THE DAILY ILLINI
MONDAY April 9, 2018
The independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois since 1871
WWW.DAILYILLINI.COM
44˚ | 30˚
Vol. 147 Issue 54
Illinois in top 16 for Cardi B concert
Champaign property crime hike prompts special unit
BY SAMANTHA BOYLE BY ABBY PAETH
ASSISTANT DAYTIME NEWS EDITOR
“They just see a package on an unprotected porch and no one else is around, and they’re just like, ‘Oh well, I’m gonna grab that package.’ And by just adding this little barrier of protection drawing attention to them, we think that we could really deter thieves,” Simonaitis said. The team is also working
Cardi B will come to campus on April 25 if students at the University can swipe right on Tinder more times than other schools in the country. The Tinder Swipe Off started with 64 schools competing in six rounds. Schools with the least number of swipes are eliminated each round. Round five will start on Monday, with eight schools competing for the championship round. The other schools still competing in the contest in round four include Princeton University, Harvard University, Boston University, Florida State University, Duke University, Pennsylvania State University and 10 others. “I’ve definitely been swiping, but I won’t swipe on really weird people, but definitely more than I ever have in my entire life,” said Bessie Cohen, sophomore in AHS. According to the Swipe Off rules, the first 200 students who swipe right on a profile made by Tinder that promotes the concert will be attending the concert. “I think we have a pretty good shot (at winning) actually; there’s so many people that go to school here that it actually might happen and so many people are on Tinder,” Cohen said. According to Tinder, the app gets about 1.6 billion swipes per day and has over 20 billion matches.
SEE SLATE SAFE | 3A
SEE CARDI B | 3A
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Last September, Morgan Leopold, senior in Media, and Alaina Murphy, senior in Business, became victims of a property crime when their house in Champaign was robbed. This property crime was one of the 2,223 reported in Champaign in 2017. The number is part of a recent spike in property crimes. In 2016, 2,981 property crimes were reported in Champaign, which increased by 53 percent from the previous year, according to the Champaign Police Department. According to the FBI, a property crime includes burglary, motor vehicle theft, arson and personal property theft. Leopold said the perpetrator came into their house in Champaign between midnight and 5 a.m., She believes the perpetrator came in through the downstairs front window, which is usually left unlocked. Leopold, Murphy and two other roommates were asleep in the residence at the time. They reported the property crime to the police that morning, but the perpetrator was never found. “I personally was really freaked out at first,” Leopold said. “It just weirded me out that someone was in our house and we had no clue.” Murphy said the perpetrator took her wallet from her desk while she was asleep in the same room. “Even today, I don’t feel as comfortable in my house as I did before,” Murphy said. SEE CRIME | 3A
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QUENTIN SHAW THE DAILY ILLINI
Electrical engineering students William Simonaitis, John Graft, Joseph Bianco and John Simonaitis, work on prototyping circuits for Slate Safe at John Graft’s and John Simonaitis’s apartment. Slate Safe attempts to combat package theft from occurring.
Engineers fight package theft BY MENGJIA XU STAFF WRITER
A team of Engineering students have developed a cheap, lightweight and portable device, Slate Safe, that could combat package theft problems. According to a survey done by Xfinity Home, package theft hits nearly one-third of Americans. Slate Safe is a one-byone foot pad for placing
STAFF WRITER
Aut i sm Aw a r ene ss Month is continuing through the month of April, and University programs, such as The Autism Program, highlight services to assist students and families living with autism. Linda Tortorelli, coordinator of TAP at the University, said it serves as a community resource center for anybody living with or affected by autism, particularly families and professionals. “We provide visual support learning materials. We do consultations with them,” Tortorelli said. “We also connect them to other resources within the community that could help serve them.” Tortorelli said there is often a misunderstanding between intelligence expectations versus social
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a potential thief sees two bikes near each other, one of them is locked up and the other one is completely free. The bike that is completely free is much easier to take than the bike that’s slightly protected,” Simonaitis said. Package theft is a very quick crime, but by adding a protection system, thieves may hesitate from action, he said.
University highlights Autism Awareness Month BY REBECCA WOOD
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packages. It incorporates a weight-based and alarmbased detection system, which triggers an alarm if someone steals packages from the pad. John Simonaitis, senior in Engineering and project leader, said Slate Safe is a package deterrence system that works like a locked bike. “The idea is that bike locks only work because
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expectations for various situations involving students with autism. “Autism is a developmental disability,” Tortorelli said. “The basis of autism is that it’s a social communication disorder.” She said a person with Down syndrome can comprehend social skills. Thoug h people w ith autism may not have any intellectual disability, the way their brain is wired makes it difficult to learn and to understand social information. Tortorelli said the goal of TAP is to help others understand how a brain with autism is wired. “That becomes eyeopening if people don’t understand that,” Tortorelli said. She added people with autism cannot necessariSEE AUTISM | 3A
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University students attend the Autism concert at the Music Building on April 4. The concert, featuring pianist Charles Smith, supports and cares to the families and individuals living with autism.
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