The Daily Illini
Monday March 11, 2013
www.DailyIllini.com
The independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois since 1871
High: 42˚ Low: 28˚
Vol. 142 Issue 118
|
FREE
Union strikes after failed negotiations BY AUSTIN KEATING STAFF WRITER
The Service Employee’s International Union Local 73 went on a three-day strike Monday at midnight after rejecting the University’s final offer. Members voted against the offer and in favor of a strike during a vote this weekend. The union, which represents about 800 University building and food service workers, has been negotiating
with the University since June 2012, one month before the union’s contract expired. “It’s wonderful to see our bargaining unit and our members are standing together ... fighting for a fair contract and fighting to make sure our wages continue to be living wages,” said Aaron Ammons, local chapter vice president. While the union couldn’t release vote tallies or voter turnout numbers, area chapter president Gloria Von Behren
said most members of the union came to vote. University spokeswoman Robin Kaler said that the University will resume negotiations but has also instituted contingency plans for the strike. “We have prioritized the most important services, and we will move people from other services to cover those,” she said. Jack Collins, director of University Housing, sent an email to residents late
»
Sunday, after the vote, telling residents that all regular services will continue. “You may observe different staff performing these duties on your hall floors or in your dining room,” the email read. “All University Housing staff will wear IDs at all times. Please feel free to ask for identification if you observe someone new on your floor.” SEIU lead negotiator Ricky Baldwin said he is predicting that services will be affected as a result of the strike.
More inside: Check out the opinions
page for The Daily Illini Editorial Board’s take on the SEIU’s decision to hold a strike on Page 4A.
“This University is not going to run without us,” he said. “Let them see if they can run this University without people to clean the toilets, without people to shovel the snow, without people to
See SEIU, Page 3A
AS A GIRL
Necessary to differentiate body, eating disorders
THINKS By Melanie Stone
BY EMMA WEISSMANN STAFF WRITER
There were times when Amanda Hwu could feel her thighs itching. They were flawed, and she wanted them gone. They were not her own; they were “dead weight.” Sometimes, she imagined tearing into them, those things, and freeing herself at long last from their fleshiness. The obsession began during her senior year of high school. She would target an area — her thighs, her cheeks — and fixate on them, letting her insecurity fester. What Hwu didn’t know at the time was that there was a name for what she was going through: body dysmorphic disorder. With the May 2013 release of the updated Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, mental health professionals are considering making a greater distinction between clinical eating disorders and this similar, lesser-known entry. “I don’t think I had an eating disorder; I had disordered eating,” Hwu, sophomore in LAS, said. “There’s that differentiation that’s important. My problems surrounded physical sensations of how I felt about my body. Never full-out starvation.” When Hwu discovered that her symptoms aligned closely with those of the disorder, she said it was “liberating.” According to the current manual, the DSM-IV, which was published in 1994, patients suffering from body dysmorphic disorder have “a preoccupation with a defect in appearance,” which is either only in their head or they have unnecessary concerns about it.
he world we live in is obsessed with the thin ideal, indoctrinating it into the minds of girls of all ages. Over the past few months, I interviewed college women and professionals across the country, hoping to find answers for what you’re about to read. It is a topic that is deeply personal to me, and now, I’m ready to share my own story, share my heart and share what I’ve learned. Some of it is messy, and I haven’t quite tied up every loose end yet, but I do know that as women, we are called to love ourselves. The question is: How do we do it?
Editor’s note: This is the first part of a five-part series running each day this week through Friday. In this personal essay, Daily Illini columnist Melanie Stone combines her story with that of experts and multiple women across the country. More online: For a special
presentation of this story, and for more insight on body image, visit InDepth.DailyIllini.com
See BDD, Page 6A
DSM-V clarifies the differences between body and eating disorders Body Dysmorphic Disorder and clinical eating disorders, while sharing several similarities, have many distinct differences. The proposed addition to the DSM-V may add language to further differentiate the two.
I’m not acceptable. That was the lie I chose to believe. My story certainly unfolded slowly. I was 17 years old, a senior in high school and a size 6 when I began to look at my body differently. Before, I had always been fairly comfortable with my appearance. I liked how my hair was curly sometimes, straight sometimes. I liked the shape of my mouth, the way it curved up and down and formed a loopy M-shape. I liked my porcelain skin. There were, of course, parts of me that I didn’t like. I had never been classified as “skinny”; my weight always seemed to hover in the average range. As much as I wished I looked like my tiny, small-boned friends, I loved food too much to give up eating what I wanted: burritos at Chipotle, ice cream after dinner, seconds when I felt like having more.
To me, food was sustenance, but it was also a gift from God. I ate — happily, at that. My body had small divots and curves, but that was OK. A few months into my senior year, I suddenly had my first real boyfriend. He was older — a sophomore here at the University at the time — and I was smitten with the new relationship. He was complimentary and never, ever made negative comments about my appearance, but in my mind, he was thinking otherwise. The fear of his judgment was enough. The first step was adjusting my eating habits. I replaced burgers with salads, ice cream with sugar-free Jell-O and chips with carrots. I even swore off Chipotle, my all-time favorite restaurant. Then came the exercise: I befriended the elliptical, got comfortable in the lap lanes and rode the stationary bike into oblivion.
See AS A GIRL THINKS, Page 6A
EATING DISORDERS Q Obsession in body shape or weight Q Revolves around eating patterns Q Begins during adolescence Q Categorized into Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa and Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified BDD
Q Excessive obsession over a perceived “flaw”
or “flaws” in appearance
Q Comparing “ugly” body part with other
people’s
Q Begins during adolescence Q Somatoform Disorder, similar behavior to
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
SOURCE: DSM-IV
ILLUSTRATION BY SHANNON LANCOR THE DAILY ILLINI
Engineering Open House draws 20,000 Annual event featured interactive ‘human cosmos,’ other exhibits BY AUSTIN KEATING STAFF WRITER
CHONG JIANG THE DAILY ILLINI
Terry Blake, also known as Dr. Zeus, sets a plank of wood on fire using an electric discharge from one of the Tesla coils during the Tesla coil concert, held on the Engineering Quad as part of Engineering Open House on Friday.
INSIDE
Police
2A
|
Horoscopes
2A
|
Opinions
4A
|
Letter
4A
|
About 20,000 visitors came to the University on Friday and Saturday for the 93rd annual Engineering Open House, where more than 250 exhibits from the College of Engineering showcased the work of the college’s students. The annual event held every March on the North Quad partnered Engineering with 14 companies to bring demos from each department’s to the public. The open house gave University students an opportunity to show off their ongoing projects, said Cole Gleason, sophomore
Crossword
5A
|
Comics
in Engineering and a volunteer who oversaw the Siebel Center for the event. “It’s a way for students and professors ... to showcase the projects they’ve been working on,” he said. “Not only that, but also other projects that are of interest to the public, to kids who visit, etc.” In a dark room on Siebel Center’s ground floor, families and students filtered in and out to see one of the Engineering Open House’s most popular exhibits: an interactive simulation that tracks body movements and
See EOH, Page 3A
5A
|
Sports
1B
|
More online: Did you miss
the Engineering Open House? You can still see some of the exhibits in our video online at DailyIllini.com.
“(The open house) is a way for students and professors ... to showcase the projects they’ve been working on.” COLE GLEASON, sophomore in Engineering and volunteer
Classifieds
4B
|
Sudoku
4B