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Wednesday November 28, 2012
The Daily Illini www.DailyIllini.com
The independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois since 1871
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Vol. 142 Issue 63
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GEO, UI reach tentative agreement Possibility of TA, GA strike greatly minimized, spokeswoman says BY TYLER DAVIS STAFF WRITER
The University and the Graduate Employees’ Organization reached a tentative agreement on remaining issues during contract negotiation Tuesday. The agreement covers not only the nonmonetary issues addressed and agreed upon at Monday’s bargaining session but what many GEO members consider to be the most important issues: tuition waivers, wages and health care. Details of the tentative agreement are not being released at this time. The agreement was brought to the general GEO membership Tuesday night during a meeting, and the organization will begin a three-day formal voting period at another general membership meeting next week, GEO spokeswoman Stephanie Seawell said. Voting should be finished by the end of that week. Seawell said the possibility of a strike has been greatly minimized as the GEO’s focus will be on the voting process over the next week or so. “What we’ll do after that will depend on how the vote will turn out,” she said. University officials are pleased with the direction of negotiations.
“We’re thrilled, and we really hope that we can move forward and work together the way that we did to achieve this agreement,” campus spokeswoman Robin Kaler said. “We’re very appreciative of the leadership of the GEO for their good work on this.” This tentative agreement follows three months of negotiations and rallying on the GEO’s part, including “work-ins” since October for graduate and teaching assistants to do the same work they would usually do, only in public. On Monday, the GEO held the first overnight work-in, “Unity at the Union,” which Seawell called an “act of symbolic civil disobedience” at the “center of campus community at this university.” She said over 30 people stayed at the Union past midnight and more than a dozen stayed all night. “The student union (officials) and campus police were incredibly accommodating and allowed us to stay in the space, so it was a good event,” Seawell said. The GEO wanted as many people as possible to be at
See GEO, Page 3A
MICHAEL BOJDA THE DAILY ILLINI
ToJo Tallie, graduate student in LAS, hugs a fellow GEO member at the Wesley Foundation Student Center on Tuesday after the announcement that a tentative agreement had been reached on a new contract. The agreement addresses tuition waivers, wages and health care, according to GEO officials.
Committee might eliminate 6 graduate programs at UI
Jammin’ out for teachers
Low enrollment rates factor into future of Ph.D., education degrees BY LAUREN ROHR STAFF WRITER
PRITEN VORA THE DAILY ILLINI
Justin Rondón, sophomore at Parkland University, sings at The Canopy Club as part of a benefit concert for Teach for America on Tuesday night. The goal of the concert was to raise money that would go to a TFA classroom in the Champaign-Urbana area.
University Housing releases mobile application for dining BY ZIKE CHENG STAFF WRITER
Students curious about what’s on the menu at the dining hall will now be able to check any time, anywhere with a new mobile application released by University Housing and University’s Administrative Information Technology Services. Launched on Nov. 9, the University Residence Hall Dining mobile application runs on Android and iOS smartphones and features functions such as menus, schedules, food ingredients and maps to get to the six dining halls on campus. “University Housing delivers three million meals a year. You start to get the scope of what we mean by delivering menus,” said Kirsten Ruby, housing spokeswoman. “We have six different dining halls and they each have a different menu.” Ruby said according to a
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database, dining menus on the University Housing website are most often viewed by students and residents on campus. Because there are so many dining halls on campus and different menus in each of the halls, it can be hard to share menu information with students, justifying the need for the application, she said. William Seemann , software engineer with the team that worked on the application, developed the Android version of the application and said it provides mapping functionality and the ability to fi lter menu items based on ingredients, which is useful for people with food allergies or other dietary restrictions. Ruby said University Housing hopes the application can help the students fi nd dining on campus more convenient. “Our students really love it, and we are very pleased with the reactions we’ve gotten,”
Ruby said. Students also gave suggestions to improve the next version of the application. Ruby said suggestions include being able to check meal balance and credits, adding a search feature and applying a “mark as favorite” function. Software engineer Alessandro Bellina developed the iOS version of the dining application and said its use will improve students’ dining experiences in University dining halls. “It is a real treat to be able to code apps that make student life at Illinois an even better experience,” Bellina said. “It is great to think students will use this app daily.” Students can download the application for free from the Apple Store or Google Play.
Zike can be reached at zcheng7@ dailyillini.com.
Six doctoral programs are in danger of being eliminated because of low enrollment. These programs include the educational doctoral degree, or Ed.D., in music education, human resource education and special education as well as the higher education concentration in the educational organization and leadership Ed.D. The Ph.D. program for environmental science in civil engineering and the physiological and molecular plant biology concentration in the Ph.D. for biology are also being considered for closure. In 2010, former interim Provost Richard Wheeler compiled an 18-member committee to thoroughly review the graduate programs offered on the Urbana campus. Debasish Dutta, committee chairman and Dean of the Graduate College, said a year-long assessment of the 98 total doc-
toral programs was based on enrollment numbers and sought to examine if programs were effective. “We wanted to see how satisfied and prepared these students are as they are leaving the University,” he said. Through the assessment, the committee found that there were several programs that had very low enrollment, Dutta said. For example, the Ed.D. program for music education has three students enrolled for fall 2012 and the Ph.D. program for environmental science in civil engineering has two students enrolled, according to the Division of Management Information. Although departments may end up saving money over time by putting staff and faculty resources into more marketable programs, Dutta said none of the programs are being closed for fi nancial reasons. The committee fi rst met with the department heads of the six programs and recommended they be looked into for possible elimination. The department heads then decided which of their programs should be closed based on enrollment and the committee’s recommendation, Dutta said.
After a department head puts together a proposal that outlines reasons for the program’s elimination, he or she must receive approval from the college, then the Graduate College, academic senate and fi nally, the Board of Trustees for official closure. The six programs are in various stages of the closure process, Dutta said, but he estimates that some closures could be fi nalized by the end of the spring 2013 semester. Provost Ilesanmi Adesida presented the list of programs to the Board of Trustees’ academic and student affairs committee earlier in November. Student trustee David Pileski said these eliminations would help the University “clean up the books to reflect the real status of our programs” and continue offering a high quality education. Despite the low enrollment numbers for these programs, Dutta said the University’s main priority is its students, and the closure of these programs will not negatively affect those who are currently enrolled in them. Students will be able to continue and complete their programs, which will be grandfathered
See GRAD, Page 3A
Students protest violence toward civilians in Gaza Strip BY AUSTIN KEATING STAFF WRITER
Students for Justice in Palestine held a silent protest on the Quad on Tuesday in opposition of what the group’s president called a “disproportionate use of force and indiscriminate fire” by Israel. The organization was protesting to raise awareness among college students about the conflict in Gaza, said Tariq Shihadah, president of SJP and sophomore in DGS. About 24 people attended the protest, he said. “We’re just trying to present
objective information as well as an often-forgotten perspective,” he said. “We’re trying to expose the seriousness of the injustice that’s been happening in Gaza and Palestine at large.” Shihadah said the majority of the estimated casualties in Gaza were civilians and many were minors, while Israel had substantially fewer casualties. The demonstration involved members of SJP and of several different organizations. It also had the support of some professors, including Farhad Malekafzali, political science lecturer.
The recent airstrikes the Israeli Defense Forces carried out against the Gaza Strip began Nov. 14 when Israel killed the Hamas military leader, Malekafzali said. “That resulted in Hamas firing missiles, which Israel used as a pretext to launch its own massive bombardment,” Malekafzali said. Both factions agreed to a ceasefire after eight days of fighting. Tali Segev, member and former president of Israel Illini and senior in LAS, said the protestors were right to speak out about the deaths but were placing too much
See GAZA, Page 3A
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