The Daily Illini: Volume 144 Issue 34

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INSIDE: MAKE THE MOST OF SPIRIT WEEK WITH OUR 2014 HOMECOMING GUIDE GIANTS-ROYALS

‘LEAN IN’ CLOSER WORLD SERIES TO EQUALITY With the Fall RSO brings feminist circles to campus

LIFE & CULTURE, 6A TUESDAY October 21, 2014

SPORTS, 1B

SCHOOL SPIRITLESS

Classic underway on Tuesday, who will win it all?

Homecoming should spark school pride

OPINIONS, 4A

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Snapchat leak reveals thousands of pictures Privacy compromised by hackers on Internet BY CHARLOTTE COLLINS STAFF WRITER

know about 4chan, they don’t usually give their personal information to the thread, so that was a trigger,� Withers said. “That’s when someone acknowledged that they had hacked into the Snapsaved server. They’d said at the time that they had hacked up to 200,000 accounts and that they would be releasing the pictures and if anyone wanted the link with the pictures, you could put your name on (the thread).� Snapsaved is a thirdparty app that accesses S n a p c h a t ’s ser ver through an application programming interface code released by Snapchat. “The thing was that

Kenny Withers, Internet ma rketi ng st rateg ist, describes 2014 as “the year of hacking.â€? Recently he’s been paying close attention a nd blogg i ng about various leaks, such as the security breach scandals at Target, Home Depot and JP Morgan ; the explicit photo leaks of high-profile c elebr it ies i nclud i ng Jennifer Lawrence, and most recently, the Snapchat PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY SONNY AN THE DAILY ILLINI leak of 98,000 pictures and videos on 4chan on Oct. 8. Withers first picked up on the Snapchat leak while browsing 4chan. He noticed numerous email addresses posted in a long thread. BY LIYUAN YANG son, member of the Beckman Insti- accident is four times more likely “If there’s one thing you SEE SNAPCHAT | 3A CONTRIBUTING WRITER tute Fellows and Matthew Windsor, when you’re driving on the phone At least nine people are killed graduate research assistant at Beck- and having a conversation through :KDWŇ‹V WKH UHDO VWRU\" 7KH SULYDF\ RI 6QDSFKDW ZDV FRPSURPLVHG RQ 2FW ZKHQ LPDJHV ZHUH every day and 1,153 are injured in man and Whitney Street, Beckman cellphones. car crashes due to distracted driv- graduate student. The researchers recreated com- OHDNHG RQWR WKH ,QWHUQHW 2I PLOOLRQ DFWLYH 6QDSFKDW XVHUV PRVW DUH XQGHU WKH DJH RI DQG PDQ\ VWXGHQWV LQ FROOHJH XVH 6QDSFKDW WR VHQG VHOILHV ing, according to Centers for Disease The study had 46 participants plicated highway-driving scenariControl and Prevention. who experienced os and created a demanding driving PLOOLRQ PRQWKO\ DFWLYH . Several researchers different driv- situation for the participants. They 6QDSFKDW XVHUV found hands-free vidi ng scena r ios then assessed how the drivers pereo chatting to be a safcreated by the formed when they were confronted er alternative to talking researchers. with different driving distractions, “In the Unit- such as having to merge or break, on hand-held cellphones while driving. ed States, there said Gaspar. The study was conare laws against The researchers chose to use parducted at the Beckman using hand-held ticipants ages 20 to 30 to show a highRI 6QDSFKDW RI FROOHJH Institute and Simulator cell phones when er level of driving experience and XVHUV DUH VWXGHQWV XVH Lab and led by Arthur you drive and less distraction. XQGHU DJH VQDSFKDW WR Kramer, psychology The study then divided the particino laws against VHQG VH[WV professor and director JOHN GASPAR using the Blue- pants into pairs and gave them four BECKMAN INSTITUTE ALUMNUS of the Beckman Institooth h a n d s different driving scenarios, which tute for Advanced Scifree cellphone,â€? were set in a DriveSafety simulator. RI FROOHJH VWXGHQWV ence and Technology; Kramer said. The scenarios included: a driver who WKDW VKDUH VHOILHV RQ John Gaspar, alumH o w e v e r , was alone, a driver conversing with a nus of the Beckman Institute and Kramer added that there’s no dif- passenger beside him or her, a driver 6QDSFKDW research scientist at the National ference in accident rates between talking to someone through a handAdvanced Driving Simulator at the handheld and Bluetooth cellphone $11$ +(&+7 7+( '$,/< ,//,1, University of Iowa; Kyle Mathew- calls. He said the likelihood of an SEE DRIVING | 3A

Safer way to converse while driving

Beckman Institute study finds hands-free videophone to be best option

“People could see what was happening with the drivers even though they weren’t in the car.�

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PayPal founder visits Siebel Center Senate members vote Levchin hosts tech talk, shares success stories for entrepreneurs

Max Levchin leads tech talk

BY EDWIN HSIEH STAFF WRITER

Computer Science at the University launched its celebration for two major milestones this week — the 50th anniversary of the Computer Science department and the 10th anniversary of the Thomas M. Siebel Center, IRINA ZHANG THE DAILY ILLINI known as the home of comFollowing a media roundtable, Max Levchin, CEO of puter science. The Computer Science Affirm and university alumni, shares his experiences as an department will host a num- entrepreneur at the Thomas M. Siebel Center. ber of events with a variety Levchin held the roundta- out to drink with friends on a of visitors throughout the week, said Rob Rutenbar, ble and tech talk at the Sieb- Friday night because he felt head of the Department of el Center. there was really no place for Computer Science. Levchin described him- him to be other than his own To kick off the celebra- self as “pro-entrepreneur- little monitor office. Levchin shared how othtion, Max Levchin visited ship and pro-startups,� and the University on Monday to he said that starting a com- er students can follow a path host a media roundtable dis- pany is amazing on a vari- similar to his by joining a cussion, lead a tech talk and ety of levels, but also horribly startup as an early employrecruit prospective student stressful at times. ee or starting their own engineers. “You’re either ready or company. Levchin graduated from you’re not,� Levchin said. “For most people these the College of Engineering “You don’t get to find out if days, the choices of wellin 1997. He then co-founded you are made of that in any founded, great, interesting PayPal, a payment process- other way but to try it. It is startups, not only in Silicon ing service; helped start Yelp, not something you can model Valley, but kind of all over an online review service; and in your head.� the U.S., all over the world at he is now the CEO and coLevchin recalled his expe- these points, are so plentiful, founder of Affirm, which is rience when he started his it’s almost silly not to join,� an online credit service that first company during his time Levchin said. allows consumers to repay at the University. He said that During the roundtable distheir debt over a period of one of the easier things he SEE LEVCHIN | 3A time. had to deal with was not going

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During the tech talk, Max Levchin, co-founder of Paypal and CEO of Affirm, shared stories about his time at the University, what it was like starting his first company and the happiest moment of his life, which was when eBay bought PayPal. Levchin talked to attendees about his companies, Affirm and Glow, which address credit repayment and reproductive health respectively. He also answered questions by students. “Identify a problem and fix it and you can succeed,� he said. Cole Gleason, senior in Engineering, attended the event to learn about how Levchin made a name for himself in the tech industry. “I’m in the ACM (Associate for Computing Machinery) chapter here, he used to be a member there,� he said. “I was very interested to see what his experience was like and how that trajectory led him from Illinois to what he became today.�

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on UI hiring practices BY ANDREW NOWAK STAFF WRITER

The Urbana-Champaign Senate met Monday to discuss resolutions related to academic freedom and administrative issues, including procedure regarding hiring and pay raises. A resolution emphasizing the existing guidelines regarding the University’s hiring process was struck down. Originally, the Senate Executive Committee proposed creating a task force to suggest new procedures for when a provost or chancellor finds a reason not to proceed with a hire that was already approved by a department head; however, the resolution sponsors did not believe new guidelines were needed and further emphasis on current statutes was necessary. This comes after the rejection of Steven Salaita’s appointment to the American Indian Studies program. D. Fairchild Ruggles, professor in landscape architecture, worried that the chancellor would receive more power if an ad hoc committee was created. “The reason why I don’t think we need a committee is because we already have committees and we have committees that are empowered to make precisely the kind of valuable judgments that were made in the Salaita case,�

Ruggles said. “The fact that the Chancellor did not respect them is lamentable, but I do not think we need to invent a process to handle that. I think what we need to do is get back to business and start respecting the faculty and the decisions that they made at the department level in the college level.� However, Nicholas Burbules, SEC chair of General University Policy, defended the need for an ad hoc committee. “The statutes do anticipate cases in which the chancellor could choose not to forward a recommendation,� Burbules said. “That is in the current statutes, these are not new powers. What motivated the task force is that the statutes, while giving the chancellor these powers, is silent as to what process she should actually follow in making that decision on whether to recommend or not recommend.� Burbules said he hoped the ad hoc committee would recommend procedures for the chancellor for when new information is found after the search committee and college have already made recommendations, which is what happened with Salaita’s case. Matthew Hill, junior in LAS and member of SEC, agreed with Burbules and

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