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December 24, 201 5 • $1 .0 0
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Donors open to funding project
FEW WOMEN, MINORITIES FILL POLICE RANKS IN McHENRY COUNTY AND ELSEWHERE
Outgoing MCC chief has discussed project with individuals By ALLISON GOODRICH agoodrich@shawmedia.com CRYSTAL LAKE – A handful of people have expressed interest in possibly offering financial support to a potential building project that would revamp McHenry County College’s campus, the president recently said. At the most recent Board of Trustees meeting, President Vicky Smith, whose last day is Dec. 31, said she has had conversations with members of the community who could be supportive of the project – supportive to the tune of a collective $15 million. “[They] are curious that if they were to put forth a number that they would be willing to support the project, would the board be Vicky Smith willing to match that through the process of debt certificates and the use of the fund balance ... to move the project forward,” Smith relayed to trustees. She later added that she would keep the donors anonymous, but did disclose to the board that there were five who expressed interest. The potential project in question is one that has been discussed in great detail during several recent meetings. It stems from a space needs and utilization study that found the campus lacks student and science lab space. To resolve such issues, a project that would reconfigure the campus’ layout has been presented to the board and the most recent discussions have centered on funding. On Dec. 17, Chief Financial Officer Bob Tenuta, who will be acting president during the short period between when Smith leaves and new president Clinton Gabbard starts, gave trustees an idea of what the breakdown could look like between the four funding sources: student fees, debt certificates, fund balance and a capital campaign. Two options were presented, each composed of two phases. The first phase included a science/student space addition and work in a variety of other areas on campus, such
Matthew Apgar – mapgar@shawmedia.com
Deputy Police Chief Scott Naydenoff helps officer Carlos Sirtori check his vehicle at the beginning of his shift Dec. 2 in Cary.
Researchers studying effects of recent scandals By CHELSEA McDOUGALL cmcdougall@shawmedia.com Amid a rash of scandals involving police, professors at the top law enforcement university in Illinois are closely watching for an emerging trend, one in which women and minorities could avoid careers in policing. Western Illinois University professors Michael Curtis and Todd Lough are examining the socalled “Ferguson effect,” named after the events in 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri, in which a white police officer shot and killed a 18-year-old unarmed black man. Curtis and Lough wanted to see what effect the recent scandals involving police use of force had on young people studying law enforcement or expecting to enter the profession. The pair surveyed graduating seniors at WIU and found the majority of the sample still reported a positive view of the police. The respondents also reported no change in their desire or motivation to pursue careers in law enforcement.
Cary police officer Chad Fetzer (left) and Deputy Police Chief Scott Naydenoff secure Fetzer’s beanbag shotgun at the beginning of his shift Dec. 2 in Cary. However, in the small portion who said they view police with a slightly more negative lens after the scandals, the majority were female and minorities, Lough said. Lough and Curtis were quick to add their findings were preliminary, and they hope to include a larger student sample in the future.
“Keep in mind, that this was a preliminary and fairly small sample,” Lough said in an email to the Northwest Herald. “… But these numbers still raise a potential red flag for a profession that is highly motivated to recruit more minorities and women into its ranks.” In McHenry County, there is a growing number of female and
minority police officers, but for all intents and purposes, policing here still is a white male’s profession. Of the agencies who responded to the Northwest Herald’s requests for the racial makeup of their departments, it was clear that white males topped out all departments. Females make up the largest minority at an average of 10 percent of area departments, including the McHenry County Sheriff’s Office, and the Crystal Lake, Cary, McHenry and Woodstock police departments. Blacks, Hispanics and other minorities are far less represented in those same departments, at about 1.5 percent. “In the age of trying to diversify and trying to look like the community we’re policing, the last people that we want to eliminate from the pool of possible applicants are females and minorities,” Curtis said. As area police departments conduct annual police testing, most have not reported a decrease in those interested in positions.
See RESEARCHERS, page A4
See MCC, page A4
College students feel pinch of prolonged Illinois budget crisis supposed to receive from the state’s Monetary Award Program. Worse still, the school said she and hundreds of students like her may have to repay the amount they received in the fall. “I pay $60,000 a year in tuition and expenses to go to school – $60,000,” Suriano said. “And then they’re telling me I can’t go to school next semester because of $2,300 that the government already promised me? Like, what?” Illinois colleges and universities haven’t received funding because of the deadlock over a budget that
By JOHN O’CONNOR and DAVID MERCER The Associated Press SPRINGFIELD – Jacqueline Suriano has resorted to crowdfunding her college education, thanks to the prolonged budget stalemate in the Illinois capital. The 26-year-old psychology major wasted no time in establishing “Jacqueline’s Tuition” on GoFundMe.com after the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago informed her last week that she’d have to cover the $2,300 spring subsidy she was
should have taken effect July 1. Most fronted income-based MAP money for the fall semester, figuring there would be a fiscal agreement by now, when state MAP reimbursement checks typically arrive on campus. But while larger universities say they can afford to float their students the subsidy next semester, IIT and some other schools say they don’t have the money. In last week’s email to Suriano and other students who receive MAP subsidies, Mike Gosz, IIT’s vice
MAP grant totals by school The following is a sampling of schools, their enrollment, the number of students receiving MAP grants in the fall, and the total amount covered. School Enrollment No. Grants Total University of Illinois* Northern Illinois U. Illinois State U. Western Illinois U. Eastern Illinois U.
80,000 20,130 20,615 11,094 8,520
7,500 4,951 4,000 2,694 2,500
* Includes Urbana-Champaign, Chicago and Springfield campuses
See STUDENTS, page A4
Source: Individual schools
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