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The Daily Illini
Friday August 31, 2012
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Vol. 142 Issue 6
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Illinois, Iowa split on Holmes’ admission Ph.D. program director, about the susWhen a seemingly highly qualified pect arrested after a shooting that left applicant visited the University of Ili- 12 dead and 58 wounded in an Aurora, nois’ neuroscience program, he was Colo., movie theater July 20. warmly received. James Holmes was accepted into “Those who met you ... during your Illinois’ selective neuroscience prointerview visit felt gram after visitthat your personing the campus in al and professional March 2011. He qualities are truwas also offered ly outsta nd i ng,” a tuition waiver and a $22,660-persaid neuroscience admissions chair J. ye a r s t ip e nd , Lee Beverly in the according to docapplicant’s accepuments provided tance letter, dated by the University March 21, 2011. under the Illinois But th at was Freedom of InforJ. LEE BEVERLY, months after the mation Act. neuroscience admissions chair same applicant had D e s p i t e visited the Univerimpressing seversity of Iowa, where the message came al faculty members here, Holmes left through loud and clear: quite a different impression on offi“James Holmes: Do NOT offer cials at the University of Iowa when he admission under any circumstances.” met with Tranel and others the weekThat recommendation was made end of Jan. 30, 2011. by Daniel Tranel, Iowa neuroscience In documents released by Iowa on DAILY ILLINI STAFF REPORT
“Those who met you ... during your interview visit felt that your personal and professional qualities are truly outstanding.”
Thursday, Tranel warned the admissions committee not to accept Holmes. Iowa psychology professor Mark Blumberg also interviewed Holmes and agreed with Tranel in an email sent two days later. Neither he nor Blumberg provided any further explanation. In contrast, neuroscience faculty members at Illinois such as Beverly thought Holmes was an “excellent match” for the program, which accepted less than 10 percent of about 150 applicants that year, said Sam Beshers, neuroscience program coordinator. Holmes declined the acceptance a day later in an email sent to Beshers. “Thank you for offering me a position in the Neuroscience Program at UIUC but unfortunately I will not be accepting your offer of admission,” he wrote.\ “My apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused. Best wishes in your candidate search.” Beshers couldn’t comment on the
difference in admission procedures between Illinois and Iowa but said Holmes was “obviously intelligent and had a lot of potential”. In Holmes’ application to Iowa, he spoke about his interest in cognitive neuroscience. He specifically referenced his work as a camp counselor, which included mentoring children with mental disorders. “These kids were heavily medicated but this did not solve their problems, only create new ones,” he wrote in an application letter. “The medication
More online
- Look at Holmes’ resume - Read the University’s acceptance letter to Holmes - See email opposed to Holmes’ acceptance at Iowa Visit DailyIllini.com
See HOLMES, Page 3A
Highlights of Holmes’ application !""Bachelor of Science from University of California, Riverside !""GPA: 3.94/4.0 !""GRE verbal score: 98th percentile; quantitative score: 94th percentile; analytical
writing score: 45th percentile
!""Served as laboratory assistant in the departments of chemistry and cellular
biology and neuroscience
!""Served as camp counselor at Camp Max Straus in the summer of 2008
Illinois alumni key to NASA’s Curiosity mission to Mars BY THOMAS THOREN DAYTIME ASSISTANT EDITOR
After graduating, University alumni spread out across the state, country and globe. But now, some have even gone as far as Mars. Before NASA’s Curiosity rover took a single picture of the red planet, Lynn McGrew, fl ight dynamics engineer at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston and graduate of the 2000 undergraduate aerospace engineering program, was offering a helping hand in the mission. McGrew created the algorithm that helped Curiosity “to very precisely target its landing site on Mars,” she said. The algorithm helped Curiosity’s landing to be more exact than previous Mars landings, and enabled NASA to land the rover at the base of a mountain inside a crater. Curiosity, which is part of the Mars Science Laboratory mission, benefitted from the work of another aerospace engineering alumnus, Evgeniy Sklyanskiy. Sklyanskiy, a graduate of the 2001 undergraduate and 2004 graduate aerospace engineering and applied mathematics programs, was a mission designer for the Surface Guidance Navigation and Control team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. He also helped Curiosity make its journey from Earth to Mars by testing some of the fl ight hardware. His contributions included testing the algorithms and software implementation, which allowed the high-gain antennae communicate with NASA and the gyrocompass to compute Curiosity’s location and status. He also helped develop two pairs of navigation cameras, which can locate the rover’s position based on the Sun’s position in the sky. The information gathered by Skly-
See CURIOSITY, Page 3A
Caution urged as possible severe weather advances
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Program gives prisoners means to shape themselves through art STAFF WRITER
Champaign-Urbana residents should use caution this weekend while traveling as a result of Hurricane Isaac. “The National Weather Service is predicting that the remnants of Hurricane Isaac could drop as much as 10 inches of rain on the Champaign-Urbana area,” wrote Phyllis Wise, chancellor and vice president, in a Massmail. In the same email, she advised the University community to exercise caution while traveling around campus. With safety in mind, Wise said athletic events this weekend may be rescheduled. The chancellor encouraged students to sign up for Illini-Alerts to receive emergency notifications from the University.
Police
Exhibit displays expressive art made by inmates BY KLAUDIA DUKALA
DAILY ILLINI STAFF REPORT
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MICHAEL BOJDA THE DAILY ILLINI
Marianna Nadeu, far, and Roma Rofes Herrera, both graduate students, discuss a piece of art at the University YMCA Thursday night. The exhibition featured artwork from incarcerated individuals at the Danville Correctional Center.
The artwork curved along three walls within Murphy Gallery: framed works, sketches, even oil paintings on canvas. But no artists were present. Instead, a binder tucked into a corner of the room served as the surrogate for the artists who spent that Thursday night in their communal home, the Danville Correctional Center. The exhibition, held at the University YMCA, served as the opening ceremony for an art exhibit devoted to the creative minds of inmates. One oil painting, “Candy,” shows a lovingly detailed clutch of chocolate-covered candies and strawberries. A single, incongruous bumble-bee hovers above one of the treats. And although the painting’s artist, W.B. May, was not present at the gallery, his words were: “My choice of using art as a means of expression wasn’t a hard one,” he wrote in the binder, which contained the voices of many more artists missing from the exhibit. Greg Watson, recently retired from the Illinois Department of Corrections, said the Danville Correctional Center allows prisoners to get involved
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MICHAEL BOJDA THE DAILY ILLINI
Chong-Hwey Fee, left, and Elka Kazmierczak, both of Champaign, discuss a piece of art Thursday night. in an art program that helps them improve their skills as artists. The program has a limited amount of spots, however, and usually involves a long waiting list of prisoners who are eager to participate in this skill-enhancing opportunity. With the help of the Education Justice Project, a University-based program that provides collegelevel courses to individuals incarcerated at nearby
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prisons, a comittee of four inmates organized the exhibition, said Rebecca Ginsburg, director of EJP and associate professor of education. Although EJP doesn’t run the art program, Ginsburg said leaders wanted to get involved in the creation of the exhibit because it allowed their students to engage intellectually in their artwork,
See INMATE ART, Page 3A
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