Minimum wage needs to be raised Americans need to realize that people are more important than profits.
OPINIONS, 4A
MONDAY November 3, 2014
Men and women’s cross-country
Coping with cancer UI student talks of her mother’s passing.
Both teams competed for the Big Ten title on Sunday.
LIFE & CULTURE, 6A
SPORTS, 1B
THE DAILY ILLINI 5he independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois since 1871
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ISS seeks same-day voting at Illini Union BY ELYSSA KAUFMAN STAFF WRITER
PORTRAIT BY SONNY AN
National Guard officer honors veterans in piano concert BY ANNABETH CARLSON STAFF WRITER
Pianist Ian Gindes will always remember his first big audience. It was not in a concert hall, but rather a theater in Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, in front of hundreds of young soldiers at a meeting for basic training. Gindes was one of them. It was 2004 and tensions ran high while soldiers were getting deployed to Iraq. The anxious soldiers focused their gaze on a sergeant on stage, who stood beside an old, wooden upright piano with missing keys. Suddenly, he asked if anyone knew how to play. Gindes’ hand shot up, and instantly, he worried that he had made a mistake. The sergeant ordered him on stage and asked him what he could play. “Well, sergeant, I play the classics like Beethoven,” he said.
So, the sergeant told him to play. He started with one of Beethoven’s sonatas, a song that began simple but soon became complex. The sergeant acted confused and went to the piano and looked into it as if someone had played a trick on him. But it wasn’t a trick. When he finished, the soldiers shot to their feet and applauded. Looking back, Gindes said it was one of the most wonderful experiences of his life. On Sunday, Gindes performed a concert called “A Salute to Veterans” at Foellinger Great Hall, which included patriotic and jazz music from American composers. In the past, he has done a soldier’s benefit concert and a 9/11 concert. “It’s always been a part of giving back. How can I use my job to benefit the National Guard while being in it?” he said. When Gindes walked into the dark, cavernous theater,
he was wearing a black tuxedo and blue polka-dot bowtie. A spotlight illuminated the shiny black grand piano on the wooden stage. The scene was very different from his impromptu performance on a beaten-up piano in his GI uniform at basic training 10 years ago. But one thing remained the same: he’s still playing for his fellow soldiers. Growing up in Southern California, Gindes’ love for the piano began at the age of seven. His father recognized his talent and he began taking lessons. At Gindes’ first recital, he said he made his musical debut with a song called the “Wig Wam.” By age 11, Gindes said he knew he wanted to make music the rest of his life. He became more advanced and could play Beethoven and Berg. “I enjoyed bringing an audience into what I was feeling; that was really impor-
tant to me as an artist and even at that young age,” Gindes said. Gindes said he really focused on making a career out of piano during his first year of college at the University of Northern Colorado. After earning a master’s degree in Music, he applied to Illinois to study under Dr. Ian Hobson, a recognized soloist in classical music. He first learned of Hobson because his father had one of his CDs, and he wanted to study under someone who had legitimate authority as a pianist. After Gindes was accepted, he immediately moved to Urbana to earn a Doctor of Musical Arts degree. However, after a year of study, his father fell ill and he took a year off to care for him. Gindes also used the year off to build his repertoire. But something was missing.
SEE VETERANS | 3A
Many students may struggle to fi nd the time to take a bus to register to vote on top of their classes, homework and extracurricular activities. Any students who missed the Oct. 7 deadline to register to vote but wants to vote in the upcoming midterm elections must take a bus ride to the closest registration location at the Brookens Administrative Center in Urbana. The Illinois Student Senate is pushing for a same-day voter registration location to be added to the Illini Union on Tuesday, so that students who missed the deadline still have the opportunity to cast a ballot. “There are a lot of students who want to vote but don’t want to go through the hassle of running out to the Brookens Administrative Center and therefore do not vote,” said Student Body President Mitch Dickey. A new law effective only for the upcoming midterm elections allows Champaign County Clerk Gordy Hulten to decide whether to have same-day voter registration. Dickey sent a letter to the Champaign County Clerk on Oct. 10 pushing for same-day voter registration at the Illini Union on Election Day. Hulten said the Champaign County Clerk’s office
supports same-day voter registration, but said it is unlikely that they will be able to provide all equipment needed, such as printers, to register voters within a few days of the election. “(The law) appears to give election authorities some discretion as to the location where Election Day registration can be conducted. It is not clear that we have discretion as to the schedule,” Hulten said. “The issue is, I’m not sure if we have the legal authority to do this in one location, for one day only.” Dickey said he disagreed with Hulten’s reasoning behind not allowing sameday registration at the Union. “I think it’s the Champaign County Clerk putting up a barrier himself, and that’s just the argument he is going to hide behind to not give us same-day voter registration,” Dickey said. “I see it as him saying that he would rather not give students the fullest opportunity to vote, and I would rather caution on the side of an interpretation of the law.” Matt Hill, vice president external of ISS, believes having a same-day voter registration location at the Union would increase the student vote in the elections. “Same-day voter regis-
SEE VOTING | 3A
Plans for Tasers to be proposed to Urbana BY FATIMA FARHA STAFF WRITER
After facing controversy earlier this year, the Urbana Police Department will again propose the use of Tasers to the Urbana City Council in late November. The Urbana Police Department is currently writing a proposal with the Civilian Police Review Board that they will present to the council at the end of the month, which includes guidelines on how to use the device. If granted, the Urbana Police Department will start training its officers in December on how to properly use Tasers. Patrick Connolly, Chief of Police at the Urbana Police Department, said Tasers would prove to be essential in situations where people are committing a crime or potentially harming themselves or others. “My concern is that more and more, I am seeing those types of situations arise where the officer is limited in their ability to respond to a certain event, either in people harming themselves or trying to harm others,” Connolly said. “The Taser would be a perfect tool to be able to address those without having to resort to deadly force, meaning a firearm.” Connolly said the city’s Cri-
Instances where the
University Police Department used Tasers
To assist the Champaign Police Department when a mentally challenged woman had trapped herself inside a bathroom with knives Q When a suspect who was allegedly on heroin fought with ambulance personnel on the way to the hospital Q To assist the Champaign Police Department to gain control of a man who had shot his partner and then became suicidal, Q
sis Intervention Team would be the first officers to carry Tasers if the proposal is approved. He said the Tasers would prevent injuries for both officers and suspects in dangerous situations. After seeing how necessary the use of Tasers was becoming, Connolly talked to the Urbana Mayor Laurel Prussing, who also supports the use of Tasers. In April, representatives from the Urbana Police Department and the University Police Department presented a similar proposal to the city council that was nev-
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barricading himself inside a basement Q When dealing with a combative subject during a domestic dispute in Orchard Downs Q When a suspect in a residence hall was high on drugs and combative with the officers trying to take him into custody Q When a suspect was stopped in a vehicle for a traffic violation and refused to follow the officers’ orders after being told he was arrested
SOURCE: LT. MATT MYRICK, UNIVERSITY POLICE DEPARTMENT
ZOE GRANT ASSISTANT THE DAILY ILLINI
The interior of the Mathematics Library in Altgeld Hall will soon be undergoing renovations.
Renovations planned for interior of Altgeld Hall
er voted on. The proposal was met with outrage, especially from the African-American community. During the meeting, members of the NAACP Champaign County branch read the names of those killed by Tasers. Patricia Avery, president of the branch, said the Tasers “could not come at a worse time” and were getting in the way of fixing the relationship between law enforcement and the African-American community.
SEE TASERS | 3A
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BY ABIGALE SVOBODA STAFF WRITER
The deteriorating, green walls of Altgeld Hall remind Matt Ando, head of the mathematics department, of an old battleship. “The University can’t let this building fall apart,” he said. “It hasn’t fallen apart just yet, but Altgeld needs renovating if it’s going to stay standing.” Ando and several colleagues presented a $90 million proposal to the University that aims to improve accessibility and modernize the building. In addition to
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added space, the renovations would add updated technology, such as projectors and screens, and add more collaboration-friendly learning spaces. According to the proposal, space would increase for classrooms by 25 percent, research by 150 percent and Mathematics department offices by 20 percent. He said the University is able to commit $30 million of its own resources, but it will need to be confident it can assemble the remaining, necessary funds before it moves forward with the project.
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0RUH LQVLGH Turn
to Page 4A to read our Editorial Board’s take on the Altgeld Hall renovations.
“Accommodating disabled students well is something the University is known for,” Ando said. “When you have a reputation for doing something well, that’s a powerful thing, but it’s also a responsibility and it’s not a reputation we would want to lose.”
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