Hood and field operations director Dennis Kelly discuss renovations inside the State Farm Center.
until prior to the 2016-17 basketball season. There will be no concerts at State Farm Center this year. The only event besides home basketball games will be the Illinois high school wrestling championship in the spring. Crews replaced seating in the C-section of the State Farm Center’s bowl with blue seats and added more railings in seating sections. When the project is complete in 2016, the configuration of the lower-level seating will also be in tighter to the court, allowing fans to be closer to the action. The seating in the A and B sections will be replaced during the next phase of renovation after this basketball
Ebola epidemic hits West Africa in record numbers The first cases of the Ebola virus in West Africa were reported on March 22. Since then, the outbreak has escalated and continues to grow in the region.
3,022 CASES
JASMINE DINH THE DAILY ILLINI
Construction workers work to finish a section of the State Farm Center on Wednesday. season. By the 2015-16 season, the entire floor will be flipped — allowing TV cameras to show the Orange Krush in the background during televised games. The benches will also be on the other side of the court. Hood said fans won’t notice any construction inside the
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
1,008 CASES
63% DEATH RATE
1,813 CASES
52% DEATH RATE
Guinea
Liberia
33% DEATH RATE
20 CASES
40% DEATH RATE
NO DEATHS
Sierra Leone
Nigeria
Senegal
1 CASE
SADIE TEPER THE DAILY ILLINI SOURCE: CDC Center for Disease Control. Last updated Sept. 23, 2014
the disease,” said SAWBO Director Barry Pittendrigh. Pittendrigh said educating the public on how to recognize the disease and what
to do in case of contact is a strong method of containing the disease. However, the
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arena’s bowl. “What they see the first day when they get in will be what they see at the end of the season, as far as inside the bowl,” Hood said. Fans will notice the most change at entrances to State Farm Center, where they’ll
SEE RENOVATION | 3A
Class of 2018 reports highest test scores in University history BY ABIGALE SVOBODA
CASES
BY ERIC FRIES
With simply their arrival, the freshman class of 2018 has already improved the standing of the University through record-breaking standardized test scores. Newly released fall enrollment statistics show the average student’s ACT score now stands at 29 points, up fourtenths of a point from last year’s score of 28.6. The average SAT score jumped a full 28 points, from 1344 in 2013 to 1372 in 2014. Additionally, 58 percent of students in the freshman class were in the top 10 percent of their high school class and 12 percent were in the top 1 percent. Nearly one-third of incoming freshmen are enrolled in the College of Liberal Arts
and Sciences, followed by 22 percent of students in the College of Engineering and 21 percent in the Division of General Studies. “The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is fortunate to have an academically talented and diverse freshman class this year,” Keith Marshall, interim director of Enrollment Management and associate provost, wrote in an email. Marshall explained that the admissions office uses a holistic review process to admit the most qualified students into the University. “This year’s record number of applications produced a freshman class with truly amazing academic credentials across a broad range of
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