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Juggling and Unicycles
October brings with it Breast Cancer Awareness
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THE DAILY ILLINI
TUESDAY October 7, 2014
5he independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois since 1871
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Vol. 144 Issue 26
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OUT OF THE PANIC
Losing myself CLAIRE HETTINGER Staff writer
Editor’s note: This is the first of a three-part series on one writer’s battle with panic disorder. BY CLAIRE HETTINGER STAFF WRITER
CORINNE RUFF THE DAILY ILLINI
Several Urbana residents have posted yard signs in opposition of Carle Hospital’s tax exempt status. A grassroots organization, Concerned Citizens of Urbana manufactures and distributes the signs to residents.
Signs protest taxless Carle BY CHARLOTTE COLLINS CONTRIBUTING WRITER
More and more Urbana residents have been posting red and white signs in their yards. Over the last month, opposition to Carle Foundation Hospital’s status tax exemption for charity work has fostered increased disagreement from Urbana residents, who have began posting yard sides with messages such as, “MY FAMILY PAYS CARLE’S SHARE OF TAXES.� Carle and Provena Covenant Medical Center were granted tax-exempt status for the 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 fiscal year, after the Illinois General Assembly passed SB2194 in 2012, which allowed not-for-profit
hospitals to deduct charity work from property taxes. In 2012 to 2013, the tax-exempt status made a $6 million deficit in the county’s funds, which fueled opposition. Alderman Charlie Smyth, Ward 1, said residents have been forced to “bear the brunt� of the hospital’s new status. “That big hit came when people opened up their tax bills in July to a 12 percent increase,� said Smyth. “Carle has an ethical and a moral responsibility to the city, to the community of Urbana because we provide for the city they exist in. They’re soiling their own backyard.� Sonia Newmark, member of the Concerned Citizens of Urbana, has spear-head-
ed the sign posting effort, which aims to raise awareness about the issue. In response to why she posted the sign in her yard, Newmark said, “(Carle) is not paying their fair share of taxes.� The signs are provided by the neighborhood group for $10. The group promotes itself as a grassroots organization concerned with poverty taxes and decreased funding for city services, such as schools and parks. Jennifer Hendricks Kaufmann, Carle public relations manager, wrote in an email that Carle paid $18 million in sales, property and income taxes to
This is the story of my struggle with panic disorder. One that made the fear of death a constant companion in my life. But I am just one of many. Approximately 450 million people currently suffer from mental disorders around the world. But the World Health Organization reports that two out of three sufferers never seek treatment for their illness. The National Institute of Mental Health says “people with panic disorder have sudden and repeated attacks of fear,� called pan-
ic attacks. Panic attacks are “characterized by a fear of disaster or of losing control even when there is no real danger.� This disorder makes carrying out a normal life difficult and terrifying for its sufferers. Complete terror is not frequent in my life. Well, six months ago it wasn’t. Since April 10, I’ve had countless panic attacks, but the fi rst one is burned into my memory. I was attending a show at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts when the lights went down. The crowd and I laughed and enjoyed the show. Suddenly, I became completely distracted by the racing thoughts in my mind. I tried to ignore them, and I was doing OK until the right side of my face felt numb. The numbness then spread down the right side of my body. I freaked out, thinking I was having a stroke,
SEE PANIC | 3A
Local services affected by Carle tax exemption The following local taxing bodies were affected by Carle’s tax exempt status: Q Urbana Park District Q Parkland College Q Urbana School District 116 Q Champaign Co. Forest Preserve District Q Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District Q Champaign-Urbana Public Health District SOURCE: Urbana Park District
SEE CARLE | 3A
Tenure-track faculty debate unionization BY ERIC FRIES CONTRIBUTING WRITER
In light of the recent debate on academic freedom on campus, many University faculty members have come out in support of tenure-track unionization. However, more than 300 faculty have gone on record opposing such a union. On their website, Preserving Excellence at Illinois, Professors Jeffrey Brown, Nicholas Burbules and Joyce Tolliver have collected 334 tenure-track faculty members’ signatures in support of a Joint Statement of Concern About Faculty Unionization, which outlines why they oppose unionization. Brown said he doesn’t see
a need for a union. “Unions are most valuable when you have a group of workers who don’t have a voice,� he said. “I cannot think of another occupation anywhere in the world where individuals have more say and more ability to influence key decisions as tenuretrack faculty on campus do.� Burbules said that since tenure-track faculty are independent workers and have a great deal of control and influence over University policies, he doesn’t think unionization fits their situation. Tolliver agreed, saying the strength of shared governance at the University shapes her opinion that a
union wouldn’t be beneficial. Bruce Rosenstock, president of the Campus Faculty Association and a strong proponent of tenure-track unionization, said 10 years ago he would have agreed that a union wasn’t necessary. “Shared Governance was real. I believed in it. Academic freedom seemed not under threat,� he said. However, Rosenstock said his view has changed because decreasing state funding has caused the University to cut faculty spending, resulting in a decrease in the number of faculty members on campus, while the number of undergraduate students has increased significantly.
“We have to teach more students in as many classes as we previously taught, which decreases the quality of education for our students,� Rosenstock said. “We need more faculty.� Rosenstock said a union would allow negotiations with University administration on how money should be divided. The union would also be able to push for more faculty to be hired. He also said that the growth in administration has wildly outpaced the growth in faculty. “The faculty senate has no rights to deal with budgetary matters. A union sits together with the administration and deals with how the budget-
ary income is divided out,� Rosenstock said. Burbules and Brown said they believe a union would create a more hostile relationship between faculty and administration. “Unions have a tendency to take situations and turn them unnecessarily combative rather than cooperative,� said Brown, citing conflicts at the Chicago campus, which is unionized. Rosenstock disagreed with Brown and said the administration causes the combativeness more than the unions. He said this is demonstrated by how the administration has fought the recent creation of the non-tenure
track union on campus, a group that he says badly needs a union. A number of respected institutions, such as the University of California at Berkeley, have unionized non-tenure track faculty. “I believe that the relationship to the non-tenure track faculty that currently exists is typical of how they would treat the tenure-track faculty,� Rosenstock said. “It’s not the fault of the faculty who want to unionize that there are combative relations. It’s entirely — 100 percent — the fault of the administration.� Brown said unions would codify things that have the
SEE UNIONS | 3A
University students face lower default rates STAFF WRITER
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The national default rate on student loans for borrowers in their third year of payment decreased between 2012 and 2013 from 14.7 percent to 13.7 percent. For University students, this rate was far lower. In 2013, the rate of default on student loans for borrowers in their third year was just 3.4 percent, significantly lower than the national rate. Among Illinois public fouryear universities in 2013, the University of Illinois had the lowest rate of default for borrowers in their third year of payment, followed by the University of Illinois at Chicago, whose 2013 default rate was 4.2 percent. Director of Student Financial Aid Dan Mann said that a number of factors likely contributed to the low rate of default.
“Our students are graduating and getting jobs, so they have the ability to pay their student loans,� Mann said. “We have been able to increase and provide more aid as well as expand the group that is getting some need-based aid a little bit because of the additional dollars that is being put in.� Research conducted by the Department of Financial Aid painted a clear picture of a typical student that has to default on their loans. “That profi le seemed to be students who may have come one year or maybe two years, dropped out, probably didn’t have a job when they dropped out and didn’t repay their student loans,� Mann said of the data. “The big thing that we really found was whether or not you got a degree or not seemed to be a big factor.� In a study of 5,287 Univer-
Loan Default Rates (%)
BY JOSH WINTERS
Past 3 years of defaults SOURCE: Department of Education
sity students, 191 defaulted; of those students, 85 percent were undergraduate
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students and 53 percent did
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SOURCE: Department of Education
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