News Bureau | University of Illinois

Do-it-yourself bike repair

Bicyclists in Champaign-Urbana can tend to minor bike repairs at six repair stations throughout the twin cities, including three sites on campus.

Blue steel racks, with an assortment of tools tethered by steel cables, are part of a joint project among the UI, the cities of Champaign and Urbana, and the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District. The racks may be the first of their kind in Illinois, designed to increase bicycle ridership, encourage a healthy lifestyle and increase mobility.

The stands are designed to hold a bike by its seat in an elevated position, while the cyclist works on it with the screwdrivers, assorted wrenches and tire lever attached to the rack. The rack also features a bike pump that works with multiple valves.

The racks are located on campus at city parking lot J, 605 S. Sixth St., and the Bike Project, 608 E. Pennsylvania Ave., both in Champaign, and at the Henry Administration Building parking lot, 506 S. Wright St., Urbana.

Increasing bike traffic cuts motorist congestion and reduces parking demands.

They built an app for baseball

It’s April in Champaign-Urbana and you’re at a UI baseball game. Maybe it’s sunny, maybe it’s miserably cold (it’s April, after all).

But as a UI hitter walks to the plate, journalism professor Charles “Stretch” Ledford is hoping you might be reaching for your smartphone and opening a student-designed app called Virtual Dugout. Focus your phone’s camera on the player’s photo in the game program and you’ll soon be watching his video bio, absorbing stats, or taking in other content related to that player or his performance.

It’s all part of an independent study project, led by Ledford, who teaches multimedia journalism. The project involves 13 students from a half-dozen disciplines: advertising; art and design; computer engineering; computer science; journalism; and statistics. Their goal is to have Virtual Dugout available as a free download in time for Illinois’ home opener on March 30.

The combination of disciplines is part of what Ledford thinks has to happen in the quickly evolving world of digital journalism. “From a journalistic standpoint, in order to communicate information to people in the 21st century, we have to deliver that content to them wherever they are,” and that now often means mobile technology, he said. Virtual Dugout will incorporate aspects of a commercial app, Aurasma, which makes it possible for physical images to trigger virtual experiences. The concept is similar to, but a step beyond, QR codes, those square images filled with seemingly random patterns of small black squares, Ledford said.

New minor in leadership studies

A new minor in leadership studies is open to all undergraduates. With collaboration from virtually all colleges on campus, the new curriculum offers students an interdisciplinary minor to deepen the understanding of leadership principles.
The leadership studies minor directly ties into the UI’s strategic mission that includes goals to develop leaders for the 21st century.

The curriculum, developed by faculty and staff members from all UI undergradatue colleges, and administered through the College of Agriculture, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, requires students to fulfill 17 to 18 credit hours through a variety of courses. Four required courses provide instruction in leadership theory, interpersonal dimensions of leadership and scientific research that support theories of leadership.

Students also choose two electives, which can be either outside or within their major.
More information is at www.illinoisleadership.illinois.edu/leadership.

Geographic representation of the freshman class

By home address
All Illinois: 76.8 percent
Chicago area counties: 58.8 percent
Champaign County: 2.3 percent
Downstate counties (excluding Champaign): 15.6 percent
Non-Illinois: 23.2 percent

Top Illinois Counties
Cook
DuPage
Lake
Will
Champaign
Kane
Winnebago
Peoria
Madison
Sangamon, St. Clair (tie)

Top States
California
New Jersey
Texas
Missouri
Ohio
New York
Massachusetts
Wisconsin
Maryland
Virginia

Top Countries
China
South Korea
India
Singapore
Taiwan
Thailand
Canada
Indonesia
Kazakhstan
Turkey, Malaysia (tie)

The School of Music offers numerous performing opportunities for majors and non-majors

All ensembles are open to musicians based on audition. 
Bands
Six concert bands
British Brass Band
Three basketball bands
Orange & Blues pep band
Marching Illini
Summer Band

Chamber
Trombone and Clarinet choirs
Brass, Saxophone and String quartets
Woodwind Quintet
String Trio
Harp Ensemble

Choirs
UI Chorale
Women’s Glee Club
Varsity Men’s Glee Club
UI Singers
Black Chorus
Oratorio Society

Jazz Bands
Four big bands
Seven instrumental combos
Two vocal jazz ensembles 

New Music Ensemble

Orchestras
UI Symphony Orchestra
UI Philharmonia
Illini Orchestra

Percussion
Percussion Ensemble
World Percussion Ensemble
Steel Band
I-Pan

World Music
African, Andean, Balkan ensembles
Gamelan

Student-Athletes Leading Social Change

Darragh McDermott spends a lot of time practicing her dives, but she’s also been diving into something else during her college career: Student-Athletes Leading Social Change.

Founded in 2009, SALSC involves student-athletes from various colleges and universities, with the UI, Michigan and Lehigh the most active so far, according to co-founder CeCe Marizu, a former UI swimmer and now a graduate assistant in the Irwin Academic Services Center on campus.

“I just couldn’t wait to get involved,” said McDermott, who last year went to Ecuador with SALSC and worked on building a school, spent time with a girls’ club and funded a water system. “That was probably the best 10 days of my life,” she said. This school year, McDermott, a junior from Mokena, Ill., majoring in English and secondary education, is a co-coordinator of the UI chapter.

Marizu said her dream is to see SALSC spread nationwide and is working on bringing student-athletes together for a service project this summer in Chicago. Marizu’s father is from Nigeria.Travel there as a child had given her an interest in service abroad even before involvement with SALSC, she said. In her time at the UI, however, and through visits to local schools through Hometown Heroes, she also had come to realize how much kids look up to student-athletes and how much of a role model they can be.