News briefs: Events

Construction on Green and Mathews: Anna Ondrejckova

Recent construction on Green Street and Mathews is affecting bus transportation. Uni students and students from campus take public MTD buses as a way of getting to and from school. With recent construction on campus, bus stops has been moved from the Illini Union and Green Street area. According to MCORE (Multimodal Corridor Enhancement Project) constructed started on May 22nd and it is still unknown when it will stop. Currently the bus stop is at Springfield and Mathews, right outside of Uni. With the bus stop change Uni students have found pro and cons. Traffic around Uni has become more condensed and dangerous. Cars have a hard time navigating around giant buses and inattentive students. Some students are fiinding the new bus stop location a convenience. Uni junior, Olivia Taylor says, “…now we’re just dropped off right at the building!

Howdy Hop: Annette Lee

The annual Howdy Hop took place on August 18th, with the attendance of several subfreshmen. When asked about their opinion of the dance, many said it was fun. Isabel Tolman-Bronski expressed frustration that some of her classmates “were on their phones” instead of dancing. Other subbies mentioned that, while not a big deal, they felt that it was too hot at the dance. However, the class’s overall opinion of the first Uni dance of the year is positive. When asked if he would attend another Uni dance, Ian Evensen quickly said, “Definitely.” Many other subbies, even those who expressed criticisms, agreed with him.

New Transfers: Brandon Van Der Donk

Six new transfer students have been admitted into Uni High with the 2017-2018 school year; five freshmen, and one sophomore, according to Dr. Radnitzer, Assistant Director of Student Affairs. The students said that they came from a variety of schools, including Oakwood (Arav Jagroop, freshman), and Monticello (Maddie Harden, sophomore). Alex Hynes, one of the transfer freshmen, was even home schooled the year before coming to Uni.

Alex has revealed that his first impressions of Uni have been very positive. He said that “after the new student orientation I felt accepted, and since getting here the people I know have been nice, and it’s just been a great overall experience.”

If you see any new students around school, make sure to welcome them to Uni!  

Subbie Elections: Camden Coleman

Each year, subbies are given the opportunity to either embarrass themselves or make a lasting impression on their new classmates during the Subbie elections. With elections coming up next month, it’s time to start considering running for Student Council.

The tentative schedule of events is as follows: Subbies will sit in on a StudCo meeting September 7th, send biographies and declare candidacy by September 9th, and take part and vote in the election on September 11th. Subbie elections tend to be fun and eventful, and this year’s elections should prove to be no different. For those who dare to run and attempt the infamous 3 minute speech, it tends to be an experience they never forget.

Umar Hanif, a senior who has served on Student Council since subbie year, still remembers his iconic speech. “Since it was my first speech ever, I was pretty nervous. I think I dry-heaved a couple times prior to it. (…) In the moment I felt really good because it wasn’t a really substantive speech, it was all shine and polish, rallying the people and trying to get their spirits up. So it was a good experience.”

Midsummer Night’s Dream: Julian Montague

Uni Fine Arts will be presenting a modern take on William Shakespeare’s comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a story about love, fairies, and bad actors. It will star Kat Williams as Helena, Betsy Ruckman as Hermia, Umar Hanif as Demetrius, and Vikram Perry as Lysander, in addition to various other Uni students (and one teacher) in supporting roles. Auditions were held on August 17th. The play will premiere on Thursday October 5th, Friday the 6th, and Saturday the 7th.

Library Events: Matthew Tang

Last year the library hosted numerous events and clubs, but what exactly is going on this year? Ms. Domonique Arnold mentioned upcoming events include a dialogue about the Charlottesville incident on September 6th, an Emmy pre-watching party September 13th, and a dance workshop on the 18th. The library will also be hosting various clubs throughout the school year, including Dungeons and Dragons, Girls Who Code, Book Club, and a new club, Books to Prisoners, which helps inmates of the Danville Correctional center get access to books.

New additions to the library include rental laptops, which according to Ms. Arnold, “work a lot better than the old ones, they don’t take forever to start up.” The library has received new books as well, which are on display. A new person has also joined the library staff; Vickie Pietrus is an undergraduate student who is filling the role Erin previously had.

Quad Day: Raya Gandhi

Every year on the East Lawn, Uni students can learn about clubs like Quidditch, Habitat for Humanity, and many more. Dubbed “Quad Day,” this tradition will take place during Uni Period on September 11th this year. Each club will have a student spokesperson with information about the club. Students will be able to view all of the options and join clubs that they are interested in.

“It’s like a smorgasbord in one setting,” said Richard Murphy, the Student Council Faculty sponsor. He said Quad Day started because “everybody liked the idea of what they have at the U of I.” The idea stuck because students liked being able to learn about the clubs in one place.

“I think it’s a nice thing to do for the new students […] to show them what’s available,” Murphy said.

SSO Search: Sophia Ebel

The new teachers in the Social Studies and Science departments will not be the only additions to the Uni staff this year. A search is underway to the fill the positions of SSO Office Manager and School Counselor (L-Z), formerly held by Kari Mahannah and Janai Rodriguez respectively. Mahannah and Rodriguez both resigned over the summer. The committee responsible for the hires began conducting interviews for the SSO Office Manager position last week and could make an offer as early as this week, said Karl Radnitzer who is chairing the search. However, while the information regarding the Counselor position has been turned in to the University of Illinois Human Resources Department, it has not yet been posted for potential applicants to see.

Radnitzer said their ideal candidates would be team players who are flexible, well-qualified for their positions and enjoy working with high schoolers, but a lot of the specifics will “[depend] on who we interview. Sometimes you don’t know… who you’re interested in until you know who you get.”

New Library Equipment: Tony Li

According to librarian Paul Kotheimer, Uni got a shipment of five Dell laptops before school started this year that are ready to be used by students. The old laptop loaners from last year have all been retired but one, which is being used as a DVD player for one of the TVs in the library. It was the Uni High tech committee, which consisted of Doc Walk, individuals from the Swanlund Administration Building, and some Uni faculty that decided to get the laptops. They cited the old library laptops being slow and missing keys as reasons for getting them.

Be sure to check out the laptops for they are definitely faster than the previous generation of library laptop loaners.  

New Lounge Furniture: Zona Hrnjak and Ha Tran

At the start of this school year, students came back to find out that much of the furniture in the senior lounge had been swapped out and more will be in the near future. Senior Ellie Breen commented, “It’s okay. I wish there was more seating, more couches. There used to be a huge couch and lots of pillows.” She also said that better speakers would be a nice addition as well.

The new furniture was brought in by Dr. Radnitzer over the summer from the UIUC Surplus Warehouse, where most of Uni’s furniture is found for free. Despite annual cleanings of pillows and couch cushions, he felt it was time to change some of the furniture due to overuse and sanitary reasons, especially with the whooping cough outbreak last year. Dr. Radnitzer plans to bring a few students with him to pick out the new furniture within the next week or two.