Illinois legislature snuffs dorm smoking

By Ron Felten - Staff Writer

Both houses of the Illinois General Assembly late last month passed a measure that would prohibit smoking in dormitories on all public and private university campuses in the state. As of this writing, the plan is awaiting Governor Blagojevich’s signature, which will make the bill law.
The measure will serve as an amendment to the Illinois Clean Indoor Air Act of 1990, which found “that tobacco smoke is annoying, harmful and dangerous to human beings and a hazard to public health,” and sought to limit secondhand smoke’s effects on non-smokers through strict regulations and penalties for those who didn’t comply.
The new proposal, which would essentially extend the ICIAA to also apply to Illinois residence halls and other university housing, reads in part, “[S]moking is prohibited in any portion of the living quarters, including, but not limited to, sleeping rooms, dining areas, restrooms, laundry areas, lobbies and hallways, of a building used in whole or in part as a student dormitory that is owned and operated or otherwise utilized by a public or private institution of higher education.”
UIS Housing recently banned smoking in all campus apartments and townhouses (including family housing), where students used to be able to smoke if their roommates consented. Smoking in LRH has never been permitted.
Brad Buckingham, an RA for the Marigold Court townhouses, says the state government’s soon-to-be law should not affect UIS.
“The [amendment to the] Illinois Clean Indoor Air Act,” Buckingham said, “only solidifies the policy Housing has already put into effect.”
Housing had allowed students who objected to the new policy to get out of their current contracts but, Buckingham said, the grace period has already passed. “The smoking ban will be placed in the Housing contract for the Fall 2006 semester,” he continued, “so once residents sign that document they will have waived any right they may have had to smoke inside any Housing living space.”
Housing Director John Ringle introduced the idea of UIS going smoke-free last year. Buckingham said that before any official policy was implemented, Ringle consulted with the Housing Resident’s Council and the student body, through meetings, forums and e-mail, and ultimately decided that such a ban would be to the benefit of students.
Ringle’s motivations to snuff out the smoke were similar to those of the Illinois General Assembly. “[Ringle] had multiple reasons for [exploring the possibility of a ban],” Buckingham said, “such as health concerns for roommates of smokers and the cost of cleaning and renovating spaces damaged by smoke.”
Some Illinois legislators, however, voted against the newly approved statewide measure. In a recent article by the Chicago Sun-Times, State Representative Bill Black, R-Danville, was quoted as saying that the decision to ban smoking “is best left to the board of trustees and the administrative staff of colleges and universities.”
Roger Alexander, a junior history major who occasionally smokes cigars and tobacco pipes, agrees. “I feel that the decision to permit smoking on various premises ought to be made by the individual owners of businesses or housing complexes,” he said. “And private universities that don’t receive substantial government funding definitely should be allowed to make their own rules in regards to smoking in the dorms.”
“There are some benefits to having a smoke-free environment,” Alexander added. “However, I do not think it’s the government’s place to dictate to businesses or private schools what policy they ought to adopt concerning smoking when owners and administrators are more capable of determining what policy is best for them. But I can see where the government might have a say with public universities.”
According to the General Assembly’s measure, the amendment would become effective immediately after being approved by Blagojevich. At that point, UIS’s ban would no longer be a point of controversy to students who wish to smoke in their campus apartments, as state law trumps any university policy, making a reversal of the UIS ban impossible.
Buckingham noted that most UIS students seemed pleased by or indifferent to the ban imposed by Housing.
“I believe one or two residents may have cancelled their housing contracts over this issue,” he said. “The HRC executive board received e-mails from three individuals on campus opposed to the smoking ban after it was implemented. Overall, I have talked to many residents who were either unaffected by the change or in favor of removing smoking from Housing.”

Springfest to take place at UIS beggining Monday

By Ashley Rook - General Assignment Reporter

 A favorite event of UIS students, Springfest is almost here!  Springfest, a weeklong competition between student teams, is a fun-filled week of activities that will take place this year starting Monday.
Springfest, founded in 1992 as a way to bring students together on campus, will celebrate its 15th anniversary this year.  The theme of Springfest 2006 will be “Make Some Illinoise,” which was suggested by LRH Director Mae Noll. 
 Eighteen teams have registered for Springfest 2006, a dramatic increase in number from previous years, and more events have been added due to the number of teams competing.  For each event during the week, the teams receive points for their participation, which are recorded by judges.  At the end of the week, the team with the most points wins the title of Springfest Champion and a gift certificate for dinner for their team.
Springfest 2006 will kick off on Monday with the first event, Improv Duo, in which two people from each time compete in an improv competition.  Trivia night will be held on Tuesday, followed by the flag and chant competition on Wednesday and the scavenger hunt on Thursday.  Springfest teams will make their own music videos and compete for points on Friday before the traditional Springfest Dance, which will have a black and white theme this year.
The most anticipated event of the week has always been Sports Day, which is held on Saturday.  The day begins with a captains’ meeting and team breakfast, followed by the day’s athletic competitions.  Teams will compete in sand volleyball, kickball, flag football and ultimate frisbee.  A new event, a relay race, has also been added to the day’s itinerary.  The last event of Springfest is the mud tug-of-war, followed by the awards ceremony. 
“I always think that mud tug-of-war is the most fun and I’m also very excited about the relay race,” said Springfest Chair Josey Jones.  “The teams seem to enjoy the scavenger hunt the most during the week, as well as the duo improv, which was only added two years ago but has been very popular.  We try to make every event fun and entertaining.”
As shown by students’ enthusiasm and competitive spirit, Springfest is one of UIS’ most popular events and a way to build school and community spirit.  Springfest committee member Samantha Buhlig supports the yearly tradition, adding, “It's really exciting to see more and more people get involved each year because it means we are growing.  Springfest is a great event that brings people from all sides of campus and even those who live off-campus together to have fun and enjoy the nice weather.” 

Tution to increase at UIS

By Heather Shaffer - Editor-in-Chief

 Tuition at UIS continues to rise.  Pending approval from the University of Illinois Board of Trustees, UIS tuition will increase by a flat rate of $1,005 for the 2006-2007 academic school year.
This means new undergraduate and transfer students enrolling will face a 21 percent increase in tuition from this year’s rate.  Because these students are guaranteed a flat tuition rate for four years under state law, the increase will even out to around an 8 percent increase over those four years, according to Samantha Drews, UIS Student Government Association president.
Any undergraduate student who enrolled at UIS before fall of 2004 and all graduate students are not guaranteed a flat tuition rate for four years.   These undergraduate students will incur a tuition increase of 25 percent for the 2006-2007 academic year. 
Based on a 30 credit hour rate, these continuing students would pay $4,958 for the next academic year, which is actually less than the proposed tuition of $5,580 for new students under the guaranteed tuition program.  However, the former group could be susceptible to tuition increases again in the future, according to Drews.
UIS Provost Harry Berman said that if the rates for students not falling under guaranteed tuition did increase in the future, they would still likely be less than the new tuition for guaranteed students.  “That is how it has seemed to work out in the past,” he said.
Graduate students will have a tuition increase of between 20 and 28 percent, depending on when they began their studies, according to Berman.
There are 21 different tuition categories that students could fit into, depending on their year in school and when they began their studies, Berman said.
Many student leaders expressed concern over the little amount of time between when the proposed tuition increases became public and their proposal to the BOT Tuesday.
“Things were very much dropped on us,” Drews said.
UIS students Robert Skorczewski and Brie Hudkins sit on the Tuition and Fees committee, comprised of students and the provosts from all three campuses, as well as UI President Joseph White.
They said that in fall of 2005, the discussion within this committee was a 9 percent increase.
University of Illinois central administration brought forth proposed tuition rates to the Board of Trustees in January.  The board decided to push back discussion at that time, according to Carrie Bauer, UIS student representative to the BOT.
Bauer, Skorczewski, Hudkins, Drews and other student leaders were not notified of new tuition rate numbers until a meeting with administrators last Thursday.
“We had basically no knowledge that there would be an increase this high.  We wanted students to know that,” Drews said.  “We just want to apologize to the student body because we didn’t know these numbers sooner and could not have informed them.”
According to Berman, these new tuition figures were not given to student leaders or made public until last week because discussions were going on between members of the BOT and those discussions did not conclude until then.
“Though we didn’t get down to specifics, there was earlier consultation with students about proposed tuition increases,” Berman said.
Though student leaders have acknowledged the need for tuition increases, some do not agree with the sharp increases for the 2006-2007 year.
“I support an increase, just not this one,” Bauer said.
According to Drews, the administration gave several reasons for the need to increase tuition across the University of Illinois campuses, based on the university’s strategic plan. 
One reason is academic excellence, which could include hiring new faculty and retention of high-quality faculty members. “In order to have a quality education we need to retain quality faculty,” Drews said.
Another reason is the support of faculty development, which would include scholarship, conference and giving faculty the opportunity to interact on a national level.
Tuition increases will also help increase the capacity for student life and recruitment and development of technology, Drews said.
Since there is little time to take action on the proposed tuition increases, the main things students can do now is hold the administration accountable for how these tuition dollars are used, said Drews.
 Not reflected in the percent increases of tuition dollars across the three campuses is a maintenance assessment proposed for new students that would add up to $250 per year, based on 30 credit hours, which will go towards deferred maintenance needs for each campus.
“Our feeling is that this is too high for our campus,” said Drews.  She said she is sympathetic to the deferred maintenance needs at UIS but feels the numbers for this campus could possibly be lowered.
The proposed tuition increases and the maintenance assessment are all pending approval from the BOT, which met yesterday.   The results of these discussions and/or votes were not available at the time The Journal went to press on Tuesday.  Visit our Web site, www.uis.edu/journal, for updated information.
Staff writer Gabrielle Wiegand contributed to this article.

Illinois legislature snuffs dorm smoking

Springfest to take place at UIS begginging Monday

Tution to increase at UIS