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LIFE & CULTURE, 6A
SECTION C
TUESDAY December 10, 2013
THE DAILY ILLINI The independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois since 1871
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29˚ | 18˚ Vol. 143 Issue 57
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WELCOME TO THE ARMY
T HE M A KING OF A
LEADER An inside look at the lives of the Fighting Illini Battalion cadets BY JOHNATHAN HETTINGER STAFF WRITER
Editor’s note: This is the first of a two-part series in which the reporter spent four days with the Fighting Illini Army ROTC battalion cadets at a field training exercise on Sept. 19-22. The following story contains profane language.
CAMP ATTERBURY, IND. — “Walking down the street one day Met a total stranger He asked me what I wanted to be I said an Airborne Ranger.” “Airboooooorne,” the leader sings. “Lock and load, pull the trigger, shoot the son of a … WHEW,” the squad echoes. “Rangers lead the way,” the leader sings. “Die, die why won’t you, die?” the squad echoes. “I’m sitting in my foxhole Sharpening my knife Up jumped the enemy I had to take his life” “Airboooooorne.” “Lock and load, pull the trigger, shoot the son of a … WHEW.” “Rangers lead the way.” “Die, die why won’t you, die?” “My buddies in a foxhole With a bullet in his head The medic said he’s wounded But I know that he’s dead” “Airboooooorne.” “Lock and load, pull the trigger, shoot the son of a … WHEW.” “Rangers lead the way.” “Die, die why won’t you, die?” “I hear the choppers coming They’re flying overhead They come to get the wounded They come to get the dead.”
The Fighting Illini ROTC battalion’s second platoon, second squadron, sings a cadence as it trots through the central Indiana woods at a breakneck pace on a Saturday night. The goal? To find more land navigation points than the seven other squads to earn a reward of skipping out on an early morning cleanup when the cadets get back to campus from their field training exercise, or FTX. This is the fifth and final time this weekend the cadets have gone out in the woods trying to locate points that they had been assigned and had plotted on a map, but it is the first time they departed as a squad. Cadet Chubb, an MS3, or junior, leads the squad. Chubb’s not a big fellow, around 5-foot-8, but he commands respect. He is able to walk all of these miles and lead six other cadets — and one embedded reporter — through the woods just one day after being released from the hospital. He didn’t have to go out on this land navigation tonight because he was still ill, but what kind of leader would he be if he didn’t? Not the kind of leader, not the kind of soldier, worthy of the United States Army. *** The battalion has been on the FTX since first formation on Thursday at noon at the Armory. In the past two and a half days, cadets have learned how to shoot rifles, have practiced throwing grenades, have gotten lost in the woods and have slept on the cold, wet ground in 50 degree weather. I’ve been with the battalion every step of the way, trying my hand at many of their exercises and experiencing life as a cadet for the weekend. Chubb has been my guide through most of the exercise. He was at the initial meeting for the project. He helped me gather my supplies for the weekend from the Armory. He made sure I had everything an hour before first formation, so I would be able to run back and get things
JOHNATHAN HETTINGER THE DAILY ILLINI
Fighting Illini Battalion cadets provide cover for their squad leader during a training exercise during the field training exercise in Camp Atterbury, Ind., on Sept. 21. I needed (thankfully, I was able to run back and get more snacks and a ball cap). I have tagged along with him for most of the weekend, except for the land navigations and his trip to the hospital. If I have any questions, I go to him. I’ve met many other cadets in addition to Chubb, and, together, they all help define what a cadet is and what all of the members of the battalion aspire to be. There are clear differences in the cadets at each age. The MS1s seem overwhelmed. The MS2s seem to be grasping things but lacking in confidence. The MS3s seem to be confident yet concentrated. They seem to grasp how important this exercise is for their future. This weekend means the most to Chubb and his fellow MS3s because they are in the critical third year of the program. Following this year, third-year cadets nationwide go to the Leadership Development and Assessment Course at Fort Lewis in Washington to see how they stack up against the nation’s other cadets. Because of this, the MS3s are in charge of executing the entire exercise, which the MS4s plan. They must demonstrate their leadership abilities; they must show that they can lead other soldiers. In addition to being in charge of all of the underclassmen, the MS3s also have to prepare themselves for LDAC by refining different skills, including land navigation and shooting. At LDAC, these skills will be detrimental to their success. For now, the MS3s will be judged on all of this by the MS4s and Fighting Illini Battalion “cadres,” or
instructors, for a grade, making this weekend all the more important for their development as soldiers and leaders. *** In ROTC, the future leaders of the United States Army, the MS4s and MS3s, are teaching other future leaders of the Army, the MS2s and MS1s, but none of them are in the Army just yet. The cadets don’t know what the Army is like. They don’t know what it takes to lead soldiers, but they are charged with teaching fellow college students what it takes to be an Army officer. Each year, the cadets improve and impart their knowledge on the cadets younger than them. For the freshmen, the FTX is their first major assignment as cadets. They oftentimes seem lost and clearly struggle the most during the training. The sophomores are more comfortable, and many excel at events, though it is often clear where their deficiencies are, and the older cadets make the MS2s’ place known. The juniors are leading and clearly know what they are doing, but they still make mistakes. This much can be easily seen. The seniors, however, are a mystery to the underclassmen. While the underclassmen are out working their butts off, walking through the woods in the rain or taking target practice on the range, what do the seniors even do? Cadet Kim, an MS4, remembers asking himself the same question during his freshman year when he first saw the public affairs officer,
UI celebrates opening of office in Shanghai; India next stop for hub
Faculty urged to ‘sit tight’ BY MARYCATE MOST STAFF WRITER
Recently passed pension legislation has been recognized as a potential threat to the University and its ability to retain faculty. At the Urbana-Champaign Senate meeting Monday, Barbara Wilson, executive vice provost for Faculty and Academic Affairs, urged faculty to “sit tight” until administrators figure out a solution regarding faculty pensions because the legislation caps the amount of salary that receives pension. “Even though we are such a large economic driver, the University receives late payments and has overbearing restrictions on the way it can operate,” said Senate Executive Committee chair Roy Campbell. “Now we are challenged to keep our pension plans competitive, but hopefully we can rise to that challenge.” With state budget restrictions already hurting the University’s financial flexibility, Campbell said it will be a struggle to come up with the funds needed to supplement the decreased pensions of some University faculty. “The University commitment to
provide competitive health care without the support of the state is going to be a huge burden on our budget, especially when we are restricted by the state to not increase tuition and to provide scholarships for residents,” Campbell said. “There has to be a way of creating revenues to account for those extra costs. We do not want to jeopardize the University, for want of a budget, to do all of the things that it needs to do as a University.” During the meeting, the Senate endorsed the University Senates Conference Statement on Pensions, which says that the University will not support any legislation that causes “irreparable harm” to the University’s ability to “recruit, retain and support” the highest quality faculty. However, some senators did speak out against the endorsement. Senator Harry Hilton started the motion for the SEC to reconsider and revise the plan. “From what we heard, there are parts that some people don’t agree with,” Hilton said. “Rather than voting it up and down, a resolution from SEC, I would think, could be
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approved.” LAS Senator Thomas Anastasio said he thought a stronger statement could be made regarding pension protection. “I don’t even know what (the USC statement) means,” Anastasio said. “This one truthfully doesn’t say anything. I think we should say something, and we have a stake in this and we want to protect the University, but this is just wishy-washy.” John Kindt, chair of the Faculty and Academic Staff Benefits Committee, encouraged the Senate to endorse the statement anyway, despite the shortcomings recognized by Hilton and Anastasio. “For time constraints and other reasons, we urge our colleagues to endorse this because it sends a message, and that is important,” Kindt said. “We are trying to think strategically about education as a whole. The University, after three years of negotiation, got absolutely zero of what we were looking for. I think people should understand that that is what the situation is.” After Kindt spoke, the Senate voted to endorse the University Senates Conference Statement on pension protection. Campbell said there is still some question over how the University will handle pension cuts, but proposed plans for supple-
mentary pension funds are in the works. “It is clearly not going to be very easy to do because that is a lot of money,” Campbell said. “It is basically taking on tenable pension system and effectively saying to the University, ‘Oh, you pay this piece, and we will pay the rest.’ I don’t know whether it is feasible to do everything that we ought to be able to do — all of the past pension plans and so on — but it is good to try.” For the time being, the University has some protections in place to back up faculty pensions. “The University has a little bit of a pool of money because they knew this might happen, it isn’t very much, but they have been very careful,” Campbell said. “How they do that in the future though is tough because all of these things are compound interests.” Campbell also mentioned that these pension caps might be taken as a sign from the Illinois state government for the University to start seeking financial freedom. “I feel the state is actually hinting that the University should seek independence from the state budget,” Campbell said.
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BY TAYLOR ODISHO STAFF WRITER
The University hosted the grand opening of its Shanghai office on Monday. A sso ci ate Ch a nc el lor Pradeep Khanna, who was present at the opening, said in an email that the event was attended by leaders of major universities, industry organizations, American and Chinese companies, local government officials, alumni and friends. Ciao Li is a graduate student at the University from Guangzhou, China. She believes the office will benefit her when she returns to China to fi nd a job. “A lot of us are considering going back to China to work, but since we have been studying here for one or two years or more, we have less connections with companies in China than the students graduating in China,” Li said. This is one of the reasons Khanna said he thought Shanghai would be a good city for an international office. “This office is largely to provide services to our students and to help us stay connected
MaryCate can be reached at most2@dailyillini.com.
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with our academic partners and corporate partners in China,” Khanna said. The office is located within the building of the U.S. Department of Commerce in Shanghai. The office has three work stations, and faculty and students will also have access to conference facilities and meeting rooms. Khanna said the next project the University is planning is building an office in India. He said they are currently going through a process to get the office approved and are working with legal counsel on the process. He said the project should begin “in the near future.” “It is important to stay connected with them after they graduate,” said Khanna. “We stay connected with our national alumni, so we want to do the same thing with our international alumni to stay in touch with them.” Li said she believes international offices will greatly benefit international students.
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The typical cadet needs a lot of supplies for a field training exercise. On the FTX, I took the following: • 1 50 lb. ruck (backpack) • 3 sleeping bags (regular, warm weather, wet weather) • 2 jackets (warm weather and wet weather) • 2 military pants (warm weather and wet weather) • 3 notebooks • 3 T-shirts • 2 pairs of jeans • 1 pair of boots • 6 pairs of socks • 1 recorder • 1 camera • 1 Kevlar military helmet • 1 ball cap • 1 red-tinted flashlight • 4 packs of Pop-Tarts • 8 granola bars
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Administrators trying to figure out fix for controversial pension legislation
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