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Cultural center gets new home African-American center’s previous location faced structural, asbestos issues BY EDWARD GATHERCOAL STAFF WRITER
From getting advice, to printing, to just dropping in and saying hello, Bradley Harrison, a recent graduate in Applied Health Sciences, found his “home away from home” at the Bruce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Center, or BNAACC. However, his home’s extremely poor and unkept condition led to Harrison’s eagerness to have it relocated to a more modern and upto-date building. The Nesbitt center, formerly situated at 708 S. Mathews St., began moving on Aug. 18 to its new location at 51 E. Gregory Drive. The location previously housed the Campus Outdoor Recreational Center. The relocation process began after students, such as Harrison, began questioning the conditions of the center. “It is one of the only places on campus that is titled for (but not just designated for) African-American students and it was also one of the worst places on campus. The University claims to be diverse and everything looked good on paper, but in practice it was a little lackluster. I wanted to hold the University accountable for their words.” There were many structural issues with the previous location, which Rory James, Director of the BNAACC,
described as “public knowledge.” These included problems with safety railings, asbestos and mold in the basement, along with a lack of accessibility for disabled students. Gigi Secuban, associate vice chancellor for Student Affairs and director of the Office for Inclusion and Intercultural Relations, said the BNAACC and La Casa, a Latina cultural center, are the two oldest cultural centers in the country. The center’s previous location was formerly a fraternity house and the faculty’s offices were created out of old bedrooms. The new location will provide James with his first actual office since he joined the University in June 2010. “Even the lighting is brighter here ... it’s amazing how the environment affects your mood,” James said. “We are hard workers and we come here every day and we are very excited about the possibilities of being here.” When touring the campus, students can see the state-ofthe-art quality of buildings, such as the Institute for Genomic Biology or Grainger Library, James said. However, he believes cultural centers should all be next on the University’s list. James stressed the importance of rebuilding cultural centers, especially for incoming students that identify
PHOTOS BY FOLAKE OSIBODU AND TYLER DAVIS THE DAILY ILLINI
Above: The cultural center is moving into a former Campus Outdoor Recreation Center, 51 E. Gregory Dr., which is undergoing several renovations, such as new carpeting and creating new offices. Below: The former Bruuce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Center was not handicap-accessible, prohibiting students from accessing the center’s services, Rory James, director of the center, said. Additionally, Facilities and Services noted in a building safety evaluation that the stairs to enter the building were coming apart and asbestos and layers of lead paint were found. with the ethnicity the center was created for. “When you are recruiting certain populations and you have a certain building for certain student groups, well you definitely want that ‘wow’ factor,” he said “When you think aesthetically, it is 2014, and you want the facilities to reflect that.” Reluctant to continue funneling money into maintaining the current cultural centers, the University has
considered creating a larger center to support all ethnic studies departments and cultural houses. However, a new cultural center would cost the University approximately $57 million, Secuban said. Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Renee Romano added that a feasibility study revealed the University doesn’t currently have funds for such a project.
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UI venture capital funds top $1 billion
Learning linguistics
University entrepreneurs attract highest amounts of capital in Illinois BY ANDREW YOON STAFF WRITER
ZOE GRANT THE DAILY ILLINI
A discussion of Judeo-Latino languages and literature on Tuesday takes place at the Illini Union. The presentation was part of a joint event held by the departments of anthropology and linguistics.
The University was recently ranked the top public university in the state and 12th worldwide to receive the most venture capital funding for starting businesses. The report was conducted by PitchBook, a venture capital database that reviews business data of companies, investors, partners and professional service providers. “To get anywhere, you need a really good idea or any amount of funding,” Dustin Lee, a 2014 graduate in Business, said.
Over the past five years, 146 entrepreneurs, forming 131 companies, have received over $1 billion in venture funding. “It depends on your goals,” Lee said. “That’s if you get investors and what you are creating has to be legitimate of what people want. Everyone wants the money they can get. I subscribe to PitchBook and it’s good to see U of I doing so well in terms of their funding and startups.” Toheeb Okenla, sophomore in Business, also feels
University entrepreneurs receive venture funding University entrepreneurs have raised over $1.41 billion for 131 businesses, including: • AvantCredit, raised $504 million • Otonomy, raised $143.4 million • C3 Energy, raised $40.8 million • Affirm, raised $45 million
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UI scientists develop anti-cancer drugs using venom BY MEGHAN WEBBER STAFF WRITER
In a report presented at the 248th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, scientists from the University revealed that venom from bees, scorpions and snakes could act as a cancer-fi ghting drug. The drug, however, has not yet been tested for human use. Dr. Dipa nja n Pa n, assista nt p r o fe s s o r in Bioengi neer i ng, conceptua lized the research and developed
ex p e r i m e n t a l pl a n s for the study alongside several colleagues in the department, including Dr. Santosh K. Misra, Dr. Mao Ye and Sumin Kim. According to Pan, the healing potential of venom is well-known and has been explored by ancient civilizations for medical conditions like arthritis and neurological disorders, but there was no known method of delivering the venom safely into the body. “(The venom’s) potency is remarkable, however,
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a controlled and specific delivery mechanism is sought to sustain the release of the venomous molecules and evade the systemic toxicity,” Pan said. “Based on this unmet need, we introduced a concept of delivering a nano-recipe of scorpion venom for breast cancer regression.” That nano -recipe is called NanoVenin and is a clean scorpion venom created by the researchers, said Ye, a member of the Pan Research Group at
Illinois. The modified venom is encapsulated in nanoparticles, and when testing the toxin in the lab, the researchers found that it had no negative effects on normal blood cells, but killed the cancer cells. “Computationally we confirm that these venom toxins will be stably put inside the particles followed by a detailed biophysical cha racteri zation to confirm their stability,” Pan said. “A lso, the venoms are nested inside the polymer shell, making
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them invisible for the immune system.” With this method, the toxin can be delivered safely through the body without causing harm to healthy cells. One of the more difficult aspects of the study, Misra said, is that there are very few pathways for toxins to travel throughout the body and thus be effective. Misra said the most fulfi lling part of the study was developing a strategy that was both safe for blood cells and did not
cause unwanted immune responses. This innovative cancerfi ghting drug has not yet been tested on humans. “It has been tested in lab-grown monolayers of breast cancer cells and studies are underway to test them in preclinical models,” Ye said. Pan anticipates the beginning of human trials in about five years.
Meghan can be reached at mewebbe2@ dailyillini.com.
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