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The Daily Illini
Monday October 1, 2012
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www.DailyIllini.com
The independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois since 1871
Vol. 142 Issue 26
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GEO files labor charge against UI
One man’s trash is another man’s toxin no more
University yet to pay some graduate students BY LAUREN ROHR STAFF WRITER
The University Graduate Employees’ Organization filed an unfair labor practice charge against the University last week after some employees came forward with complaints about not receiving their paychecks or tuition waivers. Natalye Tate, co-president of GEO and graduate student, said she is one of more than 30 graduate assistants who were not paid by the Sept. 16 payday. Tate said she went to the graduate college fellowship office several times before receiving her paycheck Wednesday. She said the only information she was given was that the office was behind in processing the appointments. “As someone who depends upon their paycheck every month, that was unfortunate for me to hear,” she said. As a result, the GEO filed an unfair labor practice charge with the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board against the University last week. Tate said she is also one of many graduate student employees whose tuition waiver was delayed at the start of the school year. This caused many graduate students to have to take
BRIAN YU THE DAILY ILLNI
Volunteers sort the hazardous waste collected from local residents at the Household Hazardous Waste Collection Event at the News-Gazette Distribution Center in Champaign on Saturday. The event was run by the Illinois EPA in conjunction with the various other local government groups, including the city of Champaign and city of Urbana.
UI police: Bomb threat posed ‘no direct threat’ Similar events have taken place around the nation recently BY CARINA LEE STAFF WRITER
A call about an abandoned suitcase found outside the Harding Band Building on Sept. 17 became the sixth suspicious package reported to Champaign police this school year. Police evacuated two blocks and cleared the threat three hours later. And although no further evacuations were necessary, other universities across the country have to taken further precautions in similar situations. Schools such as Louisiana State University, the University of Texas
at Austin and Southern Illinois University at Carbondale have received at least one bomb threat in the past two weeks. Southern Illinois University at Carbondale received its second bomb threat in two days Sept. 20 when a call about a suspicious piece of mail was made from the campus mailroom. Rod Sievers, Southern Illinois University spokesman, said the initial alert was sent out around 11 p.m. telling students to evacuate, which took about 30 minutes. A second alert came later that night calling students back to campus, followed by another in the morning with a statement from university officials clearing the threat at 1 a.m. Officials did not find any suspicious packages, he said. Louisiana State University and Uni-
See BOMB THREAT, Page 3A
See GEO, Page 3A
Other campuses issue alerts for bomb threats
Foundation donors grant University $210.6 million
Unlike at three other college campuses, the University did not issue an alert when a suspicious package was found on the ground. Southern Illinois University - Carbondale *
11:00pm
1:00am
BY ILYA GUREVIC CONTRIBUTING WRITER
The University of Illinois Foundation announced that $210.6 million in donations were made to the University in fiscal year 2012. The foundation, an independent organization that spearheads outreach to private donors for all three campuses, announced this during its 77th annual Meeting & Weekend event from Thursday to Saturday. More than 500 contributors gathered for a business meeting, seminars led by faculty, brunch at the president’s house and an outing to the football game. At the business meeting, foundation leaders highlighted 13 donations in the six and seven figures, totaling more than $11 million, but would not specify all individual gift amounts to respect the wishes of donors. Of the $210.6 million, 74 percent was designated for use in the current fiscal year. The remaining money was designated for University’s endowment and annuity and life income funds. The current endowment is at $1.65 billion , a 3 percent increase over the prior fi scal year’s figure, according
University of Texas - Austin
8:30am
9:50am
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Louisiana State University
10:32am
11:30am
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University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
3:45pm Time of threat call
6:45pm Time of alert
Time of threat cleared
* Threat was received via letter; time not available J MICHAEL MIOUX Assistant Design Editor
Source: UT-Austin Police Department SIU Carbondale Spokesperson LSU Police Department
See FOUNDATION, Page 3A
Mid-Autumn Festival celebrates Chinese holiday by uniting cultures and junior in Business, said she wanted to give Chinese students the opportunity to celebrate the festival together, which they typically celebrate with their families. “In China, we watch the traditional Chinese movie show and eat the moon cakes, but here, we don’t have the traditional Chinese food and we don’t have the family together to watch the TV show,” Liu said. Students of various nationalities attended the event, which Liu said served as an opportunity to bring together students of different cultures. “It’s a good chance to let all the national (American) students to get to know China and also let Chinese students introduce themselves to get to know them,” Liu said.
BY KAI CHEN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
In celebration of the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival, the Chinese Transfer Student Association gathered at the Illini Union on Saturday night to play Chinese games, eat both traditional and American foods and enjoy the full moon. The Mid-Autumn Festival, also called the Moon Festival, is a celebration of the harvest moon, the full moon that appears nearest to the autumnal equinox. Though according to the Chinese lunar calendar the festival fell on Sunday this year, the Chinese Transfer Student Association, or CTSA, held the event on Saturday night in order to celebrate at the same time as people in China. Riheng Liu, president of CTSA
Sondra Schreiber, assistant director for International Student and Scholar Services, or ISSS, said she attended the festival when she was in China and remembered mainly the red lanterns and eating “delicious” moon cakes. Schreiber compared the Mid-Autumn Festival to Thanksgiving because both holidays have an iconic food component. She said American and Chinese students could benefi t from taking more time to learn about each other’s cultures. A record-high number of international students enrolled at the University this fall ; the total of 8,291 international undergraduate, graduate and professional students surALICIA CHUCHRO THE DAILY ILLINI
See MOON FESTIVAL, Page 3A
Feia Deng, sophomore in Engineering, jokingly practices Tai Chi at the Harvest Moon celebration Saturday at the Illini Union.
Grow your own way Find out how you can grow your own way at www.pwc.com/campus
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