THE DAILY ILLINI
THURSDAY November 2, 2017
The independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois since 1871
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Vol. 147 Issue 20
PORTRAIT OF DRAGA CAIRONE BY ELISABETH NEELY THE DAILY ILLINI
Some DRES requests have been denied, students call for more help BY KAREN LIU STAFF WRITER
While accessibility for physical disabilities can be under the constant inspection the University’s accommodations for invisible disabilities are usually out of the public view. Draga Cairone, senior in LAS who goes by the pronoun “they”, has been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, which is a cognitive disorder that affects the ability to recognize body languages, to socialize properly and to keep up with the nuances
of language and learning. Cairone also has prosopagnosia, also known as faceblindness, which means it is hard for them to memorize people’s faces. However, it is not recognized by the school because Cairone does not have it diagnosed. “I’ve provided the diagnostic test results required for diagnosis by the World Health Organization, which disability services are supposed to accept, but DRES denied,” they said in a follow-up message. Jonathan Thomas-Stagg, school psychologist and
licensed clinical psychologist at Disability Resources & Educational Services, said DRES serves any student who has a diagnosed disability. If the condition has an impact on how a student is doing in school and the student can provide appropriate documentation, then the student can register with DRES. “A diagnosis in (and) of itself doesn’t necessarily mean you have a disability,” he said. “It does have to be a legitimate diagnosis, and it does have to have some impact on a student’s
educational performance or academic performance in order to rise to that level of disability that a student can register with DRES.” Thomas-Stagg said DRES has the resources to provide screening and diagnosis, and many students go through the screening process every year. However, not everyone has a positive experience with the diagnosis process at DRES. Miguel Torres, senior in Engineering, said in an email he struggles with depression and anxiety. He
also suspects he has dyslexia, which he tried to diagnose through DRES. Torres said he originally contacted DRES at the beginning of August to get screened. He finally got to a meeting in early September and heard back from DRES in October. “They finally got back to me telling me that they believe my issues are ‘mood related’ and don’t see testing to be necessary,” he said. “ After communicating with them again, via email, I was able to convince them to see me for a neuropsycho-
logical screening set up for November.” According to Torres, there has yet to be any accommodation in place. “So far, my experience has not been the best with DRES’s bureaucracy, but their staff are wonderful people,” he said. “However, my experience with DRES is limited.” Thoma s-St ag g sa id invisible disabilities can be psychological or learning related, such as ADHD and learning disabilities, or SEE INVISIBLE | 3A
Graduate students facing strike vote Professor awarded national fellowship BY OLIVIA WELSHANS STAFF WRITER
Prolonged negotiations between the Graduate Employees’ Organization and the University administration for a fair contract have raised tensions across campus. The GEO, the official union for graduate employees at the University, has been bargaining with the administration since its first session on March 30, and still no new contract has been agreed upon. Some advances to the contract have been made since the beginning of October. Maria Garth, communications officer, said in an email the GEO recently signed a “tentative” agreement on its Grievance Procedure and Health and Safety articles. However, she said “big-ticket” financial items like wages and healthcare have yet to be agreed upon. According to the GEO’s
online petition for supporting its contract, the GEO’s proposals for the contract include full tuition waivers for graduate employees, fee waivers for all student fees, affordable healthcare, subsidies for childcare and better access to related resources and significantly improved wages. Garth said the contract proposals the GEO suggested are not unreasonable when compared to the contracts of other universities’ GEOs. “We did extensive research to make sure all our proposals were fair, affordable and in-line with what grad employees at our peer institutions had,” Garth said. Garth said the proposals have been modeled off of or copied from the contracts of other Big Ten universities. The GEO also found graduate employees at the UniverSEE GEO | 3A
STAFF WRITER
BRIAN BAUER THE DAILY ILLINI
Members of the Graduate Employees’ Organization had a sitin at Swanlund Administration Building on Thursday. At the time, the GEO had been 72 days without a contract.
Dr. Pinshane Huang from the Department of Material Sciences and Engineering is the second woman from the University to win the national Packard Fellowship. Huang has a Ph.D. and M.S. in Applied and Engineering Physics from Cornell University. The fellowships are awarded by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, dedicated to helping early-career professors conduct research with little restrictions and reporting requirements. Huang was one of 18 recipients of the 2017 Packard Fellowship, and she said she was delighted and honored to win the fellowship. The foundation invites the presidents of 50 universities to nominate two ear-
STAFF WRITER
With over 200 students caught for alcohol violations in the past year, the University is stressing its goal for individual student improvement. Pat Wade, spokesperson for the University of Illinois Police Department, said UIPD officers are not simply looking for students drinking underage. “Our officers are not just walking down Green Street
arresting people who appear to be drunk and underage,” Wade said. “If we tried to stop every person who was underage drinking, that’s all we would do.” Wade said their officers are trying to target behavior. They would look at instances where a student is wandering the street oblivious to traffic or damaging property. If a student is given a drinking violation, that student will either end up going
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through the legal system or being referred to the student discipline office within the Office of the Dean of Students. “In the vast majority of incidents here at the University, we are going to go to the Dean of Students for student discipline,” Wade said. The reason for this is that it keeps the situation out of the legal system and will not show up on any permanent record when students are
applying for jobs, said Wade. “As long as that student is not posing some kind of greater risk to our campus, we want to try to deal with it at the lowest level possible,” Wade said. January Boten, assistant dean of students, said when the written violation reaches her office, there are specific procedures that are done. Boten said they initially
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Officials work to minimize underage drinking BY REBECCA WOOD
ly-career professors in several disciplines, including physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy, computer science, ocean science, animal science and all branches of engineering. “As (the University has) so many great faculty, we have a lot of people competing to get nominated and so just getting out of that campus competition is a big vote of confidence in your work,” Huang said. “It was this amazing thing to be nominated.” From these 100 applicants, 18 were awarded the fellowship, which is a grant of $875,000 over five years. There has been a total of $394 million given out over the years. Some recipients of the fellowship have gone on to receive many additional
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