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THE DAILY ILLINI The independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois since 1871
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Vol. 150 Issue 33
County expands vaccine eligibility According to the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District (CUPHD), Champaign County residents age 40-64 with certain health conditions, as well as those in 1A and 1B categories, are eligible for COVID-19 vaccination.
• Heart Condition • Immunocompromised State from a Solid Organ Transplant • Obesity • Pregnancy • Pulmonary Disease • Sickle Cell Disease
Phase 1A:
• Healthcare Personnel: Residents age 40-64 with Hospital and Non-Hosdisabilities or one of the folpital Settings lowing health conditions designated by the Illinois Phase 1B: Department of Public Health • Residents age 65 and (IDPH): older with or with• Cancer out underlying health • Chronic Kidney Disease conditions • C OPD (C h r on ic • First Responders Obstructive Pulmonary • Corrections Officers RYAN ASH THE DAILY ILLINI Disease) An Illinois student receives the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine on Thursday at the I-Hotel. Champaign County has opened vaccine • Diabetes SEE ELIGIBILITY | 3A appointments to residents age 40-64 with certain health conditions.
Eligibility
Variant, pandemic fatigue Champaign complicate spring return County combines high vaccine rate, volume University officials and SHIELD members have concerns about COVID-19 variants and pandemic fatigue and have used information from fall semester to guide spring plans. “What we really need over the next few weeks is that we need to redouble our efforts to protect ourselves and all the folks around us,” said Bill Sullivan, SHIELD member and Director of the Smart Healthy Community Initiative. Student non-compliance with public health guidelines and COVID-19 fatigue are serious problems, Sullivan said. Above all, figureheads in the University’s COVID-19 response team said the emergence of different COVID-19 variants is the biggest fear, and the next few weeks are crucial.
team that creates data models to help guide SHIELD’s testing program. Last semester, he said his team was surprised at the lack of student compliance with testing. After the surge in cases in fall, Goldenfeld said they added non-compliance into the data models, and this guided the spring return to campus with staggered arrivals and the initial lockdown. Additionally, University officials announced new consequences this semester to non-compliance such as internet cuts and loss of access to Zoom and other educational platforms. Goldenfeld said even within the past week, he’s seeing individuals test for the first time in all of 2021. “I think trying to enforce compliance where appropriate is an essential thing to do,” he said.
B117 variant, noncompliance raises concerns
Changes to Safer Illinois and future plans
BY VIVIAN LA STAFF WRITER
DAILY ILLINI FILE PHOTO
Members of the Students for Justice in Palestine organization protest during the Illinois Student Government Meeting at the ARC Multi-Purpose Room on October 23, 2019. A lawsuit between Speech First and the University was settled on Feb. 2.
UI settles free speech lawsuit Speech First group rose concerns over bias assessment response team BY MATT TROHER STAFF WRITER
The University of Illinois and free speech organization Speech First settled an ongoing lawsuit regarding a number of the University’s policies regarding bias and speech. This settlement came days before Speech First planned to submit the lawsuit to the Supreme Court of the United States. The lawsuit, initially filed by Speech First in May 2019, alleged that policies held by the University’s Bias Assessment and Response Team and University Housing’s Bias Incident Protocol, sections of the University’s student code and the University’s procedures for imposing No-Contact Directives violated students’ First and Fourteenth Amendment rights. Speech First’s lawsuit argued that BART and BIP protocols led to investigations of students who shared controversial opinions about contentious issues such as the IsraelPalestine conflict and the University’s former mascot, Chief Illiniwek, which has been criticized and subsequently removed from campus for being deemed racially insensitive. The lawsuit was settled in an Illinois District Court
on Feb. 2 with no money paid to or by either party. Associate Chancellor for Public Affairs Robin Kaler expressed that the policies in question contribute to fostering an open and safe campus community. “The Universit y is pleased that Speech First agreed to drop its lawsuit after both the district court and appellate court ruled in the University’s favor denying Speech First’s motion for (a) preliminary injunction,” Kaler said in an email statement to The Daily Illini. “The courts rejected Speech First’s unfounded claims after the University showed how our policies and practices foster a community where tens of thousands of students and over a thousand registered student organizations freely express and vigorously debate beliefs spanning the ideological spectrum.” Speech First did not immediately respond to The Daily Illini’s request for comment. The terms agreed upon in the settlement clarified that neither BART nor BIP has the authority to enforce discipline on a student. Additionally, students cannot be disciplined for declining to speak with BART or BIP. The settlement also limits the circumstances under which a No-Contact Directive can be issued. Under the terms of the settlement, an NCD can only be issued when “a Disciplinary Officer determines that the speech is accompanied by allegations of an actual or foreseeable Stu-
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dent Code violation, such as sexual harassment or stalking.” An NCD prohibits contact between two or more parties, usually following a verbal or physical altercation. Part of the lawsuit aimed at the former section 2-407 of the University’s student code, which prohibited students from distributing “leaflets, handbills and any other types of promotional materials of candidates for noncampus elections,” unless the student received prior approval from the University. The University eliminated this section from their student code in July 2019, after the initial lawsuit was filed. In accordance with the settlement, the University cannot reinstate the removed provision. This is the second settlement between Speech First and a major university, coming months after a settlement between the speech organization and The University of Texas at Austin, which resulted in the termination of the university’s Campus Climate Response Team. UTA’s CCRT functioned in a similar capacity to Illinois’s BART, allowing students to report incidents of bias, including derogatory graffiti, verbal harassment and hostile classroom environments. The lawsuit alleged that UTA’s Campus Climate Response Team violated the First Amendment. mtroher2@dailyillini.com
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As of Thursday, there have been 11 confirmed cases on campus of the new COVID-19 variant that originated in the United Kingdom, known as the B117 lineage, according to Nigel Goldenfeld, professor in LAS and COVID-19 modeler for the University. Another seven individuals are being re-tested for the B11 variant. He said the variant’s increased transmissibility and new evidence that it is more dangerous than the current strain is what keeps him up at night. “You’ve got a double threat here,” Goldenfeld said. “You’ve got something that is worse and is more transmissible and a (campus) population that is not compliant with public health recommendations.” Goldenfeld is part of a
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With a month under its belt of consistent vaccinations, Champaign County is shaping up to be a leader in several key metrics of vaccinations. For one, the county ranks third in percentage of fully vaccinated residents, with 5.48% of residents having received both doses of a vaccine. About 3.13% of Illinoisans have been fully vaccinated. Champaign also ranks sixth in total administered doses, with 51,399 as of Saturday. Champaign County is the only one of Illinois’ 102 counties to be top six in both categories, and one of two in the top 10, alongside Sangamon County. Both counties are outperforming these metrics relative to their populations. Of 11 counties that have vaccinated more than 4% of their residents, Sangamon and Champaign counties are the only two with a population above 70,000 people. Sangamon has more than 195,000 residents, while Champaign’s population is
Updates to the Safer Illinois app have also been made after learning from the fall semester, Sullivan said. Sullivan is the head of Rokwire, an open source platform that developed Safer Illinois. As vaccinations become more available to the campus community, Sullivan said his team is working on a vaccine feature for the app. They want to include a feature to help people keep track of their upcoming appointments. However, there are challenges to this because it’s unlike the saliva testing data, which is conducted on campus and goes through McKinley, done “all inhouse.” Vaccinations can be done at any healthcare provider, not exclusively on
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Features: Students strike a pose for The Fashion Network PAGE 4A
Sports: Bielema strengthens in-state recruiting presence
RYAN ASH THE DAILY ILLINI
A University Wellness Associate checks a woman into Bevier Hall on Oct. 14. Students and faculty are unable to enter University buildings without building access being granted through the Safer Illinois application.
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