HOLIDAY GUIDE SEE INSERT MONDAY December 4, 2017
THE DAILY ILLINI
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The independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois since 1871
WWW.DAILYILLINI.COM
Vol. 147 Issue 27
Suburban Express sends controversial emails BY JESSICA BURSZTYNSKY NEWS EDITOR
Transportation company SuTransportation company Suburban Express emailed its customers a racially charged message in its Christmas break advertisement Saturday morning. Among a list of self-identified perks, the company wrote, “You won’t feel like you’re in China when you’re on our buses.” This sentence references
the University’s high international student enrollment. In a follow-up apology email, the company stated it “made a remark based on the fact that our competitor mostly handles Chinese international students.” While it did not state who their competitor is, the bus company Peoria Charter makes stops at the Chicago O’Hare International Airport. It added it was not intend-
ed to be “a slap in the face of all non-caucasians.” The statement then went on to disapprove of the way the University handles enrollment. Because the University is a public school, the statement said, it should focus its efforts on providing education to Illinois citizens. “U of I mismanagement over the past few decades has put them in a financial bind,” the email said. “To solve the
problem, they admit large numbers of international students who pay higher tuition.” Owner Dennis Toeppen sent another apology message to The Daily Illini and three University officials who condemned the company Sunday afternoon. “When we wrote a recent promotional email, we mentioned that Suburban Express riders would not encounter Chinese exchange
students on our buses. That’s because they all ride our competitor now,” Toeppen wrote. “It was an ill-advised statement to make, because it upset the very people we were sad to have lost.” In 2013, a person affiliated with Suburban Express made racially-insensitive comments toward a customer, Toeppen said, which resulted in the company los-
“You won’t feel like you’re in China when you’re on our buses”
SEE EMAIL | 3A
SUBURBAN EXPRESS
University student awarded Rhodes Scholarship
Rise in CO2 emissions
BY NIANI SCOTT STAFF WRITER
With over 2,000 applicants this year, the highly competitive Rhodes Scholraship has chosen the first University student since 1998: Thomas Dowling, senior in LAS. The scholarship awarded 32 students from the United States the opportunity to attend the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, with full financial support to complete their post-graduate program. Dowling was born and raised on the South side of Chicago to a single mother, and was the first in his family to go to college. Now, he is headed to Oxford to either get his Doctor of Philosophy in politics or two concurrent masters in public policy and social science research design. “My hope is one day to serve as a state legislature. There are a lot of bad things that are going on (in Illinois). (An) enormous budget deficit, pension issue, DCFS (Department of Children and Family Services) is falling apart, the list goes on,” Dowling said. “There’s a lack of young people that think public service and public policy are worthwhile proSEE RHODES | 3A
BY OLIVIA WELSHANS STAFF WRITER
After three years of stability, global CO2 emissions are on the rise again and expected to increase by 2 percent in 2017, according to the Global Carbon Budget 2017. The budget report is a collaboration between scientists and research centers studying individual components of the carbon cycle across the globe. The Global Carbon Budget’s purpose is to estimate the global CO2 emissions from fossil fuel burning and deforestation. It also measures where it is distributed in the atmosphere, oceans and the terrestrial biosphere. Atul Jain, a University professor in atmospheric sciences, contributed data SEE CO2 | 3A
INSIDE
PORTAIT OF THOMAS DOWLING
University senior Thomas Dowling has been awarded with the Rhodes Scholarship. The Rhodes Scholarship selects 32 students each year from across the United States to receive the international fellowship and further their education at Oxford.
Brain cancer clinical trials set to begin THE DAILY ILLINI STAFF REPORT
A drug has been cleared for use in a clinical trial by University faculty that will help treat brain cancer. The dr ug, PAC-1, causes cancer cells to self-destruct and will be given to patients with anaplastic astrocytoma, a rare malignant brain tumor, and glioblastoma multiforme, a fastgrowing, late-stage brain cancer. University veterinary oncologist Dr. Timothy Fan and chemistry professor Paul Hergenrother have been collaborating with their colleagues for 10 years to prepare the SEE CANCER | 3A
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Illinois makes the Sweet 16 PAGE 1B
BY CORI LIPPERT STAFF WRITER
Illinois Student Government promoted a subcommittee on environmental sustainability to a standing committee to give the members more jurisdiction over the University’s environmental policies. Senator Scott Greene, senior in FAA, said the benefit of becoming a standing committee is that the committee members are given more power over which proposals are presented to ISG. “(As a subcommitBRIAN STAUFFER THE DAILY ILLINI
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“Person of the Year” named PAGE 4A
SEE ISG | 3A
Timothy Fan and Paul Hergenrother have created PAC-1, a new drug to combat brain cancer.
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ISG welcomes committee on sustainability
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