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Monday October 22, 2012
The Daily Illini
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www.DailyIllini.com
The independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois since 1871
Vol. 142 Issue 41
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State board reviews GEO arbitration BY LAUREN ROHR STAFF WRITER
KELLY HICKEY THE DAILY ILLINI
Obinna Osuji, senior in Engineering, rakes leaves outside the Red Herring Restaurant in Urbana on Saturday. Osugi, a member of the Black Greek Council, volunteered with the group "to show support for the foundations that help the University" during the iHelp event.
iHelp kicks off Homecoming Week Volunteers work overseas, in C-U on annual day of service BY JANELLE O’DEA CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Orange-clad students and alumni dotted the Quad on Saturday morning as they split up into volunteer groups for the Homecoming Week kickoff event, iHelp. iHelp, an event organized by the Student Alumni Ambassadors, is an annual day of service that marks the beginning of Homecoming Week. The event
began in 2006 and has since grown in participation with 1,314 people participating this year. Volunteers worked both locally and overseas on iHelp projects at locations such as Barcelona, Spain, and Cerca Carvejal, Haiti . Megan Pagel , director of iHelp 2012 and senior in Social Work, said students signed up with a team to participate in the event and either chose their
own project to complete or were assigned a project. Many alumni also participated in the service event. Molly Jardine, co-director of iHelp and junior in LAS , said she made connections across the country and overseas and asked alumni about doing projects for iHelp. Ann Collier, vice president of service for the Panhellenic Council and senior in Education, helped organize a campuswide cleanup initiative for fraternities and sororities. Collier said even though Greek houses often do philanthropic work and fundraising, she wanted to focus their vol-
Workshop uses national holiday to open minds about technology BY TYLER DAVIS CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Because hardly a day passes where students fi nd themselves not writing, the University celebrated the fourth annual National Day on Writing on Friday.
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In the past, the Writer’s Workshop has had student participants wear “Write Your Mind” display boards outside the Undergraduate Library that students stuck Post-it Notes on. Because of the cold, rainy weather Friday, the activities were kept to the tun-
Stephanie Westfall, president of Circle K, iHelp volunteer and junior in LAS, cuts fabric to be made into stockings at Operation Santa held at the University of Illinois Extension office on Saturday. The stockings were made for the men and women in uniform serving overseas.
Area 4-H clubs held the third of three local Operation Santa workshops on Saturday. The initiative, in its fi fth year, is aimed at gathering personal care and food products, sewing Christmas stockings and writing cards to members of the armed forces from local communities. The event was held at the University of Illinois Extension office in Champaign. University of Illinois Extension is an outreach program that coordinates 4-H clubs for youth in the area . Dozens of volunteers of all ages handwrote messages to troops overseas, traced and cut stocking outlines, sewed stockings, and sorted supplies. Volunteers donated almost all of the stocking materials and personal care and food supplies. Jill Rannebarger, 4-H club leader and event organizer, said the sewn stockings, cards
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
See GEO, Page 3A
nel between the Undergraduate and Main libraries. The tunnel was staffed from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. by Writer’s Workshop student volunteers, who set up four whiteboards along with the “Write Your Mind” display. The four whiteboards each had different prompts, posing questions such as what students’ best and worst writing experiences were, what they wrote during the
See WRITING DAY, Page 3A
DARYL QUITALIG THE DAILY ILLINI
and stocking stuffers will be transported to Bloomington, Ill., where the Operation Santa umbrella organization will stuff them with food, toiletries and cards in an “assembly-line” effort. Rannebarger said they received monetary donations to cover shipping costs to military bases. “Ninety-five percent of (the fabric for stockings) is donations,” Rannebarger said. “People donate anywhere from a half a yard to a bolt of fabric.” She said last year, the initiative resulted in 1,750 handwritten cards, almost 2,000 stockings and $1,500 in stocking stuffers. Jean McCormick, former mayor of Philo, Ill., volunteered at the event, spending three hours sewing stockings. McCormick is involved in Champaign County Home and Community Education, a UI Extension program for adults, and played a part in getting names of service members
BY ILYA GUREVIC
See iHELP, Page 3A
Campus celebrates writing
Volunteers make gifts for troops overseas Operation Santa holds its 3rd workshop
unteer hours more on community service. “The campuswide cleanup is something that we usually do anyway, so I thought we would tie it in with iHelp,” Collier said. “This year with iHelp, we have so many people involved that we have to go off-campus a little bit, too.” Collier estimated there were about 400 people involved with the project Saturday. Some groups and clubs have philanthropic requirements for members, and iHelp is an opportunity to fulfi ll those. Anna Brown, philanthropy
The ongoing conflict between the University and the Graduate Employees’ Organization is one step closer to being resolved with a labor relations board decision to come in November. The GEO received tuition waiver protection after striking in 2009, but a few months later, members claim the University violated that contract by reducing tuition waivers for graduate employees within the College of Fine and Applied Arts. The contract expired Aug. 16. Stephanie Seawell, GEO communications officer, said as a result of the violation, many graduate employees had to pay a portion of their tuition and fees. The GEO filed a grievance with the University, hoping administrators would acknowledge the violation and retroactively pay the employees back, but administrators disagreed. After a third-party federal arbitrator filed in favor of the organization, the University appealed the ruling to the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board, or IELRB. The IELRB is an agency that enforces the regulation of collective bargaining among educational employers and employees in public schools throughout the state. John Brosnan, special counsel to the IELRB, said before monthly meetings with appeals on the agenda, each board member and an IELRB attorney typically looks over the case. Board members are then given the opportunity to discuss a memo prepared by the attorney regarding the appeal. If all
members are in agreement, he said the attorney will create a written draft of the board’s recommendation before the next board meeting. The board reviewed the GEO’s case at its meeting Thursday. GEO member Michelle Salerno was at the board meeting Thursday and said it seems like the board is leaning toward a formal decision to rule in favor of the organization. Salerno said IELRB staff gave a quick overview of the case and presented the attorney’s memo, which recommended that board members rule in favor of the GEO. She said there was no disagreement from the board. Brosnan said this was the first step of the two-step process to reach a fi nal decision; board members will formally vote and finalize the written draft at a Nov. 15 board meeting. “It’s very rare that any of them will change their minds between one meeting and the next, but it is possible.” Brosnan said. Although the University can choose to appeal the board’s decision if it rules in favor of the GEO, Seawell said she hopes they can agree and move forward in developing a new contract. “After the final decision comes in November, we’re hoping that the administration will start working with us to enforce the contract that we had,” Seawell said. “More importantly, we’re hoping they’ll also begin working with us to negotiate the same issue in the contract nego-
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from families and community members overseas. Members of C i r c le K, a University service organization , participated in Operation Santa as part of iHelp, a Homecoming kickoff event promoting community outreach . “(Our troops) have to spend Christmas away from their families,” said Shanshan Ge, Circle K member and freshman in Engineering. “It’s great to show them that we care and are thinking of them.” Lt. Dan Emmert, assistant professor of naval science and Navy ROTC adviser, served overseas and said the armed forces are grateful for initiatives of this nature. “Care packages are always awesome,” Emmert said. “Our military members always appreciate support. It means a lot when you know people back home are thinking of you.”
Ilya can be reached at gurevic2@ dailyillini.com.
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Puppy love
BRIAN YU THE DAILY ILLNI
Angela Mitas, a first year veterinarian medical student at the University of Illinois, helps calm a Champaign resident’s dog while Dr. Robert Weedon administers a rabies vaccination. The College of Veterinary Medicine offered a rabies vaccination at the Champaign County Animal Services Facility on Sunday.
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