THE DAILY ILLINI
MONDAY April 2, 2018
The independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois since 1871
WWW.DAILYILLINI.COM
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Vol. 147 Issue 52
Faculty addresses US trade deficit after Trump’s tariffs according to the U.S. Census Bureau website. The best solution for the trade deficit would be to increase the savings of American families, d’Almeida said. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the personal saving rate of the average American last year was less than 5 percent of disposable income. “Compare that to the saving rate of 17 percent in 1975; we can see the ability for the U.S. to save has been reducing,” d’Almeida said. “While the average Chinese family in the urban areas saved almost 25 percent of income last year.” Martinez said the problem is that Americans buy too much and save too little. “You can’t tell people what to buy,” Martinez said. “If you don’t import, eventually it’s called retaliation.” D’Almeida said if the trade war begins, the price of imported goods will increase, causing American consumers to suffer. Companies would reduce
BY JIEJIE WANG STAFF WRITER
PHOTO COURTESY OF AUSTIN GREEN
A Creative Souls employee holds up shoes they painted. The local shoe company, which specializes in hiring people with disabilites, is attempting to raise $50,000 to expand hiring.
Local shoe company fundraises to help people with disabilities BY MADALYN VELISARIS STAFF WRITER
Creative Souls, a local shoe company focusing on hiring people with disabilities, is trying to fundraise $50,000 through Kickstarter by April 12 for a printer and for company funds to expand hiring. Only 17 percent of people with disabilities are employed, according to the Kickstarter page of Creative Souls. “They often don’t have opportunities to have a sustainable income and to be able to be self-sufficient, so this is an opportunity for them to become self-sufficient and have autonomy to form their
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own decision-making and how they live their lives,” said Carol Mauck, member of Creative Souls Board of Directors and clinical assistant professor in Social Work. People hired by Creative Souls work as artists who paint shoes and receive a 50 percent share for each pair of shoes sold. The rest of the revenue is spent on materials for company goods. “One of the challenges that we saw with the original idea of hand-painting canvas shoes was that we were limited by a specific design on a specific size of shoe,” said Erez Cohen, adjunct instructor
BY HAIPEI WU
O-Line looking for change
STAFF WRITER
Juliana Georges, waitress at The Bread Company, can’t help but feel a little annoyed whenever customers leave without tipping. As an employee whose salary is lower than the minimum wage, Georges said she needs the tips because her salary alone wouldn’t be enough to support her living in Campustown, and because she needs the acknowledgement from the customers that she’s done a good job. “When you go into a restaurant, you should know tipping is part of that,” Georges said. “I would serve you to
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be able to get them more money, because their design now can be on more than one shoe, so if they are hand-painting, I could only pay them for one pair of shoes that they did,” McNamara said. To receive fundraising money through Kickstarter, Creative Souls must reach its goal or else the company will not receive any of the money. The money will be returned to the backers instead of going to the printer if the $50,000 goal is not met. People who donate money to Creative Souls can receive stickers, shirts or SEE FUNDRAISING | 3A
Professor explores prejudice in tipping Research shows sexism, racism and classism in tipping culture
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in Social Work and executive director of the Illini Hillel Cohen Center for Jewish life. With the printer, Creative Souls can create more artwork on a greater variety of shoes and sizes than is possible with the current hand-painting process. According to the Kickstarter page, the printer will also allow the company to branch out beyond shoes and into other products. D r ew McNa m a r a , founder of Creative Souls, said the printer will help the company reach artists with disabilities across the U.S. “In general, I would
President Donald Trump’s decision to add tax on imported goods from China has led to a campus conversation about the potential outcomes of and solutions to the U.S. trade deficit with China. Candace Martinez, clinical assistant professor in Business, said it is not a good idea to add more import duties. “If you have two economists in a room, there will be three opinions. But ... they agree on one thing — free trade,” Martinez said. Fabricio d’Almeida, visiting assistant professor in economics, said President Trump is using the threat of a trade war with China to extract a better bargain and to keep his constituents happy. “Trump’s political base is blue-collar,” d’Almeida said. “He tries to build upon the platform that he can bring back those jobs to them, so that he can keep the political support.” In 2017, the U.S. had a $566 billion trade deficit,
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the best of my ability, and I expect to be tipped well.” However, a study by University researcher Sara Clifton suggests waiters and waitresses may be better off without the tipping. “Because customers can choose how much they want to tip, they sort of have the waiters on their leash,” Clifton said. Clifton said she would like the tipping system to go away because it reflects sexism, racism and classism. “Tons of studies have shown that people who aren’t white, male and attractive get lower tips, and it has nothing to do with the service quality,” Clifton said. “So for me, it’s just like an antiquated, ugly practice.” Clifton said when the tipping system was introduced to the U.S. from Europe a hundred years ago, it was originally established as a form of charity given to the
lower class. “The tipping system is like saying we are both acknowledging that I’m higher class and you are lower class,” Clifton said. “And you need to be kind, sweet and subservient to me because I’m the one with the money and you are the one that needs the money.” The tipping system today is even worse than it was a hundred years ago, and Clifton said she believes the conventional tipping rate constantly increases. “The rate increased from 15 to 20 (percent) in the last 30 years. It’s because we all think we are generous people, and a little more generous than the average,” Clifton said. “In order to be consistent with that internal recognition, we have to tip more than what we think the average tip.” SEE TIPPING | 3A
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ADAM ZHANG THE DAILY ILLINI
A student walks into the Turner Student Services Building, where the Counseling Center is located. Students argue mental health resources are not well-known to people on campus.
Students call for awareness of mental health importance STAFF WRITER
Bridget Curren, a master’s student in Engineering, contemplated taking her own life after the depression caused by her brother’s death resulted in missed classes, missed assignments and plunging grades. Curren said students in Engineering with strenuous workloads, like herself, should be aware of the mental health resources on campus.
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“The courses are hard, and there is no one in that field that can talk to you or give you hope that you will get through it,” Curren said. She said she was referred to the Counseling Center by a friend, but she stopped returning after two sessions because she did not like her counselor. Curren said she turned to Reddit, a discussion website that allows users
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