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ARCH GRANTS GLOBAL STARTUP COMPETITION ARCHGRANTS.ORG/2014 WINNING ENTREPRENEURS GET A $50,000 GRANT DEADLINE THIS FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21 INSIDE Police 2A | Horoscopes 2A | Opinions 4A | Letters 4A | Crossword 5A | Comics 5A | Life & Culture 6A | Sports 1B | Classifieds 3B | Sudoku 3B THE DAILY ILLINI TUESDAY February 18, 2014 44˚ | 28˚ WWW.DAILYILLINI.COM 5he independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois since 1871 Vol. 143 Issue 79 | FREE @THEDAILYILLINI, @DI_OPINION, @DI_SPORTS THEDAILYILLINI THEDAILYILLINI DAILYILLINI, DAILYILLINISPORTS @THEDAILYILLINI Massive online courses help judge quality UIC faculty plan to strike after failed proposal Liberty Power deceives C-U area residents BY MARYCATE MOST STAFF WRITER Massive open online courses have unveiled a gold mine of data to University faculty and staff. Typically, instructors evalu- ating the effectiveness of their teaching styles can only gath- er data from relatively small classes. But with the help of data from massive open online courses, or MOOCs, an instruc- tor’s sample size expands from 50 to 50,000 participants. “Nobody else has a data set like that to explore,” said Chuck Tucker, co-chair of the MOOC Strategy Advisory Committee. “There is data that you can get from a MOOC — from Coursera — that you can’t get from any- where else. That is the power of the very large MOOC.” But these free courses, which enroll tens of thousands of par- ticipants from around the world, require plenty of resources. Each class costs about $30,000 to $50,000 to produce, not including the faculty members’ time spent on its development. In addition to faculty members’ curricula, the MOOCs require a staff of instructional designers, who in turn design the MOOC presentation; audio and video producers to nail down techni- cal details; and copywriters to ensure that the material is in the public domain. On average, production takes place in five to six months; how- ever, because of the extra pres- sure that a larger and more advanced audience adds, the BY STANTON POLANSKI STAFF WRITER Jason Swanson started to realize the woman at his door was not who she said she was. Although Swanson felt some- thing wasn’t right, he still hand- ed her the electric bill sitting on his kitchen table that had been delivered the day before. This woman, an employee for Liberty Power, claimed that she represented Swanson’s electric company. Before Champaign and Urba- na aggregated their electricity in 2012, Ameren was the default electric company for the com- munity. But in 2012, the govern- ments took bids from electric suppliers for the cheapest rates: Champaign chose Integrys Energy Services and Urbana chose Homefield Energy. Ame- ren now handles the transmis- sion and distribution of electric- ity. Champaign Deputy Mayor Tom Bruno said the plan has saved the community more than a million dollars. Recently, other electric com- panies have been trying to pry residents from their cheaper contracts. On Jan. 29, Roland Realty sent an email to its residents explain- ing that Clearview Energy Part- ners, LLC had been soliciting its tenants in the evenings. For Swanson, he was con- fronted with aggressive tactics about two weeks ago. As a recent doctoral graduate who is work- ing toward becoming a tenured track professor, Swanson has been spending his time since graduation trying to publish as many articles as he can. So around 11 a.m., dressed in a hoodie and sweatpants, Swan- son was sitting on his couch “cranking out an article.” Then came an interruption. “So there’s this knock on the door and there’s a woman, may- be about 25 years old,” Swan- son said. “It was one of those frigid, frigid cold mornings and I invited her inside because I didn’t want her standing out there.” Once Swanson scooped up the bill that had been sitting on his kitchen table and handed it to the employee, she opened it and began taking down information. “She was on-the-clock,” he said. “It was as if she was trying to defuse a bomb or something. She was putting info into her iPad at an unbelievable rate.” After introducing herself as a representative of the city’s main electric provider to Swanson, the lanyard that looped down to the woman’s bellybutton sug- gested otherwise. On it read: Liberty Power. “Oh I see you’re with Liberty Power — are you not with Ame- ren?” Swanson recalls asking. “Well, Liberty Power and Ameren are working togeth- er,” Swanson said the woman replied. Swanson thought to himself: “OK ... That’s another red flag. Well, what the hell is going on here? This is getting really, real- ly weird.” The woman then told Swanson that Liberty Power is the com- pany that the community chose when it aggregated its electric- ity. All he needed was to sign one of her forms and his bills would be lowered. This is not true because Ameren has lower rates than Liberty Power. “Ultimately, the awful thing about it is that, had I not looked at the rate right there, my rate would have doubled,” he said. “In my case, I had about a $100 electric bill last month because it’s been so brutally cold. Going to $200 would be crippling because I’m unemployed.” After his skepticism and denials led to a new sales pitch, Swanson knew what he had to do to make sure he would not have an account with Liberty Power. “I had to get more aggres- sive than her,” he said. “I had to take it up a notch to really be the alpha in that exchange for her to delete their information on her iPad. If someone hadn’t got that aggressive, I think she would have kept the information.” On Feb. 16, a notice was post- ed on the City of Champaign’s Municipal Electric Aggrega- tion website, warning Cham- paign residents of Liberty Pow- er’s solicitations. “Liberty Power is NOT the City’s vendor for the Munic- ipal Electric Aggregation program,” the notice read. “Citizens should NEVER com- promise their security by pro- viding Ameren account infor- mation to anyone.” The notice added that com- plaints about solicitation can be filed with the Illinois Commerce Commission Consumer Servic- es Division or with the Illinois Attorney General’s Office. It has since been removed from the city’s website. Nichole Best, sophomore in FAA, dealt with a similar iPad- carrying, fast-talking woman about two weeks ago. But Best BY JODI S. COHEN CHICAGO TRIBUNE University of Illinois at Chi- cago faculty members are poised to strike Tuesday for the first time in campus histo- ry. The two-day walkout could cancel hundreds of classes at the Near West Side public institution. The union, which represents about 1,150 full-time tenured and nontenured faculty mem- bers, was certified in 2012 but has not yet reached agreement on its first contract with the uni- versity despite dozens of bar- gaining sessions, including dur- ing the past three days. Despite making some prog- ress over the weekend, the union has called the universi- ty’s latest proposals “insuffi- cient.” There are no bargaining sessions scheduled before Tues- day’s planned strike, though a university spokesman said the administration offered to meet Monday. “The negotiations have been dragging on almost intermina- bly,” said UIC economics pro- fessor Joseph Persky, president of the union, UIC United Fac- ulty, whose members have not had a salary increase since the group formed. “I never thought we would get to the point where we had to strike to get a con- tract. It is time to deal with this.” College faculty strikes are rare, and this one is especially notable because it comes at a time when national unions are pushing to organize faculty at research institutions across the country, including at U. Alternate utility company uses aggressive tactics to gain customers What’s new with MOOCs? In the year that the University has hosted MOOCs on Coursera, many changes have been made to the style of these MOOCs. 1. Community T.A. — A Coursera-hired and vetted teaching assistant helps answer questions that may arise from MOOC participants. 2. Flipping the Classroom — University instructors use the material from MOOCs in their classes. 3. MOOC data harvesting — The Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning now compiles data from the MOOCs to help instructors enhance their teaching. 4. Format flexibility — The University has helped shape some elements of Coursera to make courses more effective and user-friendly. SOURCE: DEANNA RAINERI, ASSOCIATE DEAN OF ATLAS SEE MOOCS | 3A Stuck in the street BEST OF THE BEST? Our sports staff debates whether all- star games still matter after a 163-155 NBA All-Star Game. Alexis Ohanian helped create Reddit, which has 56 billion page views REDDIT CO- FOUNDER TO SPEAK LIFE & CULTURE, 5A SPORTS, 1B SEE UIC | 3A SEE ELECTRICITY | 3A JOHNATHAN HETTINGER THE DAILY ILLINI A Reinhart Food Service truck is jack-knifed on Green Street between Fourth and Fifth streets in Champaign on Monday. Police shut down Green Street between Fourth and Sixth streets while the driver worked to get the semi-truck unstuck. Fraternity member, R.A., football player and more GREEK OF THE WEEK: LES POOLE LIFE & CULTURE, 6A “Ultimately, the awful thing about it is that, had I not looked at the rate right there, my rate would have doubled.” JASON SWANSON DOCTORAL GRADUATE

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Page 1: The Daily Illini: Volume 143 Issue 77

ARCH GRANTS GLOBAL STARTUP COMPETITION

ARCHGRANTS.ORG/2014WINNING ENTREPRENEURS

GET A $50,000 GRANTDEADLINE THIS FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21

INSIDE P o l i c e 2 A | H o r o s c o p e s 2 A | O p i n i o n s 4 A | L e t t e r s 4 A | C r o s s w o r d 5 A | C o m i c s 5 A | L i f e & C u l t u r e 6 A | S p o r t s 1 B | C l a s s i f i e d s 3 B | S u d o k u 3 B

THE DAILY ILLINITUESDAYFebruary 18, 2014

44˚ | 28˚

WWW.DAILYILLINI.COM he independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois since 1871 Vol. 143 Issue 79 | FREE

@THEDAILYILLINI, @DI_OPINION, @DI_SPORTS THEDAILYILLINI THEDAILYILLINIDAILYILLINI, DAILYILLINISPORTS @THEDAILYILLINI

Massive online courses help judge quality

UIC faculty plan to strike after failed proposal

Liberty Power deceives C-U area residents

BY MARYCATE MOSTSTAFF WRITER

Massive open online courses have unveiled a gold mine of data to University faculty and staff.

Typically, instructors evalu-ating the effectiveness of their teaching styles can only gath-er data from relatively small classes. But with the help of data from massive open online courses, or MOOCs, an instruc-tor’s sample size expands from 50 to 50,000 participants.

“Nobody else has a data set like that to explore,” said Chuck Tucker, co-chair of the MOOC Strategy Advisory Committee. “There is data that you can get from a MOOC — from Coursera — that you can’t get from any-where else. That is the power of the very large MOOC.”

But these free courses, which enroll tens of thousands of par-ticipants from around the world, require plenty of resources. Each class costs about $30,000 to $50,000 to produce, not including the faculty members’ time spent on its development. In addition to faculty members’ curricula, the MOOCs require a staff of instructional designers, who in turn design the MOOC presentation; audio and video producers to nail down techni-cal details; and copywriters to ensure that the material is in the public domain.

On average, production takes place in fi ve to six months; how-ever, because of the extra pres-sure that a larger and more advanced audience adds, the

BY STANTON POLANSKISTAFF WRITER

Jason Swanson started to realize the woman at his door was not who she said she was. Although Swanson felt some-thing wasn’t right, he still hand-ed her the electric bill sitting on his kitchen table that had been delivered the day before.

This woman, an employee for Liberty Power, claimed that she represented Swanson’s electric company.

Before Champaign and Urba-na aggregated their electricity in 2012, Ameren was the default electric company for the com-munity. But in 2012, the govern-ments took bids from electric suppliers for the cheapest rates: Champaign chose Integrys Energy Services and Urbana chose Homefi eld Energy . Ame-ren now handles the transmis-sion and distribution of electric-ity. Champaign Deputy Mayor Tom Bruno said the plan has saved the community more than a million dollars.

Recently, other electric com-panies have been trying to pry residents from their cheaper contracts.

On Jan. 29, Roland Realty sent an email to its residents explain-ing that Clearview Energy Part-ners, LLC had been soliciting its tenants in the evenings.

For Swanson, he was con-fronted with aggressive tactics about two weeks ago. As a recent doctoral graduate who is work-ing toward becoming a tenured track professor, Swanson has been spending his time since graduation trying to publish as many articles as he can.

So around 11 a.m., dressed in a hoodie and sweatpants, Swan-son was sitting on his couch “cranking out an article.”

Then came an interruption.“So there’s this knock on the

door and there’s a woman, may-be about 25 years old,” Swan-son said. “It was one of those frigid, frigid cold mornings and I invited her inside because I didn’t want her standing out there.”

Once Swanson scooped up the bill that had been sitting on his kitchen table and handed it to the employee, she opened it and began taking down information.

“She was on-the-clock,” he said. “It was as if she was trying to defuse a bomb or something. She was putting info into her iPad at an unbelievable rate.”

After introducing herself as a representative of the city’s main electric provider to Swanson, the lanyard that looped down to the woman’s bellybutton sug-gested otherwise. On it read:

Liberty Power.“Oh I see you’re with Liberty

Power — are you not with Ame-ren?” Swanson recalls asking.

“Well, Liberty Power and Ameren are working togeth-er,” Swanson said the woman replied.

Swanson thought to himself: “OK ... That’s another red fl ag. Well, what the hell is going on here? This is getting really, real-ly weird.”

The woman then told Swanson that Liberty Power is the com-pany that the community chose

when it aggregated its electric-ity. All he needed was to sign one of her forms and his bills would be lowered. This is not true because Ameren has lower rates than Liberty Power.

“Ultimately, the awful thing about it is that, had I not looked at the rate right there, my rate would have doubled,” he said. “In my case, I had about a $100 electric bill last month because

it’s been so brutally cold. Going to $200 would be crippling because I’m unemployed.”

After his skepticism and denials led to a new sales pitch, Swanson knew what he had to do to make sure he would not have an account with Liberty Power.

“I had to get more aggres-sive than her,” he said. “I had to take it up a notch to really be the alpha in that exchange for her to delete their information on her iPad. If someone hadn’t got that aggressive, I think she would have kept the information.”

On Feb. 16, a notice was post-ed on the City of Champaign’s Municipal Electric Aggrega-tion website , warning Cham-paign residents of Liberty Pow-er’s solicitations.

“Liberty Power is NOT the City’s vendor for the Munic-ipal Electric Aggregation program,” the notice read. “Citizens should NEVER com-promise their security by pro-viding Ameren account infor-mation to anyone.”

The notice added that com-plaints about solicitation can be

fi led with the Illinois Commerce Commission Consumer Servic-es Division or with the Illinois Attorney General’s Offi ce. It has since been removed from the city’s website.

Nichole Best, sophomore in FAA, dealt with a similar iPad-carrying, fast-talking woman about two weeks ago. But Best

BY JODI S. COHENCHICAGO TRIBUNE

University of Illinois at Chi-cago faculty members are poised to strike Tuesday for the fi rst time in campus histo-ry. The two-day walkout could cancel hundreds of classes at the Near West Side public institution.

The union, which represents about 1,150 full-time tenured and nontenured faculty mem-bers, was certifi ed in 2012 but has not yet reached agreement on its fi rst contract with the uni-versity despite dozens of bar-gaining sessions, including dur-ing the past three days.

Despite making some prog-ress over the weekend, the union has called the universi-ty’s latest proposals “insuffi -cient.” There are no bargaining sessions scheduled before Tues-

day’s planned strike, though a university spokesman said the administration offered to meet Monday.

“The negotiations have been dragging on almost intermina-bly,” said UIC economics pro-fessor Joseph Persky, president of the union, UIC United Fac-ulty, whose members have not had a salary increase since the group formed. “I never thought we would get to the point where we had to strike to get a con-tract. It is time to deal with this.”

College faculty strikes are rare, and this one is especially notable because it comes at a time when national unions are pushing to organize faculty at research institutions across the country, including at U.

Alternate utility company uses aggressive tactics to gain customers

What’s new with MOOCs?In the year that the University has hosted MOOCs on Coursera, many changes have been made to the style of these MOOCs.1. Community T.A. — A Coursera-hired and vetted teaching assistant helps answer questions that may arise from MOOC participants.2. Flipping the Classroom — University instructors use the material from MOOCs in their classes.3. MOOC data harvesting — The Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning now compiles data from the MOOCs to help instructors enhance their teaching.4. Format fl exibility — The University has helped shape some elements of Coursera to make courses more effective and user-friendly.

SOURCE: DEANNA RAINERI, ASSOCIATE DEAN OF ATLAS

SEE MOOCS | 3A

Stuck in the street

BEST OF THE BEST? Our sports staff debates whether all-star games still matter after a 163-155 NBA All-Star Game.

Alexis Ohanian helped create Reddit, which has

56 billion page views

REDDIT CO-FOUNDER TO SPEAK

LIFE & CULTURE, 5ASPORTS, 1B

SEE UIC | 3A SEE ELECTRICITY | 3A

JOHNATHAN HETTINGER THE DAILY ILLINIA Reinhart Food Service truck is jack-knifed on Green Street between Fourth and Fifth streets in Champaign on Monday. Police shut down Green Street between Fourth and Sixth streets while the driver worked to get the semi-truck unstuck.

Fraternity member, R.A., football player and more

GREEK OF THE WEEK: LES POOLE

LIFE & CULTURE, 6A

“Ultimately, the awful thing about it is that,

had I not looked at the rate right there, my rate would have doubled.”

JASON SWANSONDOCTORAL GRADUATE

Page 2: The Daily Illini: Volume 143 Issue 77

2A Tuesday, February 18, 2014 THE DAILY ILLINI | WWW.DAILYILLINI.COM

MAKE YOUR MARK ON THE ILLINOIS LEGACY

Take your PROFESSIONAL SENIOR PORTRAIT

Make your appointment NOW at illioyearbook.com/senior-pictures/

or call at (217) - 337 - 8314

[ THIS IS YOUR YEAR]

Portraits end Feb. 22THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE!!

WEATHERPOLICE

HOROSCOPESBY NANCY BLACKTRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYCreativity infuses the atmosphere this year. Your career stays busy, and takes off in August. Balance the pace at work and home with discipline and communication. Develop your family’s team spirit. Include regular restoration into your routine, with fun, play and peace. Romance heats up over summer and autumn. Focus on what (and who) you love.To get the advantage, check the day’s rating: 10 is the easiest day, 0 the most challenging.

ARIES (MARCH 21-APRIL 19)Today is a 9 — You’re entering a one-month review period, with the Sun in Pisces, in which you’re extra sensitive. Maintain objectivity, a philosophical perspective, and stay ! exible. Will yourself to success (and work with partners). Consider your bedrock values.

TAURUS (APRIL 20-MAY 20)Today is a 9 — Favor private over public time. Peace and quiet draws you in. Get your main tasks handled so you can rest. You’ll have more fun for the next month, with the Sun in Pisces. Save up energy!

GEMINI (MAY 21-JUNE 20)Today is an 8 — Use your secret powers. Don’t be intimidated. Your emotions take a soft turn, and conditions seem unstable. Clean house. Re-arrange furniture for

better use of space. Save money and watch a movie at home.

CANCER (JUNE 21-JULY 22)Today is a 7 — Travel conditions improve this month, with the Sun in Pisces, but surprises still lurk. Consider new developments. Make future plans and work out the itinerary. Schedule work and reservations carefully. Then enjoy the comforts of home.

LEO (JULY 23-AUG. 22)Today is an 8 — Stay out of a risky investment. Focus on the numbers this month, with the Sun in Pisces. Get creative. Finish what you’ve started. The natives are restless. Discuss a theory, and wait a few days for action.

VIRGO (AUG. 23-SEPT. 22)Today is a 9 — New information illuminates. For the next four weeks with the Sun in Pisces, grow partnerships stronger. Allow time to rest and regroup. Avoid expense. Listen to your intuition before choosing. The situation can be transformed.

LIBRA (SEPT. 23-OCT. 22)Today is a 9 — Check orders for changes. More research may be required. You’re entering a philosophical and spiritual cycle. Work your own program with an optimistic view. Career takes priority this month, with the Sun in Pisces. Expand your network.

SCORPIO (OCT. 23-NOV. 21)Today is a 7 — There’s not enough

money for everything you all want. Prioritize, and be fair. For about four weeks with the Sun in Pisces, you’re lucky in love. Generate creative ideas. Contemplate, meditate, and recharge your batteries.

SAGITTARIUS (NOV. 22-DEC. 21)Today is an 8 — This month with the Sun in Pisces, home has a magnetic pull. Go into hiding, especially if you can work from home. You’re especially sensitive and intuitive. Rest and recuperate. No need to spend. Invite friends over.

CAPRICORN (DEC. 22-JAN. 19)Today is an 8 — Neither a borrower nor a lender be. Do without unnecessary expense. Study and practice what you love for the next month with the Sun in Pisces. Step carefully. Travel later. There could be some " erce competition.

AQUARIUS (JAN. 20-FEB. 18)Today is a 9 — For the next four weeks with the Sun in Pisces, you can do well " nancially, if you can keep from spending it all on good causes. Stay practical. You may not have what you think. Give appreciation.

PISCES (FEB. 19-MARCH 20)Today is an 8 — For the next four weeks with the Sun in Pisces, you’re gaining con" dence, at the top of your game. Stay under cover. Think fast and solve a " nancial problem. Open your mind. Insecurities will pass.

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Copyright © 2014 Illini Media Co.

The Daily Illini is the independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The newspaper is published by the Illini Media Co. The Daily Illini does not necessarily represent, in whole or in part, the views of the University of Illinois administration, faculty or students.

All Illini Media Co. and/or Daily Illini articles, photos and graphics are the property of Illini Media Co. and may not be reproduced or published without written permission from the publisher.

Periodical postage paid at Champaign, IL 61821. The Daily Illini is published Mondays through Thursdays during University of Illinois fall and spring semesters, and Mondays in summer. New Student Guide and Welcome Back Edition are published in August. First copy is free; each additional copy is 50 cents. Local, U.S. mail, out-of-town and out-of-state rates available upon request.

Night system staff for today’s paperNight editor: Darshan PatelPhoto night editor: Joseph LeeCopy editors: Johnathan Hettinger, Sari Lesk, Summer Burbridge, Kevin Gibbons, Delaney McNeil, Manny ChitturutDesigners: Daniel Chung, Sadie Teper, Torey Butner, Keely ReiweickPage transmission: Franklin Wang

HOW TO CONTACT USThe Daily Illini is located on the third fl oor at 512 E. Green St., Champaign, IL 61820. Our offi ce hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.General contactsMain number .......... (217) 337-8300Advertising ............. (217) 337-8382Classifi ed................ (217) 337-8337Newsroom .............. (217) 337-8350Newsroom fax: ....... (217) 337-8328Production .............. (217) 337-8320

NewsroomCorrections: If you think something has been incorrectly reported, please call Editor-in-Chief Darshan Patel at (217) 337-8365.Online: If you have a question about DailyIllini.com or The Daily Illini’s social media outlets, please email our Web editor Folake Osibodu at [email protected]: If you have comments or questions about The Daily Illini’s broadcasts on WPGU-FM 107.1, please email our managing editors, Maggie Huynh and Ryan Weber, at [email protected]: If you would like to work for the newspaper’s editorial department, please fi ll out our form or email [email protected]: If you have a news tip, please call news editor Lauren Rohr at (217) 337-8345 or email [email protected]: If you want to submit events for publication in print and online, visit the217.com.Sports: If you want to contact the sports staff, please call sports editor Eliot Sill at (217) 337-8344 or email [email protected] & Culture: If you have a tip for a Life & Culture story, please call features editor Alison Marcotte at (217) 337-8343 or email [email protected]: If you have any questions about photographs or to suggest photo coverage of an event, please call photo editor Brenton Tse at (217) 337-8560 or email [email protected] to the editor: Letters are limited to 300 words. Contributions must be typed and include the author’s name, address and phone number. University students must include their year in school and college. The Daily Illini reserves the right to edit or reject any contributions. Email [email protected] with the subject “Letter to the Editor.”

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When we make a mistake, we will correct it in this place. We strive for accuracy, so if you see an error in the paper, please contact Editor-in-Chief Darshan Patel at (217) 337-8365.

CORRECTIONS

Editor-in-chiefDarshan Patel217 • [email protected] editors Maggie HuynhRyan [email protected] directorEunie [email protected] editorLauren Rohr217 • [email protected]. news editorsTyler DavisAustin KeatingNewscast directorEmily WaldronDaytime editorDanielle Brown217 • [email protected]. daytime editorMiranda HollowayCalendar producersLyanne AlfaroImani BrooksSports editorEliot Sill217 • [email protected]. sports editorsNicholas FortinAlex OrtizTorrence SorrellJ.J. WilsonFeatures editorAlison Marcotte217 • [email protected]. features editorsSarah SoenkeEmma Weissmann

Opinions editorAdam Huska217 • [email protected]. opinions editorNicki HalenzaTechnograph editorBrian Yu217 • [email protected] editorBrenton Tse217 • [email protected]. photo editorBrian YuVideo editorKrizia Vance217 • [email protected] producerCarissa TownsendDesign editorScott Durand217 • [email protected] chiefLindsey Rolf217 • [email protected]. copy chiefAudrey MajorsWeb editorFolake Osibodu217 • [email protected] media directorKaryna RodriguezAdvertising sales managerDeb SosnowskiProduction directorKit DonahuePublisherLilyan Levant

Champaign Theft was reported at Red

Lion, 211 E. Green St., at around 1 p.m. Sunday.

According to the report, a coat and personal items were stolen while at the bar.

A 42-year-old female was arrested on the charges of driv-ing under a suspended license, possession of hypodermic nee-dles and possession of a con-trolled substance near the intersection of Bradley and Prospect Avenues at 11 p.m. Saturday.

According to the report, the offender was stopped for a fail-ure to signal. A K9 sniff was performed and illegal drugs were recovered.

University Criminal damage to proper-

ty was reported at Burrill Hall, 407 S. Goodwin Ave., at 12:30 p.m. Friday.

According to the report, a University employee reported that someone made several cuts on an overhead viewing screen inside a classroom. The esti-mated damage is $900.

Theft was reported at the Illini Union, 1401 W. Green St., at around 11:30 p.m. Friday.

According to the report, a University employee reported that someone had stolen two chairs from a locked room. The chairs are valued at $200.

Criminal damage to prop-erty was reported at Engineer-ing Hall, 1308 W. Green St., at 11 a.m. Friday.

According to the report, a Uni-versity employee reported that someone damaged a printer in a computer laboratory. The estimat-ed damage is $300.

Urbana Domestic battery was report-

ed at Carle Foundation Hospital, 602 W. University Ave., at around 5 p.m. Friday.

According to the report, a nurse at a local hospital reported that the victim came to the hospital claim-ing to have injuries from being battered by her boyfriend. When offi cers arrived the victim did not want to fi le a report and offi cers gave the victim advice on domes-tic violence assistance programs.

Compiled by Miranda Holloway

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Page 3: The Daily Illini: Volume 143 Issue 77

BY DANIEL C. VOCKMCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE

WASHINGTON — As the num-ber of bus passengers approaches the number of U.S. airline pas-sengers, transportation experts are taking a closer look at the widely disparate state efforts to make sure buses are safe.

States are responsible for enforcing federal safety laws for buses that cross state lines, but they take very different approaches. Nearly half the states require annual inspec-tions; the rest do not. Some spend almost all of at least $165 million in federal inspection money to look at trucks, while others focus more heavily on buses. Others are more aggressive at conduct-ing roadside inspections.

States also have different rules for buses that do not fall under federal jurisdiction, because they operate only within the state.

Industry leaders and safety advocates want more consistent enforcement among states and within states, although they dif-fer on the tactics. Congress has also asked the U.S. Department of Transportation to study wheth-er more uniform state laws are needed.

“We want to make sure every-body who is in the business is performing at the same level,” said Peter Pantuso, president and CEO of the American Bus Asso-ciation, which represents about 1,000 bus companies.

The discussion over state enforcement methods comes as federal regulatory efforts are under scrutiny. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Adminis-tration, in particular, came under fire after 28 people died in motor coach accidents in 2011.

Since then, federal regulators have stepped up inspections, tried to better identify rogue operators and started requiring seat belts on new buses.

The scrutiny comes as indus-try studies show American bus-es provide more than 700 million passenger trips a year, compared to 720 million on airlines. There are about 4,000 bus companies providing interstate service, according to federal regulators.

Federal regulators target-ed companies last year that they deemed to pose signifi-cant risks. As part of that eight-month effort, they shut down 52 bus companies and removed 340 buses from the road.

The number of people who die in bus accidents has remained steady in recent years at around 20 a year. But when crashes do occur, they can be devastating,

because of the number of pas-sengers on board.

Indiana state Sen. Tom Wyss was surprised what he learned about his state’s bus safety laws after a church bus crash in India-napolis last summer left a youth pastor, his pregnant wife and a chaperone dead.

The Republican senator, who chairs his chamber’s transpor-tation committee, started look-ing into the state’s inspection requirements, because the driver initially blamed faulty brakes for the accident. Investigators later found no mechanical problems with the bus, and determined that high speed was a cause of the accident.

Wyss discovered bus owners in Indiana do not have to show the state that their vehicles were inspected in the last year.

He was particularly worried about buses owned by churches, scouting groups and other non-profit organizations, which face less scrutiny under federal regu-lations than commercial buses.

“When you get on a Greyhound or some other bus, you know that puppy has been inspected. But what about this one here? It turns out ... we don’t check buses that are private buses,” he said.

So Wyss pushed a bill through the Senate requiring bus own-ers to show state police proof of inspection when they get their license plates renewed. The bill passed the Senate 33-14 and is now in the Indiana House.

“The state has a responsibility, if we’re going to license (buses), to make sure they are as safe as can be,” Wyss said.

If the bill passes, about 2,100 private buses would need annu-al inspections, legislative ana-lysts estimate. Wyss’ bill would allow buses to be evaluated by private inspectors, although the Indiana State Police could set up its own program. The state police already inspect school buses, and did 16,000 of those inspections last year.

Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia required commercial vehicles to under-go state-approved annual inspec-tions in 2012, according to J.J. Keller and Associates, Inc., a pri-vate company that consults with businesses on regulation compli-ance. Bus owners in other states must still have their vehicles inspected for federal purposes, but do not have to report results to the state.

Besides applying only to bus-es that cross state lines, federal rules are also less strict for the owners of private buses — like a

musician’s tour bus or a church bus — when it comes to keeping records of annual inspections.

Nearly two years ago, Con-gress told the U.S. Department of Transportation to study wheth-er to require states to put in place mandatory inspection laws. The provision was part of the larg-er highway bill Congress passed in 2012. It set a deadline for the report to be issued by next year.

Pantuso, the bus association’s president, said a uniform stan-dard would be fairer, because it would discourage unscrupulous companies from registering in states with low standards to avoid scrutiny.

Will Schaefer, director of vehi-cle programs at the Commer-cial Vehicle Safety Association, a group of agencies that inspect trucks and buses, said federal officials should also standard-ize the criteria for evaluating whether a truck or bus passes inspection.

“Unfortunately, the way the federal regulations have evolved, we don’t have a very specific guideline of what needs to be accomplished during that inspec-tion,” he said.

Many safety advocates want buses inspected, not just in garages, but on the roads they travel.

“Annual inspections are a snapshot,” said Henry Jasny, vice president for Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety. “On-site inspections are not expect-ed. ... You can get a much better feel of how (a bus) is used. It is a more real-world test of whether the company is following all of the rules, the driver is fit and the bus is in good shape.”

A federal law passed in 2005 prohibits police from pulling over buses with passengers on board for the sole purpose of an inspection. Random inspections

are supposed to take place only at a route origin or destination to protect passengers and pre-vent delays.

Police can order an inspection on the road for a bus carrying passengers, but only when they have already stopped it for a vio-lation, such as speeding or a bro-ken tail light.

The restrictions on roadside inspections make it harder to keep tabs of carriers that want to avoid attention, Jasny said. “It’s a moving target. Companies change the locations of where they pick up or drop off passen-gers,” he said.

Trucks, which are subject to many of the same laws as buses, can be randomly inspected by police at weigh stations.

Pantuso, the bus association president, said states with effec-tive inspection programs, such as California, Connecticut and Mas-sachusetts, regularly inspect the records and buses of companies of all sizes. “The ones that do it right, do it consistently,” he said.

In many states, he said, big-ger companies are targeted more often than smaller ones, because they are easier to find and keep better records.

But companies that try to skirt the law should be examined just as rigorously. “They’re a lot hard-er to find sometimes, but at the same time, their customers seem to be able to find them OK, and these are law enforcement offi-cials we’re talking about. That’s what they’re trained to do,” he said.

The California Highway Patrol has a long history of doing safety checks on commercial vehicles. It started the inspections in 1963, and state law has required annu-al inspections for decades. Cur-rently, 260 highway patrol offi-cers are dedicated to enforcing commercial vehicle laws.

courses should be produced carefully, said Wen-Mei Hwu, MOOC instructor and professor in Engineering.

“It really puts the material into a much deeper scrutiny,” Hwu said. “If something goes slightly wrong, there are a lot of complaints. If you have 1 per-cent of students run into misun-derstanding, that is 100 students right there.”

The MOOC Strategy Advisory Committee has already made a commitment to hire six more staff members in the Center for Inno-vation in Teaching and Learning, which produces the MOOCs. The team estimated that it will need to make three or four more hires in the near future, all with salaries of about $50,000 a year.

The University joined Cours-era in August 2012 and launched its first MOOC on Aug. 27, 2012, Tucker said. Since then, it has developed eight different MOOCs. Another two are set to be released within a grate MOOCs into for-credit online courses. Tucker

said it is hard to know exactly how MOOCs will change in the next year.

“In the MOOC Strategy Advi-sory Committee, we coined the term MOOC-years,” Tucker said. “Things that take years to change in the normal academic world seem to be able to change in weeks in the MOOC world. It is a rapidly moving target and we are talking about new things every time we get together.”

Hwu said he considers the cre-ation of his MOOC to be some-thing like the creation of a “mod-ern textbook” used both for MOOC and traditional students. Raineri also emphasized that as the number of MOOCs continues to increase, the center has kept its focus on one main idea.

“It is all with an emphasis on how can we use MOOCs to enrich what we do here (on-campus),” Raineri said. “It has allowed us to vet our instructional resources because there are so many eyes on us. It is also safe to say that we are getting better at it — now it is a far more streamlined process.”

MaryCate can be reached at [email protected].

THE DAILY ILLINI | WWW.DAILYILLINI.COM Tuesday, February 18, 2014 3A

Rising bus use prompts safety review

UI student-created app brings people together on short notice

Safety varies state-by-state for buses not under federal jurisdiction

MOOCSFROM 1A

of I.’s flagship campus in Urba-na-Champaign. The UIC strike would be the first in a while at a major research university; facul-ty members at Southern Illinois University went on strike in 2011.

The limited two-day action — which will include a rally and picketing in the campus quad and in front of classroom buildings — is intended to send a message to the administration without cre-ating a drawn-out disruption to the education of UIC’s 27,500 students.

The strike will not affect class-es taught by graduate student instructors, who are represent-ed by a separate union and have a no-strike clause in their contract. Striking employees will not be paid if they miss work, accord-ing to the university.

UIC Provost Lon Kaufman said the strike’s impact on students would be similar to if a profes-sor canceled class because of the weather, car trouble or any other reason. But because the strike would be on Tuesday and Wednesday, it has the potential to affect at least one class taken by each of UIC’s 16,600 undergradu-ate students, Kaufman said.

“The material will be made up along the way. Those that need to graduate will graduate. I think the grades will be unaffected,” he said. “We expect the faculty who will not be teaching, as they would on any other occasion, will call in and alert students. Faculty don’t have any desire to harm the students or disable them.”

The unresolved contract issues at UIC are mostly economic ones. According to the latest public contract proposal, from Friday, the union wants a merit salary increase of 4.5 percent this year, while the administration has offered a 3.25 percent increase. The two sides also are at odds on how to structure future pay adjustments -- the union wants a minimum increase of 3.25 per-cent for each of the next two years, while the administration’s offer calls for currently unde-fined “wage increase programs” equivalent to the increases that other employees will get those years.

The union also is asking that the minimum salary for nonten-ured, full-time lecturers, many of whom hold doctorate degrees, be increased to $45,000, from $30,000, and that instructors be offered multiyear contracts. The university has offered a mini-mum salary of up to $36,000 by 2016.

The union is asking that ten-ure-system faculty earn a mini-mum of $60,000 a year.

Kaufman said the minimum salaries for lecturers are “com-petitive” with what instructors are paid at other institutions, but that the university recognizes the need to increase the wage.

“It is certainly one of the major issues for us and one that will be remedied going forward,” he said. “We have the responsibili-ty to learn from what happens in

this experience and correct what needs to be corrected in order to ensure the excellent education of our students.”

More complicated, Kaufman said, is agreeing on how to deter-mine merit, and what factors make faculty members eligible for merit-based salary increases.

“It is how one distributes those dollars and how best to do so to achieve or reward or iden-tify the most meritorious facul-ty,” he said. “The union and the administration may have differ-ent views on that, and that is the crux of the issue — making sure we define excellence the same way and reward that.”

The two sides have been work-ing with a federal mediator since November.

“I am surprised they can’t resolve this,” said Northwest-ern University law professor Zev Eigen. “These are not very complicated issues as far as labor management goes. This looks more like muscle flexing ... rather than heart-of-the-mat-ter problems.”

But both sides have more at stake than the contract, Eigen said, particularly as a union drive is underway at the Urbana-Cham-paign campus. The UIC union is affiliated with the American Association of University Pro-fessors and the American Fed-eration of Teachers.

“Both the union and the employer in this case are hyper-aware of the impact this contract will have on other potential bar-gaining units,” Eigen said. “The union is nervous that if they don’t get something good and they get less than what they promised, it will be less likely they will be successful in organizing at oth-er places.”

Faculty at the Urbana-Cham-paign campus this year received average raises of 4.15 percent to 4.65 percent after years of fur-loughs and salary freezes.

UIC employees who are not part of the union, including fac-ulty members, administrators and academic professionals, received average salary increas-es of 2.75 percent to 3.25 per-cent this academic year. The UIC union does not include part-time faculty or those in the col-leges of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmacy.

The union has said it is strik-ing for instructors such as John Casey, who graduated from UIC with a doctorate in 2010 and has been teaching in the Eng-lish department. He currently makes $30,000 for a nine-month job teaching writing and advising students on courses and career preparation.

Casey, 35, teaches an introduc-tory writing course required of all UIC freshmen.

“I am living off of my cred-it cards. It is not a position that someone should be in regardless of education, but particularly when you have a doctoral degree and spent all the time and mon-ey earning that degree,” Casey said. “If I am teaching courses seen as being that important, you would think the paycheck would reflect that.”

UICFROM 1A

did not think the Liberty Power employee should have even been allowed at her door.

“I was extremely confused to how it was protocol for her to get into a locked apartment build-ing,” she said.

Best overheard the Liberty Power employee making her pitch to the neighbors. When she made her way to Best’s door, the foreign accent prevented her from understanding the employ-ee at first.

“When I asked her to repeat what she said, she got really annoyed,” Best said.

And like Swanson, she handed her bill to the woman. But then, as the employee began to enter information into her iPad, Best told the woman that she did not have her consent.

“She told me she would delete my information, but I didn’t see her delete any of my informa-tion,” Best said.

Both Swanson and Best were able to call Liberty Power and

ensure that the company did not have their information on record.

Liberty Power Director Tim LoCascio responded to the recent complaints via email:

“Liberty Power takes our reputation very seriously and we strive for zero complaints. We are proud of our A+ rat-ing with the Better Business Bureau which is a result of a very robust quality assurance program that meets and in many respects exceeds the customer protection rules established by the Illinois Commerce Commis-sion (“ICC”) ... Liberty Power apologizes to anyone who had anything less than an exception-al customer experience.”

However, Best and Swanson are skeptical.

“I think their business is extraordinarily deceptive,” Swanson said. “It’s really sad to catch people off guard and get them to sign something that they have no idea what they’re getting themselves into.”

Stanton can be reached at [email protected].

ELECTRICITYFROM 1A

Not much of a winter wonderland

IRFAN KHAN LOS ANGELES TIMESInvestigators have looked into a tour bus crash in Yucaipa, Calif., that happened on Feb. 3, killing at least eight people and injuring more than 30 others. Transportation experts have been reviewing bus safety as the number of bus passengers increase.

BY EDWARD GATHERCOALSTAFF WRITER

Amid various social network-ing sites and applications, a new mobile app called Shortnotice has been developed by Univer-sity student Neil Nijhawan and his twin brother, Kush.

Neil, sophomore in Engineer-ing and co-founder, said Short-notice is different from oth-er social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter in that its focus is physically bringing peo-ple together and fostering face-to-face interactions.

“We’re not just trying to cre-ate an app, we’re trying to cre-ate a brand,” he said. “We’re try-ing to create a new type of social media. Right now social media is one-dimensional ... it’s just about sharing in the online world and we really want to bring it to the

real world.”Kush, sophomore in Engi-

neering at Stanford Universi-ty and co-founder, added that he has read numerous articles saying that people’s Facebook profiles will actually make them sad because their online lives seem better than their real lives.

“We thought ‘What makes peo-ple happy? What increases some-one’s confidence?’” He asked. “And that’s actually hanging out with someone face-to-face.”

Neil explained that the app notifies friends of an event, like playing basketball or going bowl-ing, through “shortnotices.”

In order to create a short-notice using the app, a person would simply click on the plus sign in the upper right hand cor-ner, specify the activity’s name

and location and then enter the amount of friends needed for it to happen. Once a certain number of friends have agreed to do the activity, the activity is on.

“We want to bring people together as fast as possible,” he said.

Currently, they are working on fixing some bugs and are continually testing the app and updating it to ensure it works on both iPhone and Android phones. The current version of the app, 1.3, is available for free on the iTunes App Store and Google Play. Kush said they are hoping to release version 2.0 within five to 10 weeks.

Future goals include develop-ing the app in some capacity for people without smartphones so they can take advantage of its features as well via text message,

Kush said. “I would highly recommend

Shortnotice,” said Asif Bhat , sophomore in Engineering. “It offers a unique aspect of physi-cally bringing people together unlike many other social media websites.”

Being students, the two broth-ers have lives outside of develop-ing the app. Neil came up with the initial idea for the app in Decem-ber 2012, but it wasn’t launched until Nov. 20, 2013, almost two months ago.

“Ultimately, we believe Short-notice will add value to people’s lives,” Kush said. “We want it to be a convenient tool that you can use to get people together on short notice.”

Edward can be reached at [email protected].

JOSE M. OSORIO MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNEPedestrians fight the wind as they approach E. Randolph St. at North Michigan Avenue in Chicago as the snow and heavy winds hit the area on Monday. Snow is expected to hit the region, bringing 4-8 inches.

Page 4: The Daily Illini: Volume 143 Issue 77

OPINIONS4ATUESDAY

SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS | [email protected] with the subject “Letter to the Editor.” The Daily Illini reserves the right to edit for length, libel, grammar and spelling errors, and Daily Illini style or to reject any contri-butions. Letters must be limited to 300 words. Contributions must be typed and include the author’s name, address and phone number. University students must include their year in school and college.

THE DAILY ILLINI

EDITORIALAppointment

of director signi!es stability for University’s Police Training

Institute

The Police Training Institute has had a history of being in limbo with the Universi-ty. Top administrators need to show their support now

more than ever for one of the coun-try’s largest and longest-serving (since 1955) police academies in the United States.

Up until now, the institute had tru-ly fought for its place at this Univer-sity. What the PTI needed wasn’t an-other resolution in its favor, or more cash. It needed a permanent director — one whose commitment could help revive this once-endangered facet of the University.

In 2010, a Stewarding Excellence budget review found that the PTI didn’t fit the University’s mission and should not be subsidized by Uni-versity funds. It delivered a similar grim outlook for the Institute of Avi-ation.

“It is with considerable sadness that we arrive at a decision to take the necessary steps to close PTI no later than Dec. 31, 2011,” then-Chan-cellor Robert Easter, current Uni-versity president, and then-Provost Richard Wheeler said in the Steward-ing Excellence report. Although the amount of money fluctuated through-out the years, the University was providing PTI with $900,000 from the University’s General Revenue Fund at the time of the report.

In 2011, the Illinois Law Enforce-ment Training and Standards Board voted to establish a police training facility on Western Illinois Univer-sity’s campus, but this plan never came to fruition. Although campus officials denied that the new facili-ty was designed to replace the PTI at the University, it seemed clear that the plans to establish the new acade-my arose from the University’s deci-sion to eventually close the PTI.

The following year, the board vot-ed against certifying PTI’s basic law enforcement class, which meant re-cruits couldn’t be certified as police officers.

But the institute is now making a comeback.

After spending about two years in the interim role, Michael Schlosser was named the institute’s director, signifying the University’s commit-ment to the permanence of the PTI.

Schlosser’s appointment as director was the first glimpse of stability the institute has seen in years.

More significant than any press re-lease or crafted statement, Schloss-er’s appointment shows that the University is willing to make a com-mitment to a leadership position. The University clearly wants to provide structure and authority within an in-stitution that is both unique and es-sential to this campus.

Schlosser engineered the Universi-ty’s agreement with the state’s train-ing and standards board and also found a way to negate the biggest criticism of the institute — that the PTI is not in line with the core aca-demic mission of the University — by allowing the board and the Uni-versity to guide academic research on law enforcement and criminal jus-tice issues at the academy.

Three years ago, former Univer-sity President Michael Hogan said the University would like to keep its brand on the institute, expressing a bit of optimism a year after the ini-tial decision to close the University’s PTI.

“So if we’re going to sustain that program, we need additional resourc-es somewhere, and we need some as-surances that if we’re going to run it as an academic program, we’re going to run it as an academic program, not somebody else,” Hogan said.

Now it has a leader to do so.

On Saturday morning, while lovebirds were still swooning from their Valen-tine’s Day activities from the previ-

ous day, many University students got down to business as they flooded the bars during the early hours of the day.

The occasion? The Olympics. The event? The USA hockey game against Russia.

Dressed in their best USA gear, many stu-dents held off their yawns as they emerged at the bars at the ripe hour of 6 a.m. Many bars, including Red Lion and KAMs, advertised that they would be open bright and early to cheer on Team USA against its rival.

It is hard to believe that any event could get a college student out of bed at 6 a.m., but with the promise of drink deals lingering in the air and the prospect of a win for Team USA, stu-dents crammed the bars to the gills.

Perhaps the recent success of the Chicago Blackhawks is the reason why so many seem so invested in the newly popular sport. Or, maybe, it was the thrill of the Olympics that got students to climb drowsily out of their beds.

No matter the reason, many present say that the show of support University students displayed for Team USA could send shivers down your spine. Students cheered enthusi-astically with each pass, turning red in the face as they screamed at the flat screen TV’s. Every shot was accompanied by a collective intake of breath as students nervously hoped that Team USA would take home the win.

The bars were bursting with excite-ment throughout the game, but a humorless demeanor fell over the crowd as the game remained tied.

When the conclusion of the game drew near, students say that the bars fell silent with anticipation. Even those who had been over served understood the magnitude of the situa-tion as each team prepared to meet each other in a shootout.

Drinks stopped being poured, cheers were silenced and everyone’s eyes were glued to the TV as Team USA took the ice to meet their fate with the Russians. After several nail biting rounds of the shootout, T.J. Oshie of Team USA finally scored the game-winning goal and the scene that ensued at the Univer-sity was one for the books.

Students embraced each other, chant-ing, “USA! USA! USA!” in an unwavering rhythm. Then, the mob of people collec-tively began jumping up and down to Chel-sea Dagger, the victory song of the Chicago Blackhawks, which played in the background — their feet no longer glued to the sticky, alcohol-soaked floor. In that intense moment of excitement, the crowd was undivided in the celebration for its country’s team.

Some were able to capture the moments that passed after the win on camera and immediately posted it to social media sites. The emotions felt at the bars translated well into video as everyone who was not there wished that he were. Many students pro-nounced that day as one of their best memo-ries from college. Others agree that there will never be another day like it.

Even though the game did not result in a gold medal, but was merely a way to deter-mine who would move forward in the Olym-pics, University students treated it as our gen-eration’s version of the movie “Miracle.” It was as if we were back in the 1980’s with the Cold War fresh on everyone’s mind.

The USA needed the win against the Soviet Union to boost the nation’s moral as it sol-diered on in the arms race. This game wasn’t for the gold, but to University students at Red Lion or KAMs during the early hours of Sat-

urday morning, it might as well have been. I’m not sure of the reason why, but all I

know is that it brought students together. Nothing divided the students as they met with the common purpose of cheering on Team USA to victory.

It’s beautiful when a school can unite under a common purpose and everyone can feel the common thread that weaves them all together — it’s electric. If only we can put that ener-gy toward supporting our teams here at the University. The football games of the past season were not met with the same enthusi-

asm and vigor as the Olympic hockey game because the stands stood barren for most of the season.

Similarly, everyone seemed to be so worn out by the early morning festivities of the hockey game that not many were able to attend the University’s basketball game against Ohio State. The Illini lost 48-39.

Perhaps if our enthusiasm for the red, white and blue was shifted over to the orange and blue, we could have inspired a win from our athletes.

Kate is a senior in LAS. She can be reached at [email protected].

Students unite for Team USA, but what about the Illini?KATE CULLEN

Opinions columnist

Mid-semester evaluations can provide instant benefits

We’re nowhere near the end of the semester, but I think our teachers and classes are due for some feedback.

It’s week five of classes at the University, and I’m sure most of us have already settled into the rhythm of our courses. But some of us might not be adjusting as easily to our courses for this snowy spring semester.

To better gauge students’ progress during the first few weeks of a course, the Univer-sity should offer students the opportunity to fill out mid-semester evaluations for their instructors.

At the end of each semester, our profes-sors and teaching assistants administer a survey for students to take to get feedback about the course as well as their instruction.

Here at the University, we have the Instructor and Course Evaluation System, more commonly known as the ICES.

These end-of-the-semester evaluations give students the chance to give anonymous and honest feedback to professors, allowing them to pinpoint their strengths and weaknesses.

The ICES forms give students the chance to give feedback on the course in different ways that can help the instructor improve the course for the future. For example, the stu-dent can be asked to rate the teaching meth-od of the instructor, difficulty of the course and overall quality of the course.

These evaluation forms are crucial to the teaching process. The evaluations are great for the professors and teaching assistants because they get to hear students’ sugges-tions on how to improve the course for next year.

But, by implementing mid-semester evalu-ations, instructors would be able to make the appropriate alterations that better suit their current students, versus the end-of-the-semester ICES forms that will only apply after a student finishes the course.

Some courses already do informal mid-semester evaluations. For example, I took

Family Communication last semester and the instructor, Kelly McAninch, gave us the chance to rate how the course was currently going.

The mid-semester evaluation allowed us to voice our opinion to McAninch and say what had been going well and what could use improvement.

“The student feedback I get is usually pret-ty helpful,” McAninch said. “It allows me to understand students better, what is work-ing well with the course, and what can be improved, especially in a newly developed class.”

One main reason McAninch likes mid-semester evaluations is the specificity in stu-dents’ answers. She says that students give their thoughts about what they liked and didn’t like on end-of-semester evaluations, but students are more willing to talk about solutions and how they would like to see the course change in mid-semester evaluations.

Students might be more willing to give out thoughtful answers in mid-semester evalu-ations because it shows that the teacher is willing to listen to his or her students on how the course can be improved right now.

One of my main complaints with the ICES forms was that I was not going to see the changes I suggested for the course, because I would most likely not take the course again. I never cared to give a thoughtful response.

But with mid-semester evaluations, I would be able to experience the suggestions and improvements that my classmates or I have given.

This could also be very beneficial to first-time instructors. As McAninch said, newly developed classes could use mid-semester

evaluations to adapt quickly to what works best for students.

However, mid-semester evaluations might not work with all courses here on campus. “If a class cannot easily be adjusted mid-semes-ter, however, course evaluations that promise change and don’t deliver could backfire and seem pointless,” McAninch said.

Some courses have more freedom and flex-ibility with their schedules compared to oth-ers. Courses with more flexibility, such as those with fewer students or with discus-sion sections that allow for more liberty to structure the class, would be able to change their teaching methods to accommodate the student.

Changing in the middle of the semester could actually do more harm than good for courses with limited flexibility.

With that being said, I think mid-semester evaluations are beneficial for classes that can change on the fly. And it’s all because of students’ feedback and teachers’ ability to listen to their students.

Feedback was part of what created this column. It started as a blank product, and through feedback, and the writing and edit-

ing process, became the column you are reading today.

I like to consider sending in my articles the first time to the editors as the halfway point. The editors give me their feedback and sug-gestions with what is working and what is not working.

They send it back to me, and I add in the suggestions and build upon the strengths of the article and eliminate or adjust what was not working.

And I carry the feedback with me into each column I write every week.

This is similar to the potential benefits mid-semester evaluations could have on courses here at the University.

With mid-semester evaluations, students can give feedback and suggestions to instruc-tors so that they can implement that feed-back to the remaining half of the semester and carry that feedback over for years later.

Thaddeus is a senior in LAS. He can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @Thaddingham.

THADDEUS CHATTO

Opinions columnist

Q U I C K COMMENTARY

Quick Commentary delivers bits of relevant and important issues on campus or elsewhere. We write it, rate it and stamp it. When something happens that we are not

pleased with: DI Denied. When something happens that we like: Alma Approved.

Let’s take a minute and reflect on how absolutely absurd the weather was on Monday. Huge snowflakes falling at

rain-like speed, mixed with bolts of lightening and roars of thunder. Afterward, we had a brief pause in chaos. Then, the snow turned into an icy rain, which did a great job of

re-icing the sidewalks that had just started to become walk-able again. In terms of weather this winter, it seems that we have been through it all. The number of times our opinions editors have been forced to write quick commentary about

this crazy weather is getting ridiculous.

During a speech presented at the Time to Thrive conference last week, actress Ellen Page spoke with many influential words and messages and

demonstrated a huge, personal bout of courage by coming out as gay. Page received an overwhelming amount of support and positivity from not only the

audience, but also from other celebrities and viewers of her speech as she promoted values

of acceptance and equality.

I’m not sure of the reason why, but all I know is that it brought

students together. Nothing divided the students as they

met with the common purpose of cheering on Team USA

to victory.

Students might be more willing to give out thoughtful answers in

mid-semester evaluations because it shows that the teacher is willing

to listen to his or her students.

Page 5: The Daily Illini: Volume 143 Issue 77

THE DAILY ILLINI | WWW.DAILYILLINI.COM Tuesday, February 18, 2014 5A

EDUMACATION JOHNIVAN DARBY

BEARDO DAN DOUGHERTY

DOONESBURY GARRY TRUDEAU

DOWN 1 Hurdle 2 Certain metal beam 3 Wang of fashion 4 Long ago, once 5 Turnkey 6 Nixon’s number two 7 Kind of state that’s

peaceful 8 Piquancy 9 Attacked10 Brand of mops and

brooms11 Member of a Turkish

minority12 Russia’s ___ Moun-

tains13 Australian pal21 More hackneyed

23 Iraq war concerns, for short

25 Nonsense27 Chewing one’s nails,

e.g.28 The black swan in

“Swan Lake”29 E-ZPass charges30 Follower of Jul.32 Silver of fivethirtyeight

.com34 Near, poetically35 Fruit also known as a

prairie banana36 Inscribed stone slab38 Understand, informally39 Drawn (out)44 Lo-___ (not so clear)47 Shout after a series of

numbers

50 McDaniel of “Gone With the Wind”

52 Bring up, as a subject54 “Can you see” pre-

ceder56 “Sure, I remember!”57 Shrug-worthy58 Actor Jared of “My

So-Called Life”59 Do that may have a

pick60 Tirade62 Jimmy who wrote

“Galveston” and “Ma-cArthur Park”

63 Rights org. 64 Leg part65 Beep68 General on a menu

The crossword solution is in the Classified section.

ACROSS 1 Nonsense 5 Nonsense 9 Nonsense14 “California ___ Alles” (classic

punk rock song)15 James who wrote “A Death

in the Family”16 Car with a stylized caliper in

its logo17 Target of NASA’s Rover mis-

sion18 B&Bs19 Clear of vermin

à la the Pied Piper20 Nonsense22 Nonsense24 Near-prime seating26 Overseer of N.Y.C. subways27 Nonsense31 “Didn’t you leave out some-

thing …?”33 Emulates Jay Z and Master P37 Score before a service break,

maybe38 Windshield material40 ___ King Cole41 Nonsense42 Nonsense43 Nonsense45 “Well, ___ be!”46 River crossed by the Pont

d’Avignon48 Kingly49 “Sax on the Beach” musician

John51 ’50s presidential nickname52 Nonsense53 “Thumbs up” response55 Sailor’s tale57 Nonsense61 Nonsense66 Some jabs and turns67 “Right back ___!”69 Second hearing?70 Skylit rooms71 Tiny bit of time: Abbr.72 Thin Russian pancake73 Nonsense74 Nonsense75 Nonsense

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

14 15 16

17 18 19

20 21 22 23

24 25 26

27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36

37 38 39 40

41 42 43 44

45 46 47 48

49 50 51 52

53 54 55 56

57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65

66 67 68 69

70 71 72

73 74 75

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BY ANNA HECHTSTAFF WRITER

Old Man Jim: “Get out of my yard!”

Mr. Smith (stepping out of Doritos’ time machine): “Jim-my? You’re so old. It’s the future!”

After this fi nal line, the Dori-to logo fl ashes across the screen as millions viewed the Feb. 2 debut of Doritos’ contest-win-ning Super Bowl commerical, “Time Machine.” Jim Coates, University alumnus and the actor who played “Old Man Jim,” said he was approached to play the role of “Old Man Jim” by the commercial’s director, Ryan Andersen, and the com-mercial’s producer, Raj Suri.

“(Suri) and I had previously worked together on a web series pilot,” Coates said. “He said to me, ‘I have the perfect role for you ... a cranky old man.’ And, I said, ‘Well, I can do that.’”

Suri said that Coates’ “great visual aesthetic” and “good comedic timing” contributed to his decision to have Coates play the role.

“We needed someone who looked old but not clean cut,” Suri said. “Plus, Doritos com-mercials typically star inter-esting actors, and he just fi ts the bill with his physicality and quirkiness.”

Stephen Gresser, the commer-cial’s publicist, promoted “Time

Machine” on social media and also helped with production on set. After the cast was assem-bled, Gresser said that the piec-es fell into place, and they knew “Time Machine” was going to be “something special.”

“Jim’s experience in act-ing, his tremendous talent and range, and his professionalism all combine into a creative pack-age like none other,” Gresser said. “He is truly one of a kind, and we are honored to have had him as part of this project.”

Because the commercial aired on Superbowl Sunday, Coates said he is often recog-nized on the street, even being approached in the grocery store.

“I did a little spot commercial for Doritos ... for a contest and it ends up being the winning one and now I holler at people in the grocery store,” he said. “People say, ‘Aren’t you that guy?’ and I say, ‘Get out of my yard!’”

As an actor, Coates said the best part of his job is “build-ing characters that people don’t know, and taking on strange, quirky little roles.” He said his biggest accomplishments as an actor happened during his childhood.

“The best performances I had were in my backyard, using my dad’s army blanket and my mom’s clothesline and some bricks along the bottom so that the wind wouldn’t blow it over,”

Coates said. “As a kid, we used to call it ‘make believe.’ I just play. I play ‘as if.’ It’s what (Rus-sian actor) Stanislavski calls ‘the magic if.’”

And Coates said he “takes play very seriously” because “play” is when people show their true colors, both as actors and as human beings. To illus-trate his point, he referenced a quote by Greek Philosopher Pla-to: “You can learn more about a man in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.”

“That’s how you learn who the winners are, who the los-ers are, who the weeny-whin-ers are, who the cheaters are, who you do want on your team and who you don’t ever want on your team, all within an hour,” Coates said. “You could be talk-ing to someone who is a liar and a cheater and a rotten person for years and not know that. So, play is valuable. I am very seri-ous about my play.”

Currently, Coates resides in Phoenix, Ariz., where he is fi n-ishing up a 40-performance run of “Fiddler on the Roof.” He is also employed by Arizona Cur-riculum Theater Inc., a non-profi t organization that brings classical literature, arts, his-tory, sciences and mathematics to life for students.

Anna can be reached at [email protected].

UI alum plays Old Man Jim in Super Bowl commercial

Reddit co-founder to speak at Siebel CenterBY ALICE SMELYANSKYSTAFF WRITER

The man behind almost every trending Internet sensation is speaking at the Thomas M. Siebel Center for Computer Science on Tuesday as part of a nation-wide college book tour.

Alexis Ohanian, Reddit co-founder and author of “Without their Permission: How the 21st Century Will Be Made, Not Managed,” will engage in an entrepreneurial discussion with a University alum and participate in a networking event with students from 5 to 7 p.m.

Ohanian created Reddit, a site that allows users to post links and “upvote” them to the front of the webpage, in 2005 with Steve Huffman. The site is divided into various categories based on interests named “subreddits,” and users have the ability to vote on submissions to increase their visibility. Reddit is also known for its culture of free speech and loose regulations of content, igniting controversy throughout the years.

As of 2013, according to a Reddit blog , the site has received 56 billion page views, 3,676,091,578 comment votes

and 6.7 billion total votes. The most popular post in 2013 was “What gif reduces you to hysterical laughter every time,” and users commented with links to their favorite gifs, or small moving images.

“Without their Permission: How the 21st Century Will Be Made, Not Managed,” is about Ohanian’s journey as a young entrepreneur and includes tips and advice for those who aspire to “harness the power” of the Web, just as he did.

Alice can be reached at [email protected].

CAITLIN CRONENBERG MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNEAde wale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, left, and Kit Harington star in the proposal “Pompeii,” which opens Friday.

‘Pompeii’ fi lm brings TV actors together on the big screenBY RENE RODRIGUEZMCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE

MIAMI — In the 3-D spectacle “Pompeii,” which opens Friday, Kit Harington and Adewale Akinnu-oye-Agbaje play slaves forced to fi ght in gladiator battles in giant arenas — at least until that pesky volcano starts acting up. To reveal that the two men start out as mor-tal enemies and end up as friends doesn’t spoil anything: Instead, it reveals that “Pompeii” is a disas-ter movie with an unusual empha-sis on character. Yes, the destruc-tion is awesome, but the people who are swept up in it make you care.

Because there are so many plot-lines in the fi lm, Harington, 28, and Akinnuoye-Agbaje, 47, don’t get a lot of screen time to depict their transformation from foes to allies. But during a recent stop in Miami to promote the fi lm, the actors said developing a genuine connection was easy while prep-ping for the fi lm.

“We didn’t have any choice but to spend time together,” Haring-ton says. “We were constantly at gladiator boot camp and training in the gym together. It helped that Adewale is such a professional and lovely man. But by the time we started fi lming, you could see our camaraderie on the screen.”

The two actors also had cer-tain things in common: Both were born in London and burst into star-

dom via HBO shows: Akinnuoye-Agbaje spent four seasons playing the memorable Adebisi on “Oz,” while Harington is in his fourth season playing Jon Snow on the hit “Game of Thrones.”

Although actors who become famous playing iconic charac-ters on TV often have diffi culty being considered for other roles, both men say the attention their HBO shows brought them has been mostly a boon.

“It is defi nitely — excuse the pun — a double-edged sword,” Harington says about the snow-balling popularity of “Game of Thrones.” “But without ‘Thrones’ I wouldn’t have been offered a mov-ie like this. I love working on TV because it’s liberating. You get to spend six months on the same proj-ect, you’ve got steady work each year, and then you have six months to do what you like. You don’t have to do movies for money. You get to make them for passion. But yes, there are times when a TV role keeps you from doing some things you want to do.”

“There’s a nice balance that comes from working on TV,” Akin-nuoye-Agbaje says. “If the mate-rial is good, nothing else matters. Good work begets good work. When you’re fortunate enough to work with HBO, where they make groundbreaking shows and really focus on character devel-

opment, that has ramifi cations on your career. Everything I’ve done since, from ‘Lost’ to ‘The Bourne Identity,’ I’ve been hired based on my performance of that character on ‘Oz.’ So I could never knock it.”

With its gargantuan special effects, “Pompeii” requires a leap of faith from its actors (the cast includes Kiefer Sutherland and Carrie-Anne Moss) to hope the director will be able to bring to life what’s written on the page. But Harington and Akinnuoye-Agbaje say they didn’t hesitate to put their trust in the hands of fi lmmaker Paul W.S. Anderson (the “Resident Evil” movies, “Death Race”).

“This was a pet project for Paul that he had wanted to make for years,” Akinnuoye-Agbaje says. “Finally the special effects tech-nology became sophisticated enough for him to make it, and he had a big enough stature to get support from a studio. That gave me confi dence in him, because he had such a personal attachment to Pompeii. He was fascinated by it.”

“I knew I would be in good hands, because there are few directors out there who have as much experience with 3-D special effects as Paul,” Harington says. “He knows what he’s doing with this stuff. And when he’s direct-ing you, he knows exactly what he wants. That’s a great place to be for an actor.”

Page 6: The Daily Illini: Volume 143 Issue 77

6A | TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2014 | WWW.DAILYILLINI.COM

LIFE CULTURE

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BY ABBY GLICKMANSTAFF WRITER

E very day starts at 5 a.m. for Les Poole, when football practice preludes a full-time student class schedule. Accounting and finance coursework in the after-noon then leads to returning to his Resi-dent Adviser duties at Bromley Hall. At

night, when he is not working at Bromley’s front desk, he attends events for both his business fra-ternity, Delta Sigma Pi, and social fraternity, Pi Kappa Alpha.

Not many students can say they are as busy as Poole, a junior in Business. It is a constant balancing act to be involved in all of his activities and do well in school, Poole said, but he loves being a part of them. With academics and football at the top of his priori-ties, it is a challenge to factor in everything else.

Poole said the key to balancing it all is organiza-tion and time management.

“If you think that you can get something done, you can find a way to get it done,” he said.

Poole tried out for the University’s football team and became a wide receiver during his freshman year. He has always wanted to play at Illinois since being a football player from a young age. The sport has since challenged him with its constant surpris-es and has encouraged his competitive nature. Poole admitted joining the Illinois team was one of the best decisions of his life.

“It’s a dream come true and an awesome opportu-nity,” Poole said. “It’s not an opportunity that a lot

of people get.”Poole said that his parents are hard workers, and

he follows them by example at the University. “My parents were influential. I have a strong work

ethic because I’ve seen how much they’ve put into what they do,” he said.

Teammate Zach Grant, sophomore in Education, said he admires Poole’s friendly disposition, loyal-ty and dedication. Poole was one of the first people to step up and talk to Grant when he was new to the team last fall, he said. Grant was struck by Poole’s drive to always get better and how he cares about everybody on the team.

“He’s always in a good mood and always has a joke to tell in the locker room,” he said. “He’s not only a player but a true fan and believer.”

Aside from spending time on the football team, Poole works around the clock as an RA at Bromley Hall. He said he applied as a freshman because he wanted to develop leadership skills and have fun.

“I don’t think of it as a job but as a cool opportuni-ty,” he said. “I’ve met a ton of people there who I’ve built strong connections with.”

One of his fellow RAs that he has gotten to know is Sam Saban, junior in Education, who said Poole is known at Bromley as the “goofy one.”

“Working with Les is always fun; there’s never a dull moment,” Saban said. “It’s a blast.”

Poole said he enjoys the company of the residents on his floor. As a well-rounded group that is social and fun-loving, the residents are not a hassle, Poole said, because they behave themselves.

“They make my job easier and more enjoyable,” he said.

If not at Bromley or playing football, Poole spends time with his fraternities.He joined Pi Kappa Alpha during the spring of his freshman year to branch out and meet more people. He chose Pi Kappa Alpha

because “it felt like the right fit,” and also that he mixed in well with the members.

Out of all the people he has met and the strong relationships he has built, Poole’s favorite aspect of Greek life is his brothers. He described them as people he can envision being at his wedding in the future.

“He has so much on his plate; how he handles it is beyond me,” said Conor Donohue, also a junior in Business and fraternity brother of Pi Kappa Alpha. “He’s the most hardworking individual I know. I’m proud to call him my friend.”

Poole then decided to join Delta Sigma Pi Business Fraternity during the spring of his sophomore year to meet people in a more mature setting than his social fraternity and to develop more professionally.

In Delta Sigma Pi, Poole said he participates in events such as competitions between other business fraternities, as well as mock interviews, resume cri-tiques and talking to employers.

“It helps you improve yourself for when you get into the business setting,” he said.

Although his activities take up a lot of his time, Poole said that school is his first priority. However, he likes that they give him a chance to escape the stress and have fun, he said.

After completing his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in accounting, Poole plans to work for one of the Big Four accounting firms. Down the road, he is considering teaching business and coaching foot-ball at either the high school or college level.

Poole said that when life becomes stressful, he reminds himself that at the root of it, he loves what he does.

“At the end of the day, I put my head on the pillow and know the reason I keep going,” he said.

Abby can be reached at [email protected].

Reddit co-founder to visit campusAs a part of nationwide college book tour, Alexis Ohanian will speak at the Siebel Center tonight at 5. Turn to Page 5A to read more about the event.

From the football !eld to fraternities, Les is more

GREEK OF THE WEEK

PORTRAIT BY BRENTON TSE THE DAILY ILLINI

LES POOLEONE!MAN BALANCING ACT

Page 7: The Daily Illini: Volume 143 Issue 77

SPORTS1BTUESDAY

BY SEAN HAMMONDSENIOR WRITER

John Groce was beat out by his former mentor Thad Matta on Saturday when Illinois basketball fell to Ohio State 48-39 at State Farm Center. But the two coaches exchanged a few words after the game, and Matta had some advice for his former top assistant.

“I told him to stay the course, nobody’s going to work harder than him,” Matta said after his Buckeyes won their fourth Big Ten contest in fi ve attempts.

Even though he’s never won less than 20 games in a season as a head coach, Matta has experienced losing. As a freshman guard for Southern Illinois during the 1985-86 season, the Salukis won their opening game and then dropped eight straight on their way to an 8-20 season.

He knows what Groce is going through, as Illinois has now lost 10 of its last 11.

“You just keep doing what your doing. The hardest part is, unfortunately to say it, is you guys,” Matta told the media. “In terms of what’s beings said, it makes it hard on the kids. With social media, players read that stuff. You want your players’ ears and sometimes you’re not the person they’re listening to.”

There has been negativity surrounding this Illini squad for the better part of a month and a half, and maybe rightfully so, as they have slipped into sole possession

of last place in the Big Ten.During Monday’s Big Ten Teleconference,

Groce said his staff is still teaching this squad’s fi ve freshman what it takes to win. It’s apparent that they haven’t fi gured it out yet, but the veteran leadership on this team has been there.

Tracy Abrams, Nnanna Egwu and Joseph Bertrand were all here a year ago when the Illini fell four points shy of a Sweet 16 appearance.

If the hardest part is ignoring the media, as Matta said, then the second hardest part might be fi nding answers to the media’s questions.

“It’s just a matter of going out and listening to what coach was saying and executing,” Abrams said for the umpteenth time this year following Saturday’s loss.

“It starts with me, Tracy, Joe and (Jon) Ekey as leaders to lead these guys and show them a good example,” Egwu said. They’ve said that before, too.

Groce has not yet implemented the entire offense that made his Ohio teams so much fun to watch before he was hired at Illinois.

“You have to have depth to do that,” Groce said. “We’ve had to adapt based on

our personnel for two years, and that’s our job: to adapt.”

With only 11 active players, it’s tough to run the up-tempo style that won Ohio three NCAA tournament games in three seasons. Those teams were spearheaded by great point guard play, something Groce has not seen with enough consistency this year.

“The point guard position to basketball is no different than quarterback in football,”

he said. Abrams has been a vocal leader for Illinois all season, but the performance on the court has been up and down.

On Saturday, Abrams had 13 points for the Illini after back-to-back games of three and two points against Nebraska and Penn State, respectively. Backup Jaylon Tate was simply overwhelmed by the play of Buckeyes point man Aaron Craft.

One could pinpoint any position on the Illini roster and say it needs to perform better. That’s part of staying the course. Groce will likely follow Matta’s advice. But it gets harder with every loss.

Sean can be reached at [email protected] and @sean_hammond.

Groce gets advice as Illini continue to slide

It’sdiffi cult to imagine the world of professional sports without the All-Star game. Isn’t it?

I mean, forgetting about the Pro Bowl, (because let’s be real, it really is a fake game) the big professional All-Star games are important. The games themselves are key, but what is also key is the signifi cance of All-Star weekends, which cannot be emphasized enough.

All-Star weekends provide fans with the opportunity to see the athletes in a much less formal contest: who their professional buddies are, what kind of things they think are funny, and what they do when they aren’t under a ton of pressure. The MLB Home Run Derby is one of my favorite sporting events of the year because I get to see the players and their families casually sprawled out on the grass inside a packed stadium, and I get to watch them root for their counterparts. Not to mention the fact that I love hearing Chris Berman use the word “back” 35 times in 15 seconds.

Skills competitions are also great ways to show off the sheer talent of the athletes involved, and they remind fans why not everyone can play pro sports. The skills competition, 3-point contest and dunk contest are must-watches, as is the aforementioned Home Run Derby and the NHL skills competitions. Watching these events is a fun way to see players showcase skills they may

not be able to put to full use in games.The games themselves also demonstrate

players’ talent, but they are, of course, more than that. All three (again, ignore the Pro Bowl) serve as an important benchmark in each sports’ respective season and provide different but interesting draws.

In the MLB, the league that wins the All-Star game earns the right to home-fi eld advantage in the World Series, and therefore, victory in the game becomes a real incentive.

In the NHL, the All-Star game is played in an original format (just adopted by the Pro Bowl, but remember, we’re not talking about that) that is familiar to anyone who has ever

I haven’t watched an All-Star game since Dustin Fenili’s birthday party in sixth grade.Not an MLB all-star game, a NBA all-star

game, a Pro Bowl or an NHL all-star game (if I’m being honest, I had to look up whether the NHL even has an all-star game). My lack of viewership shows how I feel about all-star games — they don’t matter, they’re a waste of my time and of everyone else’s, including the

players’.Sure, I, like everyone else, love seeing

the best of the best compete against each other, no matter what the competition, but all-star games don’t provide fans with that opportunity. The athletes don’t compete at their highest level. Never in a real NBA game will you see a team score 89 points in the fi rst half, especially if that team doesn’t win. I realize that no team will ever have the combined offensive fi repower of Kevin Durant, Blake Griffi n, Stephen Curry, etc. But if the all-star game were a true measure of the world’s best basketball players competing, the fi nal score wouldn’t be 163-155.

Major League Baseball has tried to increase competition by increasing the stakes, with the winner of the all-star game taking home fi eld advantage in the world series, but only two of the 30 teams are actually affected by this outcome, and it seems like an arbitrary and unfair way to determine who gets such a distinct advantage in the championship series.

A perfect example of why all-star games don’t matter can be seen right now, on the coast of the Black Sea in southern Russia.

While the NHL takes a break, the league’s best are competing against each other for Olympic gold. It’s amazing to see a team composed of Patrick Kane, Phil Kessel and TJ Oshie compete against another side composed of Sidney Crosby, Jonathan Toews and Ryan Getzlaf. Casual fans of the sport are much more likely to tune in because of national pride and seeing the world’s best compete on the highest stage.

Moving to a system where the Olympics

All-star games continue to interest Olympics better alternative to all-star games

POINTCOUNTERPOINTDO ALL-STAR GAMES STILL MATTER?

PETER BAILEY-WELLS

Staff writer

JOHNATHAN HETTINGER

Staff writer

SEE COUNTERPOINT | 2B

SEE POINT | 2B

4. Michigan

Editor’s note: Every week, The Daily Illini basketball staff ranks the basketball teams in the Big Ten 1-12 and compiles the lists

into its own Big Ten power rankings.

12. Illinois

Power rankings

1. Iowa 2. Wisconsin

DAILY ILLINI STAFF REPORT

5. Ohio State

10. Northwestern

8. Minnesota 7. Purdue

The Badgers are on a four-game winning streak, including wins over conference leaders Michigan and Michigan State. With a matchup at Iowa on Saturday, Wisconsin has a chance to climb even higher in

the power rankings. It seems likely that Bo Ryan’s streak of fi nishing in the top four of the conference will continue.

The Huskers are on a three-game winning streak and have surprisingly entered NCAA tournament discussion after a 60-51

win over Michigan State in East Lansing, Mich. With fi ve very winnable games left on their schedule, the Huskers may make it to their fi rst NCAA tournament of the 21st century in head coach

Tim Miles’ second season.

3. Michigan State

9. Indiana

6. Nebraska

11. Penn State

The Illini have fallen back into last place after a nine-point loss to Nebraska and a 39-point showing against Ohio State. Although Illinois went 2-0 against Penn State this season, the “anemic”

offense, in the words of head coach John Groce, has fallen into even further dysfunction than in the two wins against the Nittany Lions.

MITCHELL LAYTON MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNECavaliers point guard Kyrie Irving was the NBA All-Star Game MVP, scoring 31 points and 14 assists as the East beat the West 163-155, an unrealistic score that prompted the question, “Do all-star games still matter?”

“I told (Groce) to stay the course,

nobody’s going to work harder than

him.”THAD MATTA

OHIO STATE HEAD COACH

A perfect example of why all-star games don’t matter can be seen right now, on the coast of the Black Sea in southern Russia.

All-Star weekends provide fans with the opportunity to see the athletes in a much less formal

contest: who their professional buddies are, what kind of

things they think are funny...

BRENTON TSE THE DAILY ILLINIOhio State head coach Thad Matta advised Illinois head coach John Groce, pictured, to “stay the course.” Groce’s squad is in last place in the Big Ten, and Groce and his team have been unable to come up with answers to the media’s questions.

Page 8: The Daily Illini: Volume 143 Issue 77

BY CHARLOTTE CARROLLSTAFF WRITER

The Illinois softball team opened outdoor play at the USF Tournament in Tampa, Fla., this weekend with three straight wins and finished with two losses, giving the Illini their best season start in program history.

Illinois pitching combined for 18 strikeouts and 10 walks under starters freshman Brandi Needham, junior Shelese Arnold and freshman relief pitcher Jade Vecvanags. Needham had a 1.26 ERA where Arnold had 5.83 ERA. Needham and Arnold each pitched a shutout in Friday’s doubleheader. Against Wright State on Friday, Arnold got the first two batters out of each inning and didn’t allow a runner past first base. Vecvangas closed the final two innings of Saturday’s game against Binghamton, allowing just one base off a hit batter and finishing a perfect game in the bottom of the fifth.

“I was just sticking to our game plan and pitching goal,” Arnold said of Friday’s game. “That was the main thing. It was trusting

Jenna and our defense.”Offense lacking in second week of play

The Illini offense came out swinging the first three games. In the 8-0 Wright State win, sophomore Remeny Perez went 1-for-2 with a walk, two RBIs and a run scored. Senior Alex Booker

went 1-for-3 with two RBIs and a stolen base. In the 2-0 Pittsburgh win, Illinois had five hits over seven innings. Perez went 4-for-4 with a double, a home run, two runs and four RBIs in the 15-2 win over Binghamton. Freshman

Ruby Rivera went 3-for-4 with a double, two runs scored and an RBI, while sophomore Allie Bauch, freshman Nicole Evans and Booker each had two hits in the game.

Illinois struggled against both No. 1 Tennessee and South Florida, which was ranked No. 23 in the preseason. While Illinois lost to South Florida in the final innings, they were shutout by Tennessee. Against All-American senior pitchers Ellen Renfroe from Tennessee and Sara Nevins from South Florida, Illinois failed to produce the same results it had from the first three games. In the 10-0 loss to Tennessee, Bauch went 2-for-3 while senior Jenna Mychko, junior Jess Perkins and Booker each had one hit off Renfroe. The Illini had just one earned run on five hits in the 2-1 loss against the Bulls. Junior Brittany Sanchez drove in the tying run on a two-out single in the sixth. Rivera also had her first career stolen base.

Charlotte can be reached at [email protected]

“I was just sticking to our game plan and pitching goal. That was the main

thing.”SHELESE ARNOLD

PITCHER

2B Tuesday, February 18, 2014 THE DAILY ILLINI | WWW.DAILYILLINI.COM

are the only stage where the world’s best all-star lineups collide would provide an even bigger build-up for the games, but it would also provide more incentive for the world’s best to compete, which has been a problem in the past. Although this would take more time out of the different leagues’ schedules than an all-star break, it would

only happen once every four years, so the leagues could justify a longer break.

One argument against this is that the NFL couldn’t have an all-star game because other countries don’t play football, but, as my fellow writer Peter Bailey-Wells concedes, no one likes the Pro Bowl, anyway.

The most fun part of the All-Star break in every sport is the fun games that come with it, like the home run derby or the dunk contest. The leagues could

still have these extra elements to showcase the fun talents of the world’s best athletes, but the all-star games are dated and unrealistic representations of the sports.

Instead, let’s let the world’s best compete every four years for a gold medal. I’ll tune in to that.

Johnathan can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @jhett93.

played pickup sports at recess. Mixing stars from different conferences leads to interesting pairings and unique matchups.

In the NBA, the game is fun, but the biggest part of the game is perhaps who wins the MVP award. Discounting active players, only seven players have ever won the award that have not been inducted into the basketball hall of fame, and Shaquille

O’Neal and Allen Iverson are headed there sooner rather than later. The award is significant enough to merit some effort on the part of the players involved.

Another factor to consider when making the argument for the All-Star game is the considerable charitable impact of the weekend festivities. One example of this is the massive amount of money that the Home Run Derby raises for the Boys and Girls Clubs with the golden baseballs they use for the final pitches of each batter.

So while sometimes they seem goofy (Sunday’s NBA All-Star game had a final score of 163-155), the All-Star games are important parts of professional sports and should be enjoyed for what they are.

So while the Pro Bowl remains irrelevant, don’t sleep the other All-Star games. You just might miss something.

Peter is a freshman in Media. He can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @pbaileywells22.

BY STEPHEN BOURBONSTAFF WRITER

After 26 games with the same roster, Illinois women’s basket-ball head coach Matt Bollant still doesn’t know what to expect from his players.

The 2013-14 season has been an inconsistent one at best for the Illi-ni (9-17, 2-11 Big Ten), and Bol-lant believes that effort has been a major factor in the team’s ups and downs.

“We talk about getting to first base, and that’s playing hard,” Bol-lant said. “We’re not there yet but at times we’re close. Certainly a lot closer than we were against Iowa.”

Bollant has tried shaking up the lineup to instigate change — every player still on the roster has at least four starts — but nothing has quite worked to snap the Illini’s current losing skid.

Illinois has lost seven consecu-tive games and has yet to win a conference home game this sea-son. The Illini roster is under-manned; the Illini currently have only nine healthy players, and just one senior, but need consistent effort to get over the hump in a conference that has five of the top 31 teams in RPI.

“The Big Ten is a very competi-tive league,” senior Amber Moore said. “We’re trying to fight, we’re practicing hard every day. We just have to bring it to the court and hopefully next game, we get that.”

Tuck puts together career game

After a two-game stretch where guard/forward Taylor Tuck didn’t leave the bench, the junior has responded with back-to-back pro-ductive games for the Illini.

Tuck scored nine points on 3-of-5 shooting in 17 minutes against Iowa on Feb. 13 and built on that

performance Sunday against Michigan. Tuck set a new career-high for with 18 points in 31 min-utes to go with two rebounds, two assists and a block. For an Illinois team that has struggled to score in recent games, a boost off the bench was key.

“I thought Taylor had her best game of the year, coming off the bench,” Bollant said.

Tuck was a starter to open the season while the team was with-out Alexis Smith but had been averaging 2.2 points per confer-ence game before being benched. The 6-foot junior also gives Illi-nois some size and length on the perimeter — both key aspects to a successful trapping zone defense like the “Buzz.”

“Coming off the bench, my focus is to just contribute,” Tuck said. “Whether that’s finishing open shots or pressuring the ball up top. Just doing anything I can to help our team.”

Play 4Kay game draws big crowd

Sunday’s contest marked the annual Play 4Kay pink game to raise awareness for breast cancer.

Play 4Kay is an event that sup-ports the Kay Yow Cancer Fund to raise cancer awareness and funds for women’s cancer research. The Illini participated last season and have worn pink jerseys the past three games this year in honor of the initiative.

Sunday’s attendance of 3,018 was the second highest of the season, only behind a crowd of 3,306 for a home tilt against No. 16 Nebraska on Jan. 12.

Stephen can be reached at [email protected] and @steve_bourbon.

Women’s basketball struggles despite Tuck’s standout games

At 8-2, Illini softball opens with best start of in program’s history

First-series loss does not set tone for baseball’s entire season

Maybe I jinxed them.After I wrote last

week about the baseball team’s pitching prowess, Illinois went to Georgia State and turned in “one of the worst pitching performances in a three-game series” that manager Dan Hartleb said he’s been involved in.

Granted, it’s only their first series of the year, and the Illini have plenty of time to steady the ship. But they led in all three games going into the seventh inning and ended up dropping two of them to begin the season 1-2. In both losses it was the Illini bullpen that faltered, relinquishing late one-run leads, including a blown save in the ninth on Friday.

Squandering leads early in the season can rattle the confidence of a team and its fans. I knew it was going to be a long year for the 2013 Cubs when they blew multiple saves last April. It’s definitely too early to get overly concerned, but I’m sure Hartleb doesn’t want this to become a common theme going forward. Hopefully the Illini bullpen can tighten the screws.

The Illini offense had a good showing over the weekend, turning some of the question marks about the team’s hitting into exclamation points. Illinois actually outscored Georgia State 29-28, despite dropping two of three games. It looks like the burden of replacing Justin Parr and Thomas Lindauer’s 2013 production will be shared by Reid Roper, Will Krug, David Kerian and Ryan Nagle. Roper slugged two home runs in the series, which is just one short of his total from all of last season. Krug was 7 for 16 at the plate. If the Illini can get similar run production going forward, it will take considerable pressure off the pitching staff.

Let’s stay on the diamond, but shift our focus to softball. If you haven’t noticed the early season success of the Illinois softball team, it’s time to start paying attention. Terri Sullivan’s squad is 8-2 in the young season, with one of its losses coming against No. 1 Tennessee.

The Illini are getting it done with pitching. Led by freshman Brandi Needham, they have given up only 14 combined runs over the course of their eight wins. Their 8-0 start (which set a record for the best streak to begin a season in program history) included back-to-back shutouts. It’s somewhat surprising for a team that only returned one pitcher from last season.

The 8-2 start is a far cry from last season, when the Illini dropped 13 of their first 17 games. They’ll have their work cut out for them, as the 2014 schedule includes 20 teams that made the NCAA tournament last year. Still, look for the 2014 Illini to easily surpass their 2013 record of 22-27 and finish above .500.

We all know State Farm Center has turned into a House of Horrors for our beloved men’s and women’s hoops teams this winter. Wouldn’t it be nice if the play at neighboring Illinois and Eichelberger Fields gave fans something to cheer about this spring?

Alex is a sophomore in AHS. He can be reached at [email protected] and @aroux94.

ALEX ROUX

Illini columnist

COUNTERPOINTFROM 1B

POINTFROM 1B

BRENTON TSE THE DAILY ILLINIIllinois head coach Matt Bollant has tried to change the lineup during the Illini’s seven-game losing streak and found success instilling Taylor Tuck, who scored a career-high 18 points, but it wasn’t enough.

Bullpen needs to ‘tighten screws,’ avoid blown leads

BY NICHOLAS FORTINASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

The Illinois baseball team’s play last weekend was inconsistent to say the least.

The Illini opened their first weekend of play against Georgia State expecting to be led by a talented pitching staff and supported by a young, inexperienced offense. Instead, Illinois’ play was uneven and the team dropped two of its first three games.

“Talking the talk is a lot easier than walking the walk,” sophomore starting pitcher Kevin Duchene said. “From a pitching staff standpoint, it was very humbling. When your offense scores 29 runs and you come away with a 1-2 record, it

obviously reflects something that needs to be addressed and worked on. I would say that we learned a lot about ourselves, but this isn’t something that we’re used to.”

Illinois dropped both the first and third game of the weekend series despite leading both contests in the seventh inning. The first game ended in extra innings with a blown save in the ninth that led to the Panthers’ 5-4 win. The third game was similar but ended in a 10-6 win for Georgia State. The Illini were able to bounce back in the second game of the series to pull out a 19-13 win in the second game.

Two of the Illini’s three starters pitched well on the weekend as sophomore Kevin Duchene and junior Drasen Johnson combined

to throw 12 2/3 innings and 13 strikeouts. Johnson, who had his first start of his career on Sunday, finished with 10 strikeouts, and Duchene only allowed two runs through 6 1/3 innings; however, neither performed well enough to help their team win.

Junior John Kravetz allowed five runs and didn’t get through the first inning. Freshman Cody Sedlock made his debut for Illinois and settled in while Illinois mounted a comeback, eventually exploding for eight runs in the fourth inning.

Illinois’ offense was stable throughout the series but couldn’t capitalize on a number of opportunities, stranding 34 runners on base over the weekend.

“I knew going in that there would be some things that we needed to find out,” head coach Dan Hartleb said. “I think my frustration is the things I thought we had to find out would

be offensively and defensively, and those areas I thought we did a very good job and made some progress and did some positive things.”

Bullpen proves to be weak spot for Illini

The bullpen was a spot of particular concern for Illinois as the Illini relief pitchers combined to give up nine runs in the two losses.

The relief pitchers also walked 13 batters and only struck out 12 over the weekend.

“The thing that I’m most frustrated with is our pitching,” Hartleb said. “Pitching should be strong. I believe it should be strong, and it was terrible.”

Offense provides relief for Illini

It didn’t take long for juniors Reid Roper and Will Krug to get

going offensively.Krug and Roper combined

to go 3-for-8 with two runs and two RBIs In Illinois’ first game of the season against Georgia State.

The Illini finished the weekend with 29 runs scored and 25 RBIs, both of which were higher than the team totals from a season ago.

Roper had a particularly strong weekend, finishing with two home runs, four runs and seven RBIs in three games.

“I thought I was pretty good overall,” Roper said. “There were a few at-bats that I was not very happy with, but I felt like I was seeing the ball pretty well. Going from here I’d like to make more consistent contact and hit the ball hard every time I’m up.”

Nicholas can be reached at [email protected] and @IlliniSportsGuy.

Pitching consistency a point of emphasis for Illini

Squandering leads early in the season can rattle the confidence of a team and its fans ... Hopefully the Illini bullpen can tighten the screws.

Opening series losses prove to be learning experience for team

FOLAKE OSIBODU THE DAILY ILLINIIllinois pitcher Kevin Duchene allowed two runs through 6 1/3 innings against Georgia State but wasn’t able to help the Illini win.

Page 9: The Daily Illini: Volume 143 Issue 77

BY SEAN NEUMANNSTAFF WRITER

For two Illini hockey fans, Sat-urday night’s 6-3 win over Indi-ana won’t be the first thing to come to mind when remember-ing the date Feb. 15, 2014. It will be their engagement.

Kara Miller and Craig Mof-fett, of Arthur, Ill., walked onto the Big Pond in front of 1,078 fans to participate in WPGU’s Shoot the Puck challenge — a regular occurrence during the first intermission of Illini home games.

Miller had outscored her boy-friend 1-0 after their final shots were taken and said she was sur-prised when she turned around to see zero pucks in the back of Moffett’s net. But what she turned around to see next was one of the biggest surprises of her life.

Down on one knee, Moffett held up an engagement ring and asked her the question to the soundtrack of over 1,000 cheer-ing fans. Her answer was yes.

It seemed strange to some fans that Moffett would choose an Illini hockey game as the place to propose, but the junior high social studies teacher said the Big Pond held special sig-nificance to their relationship’s history.

Four years ago, the couple had their first date on the Big Pond — a double-date skate with

Miller’s brother Mike and his then-girlfriend. A short while later, the two returned to the arena for an Illini hockey game on Valentine’s Day. Little did they know their relationship would take the next step on the very same ice, a little over four years later.

“I’m still in shock,” said Mill-er, a second grade teacher at Lovington grade school. She had spent most of the game’s

second period calling family, telling them the good news.

“I talked to everybody before-hand to give them a heads up. ‘It’s about time!’ I got that one a lot,” Moffett said with a smile. “I’m a procrastinator, so I held out as long as I could.”

Moffett is the head coach of the Arthur-Lovington girls’ var-sity basketball team. Two days prior to the proposal, his team lost its regional championship

game in double-overtime to Sul-livan high school,84-77. Moffett lost his voice during the close contest, but managed to find enough strength to pop the ques-tion Saturday night in front of the biggest Illini home crowd of the season.

“I haven’t really slept much since then,” Moffett said. “I’ve been getting ready for this, but I’m going to sleep good tonight.”

Illini head coach Nick Fab-

brini said the news of the on-ice engagement quickly trav-eled to the locker room, where players were getting ready to come back out on the ice for the second period.

“Stuff like that just adds to the experience,” Fabbrini said after the game. “It just adds to the mystique. This place has been around a long time, and there’s been a lot of cool stuff

that’s happened here, from our games and championships being won here to Bonnie Blair train-ing for four Olympics here. Illini hockey games are about great experiences, and stuff like that makes it just that much more special.”

Sean can be reached at [email protected] and @Neumannthehuman.

3B Tuesday, February 18, 2014 THE DAILY ILLINI | WWW.DAILYILLINI.COM

Illini hockey provides memorable experiences for all

Wrestling splits matches at NWCA National Duals BY DANIEL DEXTER STAFF WRITER

With hopes of gaining more momentum heading into the Big Ten Tournament, the No. 15 Illi-nois wrestling team traveled to Columbus, Ohio, for the NWCA National Duals on Sunday and Monday.

Illinois began the tournament with a loss to Central Michigan by a score of 19-13 before bounc-ing back with a 23-8 victory over Bloomsburg on Sunday. On Mon-day, the team reversed the order, winning 24-13 over Kent State before falling to Oregon State 18-17 to finish the weekend 2-2.

Against Central Michigan, head coach Jim Heffernan said the team let three close matches get away, two by one point and one in overtime.

Even though Central Michigan isn’t ranked, Heffernan said he doesn’t think his team underes-timated its opponent because the team is usually talented. Central Michigan was knocked out of the winners bracket the next round by No. 11 Oklahoma.

Illinois’ opening-round loss sent it to the consolation brack-et where it faced Bloomsburg, a team the Illini previously defeat-ed at the Grapple in the Garden.

“Bloomsburg gave Oklahoma everything they had in the first round, and it was a really close dual,” Heffernan said. “We knew what to expect from Bloomsburg because we had wrestled them earlier in the year.”

The rematch of the two teams had a similar result, as Illinois was able to come away with a

23-8 victory. Against Blooms-burg, the Illini bounced back in weight classes that they had lost in the previous round, including a major decision victory from sophomore Steven Rodrigues.

Heffernan also praised the efforts of redshirt freshman John Fahy and sophomore Jeff Koepke. Both wrestlers filled in for the injured Caleb Ervin and Mario Gonzalez, respectively. Ervin and Gonzalez competed up a weight class, and Fahy was able to get an upset win over Blooms-burg’s No. 18 Bryce Busler. Hef-fernan expects the injured wres-tlers to return in time for the Big Ten Tournament.

Illinois opened up its compe-tition on Monday against Kent State, which was coming off a victory over Iowa State followed

by a loss to Ohio State. The Illini controlled the entire dual meet and were able to accomplish something they struggled with the previous day: getting bonus points. Illinois had three wres-tlers win by major decision and junior Jesse Delgado won by a pin on the team’s way to a 24-13 victory.

One of the wrestlers to earn a major decision was junior Jack-son Morse. Delgado and Morse were the only two wrestlers to win all four of their matches in the tournament. Morse was sat-isfied with how he did during the tournament and said it cre-ated some personal momentum for him heading into the Big Ten Tournament; however, he still found room for improvement despite the success.

“I need to be able to score more in third period,” Morse said. “I wasn’t scoring much in the third period this weekend, and I need to be able to do that in big match-es coming up.”

The team finished the tourna-ment with another close loss, this time against Oregon State by a score of 18-17.

The dual came down to heavy-weight Chris Lopez with the Illini trailing by four. Lopez was able to secure an upset victory over No. 15 Amarveer Dhesi, but he didn’t get the team points necessary to tie or win the dual. Despite the team loss, Lopez was content with the way he performed in the match. He felt he opened himself up more against his opponent, which is something he hopes to carry over into the postseason.

Overall, Heffernan said the tournament was beneficial to his team since it gives them even more practice before the post-season. From here on, the wres-tlers will be competing for them-selves, and they have already turned their focus toward the next step.

“Every match we go into, we have the intention of winning. Obviously we wanted to bring back a team trophy, but it didn’t work out that way,” Lopez said. “But we aren’t going to dwell too much on how we did here because in a couple of weeks we have Big Tens, which is basically what we have been training for all year.”

Daniel can be reached at [email protected] and @ddexter23.

Risk of injury in international competition gives athletes a tough choice

For most people, if you asked them to choose between their job and

their country, they would choose their country for the sake of patriotism.

In pro sports, that choice is a bit tougher.

The captain of Sweden’s Olympic hockey team is Hen-rik Zetterberg, who plays for the Detroit Red Wings in the NHL. He was recently removed from Olympic com-petition because of a herni-ated disk problem that arose overnight in Sochi last Friday.

Zetterberg’s Red Wings are currently sitting in the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, currently one point ahead of the Colum-bus Blue Jackets. Zetterberg’s injury marks an unfortunate turn of events for Detroit, who sent 10 players to Sochi to compete in the Olympics. Zetterberg is the teams’ cap-tain, as well as first-line cen-ter and leading goal scorer.

Is international success worth the risk of a failed season with a club team? Of course it is, but only in cer-tain sports where the inter-national competition is on the same level or above that of the club championship.

Zetterberg’s choice to par-ticipate in the Winter Games was the right one, even though he endangered the Red Wings’ season by doing so. The importance of Olympic hockey as hockey’s premiere inter-national competition, and one that holds significance both in the sport and beyond makes Zetterberg’s choice very valid.

Hockey is not the only sport where this dilemma aris-es; although, it is the only one where international play exists in the middle of a pro-fessional or club season. In baseball, the World Baseball Classic falls during the win-ter months when the MLB is not in season, but the pitch-ers involved have to deal with the additional strain on arms that rely on the five months of rest between the end of the season and the start of spring training.

The World Baseball Clas-sic is not the Olympic hockey

tournament. To put it in per-spective, little leaguers don’t put “win a WBC title” on the top of their baseball to-do-list; they write “win a World Series”.

Daisuke Matsuzaka was an unfortunate waste of my beloved Boston Red Sox’s money and time because he placed a premium on pitching in the WBC, which effective-ly ended his career in Boston. In 2007 and 2008, Matsuzaka compiled a 33-15 record and was a significant contributor to the Red Sox pitching rota-tion. In the 2008-2009 offsea-son, he was the star of the Jap-anese WBC team and pitched his way to the competition’s MVP award.

In the 2009 season for the Red Sox, Dice-K started just 12 games, and finished with a 4-6 record and an ERA of 5.76. His next three seasons were more of the same and involved him drowning in poor control and various shoulder injuries.

Dice-K’s choice was the wrong one, and I don’t feel this way just because I’m a Red Sox fan. The WBC was in its inaugural edition when he won the MVP award in 2006 and had not yet established

international credibility (in my opinion, it still hasn’t). He certainly got his payout from the decision, as the Sox sent a $52 million contract his way, but because of his vari-ous injuries, has not had the professional success that he might have dreamed of.

It is tough, but it comes down to the prestige of the event in question and the impact of participating. The FIFA World Cup is similar to Zetterberg’s hockey choice because it is an event with extreme historical impor-tance and to win it is undoubt-edly the primary goal of every soccer player worldwide. In addition, the low risk of inju-ry involved in the World Cup allows participants to play without scaring their clubs that they might pick up an injury.

It’s a proud thing to play for one’s country, but foolish patriotism can cost athletes dollars and titles. Don’t be that guy. Don’t be Dice-K.

Peter is a freshman in Media. He can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @pbaileywells22.

PETER BAILEY-WELLS

Sports columnist

MICHAEL BOJDA THE DAILY ILLINICraig Moffett proposes to his girlfriend, Kara Miller, during the intermission of Saturday’s 6-3 Illini win against the Indiana Hoosiers at the IIllinois Ice Arena.

BRIAN CASSELLA CHICAGO TRIBUNESweden’s Henrik Zetterberg (40) defends Czech Republic’s Michal Rozsival (32). Zetterberg suffered a herniated disk on Friday. The injury will limit Detroit’s star as the Red Wings compete for a playoff spot in the NHL, a risk that Zetterberg took by competing in the Olympics.

Bulls expect little change before Thursday’s NBA trade deadlineBY K.C. JOHNSONCHICAGO TRIBUNE

Barring a championship this season — and perhaps not even then — the summer of 2014 always pointed toward change for the Chicago Bulls.

Derrick Rose’s second straight season-ending knee injury mere-ly accelerated the process. Luol Deng, due to be an unrestrict-ed free agent, got traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers last month for a contract to be waived later — hours later.

Avoiding the repeater luxu-ry tax — which the Bulls are on track to do as they continue their 10-day contract/12-man roster dance — became management’s prudent path once Rose went down. But what executive vice president of basketball opera-tions John Paxson said the day Deng got dealt could be telling as Thursday’s trade deadline bears down.

“In talking to (Chairman Jer-ry Reinsdorf), we are confident that we are going to take these resources and put them back into our team in the form of players and trying to get better,” Paxson said Jan. 7.

In the context of this week, that certainly sounds like a fran-chise looking strictly to make basketball moves and no longer

financial ones. In other words, though players such as Kirk Hin-rich and Mike Dunleavy have been involved in rumors, unless a team offers a young rotation player or first-round pick, it’s unlikely they will be dealt.

In fact, Dunleavy, with his $3.3 million salary next season, matches the description of the essential player in the current collective bargaining agreement — a rotation player with an affordable sala-ry who fits with All-Stars.

Speaking at the Bulls’ annu-al charity func-tion last week, Paxson and general manag-er Gar Forman downplayed the likelihood of making anoth-er big splash this week. This summer, when the Bulls could use the amnes-ty provision on Carlos Boozer and enter the free-agent market for either overseas star Nikola Mirotic or other rotation play-ers, is when more changes are coming.

“We do think we’re well-posi-

tioned going into the summer,” Forman said last week. “We’ve got the possibility of a couple of first-round picks. We’ve got the possibility of some flexibil-ity. And as I’ve said all along, the core guys we have, we like. So we think we’re well-situated going into this summer and the future.”

Minor change is coming. The Bulls will add a 13th player

Tuesday, like-ly via a 10-day c o n t r a c t . Familiar face Mike James is a candidate to be signed for the remainder of the season once the Bulls get through their 10-day deals.

The Bulls return from the All-Star break for a Tuesday afternoon prac-

tice with a three-game winning streak. Wednesday’s game in Toronto is one of 12 remain-ing in their final 30 against a team currently .500 or better. Sixteen of their final games are against teams currently in play-off position.

CHRIS SWEDA CHICAGO TRIBUNEThe Chicago Bulls’ Mike Dunleavy blocks a shot by the Brooklyn Nets’ Alan Anderson on Thursday. Dunleavy is an example of a rotation player with an affordable salary that could help the Bulls going forward.

“We think we’re well-situated

going into this summer and the future.”

JOHN PAXSONEXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT OF

BASKETBALL OPERATIONS

Illini grab final spot in ACHAs The Illinois hockey team grabbed the final spot in the ACHA National Tournament.The No. 19 ranked Illini heard their name called during the ACHA Selection Show, bumping out No. 18 Buffalo. Illinois will enter the tournament as the 18 seed and will face Arizona, the 15 seed (17-19). The Wildcats are one of the only three teams in the tournament with a losing record. “I’m so speechless and so thankful,” captain Austin Bostock said. “We’re catching a little bit of wind here at the right time.”Bostock said the tension among players prior to the announcement “could be cut

with a knife” before breaking into an ecstatic celebration. “Everyone was silent and was gripping on to each other, and as soon as they said No. 18 Illinois, I think the roof came down,” Bostock said. Illinois had five wins over top-10 teams this season and played one of the toughest schedules in the nation.The Illini (19-16-2) have come together well since being swept by No. 16 Lindenwood in early January. The team has a 6-3-1 record in its last 10 games, including wins over then-No. 4 Ohio and defending national champions Minot State, who were ranked No. 7 at the time.Illinois also beat CSCHL

conference rival Indiana by a combined scored of 18-3 last weekend. The ACHA National Tournament is composed of 20 teams. Despite being ranked No. 19, Illinois was fighting for a spot in the tournament since No. 22 West Virginia and an unranked Syracuse team both earned auto-bids for winning their regular season conference title. “Being the 18 seed actually helps us, because we’re going to play teams that are ranked higher than us and they’re not going to know what hit them,” Bostock said. “I think you’re going to find that our attitude going forward is that nobody’s ready for us.”

Page 10: The Daily Illini: Volume 143 Issue 77

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R O W B M T AH O T A I R A N D R A P SA D O U T G L A S S N A TB I L G E R O T T R I P EI L L R H O N E R E G A LT E S H I K E B U S H W A

A O K Y A R NB L A T H E R H O G W A S HL E F T S A T Y A E C H OA T R I A N S E C B L I NH O O E Y T O S H B U N K

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REZOLUŢIA MSC.143(77) (adoptată la 5 iunie 2003) ADOPTAREA

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RESOLUTION MSC.143(77) (adopted on 5 June 2003) … … · resolution msc.143(77) (adopted on 5 june 2003) amendments to the protocol of 1988 relating to the international convention

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