The Daily Illini: Volume 149 Issue 19 by The Daily Illini

THE DAILY ILLINI

MONDAY October 28, 2019

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Vol. 149 Issue 19

Police respond to campus Confederate flag incident the truck driving through the intersection of First and Green streets around 8:30 p.m. while he was driving through Campustown. LeRoy said the truck had three flags set up in the bed, but the most prominent was an American flag that had been cut in half and attached to a Confederate flag. As he got closer to the truck to take a photo, LeRoy said the driver yelled and repeated a profanity and a racial slur “at the top of his lungs.” LeRoy said he reported the incident to the police in case anything escalated and posted the photo he obtained on

BY CLARE BUDIN ASSISTANT DAYTIME NEWS EDITOR

Chief of Police Craig Stone sent out a Massmail to students and faculty Friday regarding an incident and reports on Green Street Wednesday evening. According to witnesses who reported the incident Wednesday night, a young white male driving a late-model white Ford pickup truck decorated with the Confederate flag was shouting racial slurs at passersby KEVIN GAO THE DAILY ILLINI while driving through a stuMembers of Illinois Student Government speak on their ideas relating to the sexual prevention program that is currently being set dent-heavy area. in place Thursday evening. The ISG Assault Prevention Program is examining a recent sexual assault report. In a statement to the NewsGazette, Michael LeRoy, professor in Labor and Employment Relations, said he saw

Students tackle sexual misconduct BY ETHAN SIMMONS STAFF WRITER

One of the campus groups wrestling with faculty sexual misconduct is a department in student government. Illinois Student Government’s Sexual Assault Prevention Department is examining the 127-page final report released by the committee on faculty sexual misconduct. They want to find the most important of the report’s 64 recommendations and make its contents transparent for students. Founded three years ago on an executive order by thenISG president Raneem Shamseldin, the SAPD was made to go deeper than other sexual assault awareness campaigns such as “It’s On Us.” “‘It’s On Us’ is basically you take a pledge to be good. You’re going to be an active bystander, you’re going to be an upstanding citizen, and then get your sticker and off

you go,” said Suda Rao, senior in Social Work and head of SAPD. Since then, the department has held advocacy events, researching best practices and releasing statements through ISG, Rao said. Last semester, SAPD took a stance on Title IX changes suggested by the Department of Education. “While it is commendable that ‘the total monetary cost savings of these regulations over 10 years would be in the range of $286.4 million to $367.7 million,’ it seems that with these new guidelines the Department of Education is looking more towards ways to save money rather than to help students,” the statement said. In 2019, reports of faculty sexual misconduct have been their main concern. The ISG senate condemned the alleged assault and harassment by professors Joseph Petry and Jay Kesan in separate statements.

“These incidents that happened on campus — we had to find out about it through newspapers and through articles and not through the administration,” said Alec Navickis, senior in ACES and assistant director of SAPD. After an August ProPublica article revealed the lack of consequences faculty faced after sexual misconduct, ISG wanted students to be heard by the administration. “What we really worked on after the ProPublica article came out was advocating for students to have a voice at the table,” said Ali Mirza, junior in LAS and ISG Chief of Staff. As for the report, Rao said SAPD “supports a lot of it,” and is working to make it more accessible for students. “We hope that as much of it they can implement should be implemented,” Mirza said. “We really have a chance to make the gold standard here for sexual assault prevention

SEE FLAG | 3A

and the U of I should aim for nothing less.” Last week, Rao assigned members of SAPD different sections of the report to analyze. Over the next few weeks, the team would like to have some “criticisms and questions” for the committee that authored the report. “In an ideal world, the University would like to adopt all of these recommendations, and everything would be perfect and great,” Rao said. “What I think we’re going to focus on is what is the most important out of this report in order to change, and going forward, advocacy for that.” ISG is “discussing logistics” of holding a joint event with ProPublica reporter Rachel Otwell, who wrote the stories on how the University responds to sexual misconPHOTO COURTESY OF MICHAEL LEROY duct, Mirza said. Michael LeRoy, professor in Law, photographed a pickup truck Since SAPD is a relatively with a Confederate flag attached. Several reports to police were made Wednesday night regarding the driver shouting racial

SEE MISCONDUCT | 3A slurs.

Illinois promotes UI to a silver bike-friendly university The University was recently promoted to silver-level Bicycle-Friendly University by the League of American Bicyclists for its MCORE project and bike share program. The BFU program evaluates universities in five areas: engineering, encouragement, education, enforcement and evaluation or planning. Amelia Neptune is the director of the Bicycle Friendly America Program and previously served as the University’s campus bicycle

coordinator. “The stronger you are in each of the E’s, the more likely you are to move up in the award levels,” Neptune said. “We very intentionally make the program very flexible, so there’s no one-sizefits-all criteria.” The two major factors of the University’s promotion were the MCORE project, which improves roadway infrastructure for bicyclists, and the VeoRide bike share program, Neptune said. Other contributing factors included the Campus Bike Center for continuing to provide bicy-

Features: Local artists create Halloweeninspired art

Sports: Illinois beats Purdue 24-6 on the road

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BY EUNICE ALPASAN STAFF WRITER

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cle education for the campus community and bicycle maintenance events such as the annual “Light the Night.” Grace Tebbens is a senior in the UIC College of Nursing at the Urbana campus and is the outreach coordinator for the RSO Illini Cycling. Tebbens said while having bike lanes is better than having none, some on campus are not well-labeled, such as the one near the intersection of Gregory and Dorner drives. This can be dangerous and confusing. “Pedestrians will walk in those bike lanes, and sometimes I try not to take them because they’re bumpy, and they’re kind of confusing, and I’m scared of hitting a pedestrian,” she said. Tebbens also said she thinks the University should focus on adding more secure bike storage for students living in residence halls. Additionally, Tebbens said she wants the University to offer more education on bike laws, properly using bike lanes and resources available like the Campus Bike Center. Neptune said the BFU

program’s suggestions for bike-safety classes and bicy- Management Coordinator improvement for the Uni- cle-friendly driver training. Stacey DeLorenzo said the versity include providing Facilities and Services more secure bike parking, Transportation Demand SEE BIKES | 3A

JEFFERY HSU THE DAILY ILLINI

A cyclist passes by a group of people on West Gregory drive on Sunday. The University of Illinois was recently promoted to silver-level Bicycle-Friendly University by the League of American Bicyclists.

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