BIG TEN
GETTING BIGGER SPORTS, 1B
The Daily Illini
Monday November 26, 2012
www.DailyIllini.com
The independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois since 1871
Bargaining continues for UI, GEO
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Vol. 142 Issue 61
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FREE
’Tis the season to be jolly
BY TYLER DAVIS STAFF WRITER
The Graduate Employees’ Organization should have a clearer idea about whether they will strike by Tuesday evening, said spokeswoman Stephanie Seawell. The graduate students and University officials are set to meet Monday from 1-5 p.m. and Tuesday at 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m for bargaining sessions with a federal mediator. Those are the last two sessions scheduled, though there may be more in December, Seawell said. After three days of voting, about 87 percent of GEO members voted Friday to authorize a strike committee to organize work action plans while still bargaining with the University. Seawell said that at the bargaining table, the GEO is going to indicate that they are “willing to be there as long as it takes.” In the absence of bargaining over Thanksgiving break due to the “administration’s unavailability,” the strike committee met for more than 12 hours over break, Seawell said.
See GEO, Page3A
UI professor to host jazz fest
See JAZZ FEST, Page3A
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Two armed robberies occur northwest of campus UNIVERSITY AVENUE CLARK STREET
STOUGHTON STREET SPRINGFIELD AVENUE
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WHITE STREET
2:20 a.m.
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The University last held a jazz festival 20 years ago, but Matt Sulikowski, senior in FAA, aims to change that. Sulikowski is in the process of obtaining funds for a festival on campus March 2. The festival will include performances from up to five college jazz bands from Illinois as well as clinics for those bands, led by University professors. Sulikowski is a coffee house manager at the Red Herring, 1209 W. Oregon St., who brought a jazz performance series, called “Jazz at the Red Herring,” to the restaurant about a year ago. The series sparked the idea to bring a jazz festival to campus. “I thought I could just transform this into a festival,” he said. “I’ve got the connections to set it up, so I thought it would be best to utilize that and make something that the whole community will benefit from.” Unlike in the past, this time around, students such as Sulikowski will be taking more of a lead role in the planning process.
FIFTH STREET
STAFF WRITER
NATHANIEL LASH THE DAILY ILLINI
Champaign City Council member Will Kyles, District 1, greets parade-goers during the Downtown Parade of Lights on Saturday. Put on by the Champaign Center Partnership, the parade featured floats lit up by Christmas lights from local businesses around Champaign County.
FOURTH STREET
BY AUSTIN KEATING
DAILY ILLINI STAFF REPORT
Bardeen Quad
2:00 a.m.
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Source: Division of Public Safety
Champaign police looking for suspects in 2 armed robberies
J MICHAEL MIOUX Design Editor
Champaign police are investigating two armed robberies that occurred the morning of Nov. 17. The fi rst armed robbery occurred in the 400 block of East Healey Street, where two victims were walking westward at about 2 a.m. The offender, armed with a handgun, approached the victims from behind and demanded their money and cellphones. The offender ran northeast from the area after taking the victims’ money. The offender is described as a 5-foot-4 black male weighing 150 pounds. He wore a gray hooded sweatshirt pulled over his head and a red ban-
dana partially covering his face. The second armed robbery occurred at 2:20 a.m. in the 600 block of East Clark Street. Two victims were walking eastbound when the offender, armed with a handgun, approached them from behind and demanded the victims get on the ground and empty their pockets. The offender ran north toward University Avenue after grabbing the victims’ property. The offender is described as 5-foot-7 black male with short hair. He was wearing a scarf partially covering his face and was wearing dark clothing. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Champaign Police Department at 217-351-4545.
Less damage reported in Gaza Strip now than in 2008-09 attacks BY SARAH EL DEEB THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BERNAT ARMANGUE THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
A Palestinian boy looks from the rooftop of a destroyed house in Gaza City on Sunday. A leading Islamic cleric in the Gaza Strip has ruled it a sin to violate the recent cease-fire between Israel and the Hamas militant group.
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GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Mohammed Falah Azzam has been through this before. His mother’s home was bombed in the 2008-09 Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip, which left hundreds dead and thousands of homes destroyed. In renewed fighting last week, an entire block of buildings housing his extended family was badly damaged in an airstrike that Israel said was aimed at a militant. While none of his relatives was hurt, the 61-year-old retired schoolteacher once again has to worry about providing shelter for his family. Some relatives are sleeping in an empty shop, squeezed in with other family members. Others are spending their nights in rooms covered in plastic wrap to shield them from the winter rain because all the windows were blown out.
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“This is going to cost thousands,” Azzam said. “The longer I wait, the more damage will happen,” he added, pointing to a heavily damaged building sitting atop tilting concrete columns. Azzam finds himself caught again in a pile of paperwork to seek assistance, trying to secure hardto-get construction materials. This time, he hopes the process will be smoother, thanks to both Israel’s pledges to ease its longstanding border blockade and the newfound political clout of Gaza’s Hamas rulers in the region. Israel promised to ease the blockade as part of a cease-fire last week that ended eight days of intense fighting. But difficult negotiations lie ahead, and there is no firm timeline for lifting the restrictions. The damage to buildings in Gaza appears less extensive than it was four years ago. The United
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Nations estimates 10,000 homes were destroyed or damaged, while Hamas has put the number at about 8,000, including 500 that were destroyed or heavily damaged. In comparison, U.N. relief agencies said as many as 40,000 homes were affected in the earlier round of fighting. Israel said its airstrikes are aimed at militants, and it blames Hamas for the damage, accusing the group of using residential areas for cover. Reconstruction since the 200809 fighting has been slow, in large part because of Israel’s blockade. “The blockade in terms of housing impacts us primarily — the U.N. — and the people who are most vulnerable who don’t have access to jobs or economic opportunity,” said Scott Anderson, deputy director of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency. “People who have money, it is easily available.”
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