THURSDAY April 20, 2017
THE DAILY ILLINI The independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois since 1871
WWW.DAILYILLINI.COM
Vol. 146 Issue 57
Breaking barriers
Student dies in fire at Krannert
LONGFORM
International students seek a home away from home BY ABIGAIL PAETH LIFE & CULTURE EDITOR
Janette Lan started her college career just like any other freshman. She arrived at school nervous about her classes, nervous about making friends and nervous about being on her own for the first time. But Lan was worried about more than where she would sit in her writing and research class. She worried about fitting into the American culture almost 8,000 miles away from her home in Guangzhou, China. Leaving her family and traveling across the world for school was a tough choice. She wanted to experience American culture, but she knew it was risky. What if she didn’t do well in her classes because the language was too difficult to understand? What if she didn’t get along with American students? What if she missed her family too much? While many international students at the University may feel alone and uncertain when first arriving on campus, they are not alone. International students make up about 22 percent of students enrolled at the University. Currently, there are 44,542 students enrolled as of the
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spring 2017 semester; 10,037 of them are part of the University’s international student program, according to the Division of Management Information. Of the 112 international countries represented in the student population, China is the leading country in international student enrollment at the University. According to the DMI, approximately 5,327 Chinese students are enrolled as of Spring 2017, which is about 12 percent of the entire student body and 53 percent of the international student population. India follows with 1,226 students enrolled at the University. Next, South Korea brings 1,099 students, according to the DMI. Veerle Opgenhaffen, former director of global communications and protocol, said the University is a “household name in China and South Korea for sure.” The University has an office in Shanghai to help returning college graduates find careers in China. The office opened in December 2013. Opgenhaffen said a common misconception about the office’s main purpose is to recruit students from China to attend school in Illinois.
A 21-year-old male student from Gurnee, Illinois, died in a fire overnight at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. His name has not been officially released by the UIPD or Champaign County Coroner’s Office. At 2:47 a.m., the Urbana Fire Department and University Police patrol officers responded to a call at the Krannert Center, according to a University Police report. Six minutes later, the county’s coroner’s office was called. “Our initial investigation indicates that this was a suicide,” said Champaign coroner Duane Northrop. “There was a gas can found near his body. At this time we believe that … he used gasoline to set himself on fire.” Although the county considers the incident an active death investigation, Northrop said it appears to be an isolated event. There is no ongoing concern for public safety. “We have not made an official determination as far as cause of death yet. This is still an active death investigation,” said Patrick Wade, communications director for the University of Illinois Police Department. The fatal incident happened in the outdoor amphitheater area of the Krannert Center, which is open to the public. “Anyone can go there at any time, so that’s how he (the student) would have been there,” Wade said. As for who called to report the incident, Wade said that he is not 100 percent sure. “The way I saw the report is that our officers responded to it,” Wade said. “So it could have been either someone walking by or in a nearby residence hall who made the call, or it could have been one of our officers that may have been driving by and saw the fire.” In an autopsy conducted by the Champaign County Coroner, preliminary results revealed that the deceased suffered from inhalation burns to the airway and lungs as a result of the fire. Toxicology results are pending. “At this point, we don’t have any indications that this is anything other than a suicide,” Northrup said. Wade said that all the information available for release at this time. “We will be releasing further updates as they become available,” Wade said. “I expect to have a few over the next couple days, but for now, the information on our website is all we have.”
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PORTRAIT OF JANETTE LAN BY RYAN FANG
Locals to host own March for Science BY HAIPEI WU CONTRIBUTING WRITER
The worldwide March for Science will take place on Saturday, April 22, and the Champaign-Urbana community is joining in by hosting their own march at the Orpheum Children’s Science Museum. According to the March for Science’s press webpage, there will be around 400 marches and rallies taking place in 37 different countries around the world on Saturday. Elizabeth Sotiropoulos, co-owner of Illini Tutoring, is one of 12 organizers for the march in Champaign. According to the Facebook event, over 450 people have marked they will attend and over 1,000 are interested. “The march is a protest of what Trump has said against science,” Sotiropoulos said. “It is also a way for people to come together and stand in solidarity against those unfair cuts President Trump has taken.” President Donald Trump’s proposed budget would cut funding for a wide array of health and science agencies
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Students stand united at recreation of 1992 protest March recognizes past actions and ongoing goals BY TAYLOR HOWARD STAFF WRITER
On Wednesday afternoon, University students marched in the streets to support and raise awareness for the unequal treatment of minority groups on campus. The march was co-sponsored by Black United Front and Latinx group Movimiento Estudiantil Chicanx de Aztlan. This protest was a recreation
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Julio Villegas, who protested in the original 1992 rally, speaks about the updated demands on the Main Quad on Wednesday. Students gathered to protest and voice new concerns, based off of the ones originally made in 1992.
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of a 1992 protest in which University students demanded equal treatment for Latino and minority students. In 1992, protesters were faced with violence from the University Police, which attracted national attention. Though Wednesday marked the 25th anniversary of the protest, the demands for just treatment of Latinx students have not been met, according to their website. Students from M.E.Ch.A and BUF honored the students from the 1992 protest by standing together to call for a “transformative change at the University of Illinois,” according to their press release.
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Even though the original protest positively advanced the “academic experience and curriculum,” according to their website, Vanessa Garcia, junior and member of M.E.Ch.A, believes not much has changed since 1992. “We have to commemorate the struggles and accomplishments of the past students,” Garcia said. “But we would also like to acknowledge that there is still a lot of work to be done.” Mackenzie Schabowski, freshman in Education, said that this rally was necessary. “It was important to shed light on (minority groups) and to bring
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Black United Front pushes for more diverse freshman class
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