http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GC4LBdSnhkE

It’s scary that the mayor of a city at the forefront of technological and intellectual development is subscribing to an unsubstantiated and xenophobic rumor.  Obama was born in Hawaii.  He possesses a legal birth certificate.  And finally, the announcement of his birth was published in a local newspaper.

It’s clear to me that Mayor Schweighart is operating at the radical fringes of the Republican Party.  That’s why he was at a Champaign Tea Party Event.  Rather than representing the fiscally conservative values on local issues that he was most likely elected on, he has chosen to participate in an extremist group.

In addition to spreading false rumors about Barack Obama’s citizenship, Tea Party members have attacked members of congress with racial slurs, harassed a supporter of Healthcare Reform who has Parkinson’s, and compared the Obama Administration to a Nazi regime.

Mayor Schweighart isn’t an idiot.  He’s smart and politically calculating.  And that’s what’s scary about him-he runs the City of Champaign like a police state.  He’s a former officer himself.

Last year, police were dispatched to the Safe Haven tent community near the Catholic Worker house to photograph and harass homeless residents after Gateway Studios closed its doors.  And after Kiwane Carrington, an unarmed teen attempting to enter a family friend’s home (where he was welcome), was fatally shot by Officer Daniel Norbits, no formal apology was issued by Mayor Schweighart or Chief RT Finney of the Champaign Police.   Instead, Officer Norbits and Chief Finney both returned to work.  Chief Finney should heed calls from C-U citizens and community groups for his resignation.

If Champaign ever wants to be an innovative environment, it needs to move past this culture of racism.  In order to do this, we must clean house and elect a mayor and city council that is receptive to the community.

An average UI undergraduate student sees the Chancellor twice in his college career: convocation and commencement.  There is no meaningful interaction, only massmails that are used to maintain the University’s public relations image.  As students with rising tuition and fees, however, we did pay his $350,000 base salary.

When I was college shopping during my junior year in high school, I remembered a tour guide at a pretentious east coast school exclaiming that her university’s president hosted a weekly coffee hour open to any student.  Another tour guide told us that the president of her school invites graduating seniors in small groups to a dinner at his home.  I do contend that these are very different schools, with populations of around 9000 students compared to our 42,000.

The average student here probably doesn’t know who the Chancellor is/was, let alone that a Vice Chancellor for Public Engagement even exists.  Sure, we need to keep our surrounding community engaged and interested in order to prevent a civil war between the UI and the greater Champaign-Urbana area.  But what about student engagement? Our needs and concerns need to be considered equally important as those of the donors who keep this institution afloat.  As students, we should at least be treated like constituents or consumers.  Why is it a prerequisite that a student who wants to voice a question or concern to a member of the administration must be savvy at navigating through a bureaucracy?  Perhaps this is why the rate of student giving at the university is so low.

Image courtesy of CITES at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign

Students and members of student government shouldn’t have to come to the administration, the administration should come to students.  What kind of place do we attend where administrators handpick student senators to serve on “campus committees”?  When tough questions need to be asked both on these committees and around campus, it may be difficult after that administrator gave you the resume booster of serving on the Campus Lighting Committee or the Public Safety Advisory Committee and even a letter of recommendation for your law school application.

There is a simple fix to this solution- holding office hours or even a quarterly forum open to all students and publicized accordingly.  Hey, I can see a purposeful use of the massmail system!   While we’re at it, let’s actually make good use of the term that President White so often recycled during the admissions scandal.  A firewall needs to be set up to protect ISS and the Office of the Student Trustee from administrative influence so these two units remain accurate voices of the student body.

Remember in elementary school when we once believed that our teachers lived at school?  It’s funny that you never run into the Chancellor or any of the Vice Chancellors around campus- not once have I bumped into any of them while waiting in a Campustown food line.  I’m starting to look back at this grade school superstition and think that our administrators must live in the Swanlund Building.

We don’t yet know who our next Chancellor is going to be and what kind of a leader they are.  Let’s hope that he or she steps out of the Swanlund Building and decides to take a serious look at these issues and practices.

I learn something new each day-  today I learned that “ROTC discriminates against gays”.  (Not something I would doubt)

I also learned on my first day that Chancellor Herman’s admission, in the view of some, should be denied.  Not quite sure what it really means, but I always get a kick out of it when I see it written on sidewalks and benches.

I especially enjoy the calls to “end rape”, “save the environment”, and “protect human rights”, but my favorites are the random sayings adhered to telephone poles and street lights.

Just thought I’d give a shout out to the guys and gals who help lift up my spirits after many sleep-inducing lectures.

Max

She’s not a housing resident (as she mentioned in her letter) and lives in a house.  Frank can in no way compare her situation to our situation at Allen.  Living in a house means that the resident is responsible for most maintenance issues.   Living in University Housing means that the University is responsible for all maintenance issues.

In her letter, Frank noted that “At the beginning of his letter, Max claims that there was no effort what so ever made by the maintenance staff, but later on states that teams of county workers came and dried up the standing water.”  She has it completely wrong.

Yes, “housing workers” came from all over “Champaign county” (in the words of one assistant director of housing).  But this didn’t happen until 2 or more hours after the flood hit.  Much of the damage was already done.  Before she writes a response, Frank might consider reading my letter in its entirety.

Is Frank an employee of University Housing?  Is one of her parents?  Was she paid by University Housing to write this response?

Why didn’t University Housing submit a response of what went wrong in its own words?

Dear Professor Fireman,

I’m currently enrolled in your Stat 100 class at UIUC.  Thank you for your policy on textbooks.  When I entered your lecture on the first day, I had with me a copy of the 4th edition of “Statistics” by Freedman.  This book was listed as “required” by the Illini Union Bookstore, and carried a price tag of over $90 dollars.

After class started, you asked us if anybody had purchased the book.  I raised my hand, and you told me to come down to the front of the lecture hall.  You asked me how much I paid, and I said $95.  Your response…?  “You just paid $85 too much for that book.” 

Thank you Professor Fireman for advising me to return that prohibitively expensive textbook and instead consider purchasing a used copy of the previous edition on ebay for only $5.

Thank you Professor Fireman for telling us that the only thing you required were the “Incomplete Lecture Notes” since they contained all the material needed for the course.

Thank you Professor Fireman for letting us know that you have copies of the textbook that can be borrowed while we’re studying in the statistics lab.

And to folks at the Illini Union Bookstore— SHAME ON YOU!!!  Why didn’t you guys have used copies of the 3rd edition?  And to professors who require new editions of books that haven’t changed much—SHAME ON YOU TOO!!!

Best regards for a wonderful year,

Max

Obviously not in the view of the University of Illinois.

The scene in ground south soon after the waters began rushing in

Hi!  I’m a political science major living in Allen Hall (and am a freshman).  I look forward to blogging about what I think is right and wrong with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  First off… what happened at Allen Hall last night?

It seemed to be an idyllic evening for me- no homework, no reading, and no studying.  I was even able to spend a few enjoyable minutes camped out in the CRCE hot tub.  The rain came, and us carefree college students enjoyed a moment of uncomplicated bliss splashing around in the four inch puddle that was beginning to form.  Where would those puddles go you might ask?  All of the residents of ground south and the staff members in the Unit One hallway would soon find out.

Returning to my room from the rain dance, I found a large group of fellow Allenites crowded around the ground south hall.  A piercing siren was going off, and a wide stream of water was dauntingly advancing down the hall.  Some students lined their doors with towels and took all of their personal belongings out from under their beds.  Many simply sat in front of their doors, begging the water not to cross through their doorways.  Amid the chaos there was no effort by maintenance staff or building service workers attempting to slow the advance of the water or suck up the large puddles that were forming over the carpet.  Where were all of the staff members that are paid Illinois taxpayer dollars to ensure that our state facilities are operated smoothly and safely?

We were herded out by our diligent RAs and were told to gather up some personal belongings for the next day.  We would be spending the night in the Allen Hall main lounge.

After a few more matches of residence hall slip-and-slide we ambled up into the lounge and were greeted by an upper level Housing director who went on to explain to us that in a few hours “extraction teams” from all around Champaign County would be converging upon our rooms, sucking up the water, and bagging up/laundering our soaked possessions.  She explained to us the bureaucratic red-tape that we would have to cross in order to receive claims for our damaged goods.  In an oh-so not motherly voice, she explained that the process for claims could take up to months because of all the departments that are required to review those claims.   She also noted that though residential life staff would be contacting the emergency dean, our teachers would be “in no way obligated” to make any accommodations for us.

After an uncomfortable night of “sleeping” on the floor of the main lounge, we were allowed at 6:30 a.m. to return to our rooms.  The standing water was (finally) gone, the hall reeked of mold, and the carpeting was soaked.  Thankfully my room and possessions were spared.

What I’d love to know is first why weren’t BSWs (building service workers) dispatched immediately after the first notice of flooding?  Why did it take over an hour to disable the alarm that was going off in the basement, and why did it take in excess of two hours to begin extracting the standing water that was doing irreparable damage to hallway carpeting and residents’ possessions.  And finally, why instead of ripping up the carpets that will soon be laced with mold is housing maintenance simply aiming fans at the floors?  University Housing- I’d love to hear your side of the story!!!