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THE DAILY ILLINIWEDNESDAYFebruary 25, 2015

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WWW.DAILYILLINI.COM he independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois since 1871 Vol. 144 Issue 83 | FREE

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EMS fosters creativity in music

FEATURES OPINIONS

Do the student body a favor and stay home to prevent the spread of infection

Don’t go to class when you’re sick

SPORTS

Two bubble teams meet in Iowa City

Discounts at 40 C-U locations

Illini to take on Hawkeyes

New app provides dining dealsFEATURES

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New Board of Trustees appointees: Rauner chooses Jill Smart, Ramon Cepeda Page 3A

BY ALI BRABOYSTAFF WRITER

As Suburban Express continues to file law-suits against students for contract violations, Annie Mauro is one student who has not given up fighting against the company.

Mauro, junior in FAA, has been involved with Suburban since 2013, and the company has dedi-cated an online page to her, which includes infor-mation about Mauro, her brother and mother.

On Feb. 22, 2013 Mauro purchased a Subur-ban Express ticket online to travel to Woodfield Mall from Champaign after her brother’s car would not start. After attempting to get on the bus, Mauro said the driver denied her the chance to ride because she did not have a printed tick-et. She then ordered another ticket, this time to Woodridge Jewel, printed it and presented it to the next Suburban bus driver who came at a later time that day.

Mauro said she filled out a refund request in February of 2013 for the first bus she never rode, but after not hearing back from Suburban after several attempts to contact them, her mother disputed the credit card charge for the ticket.

During winter break of the following year, Mauro was summoned for a court date, held on March 7, 2014. A trial was then held on April 14, 2014, and she was represented by Thomas Betz, directing attorney at Student Legal Services.

Mauro won the trial and the full transcript was later posted on the page dedicated to her on Suburban Express’ website. She said her mother is currently contacting attorneys to deal with the online interaction the company has posted against Mauro and her family.

According to the Champaign County Circuit Clerk’s website, seven similar small claims law-suits have been filed by Suburban Express in 2015, all of them on Feb. 3. There have been no small new claims filed by Suburban Express in Lake, Cook or Ford counties in 2015, where the company had previously filed. Between 2012 and

Suburban Express lawsuits continue

BY ELYSSA KAUFMANSTAFF WRITER

To Lauren Valentino, graduate research assistant in civil and environmental engineering, experiencing basic struggles firsthand, such as finding access to water and sanitation, helped her realize how “good we have it here.”

In mid-February, graduate

and undergraduate students in civil and environmental engineering took trips to Kenya and Uganda to devel-op systems involving water supply, sanitation and energy.

The trip, offered to stu-dents enrolled in an envi-ronmental engineering lab, CEE449, was led by Benito Marinas, civil and environ-

mental engineering profes-sor. Students taking the class worked in groups to design a system that focuses on learn-ing the needs, resources and struggles of communities in developing countries. Beni-to described the systems the students designed as mean-ingful because the class allows the students to inter-

act with the community that they designed the system for.

Marinas said the class con-tinues to develop partner-ships with the Safe Global Water Institute and the Ugan-da Rural Community Support Foundation.

This year three students

PHOTO COURTESY OF VICKI DIXONStudents in a civil and environmental engineering class work on designing water, sanitation and energy systems in Kenya and Uganda as part of a class trip. They visited clinics, tested water quality and met and talked to the people their efforts would help.

Engineering solutions in Africa

BY MAGGIE SULLIVANCONTRIBUTING WRITER

Sitting in a dark car at 10:00 p.m. Saturday night, members of the Party Patrol division for the night prepared to start their shift.

As Angela Annarino, sophomore in AHS and LAS, started the car, Alex Tran, junior in LAS, turned to her and asked, “How many calls do you think we’re gonna get?”

Annarino responded, “Two. I’m going to say two.”

Tran turned to Trey Jackson, senior in Business, posing the same question.

“Well, let’s see ... it’s a Saturday. Midterms are still going on ... I feel like it might be a decent night. I’ll say four,” said Jackson.

Tran nodded, adding, “I’m going to go in the middle. I’ll say three calls.” Annarino pulled the car out of the lot, and the night of patrol began.

***

Party Patrol issues warnings and frees up police officers

BY MAGGIE SULLIVANCONTRIBUTING WRITER

Joe Petry, Deb Feinen and Karen Foster are all running for mayor of Champaign. They all advocate change for Champaign. They even have similar visions of what needs to change in Champaign. They just differ on the vehicle to achieve that change.

“I think you’ll find we’re a pretty respect-ful group,” Feinen said. “You won’t hear us talking about each other.”

The Republican Women of Champaign County hosted a forum of mayoral candidates Tuesday afternoon at the Champaign County Republican Headquarters. The event was a public forum, designed to allow members of the media and community to pose questions to candidates for mayoral office. While the Champaign mayoral election is technically nonpartisan, all of the candidates present at the forum said they represented the ideals of the Republican Party. Current Champaign Mayor Don Gerard was not in attendance.

The forum consisted of questions posed by the public to the mayoral candidates. Each candidate was given a minute to respond to each question and allowed an introduc-tion to speak on their background, why they wanted to run for mayor and their goals for Champaign.

Some of the key issues the public posed were ensuring economic growth in Cham-paign, what role the city plays in determin-ing the location of the new Champaign Cen-tral High School, how to address the recent violence, how to better accommodate the non-English speaking and deaf or hard of hearing population of Champaign and how to improve poll numbers and unify the Repub-lican vote.

Petry, professor of Economics at the Uni-versity, said his main concern for Champaign

Mayoral candidates take public’s questions

ALI BRABOY THE DAILY ILLINIThe Black Sheep voted Suburban Express the “worst way to get home” in its “Sheepie Awards.”

BRENTON TSE THE DAILY ILLINIPolice officers gather around a house on E. Daniel Street, on Unofficial St. Patrick’s Day, Friday, Mar. 7.

SEE AFRICA | 3A

SEE PARTY PATROL | 3A

SEE FORUM | 3A

SEE SUBURBAN | 3A

Suburban Express receives “Sheepie Awards”In its latest issue, the student-run satirical newspaper The Black Sheep showcased its first annual “Sheepie Awards,” chosen by a student survey. Dennis Toeppen, owner of Suburban Express, won in the category “Who has terrorized the UIUC campus most?” with 62 percent of the vote. The company as a whole also won “Worst way to get home” with 66 percent of the vote.

2A Wednesday, February 25, 2015 THE DAILY ILLINI | WWW.DAILYILLINI.COM

WEATHERPOLICEChampaign

Burglary was report-ed in the 100 block of East John Street around 12 a.m. Saturday.

According to the report, the offender entered an unlocked apartment and stole a backpack contain-ing medicine, books and a computer.

University A 20-year-old male

was arrested on the charge of driving with a suspended license near the intersection of First Street and Hazelwood Drive around 6:30 p.m. Monday.

According to the report, the vehicle was initially pulled over because it did not have a front license plate.

Urbana Theft was reported

in the 400 block of West Park Street around 8 p.m. Monday.

According to the report, a cellphone mailed to the victim was stolen after delivery by an unknown offender.

Compiled by Miranda Holloway and Katherine Boncher

HOROSCOPESBY NANCY BLACKTRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES

Today’s Birthday Your career takes off this year. With persistent efforts, income and in! uence rise. Blend love into your work for more happiness. Take leadership when offered (or missing). After 3/20, a personal dream can realize. Organize family " nances, especially after 4/4. A new partnership phase develops after 10/13. Nurture your social networks and share the 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 — A solution to an old problem is becoming obvious. Tell friends you’ll see them later. Get into studies. Allow for miracles. Don’t waste money on fantasies. Understanding arrives. You learn more quickly over the next few days.

TAURUS (APRIL 20-MAY 20) Today is a 7 — There’s money coming in today and tomorrow. Something you try doesn’t work. Don’t gamble or risk untested methods. Try again and take it slow. Take care to conserve resources. You and a loved one communicate wordlessly.

GEMINI (MAY 21-JUNE 20) Today is an 8 — Discuss practical aspects of a personal project. Prepare for a launch. Work may take precedence over party planning. Relax.

Persuade someone talented to get involved. Have faith without knowing how. Throw your hat over the wall.

CANCER (JUNE 21-JULY 22) Today is a 7 — Write down your dreams. Conserve resources, without worrying about the money. It’s not a good time to bet on a mirage. It’s a great time to sell, though. Get peaceful and create space for meaningful dialogue.

LEO (JULY 23-AUG. 22) Today is a 7 — Today and tomorrow are good party days. It could get expensive if you don’t watch the budget. Avoid frills. You’re inspired by words of love. Connect and share ideas and support. Work together to take on " erce competition.

VIRGO (AUG. 23-SEPT. 22) Today is an 8 — Look at taking on more responsibility over the next few days. Challenge yourself. Your holdings are gaining value. Support your partner through a breakdown. Talk it over. Consider consequences. Trust emotion over rationality. Stand for love.

LIBRA (SEPT. 23-OCT. 22) Today is a 9 — Have a place to land before you set out. Saving is better than spending now. Do the research to " nd the best deal. Get tickets in advance. Travel and romance both look good today and tomorrow.

SCORPIO (OCT. 23-NOV. 21) Today is a 7 — Make long-range plans. Figure out your " nances today and tomorrow. Set up a budget to realize a

vision. Find what you want close to home. Confront and diminish old fears. You run across an old friend.

SAGITTARIUS (NOV. 22-DEC. 21) Today is an 8 — Resolve a breakdown in a partnership before it has time to grow. It’s a good time to get your message across. Don’t rely on logic alone, while presenting clear data. Dreams provide symbolic answers. Mix poetry into your persuasion.

CAPRICORN (DEC. 22-JAN. 19) Today is a 7 — There’s plenty of work today and tomorrow. A communication could get garbled or delayed. Get assistance from an expert. Cite your sources. Sidestep obstacles by keeping your eyes peeled. Love calms your weary mind.

AQUARIUS (JAN. 20-FEB. 18) Today is an 8 — You may need to choose between making money and having fun. You’re attractive, and attracted, today and tomorrow. Talk your way around an obstacle. Turn down an expensive invitation. Play a game for a practical objective.

PISCES (FEB. 19-MARCH 20) Today is a 7 — Home is where your heart is today and tomorrow. You may " nd yourself cleaning someone else’s mess. Don’t overlook a loved one’s needs, yet let the kids do their share. Delegate practical tasks. A bubble bath soothes weary bones.

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is economic growth. In his view, if the economy grows, the rest of the problems the city faces will be easier to solve.

Petry also stressed that the University is the “eco-nomic engine of the com-munity.” He emphasized how the addition of a med-ical school would be a great thing for the community because of the jobs it would provide. He also stressed the importance of trans-parency in the government, and the goal to move Cham-paign toward a “micro-urban community.”

While Feinen admitted there were “lots of simi-larities” between her poli-cies and the policies of her Republican opponents, she said her small business experience combined with her time spent working in the local government as a Champaign City Council member-at-large sets her apart from the opposition.

“Being a lawyer, I work on negotiations every-day, all day long,” she said. “I think that’s very important.”

Also, whereas Petry sees the future of Champaign in economic growth, Feinen sees it in broadband.

“We have a $30 million asset in the ground in this community,” Feinen said. “We need to be leveraging it for economic development.”

Champaign City Council Member-at-Large Foster,

also a pre-school founder and teacher, stressed the importance of collaboration between different branches of the local government. She said collaboration is neces-sary to address the recent violence in Champaign.

“The great thing that’s happened in the last four years is that Urbana, Cham-paign and the U of I are doing so much more col-laboration together — that’s

huge,” Foster said. “I want to see our community con-tinue to work together in those areas.”

The three candidates came together to express their hope to defeat incum-bent Mayor Gerard and stressed the importance of a high turnout on vot-ing day.

Foster said all three of the candidates in atten-dance were good choices

for Champaign’s next may-or and a high turnout would ensure victory for one of them.

“If we have a signifi-cant number of people who are like-minded, one of the three of us is going to win,” Feinen said. “Frank-ly, I think the city would be well served with any of the three of us.”

mesulli2@dailyillini.com

THE DAILY ILLINI | WWW.DAILYILLINI.COM Wednesday, February 25, 2015 3A

Suburban Express targets The Black SheepOn Feb. 19, Suburban Express posted on their Facebook page that it would give discounted tickets to anyone who brings in current, unfolded copies of The Black Sheep to “sop up our scum and line our birdcage.” The company wrote, “We often see Black Sheep papers sitting in piles around campus. But we rarely see anyone reading them. That gave us an idea.”According to the post, participants will receive a $25 discount for 50

copies, $15 for 30 copies and $10 for 20 copies.Alumnus Atish Doshi, president and founder of The Black Sheep, responded through email that “The Black Sheep would like to congratulate Suburban Express on their win at the Sheepies.” Dennis Toeppen, owner of Suburban Express, did not respond to requests for comment.In response to the Suburban’s actions, another local bus company Peoria Charter sent an email on Tuesday offering a $5 discount if customers use the promo code BACKTHESHEEP.

2013, Suburban filed 126 lawsuits in Ford County against customers.

Suburban Express recently changed its “Terms & Conditions” so any legal action arising on the online transac-tion of tickets should take place in Ford County, roughly 30 miles north of Champaign.

In a statement on its website, the company said it chose Ford County “because of high availability of court dates, efficient court operation, excel-lent staff work ethic, low costs for both parties, easy parking, and other factors.”

Betz said Student Legal Services can represent students if they are enrolled at the University and have paid the student service fee, which includes the student legal services. According to the Student Legal Ser-vices Operational Plan, Student Legal Services can only represent eligible students who have cases in or origi-

nating in Champaign County. When asked how many students he

has represented in Suburban Express cases, Betz said he does not even keep track anymore.

“You will not find other business-es routinely or regularly suing their clients for such small amounts,” Betz said. “It is not a business practice that I have found to be common in this community.”

He said the representatives provid-ed to students by Student Legal Servic-es can be very beneficial to students because generally, a cheap attorney can cost around $150 an hour, he said.

Mauro said if the case had not been in or originated in Champaign County, she would not have been able to pay for an attorney.

Betz said when Student Legal Ser-vices sees students who are dealing with Suburban Express, the case usu-ally involves students being sued by Suburban for what the transportation company calls a violation of contract. Student Legal Services deals with those cases as contract cases.

The impact of dealing with legal cases affects students different-ly when it comes to emotions, Betz said. Sometimes situations have lit-tle impact on students, and they rec-ognize that they have made a mis-take and will simply pay a ticket, but some students who were being sued in Ford County last year came in with tears, he said. Some international stu-dents even feared the lawsuit would not allow them back in the country, and others feared it would go on their credit history, he added.

“Court is always a stressor. There’s no question, and we know from our own assessment that we do in this office of students ... We had students that tell us ... they would have consid-ered leaving school,” Betz said. “We know it has impact.”

While it wasn’t easy, Mauro believes choosing to go to court against Subur-ban was the right choice. To her, “it’s not about the money,” it’s the principle of fighting for herself.

abrabo2@dailyillini.com.

and two faculty members traveled to Nairobi and Nakuru, Kenya from Feb. 6 to 12. Benito said this area has serious difficulties with water supply, sanitation and energy sources. The students visited locations such as the Nakuru Deflu-oridation Company to take water samples for analysis from Lake Baringo.

After the Kenya trip, nine different students from the class traveled to Uganda from Feb. 14 to 21. The students worked in the Oruchinga Refugee Settle-ment, located in the Isin-giro district in South West Uganda. Students visit-ed health clinics and con-ducted water quality test-ing in wells and large water sources.

This was the second trip to Uganda for the overall program and the fourth trip to East Africa. As Marinas said, “this trip motivates you to play a more impor-tant role in the world.”

Gabrielle Levato, senior in Engineering, said her civ-il and environmental engi-neering classes are focused on the technical aspects of water quality and teaching how to treat the water.

“When you actually go to Uganda and needed to test everything, to see how much fluoride or how much iron, that’s applying our knowledge,” Levato said.

She chose to apply for the trip because she want-

ed to meet the people who the project would benefit.

“I think it is really important to see their first-hand experience and see what their lives are like,” Levato said. “Being able to visit the homes of the peo-ple we are designing for is extremely beneficial to our future design and what we recommend in the end.”

Marinas said they took a lot of equipment with them to analyze water sourc-es and identify contami-nants in the water. They also looked at the issue of sanitation and the kinds of sanitation facilities avail-able. It was discovered that at Oruchinga, that refugees were using col-lapsed latrines due to low soil quality.

In total, the teams con-sisted of five graduate and Ph.D members and 12 undergraduate students, Two faculty members attended, including Mari-nas and Jeremy Guest, civil engineering professor who is an expert in sanitation.

“Not only is this a lab class for our senior under-graduate students, but its very unique in that its giv-ing students the opportu-nity to see first hand the challenges that they are going to face,” Valentino said. “To actually meet the people that they are going to impact when providing a recommendation or provid-ing a solution.”

eskaufm2@dailyillini.com @ekauf21

This is the start of a typi-cal night for the University of Illinois Police Depart-ment Party Patrol, a branch of the department’s Student Patrol that began over 20 years ago.

The Party Patrol is a community policing effort that was set up to respond to noise complaints.

“We created the program to eliminate the bringing of an officer off the street to deal with a loud party,” said Ryan Johnson, securi-ty coordinator at the Divi-sion of Public Safety.

When the Party Patrol responds to a call, they speak with the leasehold-er of the apartment and issue a verbal and written warning.

They do not issue cita-tions. Only the police are allowed to issue citations, and they will not be called unless there is a second noise complaint at the same location.

“It’s a warning system,” Johnson said. “It’s sup-posed to be there to help the student.”

Tran joined Student Patrol four semesters ago in order to help his fel-low students. The Student Patrol’s duties include Safe Walks, Party Patrol and bar closes, which all make sure students get home safe and receive the help they may need.

The Party Patrol gener-ally operates from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. every Thursday through Saturday night.

“Anytime I can help someone, I’m happy,” Tran said.

Members of Student Patrol rotate shifts on Par-ty Patrol on the nights that it operates.

In Tran’s time as a mem-ber, he has experienced the various ways students respond to the Party Patrol. He recalled one instance of a young man found lying on the ground.

“He turns out to be very aggressive with us, cuss-ing at us, swearing at us, so we followed procedure and got an officer there to check him out and make sure he was okay,” Tran said. “The kid ends up running from us, and the cops, climbs on top of the roof.”

In the end, the man was arrested and the ordeal lasted over an hour and a half, Tran said.

Luckily, Tran said, most of the time students com-ply with the Party Patrol, to which Johnson agreed.

“The good news is that over 90 percent of the time, people are going to com-ply,” Johnson said. “They don’t want the police to come back, and they don’t want a $325 ticket.”

It helps, too, that the Student Patrol uniforms resemble police uniforms, said patrol member Daniel Endres, senior in LAS. The vests are black with “Stu-dent Patrol” written on the back.

“It blatantly says ‘Stu-dent Patrol,’ but if you’re intoxicated you’re just going to be looking at the general appearance,” Endres said.

Jack Carrera, junior in LAS, knows what it is like to deal with the police show-ing up at a party. Last fall, the police were called to his house for a noise complaint

during a party. He said the cops were not disrespectful toward him, but they were very firm. Although nobody at the party faced reper-cussions, Carrera said the ordeal was “very scary.”

While Party Patrol won’t operate on Unofficial, Stu-dent Patrol will remain active.

“We have three shifts for Unofficial,” Endres said. “It was kind of surprising to be working throughout the day, just seeing what we see at night during the day. Other than that, it was nothing too drastical-ly different from a regular weekend.”

Tran said the purpose of Student Patrol on Unoffical is to “fill the gaps” and pro-vide extra eyes and ears to the police.

Johnson said local police already have “multiple agencies at the local level, the state level and even at the federal level” that deal with Unofficial.

“We have a lot more uni-formed officers, a lot more people patrolling the cam-pus, there’s a lot more plain clothed undercover offi-cers,” Johnson said. “Obvi-ously it’s one of those things we wish we didn’t have to deal with, but we do.”

Johnson said the pro-gram benefits the com-munity in three different ways: it provides relief for the people who issued the noise complaint, it keeps the police on the streets patrolling and it allows the students a chance to avoid trouble.

“For me, it’s a win-win for everybody,” Johnson said.

mesulli2@dailyillini.com

MAGGIE SULLIVAN THE DAILY ILLINIMayoral candidates Joe Petry, Deb Feinen and Karen Foster discuss their visions for the city at a public forum held by the Republican Women of Champaign County on Tuesday.

PARTY PATROLFROM 1A

AFRICAFROM 1A

SUBURBANFROM 1A

FORUMFROM 1A

BY ABIGALE SVOBODASTAFF WRITER

When former Board of Trustees chairman Chris Kennedy chose not to seek re-election, he said he thought it was best for Gov. Bruce Rauner to “choose his own people.”

Rauner announced who his people are Tuesday; a press release from the gov-ernor’s office confirmed Rauner has named Uni-versity alumni Jill Smart and Ramon Cepeda. If the appointments are approved

by the Illinois Senate, Smart and Cepeda will join the Board of Trustees in March.

Both Smart and Cepeda live in the Chicagoland area and serve as mem-bers of the University’s Alumni Association board of directors.

Smart, ‘81 Urbana grad-uate from the College of Business, was listed as one of the “100 Most Influen-tial Women in Chicago” by Crain’s Chicago Business in 2004. Before retiring in

August, Smart worked as the global head of human resources at Accenture.

Smart is currently the secretary for the Alumni Association, and a mem-ber of the Dean’s Busi-ness Council and the Illi-nois Business Consulting’s Advisory Board. She also serves as the president of the National Academy of Human Resources, a non-profit based in Downers Grove, Illinois.

Cepeda, ‘90 Chicago graduate in criminal jus-

tice, was named one of the “Top 100 Most Influential Hispanics in the U.S.” by Hispanic Business Mag-azine in 2010 as well as a Leadership Greater Chica-go fellow in 2014. Cepeda is currently a senior vice president at Northern Trust Co., where he is the managing director of wealth management and oversees commercial real estate.

Additionally, Cepeda is a Trustee of the Illinois Facilities Fund and the

National Museum of Mex-ican Art.

Cepeda was registered on a “democrats and inde-pendents for Rauner” list and donated $250 to his campaign.

Smart and her hus-band, Stephen Smart, have been longtime Universi-ty donors, giving annual gifts to the College of Busi-ness, as well as University athletics.

In a statement released Tuesday, State Rep. Chap-in Rose, R-110, said he

“applauds Gov. Rauner” for naming University alumni to the board. Rose also not-ed that it is “refreshing” to see Rauner honor his prom-ise to consider members of the Alumni Association and choose people who main-tained strong ties to the University.

“These are high caliber people of accomplishment,” Rose said.

asvobod2@dailyillini.com @abigalesvoboda

NEWS BRIEFSTRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

Obama vetoes Keystone pipeline bill as promisedWASHINGTON — President Barack

Obama rejected a bill Tuesday that would have approved construction of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, the first veto of a year that seems like-ly to feature repeated such moves as the Democratic president confronts the Re-

publican-led Congress.The veto came as no surprise to GOP

lawmakers, who passed the measure in early February.

The decision to reject the bill came within hours of its formal delivery to the White House on Tuesday.

Feds: No civil rights charges for George ZimmermanORLANDO, Fla. — Citing a lack of ev-

idence, the U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday announced that George Zim-merman will not face federal civil rights charges in the February 2012 shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Fla.

In a statement, the DOJ said that a fed-eral investigation “found insufficient ev-idence to pursue federal criminal civil rights charges” against Zimmerman, who shot the unarmed Miami Gardens teen during a struggle Feb. 26, 2012.

Legal in Alaska: Grow, share, privately smokeThe recreational use of marijuana be-

came legal in Alaska on Tuesday, but many regulations are still being draft-ed and police in at least one major city will enforce a ban on using weed in pub-lic places.

Alaska is the third state in the nation to legalize recreational use of marijua-na, still a federally prohibited substance.

Colorado and the state of Washington have also allowed the recreational use of the drug.

In Alaska, anyone older than 21 will be allowed to possess up to an ounce of pot and have up to six plants growing on pri-vate property. However, buying and sell-ing and smoking the drug in public spac-es remains illegal.

‘American Sniper’ Chris Kyle shot with back turnedSTEPHENVILLE, Texas — A ballistics

expert testified Tuesday that “American Sniper” Chris Kyle, a former Navy SEAL considered the deadliest sniper in U.S. his-tory, was shot with his back turned and his gun holstered.

Fellow veteran Eddie Ray Routh is charged with two counts of murder and

one count of capital murder in connection with the fatal shootings of Kyle, 38, and friend Chad Littlefield, 35, during the trio’s trip to an outdoor shooting range in Texas on Feb. 2, 2013.

Routh, 27, a former Marine, is facing a possible life sentence if convicted and has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

Gov. Rauner names alumni to Board of Trustees

While attending a private dinner for Wisconsin Governor Scott Walk-

er, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani stated, “I do not believe, and I know this is a hor-rible thing to say — but I do not believe that the president loves America.”

He then went on to clari-fy that he does in fact believe President Barack Obama is a patriot, he just doesn’t think he loves America.

Personally, I found that clari-fication confusing. I’ve always considered patriotism and lov-ing your country to be inextri-cable. However, Giuliani argues that Obama is too critical of America to love it.

I feel that his statement is absurd, as is his reasoning. Crit-icism of something is not neces-sarily indicative of dislike, or even indifference towards it.

Loving something does not mean that you cannot imag-ine any area for improvement. A great musician would never stop practicing and improving a piece she loves until it’s as close to perfection as possible.

Further, our country is con-tinually evolving and therefore always presents new challenges to overcome.

To be completely fair, since that time, Giuliani has attempt-ed to explain and soften the

comment publicly several times.

But oddly, this is not the first time that Obama has been criti-cized for being unpatriotic.

Obama has often been type-casted as a cosmopolitan, or someone at ease with many nations and cultures. This was particularly relevant when he famously identified himself as a “fellow citizen of the world” in his 2008 speech in Berlin.

However, it seems obvious to me that the desire for better global collaboration is not mutu-ally exclusive or even dissonant with patriotism.

A better world clearly makes for a better country.

This all leads to a question I had while reading about these debates: What does it mean to love your country?

Most of us regard patriotism as an impor-tant trait. We should be proud of where we come from; we should want to support a country and a society that values freedom.

But when I started to think about patriotism, it was difficult for me to fully define what that meant, and it was troubling to consider that I value a concept that I actually may not fully grasp.

On Monday, I stood just out-side the Illini Union and asked other University students walk-ing by to offer their opinion on my question.

Rebecca Demski, a soph-omore in LAS, argued that patriotism is supporting your country.

“Just promote equality and promote the values of the Consti-tution,” Demski said. “Support the troops, actually I think that would be an act of patriotism.”

Andres Romero, a junior in LAS considered patriotism a broad concept.

“Abiding (by) the laws...Mak-ing sure that you do your part,” Romero said. “I think it’s about

just being a good person.”

In a manner very relevant to Giuliani’s com-ment, Emma Lazar, a freshman in Business, stated that patriotism in not necessarily flamboyant.

“Patriotism to me is loving your country,” Lazar said. “You don’t necessarily have

to be gung-ho about it and wear red, white and blue. But, you can love it for the melting pot of different cultures. You can love it for its innovations and advancements.”

I agree with all of them. And further, for me, believing your country is perfect is not a pre-requisite to patriotism or to lov-ing your country. To me, these

definitions further disprove Giu-liani’s comments.

America is by no means per-fect with issues regarding to race, gender, sexual orientation, wealth distribution, education, etc.

So we must work to improve and work to make our country better. I say this because I love what America stands for, ideo-logically. I love the American Dream.

I am extraordinarily thank-ful to live in America today. I am glad to live in a state con-trolled by a democratic, sta-ble government. I’m thankful to have troops that protect us. I’m thankful to be able to go to school and get an education safe-ly, as was all alluded to in the student quotes.

But, I also strongly recog-nize that the American Dream, and what America stands for, is juxtaposed with the reality that many citizens in America face. Because of racism, sexism, homophobia, wealth distribu-tion and unequal education, etc., I don’t believe that the American Dream is feasible for everyone in this country.

However, that doesn’t mean that an ideal America shouldn’t be something that we work to move continually closer to.

It is true that Obama criticizes aspects of America — and that is wholly necessary since they are in need of improvement.

So yes, in short, I do consider Obama to be a patriot.

Alex is a junior in LAS. amswans2@dailyillini.com

There is something about the way it creeps, unwel-comed, through the crev-

ices of my apartment walls and the painful jabs it takes at my skin that make the cold winter air so uninviting.

Even as someone who has been through 20 Illinois winters, the icy atmospheric conditions will never fail to send shivers down my spine (pun intended).

Surprisingly, it is not the cold, the snow or the ice that makes me want to isolate myself in my apartment and bundle up in a warm feather blanket.

It is the fact that, during the winter, the Champaign-Urbana campus is populated by sick stu-dents carrying contagious virus-es and bacteria just waiting to infect me.

In order to try and make this harsh, uncomfortable season a little more pleasant, students and administrators alike should make an effort to try and help keep illnesses from spreading around campus.

Around this time of year, I can’t walk into a lecture hall without hearing someone sneeze or cough every few seconds. Sitting next to someone who is sick or sitting in seats and desks that have been contaminated are both high-risk methods for potential transmission of our seasonal cold and flu ills. In fact, the reason infections tend to flourish on college campuses is because people are living in such close quar-ters. Every-thing includ-ing showers, lecture halls, seats and desks are shared among thousands of students.

Countless times, I have sat in class where people have failed to cover their sneezes and coughs, or have sneezed directly into their hands and subsequently touched the seats with their infected bodily fluids. I find it obnoxious and rude that students who do this could be so inconsiderate of the health of others.

An easy solution to this prob-lem would be to stay home. Ill-ness is listed as an excused absence from class in our stu-dent code, yet the system the administration has set up for obtaining proof of illness is almost as ridiculous and compli-cated as a trip to the Department of Motor Vehicles. Most class-es and instructors don’t take dial-a-nurse notes from McKin-ley Health Center as sufficient

proof of illness. Some professors only accept notes from the emer-gency dean.

There is merit to the argument that the system might be difficult so that people can’t get away with pretending to be sick. The set-up is seem-ingly there to prevent students

from pulling a Ferris Bueller and faking an illness to avoid class. But the hassle of leaving home in a dire state of illness to drudge over to a local clinic is almost more demanding than just going to class.

And I get it, some students

have a reputation of lying to get out of lectures and exams. But a system that makes going to class while sick easier than any alter-native does little to help protect the health of uninfected students in lectures. Until the University figures out a better way to keep walking incubators from having to attend class, there are steps sick students should take to keep their germs to themselves.

Lets return to first grade basic hygiene: Cover your coughs and sneezes with your elbow or upper shoulder.

In addition, wash your hands to prevent the spread of infec-tion to things you touch.

I try to maintain personal hygiene and I haven’t been sick yet this year. I’m sure other students who also aren’t cur-rently sick would appreciate being able to carry through the rest of the cold and hateful winter without having to deal with coughing and sneezing. So to the infected individuals who sit with me in class, I would really enjoy attending lecture without you aerosol-izing your sneeze particles into my oxy-gen supply.

Stephanie is a junior in LAS. syousse2@dailyillini.com

OPINIONS4AWEDNESDAY

SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS | opinions@dailyillini.com 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 contributions. 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

EDITORIAL

OSCAR SNUBS SPREAD TO “IN MEMORIAM”

A CASE OF THE CREEPY CRAWLIES HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE

SAYING GOODBYE TO “PARKS AND RECREATION”

Q U I C K COMMENTARY

STEPHANIE YOUSSEF

Opinions columnist

ALEXANDRA SWANSON

Opinions columnist

Party Patrol provides positive campus service

Life as a col-lege student can sure get busy between vari-ous clubs, jobs,

homework, papers and tests. As a result, many of us are no stranger to the concept of work hard, play harder. Sometimes, though, students may get just a little too rowdy — and often to a neighbor’s dismay. We understand the importance of having fun, but we also understand the frustration of being disturbed by a loud party nearby.

Luckily, however, there is one particular organiza-tion that helps keep some parties at bay and keeps some students from re-ceiving tickets from police officers. At the same time, this organization helps keep police officers on the streets to deal with serious emergencies.

The University of Illi-nois Police Department’s Party Patrol serves as what we’ve deemed the college-version of a hall monitor, policing and re-sponding to noise com-plaints due to parties. While the Party Patrol may sound like a buzzkill (literally) to some, it is a highly beneficial ameni-ty as it addresses the con-cerns of annoyed nearby neighbors and prevents party hosts from getting into trouble and receiving pocket-draining fines.

The Party Patrol division began 20 years ago by the police department so they did not need to take an of-ficer off the street to break up parties, but instead could send a group of stu-dents and keep officers pa-trolling. The patrol oper-ates from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. Thursday through Satur-day night.

Party patrollers speak with the owner of the house and give a written warning, urging the stu-dents to break up the par-ty.

We encourage students to take the Party Patrol or-ganization seriously be-cause the current system is much better than having a police officer come and give a $325 ticket. And, fortunately, as indicated in The Daily Illini today, peo-ple tend to comply with the party patrollers over 90 percent of the time, said Ryan Johnson, cam-pus security coordinator for public safety.

When it comes to Par-ty Patrol, we’d much rath-er be greeted at the door by people who are taking the time to give warnings, rather than an annoyed po-lice officer who could give a fine.

Living on a college cam-pus definitely comes with the territory of rambunc-tious 20-something-year-olds, some of whom like to party. As such, we need to have various measures in place to address com-plaints and concerns by other students and people living on campus because ultimately these servic-es are looking out for our safety and comfort.

Getting sick of cold and flu season

Everything including showers, lecture halls, seats and

desks are shared among thousands of

students.

Deciding what patriotism really means

Most of us regard patriotism as an

important trait. We should be proud

of where we come from.

NICKI HALENZAOPINIONS EDITOR

EMMA GOODWINASSISTANT OPINIONS EDITOR

In recent Georgia news, an apparent thief went into a crawl-space underneath a metro Atlanta man’s home and stole five of his 18 pet tarantulas. OK, sorry, what? First of all, WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD EVER WILLINGLY OWN 18 HAIRY, TERRIFYING, EIGHT-LEGGED MONSTERS? Sec-ond of all, WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD EVER WANT TO GO TO THE EFFORT TO STEAL ONE, LET ALONE FIVE OF THOSE EIGHT-LEGGED MONSTERS? Sorry to be dramatic and we sure hate to species discrimi-nate, but, come on, seriously? To be fair though, tarantulas are the worst — they are scary creatures out of our night-mares that somehow made their way into tangible existence.

Wipe away your tears, fellow Pawnee-ians.. The beloved “Parks and Recreation” bid us farewell last night after seven seasons. We have learned from Leslie Knope’s loy-alty, Tom Haverford’s unabashed ambition, Ron Swan-son’s frankness, Andy’s joy and wackiness and Jerry/Garry/Larry/Terry’s...well...resilience...maybe? Regard-less, we’ve grown with these characters from its debut in 2009 to its finale set in 2017. Last night marked the end of an era, wrapped up in perfect Parks fashion, and it will be missed dearly (and rewatched frequently on Netflix).

Chances are, if you didn’t notice Sunday night, you’ve heard by now: Joan Rivers and Elaine Stritch were left out of the “In Memoriam” segment of the Oscars. Rivers, while not known for her film credits, contributed signifi-cantly to Red Carpet and awards season coverage over the years. Stritch, on the other hand, was the focus of a documentary that came out last year and acted on TV, film and Broadway. In a statement released by The Acad-emy Monday, they claimed that the ladies were left out because of time restraints. Hindsight is 20/20, but think ahead next time, Academy.

Hey central Illinois-ers, Gossip Girl here, your one and only source into the scandalous lives of Champaign-Urba-na’s elite. OK, just kidding, but fun fact: Several stars of our high school guilty pleasure TV show, “Gossip Girl,” were spotted together during an Oscars party. Among the crowd was the beautiful Nate Archibald, the cool as a cucumber Vanessa Abrams and our favorite psycho Geor-gina Sparks. We can’t say we miss the show, but we do love a good reunion. You know you love me, XOXO, Gossip Girl.

BY REEMA ABI-AKARSTAFF WRITER

Zach Anner , a comedi-an native to New York, has traveled around the conti-nent at the will of the Inter-net , explored religion with strangers on YouTube and even interviewed Oprah .

He also happens to have cerebral palsy and will speak on campus at three different events Friday about his experiences, what motivates him and how cerebral palsy is “the sexi-est of the palsys .”

Anner will give a lecture titled “Exceeding Expecta-tions” at noon in Ikenberry Commons room 2009. The event is sponsored by the Department of Diversity & Social Justice Education and Disability Resources & Educational Services . A meet and greet from 1 to 2 p.m. will follow the lec-ture, and he will serve as the Interfaith Conference keynote speaker from 6 to 7:30 p.m. in the Ikenber-ry Commons room 2025 A and B.

Anner has hosted a myr-iad of shows on YouTube — “Workout Wednesdays ” and “Riding Shotgun ” on his own channel and “Have a Little Faith” on SoulPan-cake channel . He also had a stint on the Oprah Winfrey Network with a travel show called “Rollin’ with Zach .”

Anner spoke with The Daily Illini about how his own college involvements impacted his life, how he hopes to infl uence people’s perceptions about those with disabilities, and how his life continues to be shaped by surprises.

The Daily Illini: What was your college experi-ence like, and how did it lead you to where you are now?

Zach Anner: I came to the University of Texas after going to the South by Southwest fi lm festival. I fell in love with Austin. Then I was a radio televi-sion journalism major, and my coursework was great, but I think what really made an impact was get-ting involved in organiza-tions like the student tele-vision station and meeting all of the people that I met who are still some of my most consistent collabora-tors. We are always fi lming things together — shows, sketches. Texas really made me be the creative person that I am today.

DI: After college, what were you hoping to do?

ZA: When I was growing up, I thought that I would be an actor, and then I real-ized when I got to college that the only thing I was good at was being myself. The experience that I had on the student television station, I got to do inter-views of celebrities and public fi gures and politi-cians, and I realized that I had a knack for asking the uncomfortable ques-tion without making peo-ple uncomfortable. ... I used

to do it to make crude jokes and just be silly, but I when I matured a little bit, I real-ized that I wanted to actual-ly say something and start important conversations.

DI: When did you start making videos and focus-ing on comedy?

ZA: Actually, that start-ed pretty early because my dad always tells us when we were kidsv, he would make little movies about us being cowboys and silly videos of us sticking Oreos onto the wall. I was always fascinat-ed with being in front of the camera, and then when I was in high school, I start-ed to make my own movies with friends, and I didn’t produce anything that was worth watching; at least in college, I learned how to make things that I actual-ly wanted people to see.

DI: Could you talk about the challenges you’ve faced while making videos and being on YouTube?

ZA: I think the biggest challenge that I face is there’s a misconception about having a disability that it’s the worst thing that can possibly befall a person. So when you’re doing comedy, your goal is to really change that per-ception and get people to laugh and enjoy themselves and not really focus on the wheelchair. ... I think the common trend in all of the seemingly random things that I do is that I like to sort of turn people’s per-ceptions around and start an important conversation. That’s the only thing, look-ing back on it, that I can see makes sense in all of the stuff that I’ve done. Like, to get people not only talk-ing, but really thinking is the goal.

DI: Were there any sur-prises that came up that you didn’t expect?

ZA: My whole life has been a process of making the best of all of my mis-takes. I certainly didn’t expect to have a show on

the Oprah Network or being able to travel the country and ask the Internet where to go and what to do. It’s all been sort of surpris-ing to me. I have no idea what I’m doing (laughs). So whenever something comes up, I’m as surprised as the next person.

DI: Do you visit colleges often to speak about your experiences?

ZA: I’ve been doing these types of talks for a while now, but it’s just so fun to talk to students; that’s my favorite part. I mean, I like getting up and telling sto-ries and (giving) speech-es, but my favorite part is really connecting with students. And I’ve actual-ly never graduated, so I’m thinking if I go to enough colleges, eventually, some-body is just going to be like, “You’ve gone to so many of these; here’s a Doctorate.” So that’s a goal, to just steal a degree at some point from one of them. I’ll have to see what the campus security is like with you guys.

DI: Anything else you’d like to mention? Do you have a concluding thought?

ZA: I would say to every-one reading this paper, fi rst of all, come out; I’d love to see you. Also, I think I would just like to end on the message, “Do whatever it is that you love.” Find what that passion is and do it as much as you can in school and outside of school. There are resources avail-able to students that will never be as easy to come by when you get out of school. That’s what I realized. All of the equipment and the organizations and the peo-ple that will work with you — seize those opportuni-ties and make the most of it. Because my most valu-able lessons in college were when I took initia-tive to do something cool and apply the lessons that I’ve learned.

abiakar2@dailyillini.com

Sonya Brock, said the loca-tion has had fabulous results with the app as it has brought an increase in new business.

“(Hooked) is very on top of things,” Brock said. “If I ever need something changed on the app — if I wanted a dif-ferent promotion or any-thing like that — it’s done within 24 hours. ... I’m real-ly impressed.”

The app was fi rst launched in January 2012 by co-found-ers and childhood friends

Rothwell and Brett Berman , also COO of Hooked.

“Local businesses, up to this point, have a pretty lim-ited in terms of marketing solutions that are available to them that can effectively connect their business to cus-tomers in the local commu-nity,” Rothwell said. “Social media platforms, loyalty pro-grams, print coupon books, daily deal websites — they’re just not cutting it. They’re not doing an effective job, which is why we’ve built this mobile-focused marketing channel.”

Over its fi rst year, Hooked developed strategies focused

on university-based audienc-es to reach the millennial, mobile-focused markets. The Hooked team is already plan-ning to take the app national for the upcoming fall 2015 semester with the introduc-tion of new college locations. However, Rothwell said the app doesn’t plan to limit itself to just college campuses in the future, although that’s where it got its start.

“If you have the right prod-uct, it can go viral very quick-ly amongst a tight-knit com-munity,” Rothwell said.

soenke2@dailyillini.com

operational and a wonderful recording resource,” Nich-ols said. “Director Scott Wyatt has a fl air for studio design and takes great care to ensure all equipment is in working order and the studios are kept clean to facilitate maximal creative development.”

Nichols was encouraged to foster his interest in com-posing by his parents from a young age. He has been a part of the studios since 2008 and, in addition to his previ-ous accomplishments, has recently been awarded the 2014 Luigi Russolo Grand Prize & 1st Luigi Russolo Award.

“I continue to strive to create the best composi-tions that I can, and fortu-nately, competitions allow for people in diverse parts of the world to hear them,” he said. “Still, in my opin-

ion, one should compose for the sake of the composition rather than for the sake of the competition, and if they can do that, maybe someone will recognize it.”

In addition to noteworthy composers, such as Iannis Xenakis, Francis Dhomont and Bernard Parmegiani, he also feels his teachers have impacted his success as a composer and musician. Specifi cally within the EMS, he has found the faculty to have had a profound effect on his work.

“(Dr. Sever Tipei’s) men-torship challenged me to explicate upon larger musi-cal concerns, such as the organization of a composi-tion,” Nichols said. “He also exposes his students to inno-vative techniques such as additive synthesis, which can be useful when used alone or in conjunction with the studio methods emphasized by Pro-fessor Wyatt.”

The EMS offer stu-dents the opportunity to

join a program that works towards building high-cali-ber careers, along with an in-depth background of con-temporary music.

“We’ve had students who are now directing facilities elsewhere in the world,” Wyatt said. “We have had stu-dents who are working for Disney, Yamaha and other music industry companies. So their hands-on experience here, working with sound, composition and engineer-ing techniques took them into those particular areas of employment.”

Those with a musical back-ground and are looking to make an impact within con-temporary music should con-sider getting involved with the EMS program.

“In difficult times, I couldn’t imagine anything more devastating than losing access to the studios,” Nich-ols said. “That thought kept me on track, and it still does.”

jdean21@dailyillini.com

THE DAILY ILLINI | WWW.DAILYILLINI.COM Wednesday, February 25, 2015 5A

EDUMACATION JOHNIVAN DARBY

BEARDO DAN DOUGHERTY

DOONESBURY GARRY TRUDEAU

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

song with the same name as its album

55 Exiled Amin56 With 57-Down, meal

for which everyone pays his or her own way

60 Bruins legend Bobby61 Totally befuddled63 A. A. Milne hopper64 Shows the way, bibli-

cally67 Heat or Thunder70 Performance extras71 Something in brack-

ets72 Adopt, as a stray73 Incite to actionDOWN 1 Thriller set on Amity

Island 2 College course part 3 Joint action 4 Small excerpt

5 Beats the rap 6 “Three Men in ___” (Je-

rome K. Jerome novel) 7 See 5-Across 8 Roman magistrate 9 Scout’s mission, for

short10 Socialists, on the politi-

cal spectrum11 Lago or río contents12 Witty bit13 Texter’s button24 Ally of the Cheyenne:

Var.25 Chitlins, ham hocks, etc.26 Enola Gay’s payload, in

brief27 Roadside attention-

getter28 See 26-Across30 See 29-Across31 Justice Kagan32 Handrail support34 Built later

35 Some sheet metal work-ers

36 Fidgety37 Michael of “Flashdance”47 North-of-the-border

grid org.49 First Burmese prime

minister51 YouTube video lead-ins52 Sign of availability53 “The Faerie Queene”

woman54 See 52-Across57 See 56-Across58 Kinkajou cousin59 Go yard, in baseball

slang61 “… ___-foot pole!”62 Simple quatrain pattern65 Buck passer, maybe66 Verdi aria “___ tu”68 Hacker’s need69 ___-80 (classic com-

puter)

The crossword solution is in the Classified section.

ACROSS 1 Protrudes, with

“out” 5 With 7-Down,

incapable of leaking10 Online info sources14 When Juliet tells the

Nurse she will come in from the balcony

15 Stand16 Chill producer17 Popular online refer-

ence, for short18 Mr. Spock’s forte19 Wreck20 Flight component21 Self-portraitist Frida22 “Lethal Weapon”

force, briefly23 History is recorded

in it26 With 28-Down,

disagreeable quality of diet sodas

29 With 30-Down, frequently

33 Not at all hidden36 Pointless38 Defense grp. since

194839 J.F.K. Library archi-

tect40 Chem. unit41 Catty remark?42 “Rocky III” actor

(and an apt answer in this puzzle)

43 Wheat bristle44 Sta-___ fabric soft-

ener45 Suffix with ethyl46 Trees with triangular

nuts48 Alarm clock’s pur-

pose50 Following the nine

black squares in the center of the grid, a hint to five pairs of answers in this puzzle

52 With 54-Down,

NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD

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Campus O!ce: 217.333.0203 or peacecorps@illinois.edu

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Zach Anner’s Friday Events

“Exceeding Expectations”: 12 to 1 p.m. Ikenberry SDRP room 2009

Meet and Greet: 1 to 2 p.m.Ikenberry SDRP room 2009Interfaith Conference Keynote: 6 to 7:30 p.m. Ikenberry SDRP room 2025 A and B

Q&A: Comedian, TV host shares laughs, experiences

PHOTO COURTESY OF ZACK ANNERZach Anner, a comedian, TV host and writer with cerebral palsy, will speak Friday at the Ikenberry Commons.

MUSICFROM 6A

HOOKEDFROM 6A

BY ROBIN DEAN STAFF WRITER

T ucked away at the top floor of the music building, stu-dents are creating modern sounds of manipulated notes

and synthesized tones where the first developments of electronic and com-puter music were created.

In 1958, the University constructed the Experimental Music Studios, the first studio space in the western hemi-sphere to use technology in contempo-rary music. The six studio rooms and the works produced with them uphold a prestigious reputation globally, said professor Sever Tipei, manager of the computer music project.

“This is a research university,” Tipei said. “For us, research also means creativity, so it is the main place where composers create new works and research.”

Students taking specific classes within the school of music are able to use the studios, but students do not necessarily have to belong to the department to use them. However, they are expected to produce an elec-tro-acoustic composition per semes-

ter, said Professor Emeritus Scott Wyatt, director of EMS.

“Electro-acoustic music and com-puter music are a major part of any musical production nowadays,” Tipei said. “From pop music to very sophis-ticated concert music, more than half of the musical production worldwide is done in facilities like this. Our stu-dents benefit by being a part of a first class facility and instruction.”

As a research and teaching facility, students and faculty can produce new compositions and develop software for electronic and computer music. Students are continuously encour-aged to share their music through performances and competitions, and many have won various awards world-wide. Wyatt said he also believes the mission of the studios is to further students’ musical experience.

“The idea is to assist them in for-mulating their professional career. What we attempt to do is help them become aware of national and inter-national competitions and assist them with both their compositional skills as well as their engineering skills, because this is a contemporary art

form,” Wyatt said. Being involved with the studios

since 1974, Wyatt has worked to con-tinue the legacy of developing suc-cessful composers. As technology and the contemporary arts evolve, he makes sure that the studios are updat-ed. Through grants and even money from his own pocket, he hopes to help students become better composers.

“It is a technology center that focuses on the contemporary arts,”

he said. “There aren’t many centers like that and as technology changes, the facilities have to change.”

John Nichols III, composer and award-winning EMS graduate stu-dent in Music, also believes the stu-dios are a well-maintained legacy on campus offering students valuable opportunities.

“The facilities are consistently

6A | WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2015 | WWW.DAILYILLINI.COM

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An experimental language

EMS offers great opportunities for music

BY SARAH SOENKEFEATURES EDITOR

From 4 to 7 p.m. Tuesday night, customers moved in and out of the Silver Mine Subs on Daniel Street dur-ing the dinnertime rush. But only some were picking up the typically $4.29 small subs for $1 each — and the differ-ence was in the customers’ smartphones.

New to Champaign-Urba-na since Jan. 18, Hooked is an expanding food and bev-erage discount app offering real-time specials from popu-lar restaurants within walk-ing distance of the Univer-sity campus. By creating a newsfeed of the nearest time-limited deals, users are able to scroll through brightly colored images of the clos-

est food offerings from their specific location. Anyone on campus can download the app for free.

“Hooked is a way to help your meal decisions become easier,” said Tim Rothwell, co-founder and CEO of the app. “It really allows you to check out new restaurants around your university com-munity and save money along the way.”

The app first launched in C-U with 32 partnered res-taurants and food trucks, and now has expanded to 40 with plans to add more. Over 5,000 users now check the app frequently, according to Rothwell.

Tuesday’s extended special at Silver Mine Subs was just one of the events promoted

by Hooked and its four stu-dent ambassadors on cam-pus. Allie Goldstein, student ambassador and junior in FAA, helped run the event and market it through promo-tional posts on her Facebook account. Since being hired as an ambassador over win-ter break, she’s helped pro-mote many of Hooked’s free food events through flyer and social media posts, especially during the first two weeks of the semester, she said.

Goldstein first heard of the app herself through word-of-mouth from students at the University of Wisconsin—Madison, one of the five cam-puses the app is currently on. The other three include Uni-versity of Texas—Austin, University of Michigan and

Michigan State University. Dimitra Mourikes, soph-

omore in LAS, downloaded the app after participating in Hooked’s free food event weeks at the beginning of the semester. She said it’s already introduced her to new restaurants on campus, such as Orange Leaf and The Cookie Jar. She admitted she doesn’t check the app every day because of her dining hall meal plan, but she rec-ommends the app, especial-ly to those living outside the residence halls.

“It’s something I’ll definite-ly use more of next year when I’m living in an apartment,” she said.

One of the app’s appealing aspects is its focus on dis-counts students want. Hooked

makes it a priority to work with its partners on keeping the deals engaging, fresh and relevant to students, Rothwell said.

Orange Leaf, located on

Green Street, was one of the original 32 restaurants working with Hooked when it launched. Its manager,

SARAH SOENKE THE DAILY ILLINIOrange Leaf, a frozen yogurt shop, was one of the original 32 restaurants working with the Hooked app when it launched.

‘Hooked’ on new dining discount appSEE MUSIC | 5A

SEE HOOKED | 5A

PAGE 5A

Comedian, TV host Zach Anner uses his comedy to overcome adversity

encountered from his disability. The Daily Illini sat down with Anner

about his upcoming events at the Ikenberry Commons.

Changing the conversation

BY NICHOLAS FORTINSTAFF WRITER

The road won’t get easier just yet for the Illinois men’s basketball team.

After playing in one of its most physical games of the season over the weekend, Illinois (17-10, 7-7 Big Ten) will travel to Carver-Hawk-eye Arena for an 8 p.m. tip Wednesday night against an Iowa (17-10, 8-6) team that is just as aggressive as the Illini.

“I anticipate it being anoth-er very physical game,” head coach John Groce said. “They’re great on the back-board. We’re going to have to get the job done there.”

Groce compared Iowa to Purdue in the sense that both teams are predominately made up of taller players. The Hawkeyes start three front-court players 6-foot-9 or tall-er and a shooting guard who is 6-foot-6.

“Their size around the bas-ket is impressive,” Groce said.

The Illini have recently started a lineup in which only one player, Nnanna Egwu,

stands taller than 6-foot-9.Illinois had success against

the Boilermakers earlier in the season, but Iowa is bet-ter than Purdue at capitaliz-ing on its height. The Hawk-eyes are first in the Big Ten in offensive rebounds and fifth in the conference in defen-sive rebounds this season.

By now, Illinois basket-ball fans should know that with this year’s

team, nothing comes easy.Ever since Kennesaw

State (the last cream-puff opponent on Illi-nois’ schedule) left State Farm Center with a blow-out loss at the hands of John Groce’s squad in late December, almost every Illini win has been a difficult, grind-it-out affair. Ironically, a Janu-ary victory over then-No. 11 Maryland was one of Illinois’ least stressful Big Ten victories to date.

Even games against Big Ten doormats Northwest-ern and Penn State went down to the wire.

The Illini had a chance to make things easier on themselves Sunday against Michigan State. A second win this season over the Spartans would have paved a clear path to the NCAA tournament, and their tourney resume would likely have been able to withstand potential road losses to both Iowa and Purdue.

But Sparty got revenge Sunday for an early Feb-ruary home loss to Illi-nois, leaving the Illini’s postseason picture uncer-tain with a 17-10 overall record and 7-7 mark in

BY JOEY FIGUEROASTAFF WRITER

With just two games remaining before the Big Ten tournament, the Illi-nois women’s basketball team (14-14, 5-11 Big Ten) will host Michigan State (13-14, 5-11) on Wednesday night. The Big Ten battle will be the first of Illinois’ final two games at State Farm Center this season.

The Illini lost their first matchup with the Spartans in January, giving Michi-gan State its first Big Ten victory of the season. The two teams have taken rel-atively similar paths of inconsistency since their first contest and are both trying to end their respec-tive seasons on a high

note heading into the tournament.

“Both teams now are playing with a lot of momentum,” head coach Matt Bollant said.

Michigan State stum-bled into Big Ten play, los-ing its first five games and 10 of its first 13 confer-ence matchups. The Spar-tans have righted the ship of late, winning two of their last three games, the most recent being an upset win over No. 20 Rutgers — a team Illinois fell to 80-56

last week.Like Michigan State, Illi-

nois has won two of its last three games and is coming off an emotional come-from-behind 47-46 victory at Purdue on Saturday.

“We’ve had a lot of games where we played well and didn’t get the result,” Bol-lant said. “There’s a game where we didn’t play well offensively, but found a way to get the result we were looking for.”

Following the Purdue win, Bollant praised sopho-more forward Jacqui Grant and freshman center Cha-trice White for each grab-bing 10 rebounds and limit-ing opposing chances with their length inside. The Illini frontcourt will face one of its toughest tests of the season in Michigan State’s versatile forward Aerial Powers.

Powers leads the Spar-tans in every offensive and defensive category except for assists, in which she is second. Her 22.2 points and 11.9 rebounds are 11th and seventh, respectively, in the nation. She also ranks third nationally with 20 doubles-doubles.

Last time the Illini played the Spartans, Pow-ers led all scorers with 33 points on 14-of-15 shooting from the free throw line.

“They’ve got a good team and they’ve been playing their best basketball in a long time,” Bollant said. “Very talented team com-ing in.”

Since Illinois’ 95-point performance against Min-nesota earlier in the month, the Illini have averaged 57 points per game, which is nearly 10 points below their

season scoring average.Junior point guard Kyley

Simmons has taken respon-sibility for Illinois’s offen-sive performance all sea-son and said the Illini need to slow it down in order to find the best shot possible.

“(It’s) me just being the calming effect,” Simmons said. “If (shots aren’t) fall-ing, just keep going.”

With just two weeks until the Big Ten tournament, Bollant wants the Illini to continue to improve every day and it seems as if the

rest of the team has bought in.

Simmons said she and White have taken on more of a leadership role recent-ly. They both look to steer the Illini in the right direc-tion to end the season.

“We’ve really grown these last couple weeks,” Simmmons said. “That’s what we have to do: keep learning and just play with confidence.”

jfiguer2@illinois.edu @JoeyFigueroa3

BY CHRISTOPHER KENNEDYSTAFF WRITER

Editor’s Note: The Daily Illini sports desk sits down each week and decides which Illinois athlete or coach is our Illini of the Week. Athletes and coaches are evaluated by individual performance and contribution to team success.

T here’s a lot of noise in college tennis.

Fans get rowdy between points, coach-es yell out encourage-

ment on the court and players take advantage of opportuni-ties to celebrate. During an Illinois men’s tennis match at the Atkins Tennis Center there’s a lot of noise, but little of it comes from one of the team’s best players.

Senior Tim Kopinski keeps a cool head on the court, but behind that calm demean-or lays a high motor and a fiery passion. An in-match professionalism has led him to a 10-1 start to the season, added to by a dominating performance this weekend against Northwestern, Tole-

do and Indiana.“He’s done an incredible

job to use his mind in a posi-tive manner and to become way more professional in how he manages himself and manages his mind on the ten-nis court,” head coach Brad Dancer said. “(He) can toler-ate physical pain, he is con-stantly striving to get better and his expectations of him-self are through the roof. ... The ultimate result is a com-petitor that loves the sport, that wants to be out there and wants to be in the moment.”

Kopinski went 3-0 this weekend in singles — every victory came in straight sets. He was the only Illini to pick up three singles wins on the weekend, taking down Northwestern’s top-ranked player, then-No. 64 Strong Kircheimer 6-1, 6-3, smoking Toledo’s Mark Signil 6-1, 6-0 and defeating Raheel Manji of Indiana 6-4, 6-2. Kopin-ski currently stands at No. 33 in the national rankings. Earlier this year, Dancer said Kopinski has become a player who opponents don’t

want to face. Kopinski said he thinks he knows why.

“I’m pretty physically strong, and I combine that with being really focused the whole match and I can make matches really physical and painful,” Kopinski said. “For opponents, it’s not fun play-ing against me because I play long points and very physical points.”

Kopinski has brought that physicality together with improved focus on the court. Dancer talks a lot about playing matches with

purpose and that mental aspect of the game is one of the things that Kopinski has strengthened the most in his time with the Illini. Still, it’s something that both he and Dancer know Kopinski can continue to improve.

When he was a freshman, Kopinski said that he could hit “some nice shots,” but couldn’t play consistently over the course of a match. Dancer said he worked with Kopinski to find the balance

SPORTS1BWEDNESDAY

ILLINIWEEK

OF THEThe senior boasts a 10-1

singles record and has led the Illini into the top 5.

TIM KOPINSKI

PORTRAIT BY BRENTON TSE THE DAILY ILLINI

BRENTON TSE THE DAILY ILLINI Illinois’ Rayvonte Rice attempts to stop Michigan State’s Travis Trice from making a three during the game against Michigan State on Sunday. The Illini lost 60-53.

Illinois going to Iowa after loss to MSU

Iowa game could determine Illini’s postseason fate

Spartans visit for rematch

Interested in football? Informational meeting WednesdayDAILY ILLINI STAFF REPORT

University students who are interested in joining the Illinois football team are encouraged to attend an informational meeting on Wednesday.

The meeting will take place at 5 p.m. in the squad

room in Memorial Stadium, located on the lower level of the football complex in the northeast tower. Members of head coach Tim Beckman’s staff will provide those in attendance with the informa-tion they will need to tryout.

In order to try out, a stu-

dent must be currently enrolled full-time at the Uni-versity and must show offi-cial documentation of hav-ing passed a physical exam within the past six months. Students can get a physi-cal at the McKinley Health Center if needed. Students

should also bring their Uni-versity ID and are requested to show proof that they were NCAA Clearinghouse quali-fied after high school.

If there are any questions, students should contact Scott Yielding at 217-333-1400 or yielding@illinois.edu.

Late tournament push begins on Wednesday night

Women’s basketball to host MSU in !rst of last 2 Big Ten games

ALEX ROUX

Basketball columnist

SEE ROUX | 2B

SEE MBBALL | 2B

SEE IOTW | 2B

SONNY AN THE DAILY ILLINIIllinois' Jacqui Grant goes for a free throw. Beaten in January, the Illini are looking for a rematch against Michigan State.

Both teams now are playing

with a lot of momentum.

MATT BOLLANTHEAD COACH

Illinois vs. IowaWhen/Where: 8 p.m. Wednesday in Iowa City, IowaTV/Radio: Big Ten Network/Fighting Illini Sports NetworkQuick notes: Illinois will look to end a two-game losing streak in Iowa City, Iowa, against a conference-leading offensive rebounding Hawkeyes team.Hidden stat: In the Illini’s last two games, they’ve have been outscored by a combined 26 points. In Iowa’s last two contests, the Hawkeyes have outscored their opponents by a combined 61 points.

Big Ten Network hosts ‘Super Wednesday’ in the Illini UnionThe Big Ten Network will

hold its final on-campus “Super Wednesday” event at the Illini Union Courtyard Café on Wednesday night at 8 p.m.

BTN said in a press release that University of Illinois students, faculty and community members are welcome to eat free food and watch the Illini take on the Hawkeyes at the Union.

There will be pizza for “at least 200 people” at the

event.“Super Wednesday” attendees will be given a punch card allowing them eligibility to win raffle prizes like Chicago Blackhawks or Chicago Bulls tickets. Attendees will receive a punch for showing up and another punch for wearing Big Ten gear.According to the press

release, each punch is equal to one raffle ticket.Everyone at the event will also have the opportunity to win other prizes like BTN T-shirts and gift cards.

Honorable MentionsCasey Fletcher (baseball) — The senior right fielder went 6-for-11 over the weekend, drove in five runs and scored five of his own. The Illini won two games and tied one over the weekend — Fletcher scored the tying run in the ninth inning of the 4-4 tie with Florida Gulf Coast.

Stephanie Richartz (women’s indoor track and !eld) — The senior pole vaulter set an Illinois record Saturday, jumping 4.38 meters to break her own two-year-old school record. The Illini finished first in their final home meet of the season.

conference play. Now Illi-nois travels to Iowa for a Wednesday matchup with the Hawkeyes, and a third straight loss would put the Illini on the wrong side of the bubble with only three regular season games remaining.

While Illinois has con-sistently induced cardi-ac arrest, the Hawkeyes have been feast or fam-ine. They have some good wins (over Ohio State, twice, and blowouts over Michigan and then-No. 17 Maryland) and some head-scratching losses (Minnesota, Northwest-ern). Iowa enters Wednes-day’s game following back-to-back blowout wins over Rutgers and Nebraska.

A big part of Illinois’ fate depends on which ver-sion of Fran McCaffery’s Iowa team decides to show up at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The Hawkeyes can be dangerous, capable of threatening teams from inside and out. Forward Jarrod Uthoff and guard

Peter Jok shoot 40 and 37 percent from 3-point dis-tance, respectively. Cen-ters Gabriel Olaseni and notorious eye-poker Adam Woodbury provide the muscle inside.

And 6-foot-9 senior Aar-

on White (14.7 points, 7.1 rebounds per game) does it all, stretching oppos-ing defenses with his size and ability to put the ball on the floor and attack the rim.

But there’s a reason Iowa is on the NCAA bub-ble at 17-10, just ahead of Illinois in the Big Ten at 8-6. Just like the Illini, the Hawkeyes aren’t a com-plete team yet, and are running out of time to fig-ure things out.

With four games

remaining for both teams, Wednesday will likely be a huge swing game in deter-mining each team’s post-season fate. It wouldn’t surprise me at all to see the winner end up in the Big Dance, while the loser is relegated to its second NIT appearance in the last three seasons.

Illinois has looked shaky since leading scorer Rayvonte Rice returned to the lineup from an injury and sub-sequent suspension. The Illini are 1-2 and have averaged a lousy 51.3 points per game with Rice back, and really need to figure out their identity offensively.

Since Illinois played well in Rice’s absence, the challenge for Groce has been to integrate Rice properly into what had evolved into a decent-ly productive offensive attack led by sophomores Malcolm Hill and Kend-rick Nunn. Instead, the offense has looked stag-nant and unimaginative in the last three games.

I’m not saying Rice is hurting the team. He’s a phenomenal player and

the Illini need him if they’re going to make any sort of meaningful post-season noise. But they need to figure out a way to produce offensively with him in the lineup. If they do, Illinois could be scary.

The Michigan State result on Sunday saw Illinois come out on the wrong end of a close one, which seemed to be the Illini’s calling card ear-ly in the season when they were still incapa-ble of closing out games. As the season went on, however, Illinois gained confidence down the stretch of games, turned up the clutch factor and squeaked out a good amount of narrow victo-ries in Big Ten play. The Iowa game will be in a tough environment and will almost certainly be another close affair.

Even though we know nothing comes easy for this Illini team, we also know they play best under Groce when their backs are against the wall.

roux2@dailyillini.com @aroux94

BY DANIEL DEXTERSTAFF WRITER

When senior Illini hock-ey player Jonathan Langan separated his shoulder the summer before his fresh-man year, he didn’t realize that it would end up being a blessing in disguise.

After the injury, Langan decided he should forgo playing junior hockey in the NAHL and instead attend Illinois, where he had been recruited by former head coach Chad Castle. Now four years later, Langan and his fellow seniors, who stuck through the grind of club hockey, will be hon-ored in front of the home crowd in their last games in the Illinois Ice Arena this weekend.

Along with Langan, the team will recognize Kyle Varzino, Will Nunez, Josh Baker, Jacob Matyisiak, Mario Pacheco and Ricky Di Legge Kokoszka.

Head coach Nick Fab-brini said this senior class stood out to him because of

the vocal leadership it pro-vided in the locker room and the sacrifices it made on the ice.

“All of them throw their bodies around to block shots, and that doesn’t go unnoticed by their team-mates,” Fabbrini said. “We are lucky to have them and we are definitely going to miss them when they are gone next year.”

For Baker, playing at Illinois meant an opportu-nity to continue his hock-ey career and enjoy all the benefits a Big Ten school has to offer. He joined the team as a sophomore, and since then has been ele-vated to assistant captain, a position he shares with Langan.

Baker and Langan are unique in that they are both true seniors in a lock-er room made up of older players, who chose to play junior hockey before com-ing in as freshmen.

Langan said that being one of the few 18-year-olds

on the team when he was a freshman helped him grow up quickly, but he hardly ever noticed the age dif-ference. And even though he still isn’t one of the old-est guys on the team, he believes his teammates recognized his long-term commitment to the pro-gram when they named him a captain.

“It’s a different animal being a captain to guys that are older than you,” Langan said. “I think that what I bring to the table is experience in the league compared to all these oth-er guys. It was a team vote and for those guys to pick me, it says a lot about the character on our team that guys are looking up to expe-rience rather than age.”

Fabbrini said the com-mitment the seniors made to the team for their entire college careers shows how much they loved the sport because of how much the players have to sacrifice to be a part of a club team.

Since the team is techni-cally a registered student organization, the players do not receive the same benefits as NCAA athletes like being able to schedule classes around practices and having to pay to play for the team.

Baker said that despite the lack of perks, he and his teammates play the game because it is something they have been doing for almost their entire lives and fan attendance has helped keep the costs down.

“Hockey before, when I was playing juniors, was very expensive. It’s about a sixth of the cost to play here,” Baker said. “It’s defi-nitely worth it to play at Illi-nois over other schools in our division that don’t get the rowdy crowds of 1,500 people at the games.”

The crowds do more than just help with players’ expenses; they will also be the aspect of playing hock-ey that the seniors will miss the most. Langan feels for-

tunate to have played at Illi-nois because few club teams offer the competitive atmo-sphere of the “Big Pond.”

“Every bit of the hard-ship is worth it because playing at home on Friday

and Saturday nights in front of the crowd that we get is well worth it,” Langan said. “It’s what we play for.”

dadexte2@dailyillini.com @ddexter23

BY MICHAL DWOJAKASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

With the game tied and the bases loaded, Casey Fletcher stepped up to the plate in the bottom of the ninth inning.

The Illinois baseball team had giv-en up three runs in the top half of the frame and had allowed Fordham to tie the game at six. After a strikeout, hit-by-pitch, double and intentional walk, it was the senior’s turn to deliver at Swanson Stadium in Fort Myers, Fla., on Saturday afternoon.

The first pitch was a backdoor slid-er: strike one. The next was a fastball outside: strike two. Fordham’s pitcher Greg Weissert tried to squeeze Fletch-er inside: ball one. Weissert tried to squeeze Illinois’ right fielder inside again, but this time, the ball grazed Fletcher’s foot.

The ball rolled to the backstop and Fordham’s catcher sprinted after it. The umpire wasn’t sure what had just happened. The senior lobbied with the umpire that the ball had hit his foot until he saw Illini catcher Jason Gold-stein running home. A crowd of orange jerseys streamed out of the dugout to celebrate, the Illini had won the game 7-6.

After looking at film of the pitch, it was determined the pitch had hit Fletcher, but by then, it was simply a statistical correction. The “cardiac kids,” as pitching coach Drew Dick-inson likes to call the group, had sur-vived yet another close, late-inning game. Although the Illini blew a 6-3 lead, they fought back and showed resiliency.

“A lot of teams will fall asleep at the end (of games),” senior center fielder Will Krug said. “It displays to us our

veteran mindset. We’ve been there before and we’re not worried when we’re down late — we know we have the ability and talent to come back, no matter the situation.”

Illinois has been no stranger to late-game heroics through two weeks of play. In four of the team’s seven games, it has had to make a late-inning push to win or tie the game. The Illi-ni staged late-game comebacks in the final three innings in two games against New Mexico State during the season-opening weekend, and once each against Fordham and Florida Golf Coast this past weekend.

Illinois couldn’t finish with a win in Sunday’s game with Florida Golf Coast due to a travel curfew. Because the Illini had to get to the airport in time for their trip back to Champaign, the game was called a tie after nine innings.

Although head coach Dan Hartleb said that a tie is ultimately the same as a loss — Illinois failed to win the game — he was still proud of the way his team fought back, even when every-thing looked bleak.

“After we lost the lead, and we have one out on a bad play in the last inning, we still found a way to come back,”

Hartleb said. “The resiliency of the team and the fact that we continue to compete, regardless of the situation, that’s really good.”

Much of the late-game heroics have been a result of the team’s balance and depth. Heading into the season, Hartleb’s players echoed his belief that batters can’t rely on the pitching staff and that pitchers can’t rely on the offense. There have already been moments when Illinois has shown off its offensive power and its talented arms, but the veteran team’s goal is to be as balanced as possible so that when late-game magic is needed at crucial parts of the season, one side brings in the win.

Although Fletcher loves to be the hero, he knows that even if he’s not at the plate to win the game, he can look forward to jumping out of the dugout to celebrate with whoever saves the day.

“We find a way to get it done late in the games. It says a lot about our char-acter and about the kids that we have on this team,” Fletcher said. “They’re fierce competitors, and we don’t quit until the 27th out.”

dwojak2@dailyillini.com @bennythebull94

2B Wednesday, February 25, 2015 THE DAILY ILLINI | WWW.DAILYILLINI.COM

Hockey’s senior night honors team leaders

Walk-off hit keeps Illini baseball undefeated

Illini softball’s pitching looking for consistencyBY LAUREN MROZSTAFF WRITER

Illinois softball head coach Terri Sullivan has relied largely on three pitchers so far this season, but none have delivered with any consistency.

Three weeks into the 2015 season, the Illinois softball team is 5-10. Though showing faint signs of success, pitch-ing has been a major fac-tor in Illinois’ early season struggles.

Breanna Wonderly, Jade Vecvanags and Shelese Arnold have thrown the majority of the innings for Illinois. Each has had her share of shining moments, but at the same time, each has contributed detrimental game-deciding innings.

Over its first 15 games, the trio — along with freshman Kate Giddens — allowed 85 total runs. The Illini pitch-ers have made a habit out of dominating one game in the circle then turning around to look like completely differ-ent players a few hours later. Arnold has been a consistent example of this.

At Mississippi State the second weekend of the sea-son, Arnold struggled against UT-Martin on Friday, allow-ing five late-inning runs in the team’s loss. But the senior bounced back in her final two outings at the Feb-ruary Freezer, hurling back-to-back complete games to pick up her first two wins of the year.

In her second win, Arnold kept Mississippi State’s Car-oline Seitz and Erika Gaul off the base paths. The two

entered the game with a com-bined 12 extra-base hits in the first two weekends of play.

The same pattern held true this past weekend in the Illi-ni’s trip to Houston. Arnold started off with two good out-ings and Illinois grabbed its only two wins of the weekend. But her later outings again proved costly for the Illini.

As one of the three seniors on the team, Arnold said her role this year has changed drastically. Because she has been around the longest, she has taken what she learned from previous classes and used it to teach her team-mates how to react when games may or may not go their way. She said her suc-cess on the field has a major influence on the confidence of her younger teammates.

“My leadership has changed,” Arnold said. “My teammates like to see me up, and I don’t like to let them down. So, when I’m down, I know that I’ve got to get it together because I don’t want them doubting me.”

Sullivan added that Arnold has developed a key role on the team now that she’s a senior.

“We knew she would become a very good leader because she just has a way with her teammates.” Sulli-van said. “She really under-stands all of them and com-municates well with her teammates. She’s a competi-tor and wants to win and is very accountable herself as a player.”

lmroz2@dailyillini.com @MrozLauren

Illini at 6-0 a!er "rst game against Fordham

KEVIN VONGNAPHONE THE DAILY ILLINIIllinois’ Jonathan Langan follows the puck after Ohio’s Michael Harris pass it during the CSCHL Playoffs semi-finals v. Ohio University at the Ice Arena on Saturday.

BRENTON TSE THE DAILY ILLINIIllinois’ Casey Fletcher up at bat. The team took on Fordham for the first time ever in Florida this past weekend. A walk-off hit ended the game with an Illini win.

The Iowa game will be in a tough environment and

will almost certainly be another close

affair.

Iowa has also been rid-ing a hot streak lately. The Hawkeyes are coming off 33- and 28-point victories against Rutgers and Nebras-ka, respectively, in each of their last two games.

Despite the Illini shooting an anemic 28.8 percent from the field in Sunday’s loss to the Spartans, Malcolm Hill said he isn’t worried about the team’s recent offensive woes.

After being involved in last season’s late tournament push, the sophomore guard knows that Illinois’ defense, not its offense, is key to securing a tournament berth.

“We just need to pick it up on the defensive end,” Hill said. “Defense is the reason we almost got to the NCAA tournament last year and it’s another reason why we have a chance to get back there this year.”

Groce added that the Illini have to continue working on their passing and screening on the offense end.

“It’s our shot and we have to work really hard to get our shot,” Groce said.

Neither Hill nor senior guard Rayvonte Rice seemed worried about Illinois’ shoot-ing struggles continuing — Rice said he’s getting more comfortable with every game since his return from suspen-sion on Feb. 12.

Rice said that stopping the Hawkeyes, and the other three teams left on the Illi-ni’s schedule will come down to stringing together good defensive possessions.

“We’ve got to get stops,” Rice said.

Illinois is currently eighth in the conference in field goal percentage defense, a sta-tistic the Illini will need to improve upon in the final four games of the regular season.

While Illinois needs to improve on both the defen-sive and offensive ends mov-ing forward, Hill added that the Illini will need to keep up the intensity for the remain-der of the season if the team wants to make a run at an NCAA tournament bid.

“If we take the same physi-cality from this game to the rest of the season, I think we can be really good,” Hill said after playing Michigan State.

fortin2@dailyillini.com @IlliniSportsGuy

between playing explosively and playing mindfully. With the focus he has improved over the years, Kopinski now remains calm and takes advantage of his physicali-ty in matches. His improved mental strength has made his physical strength all the more dangerous.

Above all, Dancer said

many of Kopinski’s strengths as a tennis player come from his parents, Jan and Zofia Kopinski. Dancer thinks Kopinski has inherited their passion.

“They’re such amazing people in terms of work ethic. They have instilled in him toughness, a passion, a grit.” Dancer said. “He has a high-running motor, that’s probably genetic. ... He’s going, he’s going all the time.”

In addition to strong sin-gles play early this sea-son, Kopinski is also a part of one of the country’s top doubles teams. Kopinski and his partner, senior Ross Gui-gnon, ended the fall season as runner-ups at the ITA National Indoor Intercolle-giate Championships. This weekend, the pair picked up two wins in the two matches they played against North-western and Indiana.

Kopinski said he’s able

to take some strong ele-ments of his doubles game, like returning serves and hitting volleys, and trans-late them into his singles game. Kopinski emphasized that the confidence he has gained from spending time on the doubles court has made him a better singles player.

As an important player in both doubles and singles, Kopinski can contribute in multiple ways to the team’s

ultimate goal: a national championship. As a senior, the chase for postseason glo-ry is even more important to Kopinski.

“It would mean the world to us, especially our senior class; we didn’t come in as huge recruits,” Kopins-ki said. “I feel like we’d be selling ourselves short if we didn’t reach for that (nation-al championship).”

The Illini are currently ranked No. 3 in the nation

and should be in the mix as one of the country’s top teams all year. When cru-cial post-season matches come around, Kopinski’s on-court composure will be important.

Even more important will be the fierce competi-tiveness beneath Kopinski’s cool facade.

cmkenne2@dailyillini.com @ChrisKennedy_4

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In my Feb. 4 column, I wrote that the Big Ten was “in the midst of its worst campaign

in years.”What a difference three weeks can

make. Bracketology experts Jerry Palm of CBS Sports and Joe Lunar-di of ESPN are predicting eight Big Ten teams in the NCAA tournament fi eld. One of those squads is Purdue, a former fringe team playing its best basketball at just the right time.

The Boilermakers (18-9, 10-4 Big Ten) have caught fi re recently, begin-ning with a home win in January against then-No. 25 Iowa (17-10, 8-6 Big Ten). They’ve won seven of their last eight games thanks to the play of guards Rapheal Davis and Jon Octe-us and center A.J. Hammons.

Davis averaged 19.5 points per game in a four-game stretch from Jan. 24 to Feb. 4, but he’s cooled off since then. With Davis’ stead, the fi fth-year transfer Octeus has picked up the slack offensively. Meanwhile, Hammons has been a workhorse in the paint.

The 7-foot, Gary, Indiana, native

and Oak Hill Academy product post-ed 20 points on 8-of-9 shooting and added four blocks against Indiana (19-9, 9-6 Big Ten) on Thursday. More importantly, Hammons sank two free throws with four seconds left to lift the Boilermakers to vic-tory. He was awarded Big Ten Play-er of the Week because of his stellar play against Indiana. The last Boiler-maker to earn the honor was Robbie Hummel in February 2012.

With four games remaining in their regular season, the Boilermak-ers are looking to solidify a tourna-ment spot somewhere in the nine to 12-seed range. After losing to the Illini (17-10, 7-7 Big Ten) 66-57 on Jan. 21, the Boilermakers will seek revenge in a home tilt against Illi-nois on March 7.

B1G point godsI highlighted the play of Mary-

land’s Melo Trimble in January.Friday, the Naismith Memori-

al Basketball Hall of Fame named him a fi nalist for the 2015 Bob Cousy Collegiate Point Guard of the Year Award. The freshman has propelled No. 14 Maryland (23-5, 11-4 Big Ten) to its best regular season in years and to its stranglehold on second place in the conference standings.

The Terps faced the class of the

Big Ten Tuesday night in College Park, Maryland, taking down No. 5 Wisconsin. The Badgers (25-3, 13-2 Big Ten) boast a solid point guard of their own in Bronson Koenig, who’s averaging 12.4 points over his last seven outings after starter Traevon Jackson went down with injury.

Another Big Ten point guard is in the running for the Bob Cousy Award. Yogi Ferrell’s points per game are down slightly from last year, but his assist and rebound num-bers are up. Let’s forget the box score for a second, though. The junior is the heartbeat of the Hoosiers — he’s the team leader and he controls the tempo for Tom Crean’s bunch.

Despite being listed at only 6-foot (and that’s generous), Ferrell gets great elevation on his shot, allow-ing him to cash in on quick-release 3-pointers. He’s extremely nimble, allowing him to penetrate and fi n-ish over taller defenders or kick to a teammate for an assist — he aver-ages fi ve per game.

Barring injury, Trimble and Fer-rell could both be playing well into March. If you enjoy watching fan-tastic guard play, be sure to tune in when they’re on the fl oor.

Eli is a junior in Media.schwadr2@dailyillini.com@eschwad

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BY ALEX WALLNERSTAFF WRITER

Illinois women’s track and fi eld senior Stephanie Rich-artz would be the fi rst to tell you that she never had track and fi eld in her mind when she chose to attend the University of Illinois. But after deciding to walk on the team as a fresh-man, her attitude towards the sport changed.

Richartz didn’t even know what pole vaulting even was until high school.

“My dad urged me to try track and fi eld in high school, and once the coaches found out I had experience in gym-nastics, they asked me if I wanted to learn to pole vault,” Richartz said. “I thought it looked like a cool event to do, so I gave it a try.”

At Carmel Catholic High School in Mundelein, Illinois, Richartz said she was a “medi-ocre” athlete at best, even though she holds the school record for the pole vault and

was a state fi nalist in the event in 2010. Coming out of high school, she wasn’t recruited to compete at the next lev-el. Accepted at Illinois dur-ing her senior year of high school, Richartz headed to Champaign in the fall of 2010.

As a freshman on campus, Richartz never thought sports were in her future. After talk-ing it over with her parents and high school coach, she decided to walk onto the team. Since then, she has said the decision was the best she’s ever made.

Of her fi rst three seasons on campus, Richartz’ junior sea-son was her best — she won the pole vault at the Illini Classic and earned runner-ups at both the Husker and SPIRE Invi-tational. Her postseason was more impressive, though: she won her fi rst Big Ten Indoor pole vault title en route to her team’s fi rst Big Ten champi-onship since 1996. Richartz then placed eighth in the pole

vault at her fi rst NCAA Indoor Championships and ended the season as a fi rst-team All-American. Prior to her junior year, Richartz had fi nished fi fth and second at the Big Ten Indoor Championships.

Entering what was to be her senior year, Richartz suf-fered an ankle injury — a bone bruise and severe sprain — that took longer to heal than expected. Richartz eventually decided to redshirt.

“Once the decision was made that I would be red-shirting the season last year, it enabled me to not feel rushed in my recovery and to take things slow,” Richartz said. “I spend more time in a week in the training room getting treatment than I normally did in practice. It also allowed me to conquer the mental chal-lenges of the recovery.”

Richartz’s return from inju-ry is soon to come full circle: she is preparing for the Indoor Big Ten Championships in

Geneva, Ohio, this weekend.Not only is Richartz terrifi c

on the track, junior Jennifer DeBellis and distance coach Scott Jones both agree she is a great teammate.

“She offers a lot of unique advice that has really helped me along in my own college track career,” DeBellis said. “Steph is also always con-cerned about what is best for the team, and has gone the extra mile to help out many of us.”

Jones added that Richartz is “like another coach at our meets,” always helping others on the team who compete in the same event. It’s something Jones said he loves to see out of one the best pole vaulters in the country. Four years ago, even Richartz wouldn’t have predicted she would be where she stands today: a leader and a successful Division 1 athlete.

awallne2@illinois.edu@AWallner93

Pole vaulter succeeds beyond expectation

Purdue fi nishing strong

ABBY DREY TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICEPurdue’s A.J. Hammons makes a pass over Penn State’s Ross Travis and Alan Wisniewski on Feb. 2, 2014. Hammons was named Big Ten Player of the Week and Purdue has won seven of its last eight games.

SONNY AN THE DAILY ILLINIIllinois’ Stephanie Richartz smiles after her record-breaking pole vault height of 4.38 meters at the Armory on Feb. 21, 2015. The Illini came in fi rst, followed by Northern Illinois.

ELI SCHWADRON

Sports Columnist