The Herald-News • Sunday, September 6, 2015
|GETTING STARTED
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Chicago Football special section launches this week My first memory of the Bears is from 1986, when the team won the Super Bowl. I was in first grade and my school had all students write letters to his or her favorite Bear. I wrote a love letter to Jim McMahon; I wish I remember more of what it said, beyond it professing my love for my favorite QB and singer in the Super Bowl Shuffle. My love for the Bears has never really waned, although that little-girl crush on McMahon certainly did (I’ve moved on to hockey players). I’ve defended our team when I lived in Minnesota during college (curse the Vikings), Indiana against the Colts when I was a just-out-ofschool journalist, and most importantly, against the Packers during my two-plus years working in Wisconsin. So I’m looking forward to the
VIEWS Kate Schott special weekly section we’re going to have during the NFL season that focuses on the Bears. Beginning Thursday and continuing each Thursday throughout the NFL season, readers of The Herald-News and Morris Herald-News will receive a free 16-page Chicago Football insert with their newspaper. The weekly insert will tell readers everything they want to know about the Bears, and also provide insider coverage of the NFC North and the rest of the NFL, along with extensive coverage of the fantasy football scene. Top football writers from around
Illinois will be regular contributors to this extensive weekly report. Look for the first issue in Thursday’s editions of both the Joliet and Morris publications. You can also find Chicago Football coverage online at ChicagoFootball.com. Go Bears! ••• There is still time to RSVP for our inaugural Everyday Heroes breakfast banquet. Everyday Heroes is an initiative of Shaw Media where we honor those who selflessly donate their time and talents to help those in need or to better their community. For our first goaround, we have chosen 16 recipients
from the more than 50 nominees. We’ll share their stories with you in a special section that will be inserted into the Sept. 13 edition of of the newspaper (and posted online too). The breakfast is Friday at the Joliet Country Club, 1009 Spencer Road. Doors open at 8 a.m., with a breakfast buffet starting at 8:15 a.m. and the awards ceremony beginning at 8:45 a.m. Cost is $20 a person; for information on tickets, call 815-280-411 to talk with Marketing Director Sarah Dilg. Thank you for reading The Herald-News. • Kate Schott is editor of The Herald-News, the Morris HeraldNews and Herald Life. She can be reached at kschott@shawmedia.com or 815-280-4119. Follow her on Twitter @Kate_Schott78.
Joliet Junior College’s housing occupancy rate dropping Property owners, school at crossroads with marketing By FELIX SARVER fsarver@shawmedia.com JOLIET – Managers of Centennial Commons, an apartment complex built to house Joliet Junior College students, said the occupancy rate is sinking because of new restrictions school officials said were put in place to protect students’ privacy. Centennial Commons, located on the southwest side of the main campus, has an occupancy rate of 58 percent, 2 percent lower than last year and even lower than in years past when the rate hovered at 90 to 100 percent, said Jasmin Zelinko, Centennial Commons general manager. She said since the 2014 school year, the college has not sent a list of contact information for the number of students previously received. As a result, complex staff has not been able to advertise the apartments to enough students, which has affected revenue and payment on bonds. But JJC officials said they have put limits on contact information they give to outside parties to uphold a federal law that protects students’ priva-
Lathan Goumas – lgoumas@shawmedia.com
The JJC Centennial Commons is a privately-owned apartment complex in Joliet that serves Joliet Junior College students. cy. Officials also said they are working with Centennial Commons to market the property. Campus Evolution Villages, which manages Centennial Commons, normally receives contact information for 15,000 to 20,000 prospective tenants, according to a disclosure posted to Electronic Municipal Market Access. The disclosure was posted on EMMA to notify bond holders, Zelinko said. Now those marketable prospective tenants are down to 1,000 to 2,000, she said. “We have been going back and forth [with the college]
and it’s very unfortunate on our part because we service only students of Joliet Junior College. That’s the only reason why this property was built,” Zelinko said. Centennial Commons, owned by Foundation Housing LLC, opened in 2002 and has suffered crime and financial issues in the past. Before 2010, owners took action on reducing crime by setting residency restrictions, such as GPA requirements. Yolanda Isaacs, JJC vice president of student development, stated in an email that
college officials’ past practice has been to provide Campus Evolution Villages with students’ college-issued email addresses. But JJC officials discovered in 2014 that the college’s existing definition of student directory information – which federal law allows to be disclosed without prior written consent – did not include student email addresses, Isaacs stated. They decided to include it in accordance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. FERPA is a federal law that protects the privacy of student
education records. It applies to all schools that receive funds under an applicable program of the U.S. Department of Education, according to the U.S. Department of Education. After including student email addresses in the definition of student directory information, the college can only release that contact information to Centennial Commons and other parties after the 15th day of classes of the first semester the student enrolled during an academic year, Isaacs said. That is the period for students to opt out of having their information released. Federal law requires colleges give students notice of their right to opt out of the student directory. “Although I know that this decision has not [been] viewed favorably with Centennial Commons’ management, as a college, we have the responsibility to protect students’ privacy while upholding federal laws,” Isaacs stated. She said the school has partnered with Centennial Commons to advertise the apartments. During the admission application process, students can also check off a box to receive information on Centennial Commons. Zelinko said Centennial Commons management has been using other marketing methods for the property.