MONDAY August 31, 2020
THE DAILY ILLINI
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Vol. 150 Issue 3
‘Enough is Enough’ CU activists protest police brutality
demands” the Champaign County Anti-Racist Coalition has advocated for throughout the summer. The group’s main priority is defunding the police; reallocating municipal funds from the police department to other government and social service agencies. “‘Defund the Police’ is our first demand,” said Drake Materre, a University of Illinois student and community activist. “And every demand that follows that can be implemented by defunding the police.” Locally, the Urbana City Council voted to reduce the city’s police budget by 2% in June. Justin Hendrix, a Parkland College student and one of the organizers of the protest, said he wanted to focus on gun violence within the ChampaignUrbana area. “We’re still being killed and we’re still being murdered and nothing’s happening,” Hendrix said. “We’re standing up to make sure (that) even our own community knows that gun violence must stop.” The list of demands was not the only sign protesters placed on the monument. Another sign on Alma Mater read: “To thy liberated children of the future, those of the past seek revolution.” The sign’s language is a par-
BY CLAIRE O’BRIEN STAFF WRITER
The Champaign County Anti-Racist Coalition, an activist organization that works for racial equality in the area, protested alongside other community members against racial injustice and police brutality on Friday night. The protest, “Enough is Enough,” comes after Jacob Blake, a Black man, was shot and paralyzed by police on Sunday in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Over the summer, community activist groups held protests and demonstrations against police brutality in the C-U area. A smaller protest was held in Champaign Wednesday. Friday’s protest began at 7 p.m. at the Champaign Police Station, at the corner of First Street and University Avenue. Over 100 protesters showed up and held signs condemning police brutality and organizers spoke throughout the night. The protest moved to First Street and Springfield Avenue and reassembled at the intersection. After organizers briefly spoke, the group moved to the intersection of First and Green streets. The march continued down Green Street toward Alma Mater, where protesters put up signs on the monument. The signs included a “list of
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RYAN ASH THE DAILY ILLINI
Drake Materre, senior in AMS, speaks to protesters in front of Alma Mater at the end of the “Enough is Enough” march on Friday. The Champaign County Anti-Racist Coalition organized the event. Flip to A5 for a photo story of the event.
Move-in week brings 280 COVID-19 cases individuals who already tested positive for the virus. Over the same eight days, the University administered just over 71,000 tests and got 415 positives back, for a positivity rate of 0.58%. Friday morning on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street,” University of Illinois System President Tim Killeen said on-campus testing had identified 284
BY ETHAN SIMMONS NEWS EDITOR
According to University officials, 280 individual students, faculty and staff tested positive for COVID-19 using the on-campus saliva tests from Aug. 16 to 24. This is the first total of positive cases from on-campus tests confirmed by the University. Currently, the University’s COVID-19 dashboard only displays positive tests, which include retests of
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RYAN ASH THE DAILY ILLINI
Protesters stand outside UI System President Timothy Killeen’s house after marching from the Main Quad. The participating University students and staff protested to demand hazard pay for frontline workers and reduced tuition among other things on Saturday.
Frontline workers march against UI return plan ETHAN SIMMONS NEWS EDITOR
Dozens of University students and staff marched from the Main Quad to UI System President Tim Killeen’s house on Saturday afternoon to protest multiple aspects of the University’s return plan. Organizers decried the lack of hazard pay for building service workers, who clean and disinfect residence halls and other University buildings, along with unchanged tuition for students despite heavily online schedules, in light of President Killeen’s 40% salary raise approved in January. Michael Lindley, University student and building service worker, organized Saturday’s protest. Lindley said the administration didn’t budge on giving hazard pay this semester because the BSWs already deal with infectious diseases. “When the BSWs requested hazard pay as frontline employees, they said no,”
Lindley said. “And you know why they said no? They said no because we deal with measles and mumps on a regular basis, so this fits under our job description.” Representatives from the Graduate Employees’ Organization marched with Lindley, as did Ricky Baldwin, senior organizer of Service Employees International Union Local 73, which represents 29,000 service employees in Illinois and Indiana. Baldwin and Lindley described challenging conditions for the University’s frontline service workers. Shifts were rearranged significantly, and if it weren’t for summer negotiations, 100 BSWs would have had to work a grueling 1-9:30 p.m. shift. This comes as many wings of residence halls — over 400 rooms — have been converted into quarantine and isolation areas for students who’ve been exposed to or infected by the virus.
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The workers who clean those areas must wear fullbody hazmat suits, “which is a good thing,” Baldwin said, but the extra protection creates new struggles. “Because of the way (schedules) are laid out, one worker might have to visit four different buildings,” he said. “If you’re the worker that has that floor, you’ll have to put the suit on, take it off, go to the next building, put the suit on, take it off. It wastes about two hours doing it that way.” To keep out pathogens, hazmat suits are predictably thick. After a while, they become extremely hot to work in, which makes it harder for workers to stave off dehydration and do mandatory saliva tests after their shifts. “They get over there, they’re dehydrated,” Baldwin said. “They can’t spit. You can’t drink water an hour before you go.” One service worker told
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Baldwin of a shocking encounter with a student on one of these isolation floors. After finishing up a cleaning shift on an isolation floor that was supposedly unoccupied, the worker entered a room to cast off the hazmat suit. Just as the worker reentered the hall, a student ran right into them. Fortunately, the student hadn’t been exposed to the virus, and wasn’t supposed to be on the floor in the first place, Baldwin said. But the experience was rattling nonetheless and showed how precautions can break down in practice. Ellie Bradbury, veterinary research specialist at the Veterinary Diagnostic Lab on campus, highlighted another on-campus essential worker: the researchers who handle the University’s saliva tests. The diagnostic lab was transformed into a COVID-19
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KEVIN GAO THE DAILY ILLINI
A student arrives at a University coronavirus testing site located outside of Foellinger Auditorium on Aug. 21. From Aug. 16 to 24, there have been 280 UI students and employees that have tested positive, according to the University.
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