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F o r
F a c u l t y
a n d
S t a f f ,
U n i v e r s i t y
o f
I l l i n o i s
a t
July 5, 2012
Vol. 32, No. 1
U r b a n a - C h a m p a i g n
UC @ Illinois
Voice component
now in use
campuswide
By Mike Helenthal
Assistant Editor
A
fter two years of planning and
implementation, officials at
Campus Information Technologies and Educational Services
have announced the successful switch to a
campuswide computer-based unified communications system.
“It’s been a long haul and a lot of work,
but the switch has been made and the system is up and running,” said Greg Gulick,
the director
of application
FOR ASSISTANCE
with UC @ Illinois services at
CITES.
[email protected]
The $4.8
217-244-7000
m i l l i o n
switch to the
Microsoft Lync software eliminated 10,600
phone landlines and is expected to save the
campus an estimated $3 million annually.
The UC @ Illinois (Unified Communications) program consolidates voice, email
and calendar functions, while adding instant messaging and videoconferencing capabilities.
“This new system will give us added
tools to further our mission of learning, discovery and engagement,” he said.
Gulick said the switchover to a unified
communications system has not been without complications. He praised the patience
of campus users, department information
technology leaders and telecommunications
coordinators, who all were integral in fixing
general system problems prior to the campus rollout during a test period that started
last year.
SEE PHONES, PAGE 7
photo by L. Brian Stauffer
It’s official Longtime UI administrator Bob Easter leads his first cabinet meeting upon taking the presidential title
full-time July 2. Easter, who was president-designate for three months, officially began his administrative duties July 1.
Easter ready for next role – UI president
By Mike Helenthal
Assistant Editor
B
ob Easter on Sunday officially
became the 19th president of
the UI.
“I can’t tell you the privilege
I feel serving in this role,” Easter told a
gathering of journalists and staff members assembled Monday in the lobby of
the president’s Henry Administration
Building office in Urbana.
“I’ve had so many people come to me
during this transition and express their
support,” he said. “I truly look forward to
the time before us.”
Easter, a former dean of the Urbana
campus’s College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, had
served as president-designate for three
months following the resignation of President Michael J. Hogan.
Easter said Monday that he has spent
the last few months becoming more familiar with the issues facing the university, as well as discovering specific issues facing each of the three campuses.
SEE EASTER, PAGE 2
Facilities and Services planning to replace retiring workforce
By Mike Helenthal
Assistant Editor
D
In This Issue
espite a spate of retirements this
year estimated to deplete the Facilities and Services’ workforce
by nearly 10 percent, officials say
there is a silver lining.
“This is an opportunity for current employees to move up,” said F&S Executive
Director Jack Dempsey, “and it’s an opportunity for the community because there will
be so many new and quality job openings.”
F&S supplies a host of construction
and maintenance services across the entire
Urbana campus. The 1,200 F&S employees
represent about a quarter of the campus’s
total number of civil service workers.
According to the Office of the Provost,
532 employees from across the campus had
filed notification for retirement by June 30.
F&S has 120 retiring as of June 30.
The increase in the campus retirement
rate is attributed to changes made at the
state level, which went into affect July 2
and affect the money-purchase formula
used to calculate retirement benefits.
Dempsey said he expects a time of
“struggle” for the division as managers
begin filling positions while trying to keep
service at expected levels.
“When you look at our organization, it’s
a big number – twice the rate of retirement
we usually see,” Dempsey said. “The time it
takes to hire someone and get them up to the
same level (as the person being replaced)
takes four or five years.”
Dempsey said F&S employees, especially those in the crafts and trades positions,
must be uniquely qualified.
He said the primary challenge is twofold:
finding workers willing to work in an environment that is more service-oriented than
at a typical job site, and discovering employees with the skills to work – sometimes
simultaneously – on high-tech systems and
100-year-old buildings.
“We want them to be fully prepared to
work here because it’s a whole different approach,” he said. “They’re going into buildings that are occupied by faculty and stu-
Idea Garden
The Master Gardener
Idea Garden has been
home to hundreds of
varieties of flowering
plants since its creation
in 1997.
PAGE 3
dents. It’s like going into people’s homes.”
Dempsey said F&S leaders already are
reviewing vacant administrative positions
and deciding whether to consolidate or
eliminate some of them. They also plan to
offer specific training, with one program
providing customer service training and
another focusing on general F&S orientation for new employees.
“We want to get the front-line workers
hired as fast as we can so we can begin
training them and integrating them into the
system,” he said, adding dozens of interviews were already being lined up in anticipation of the retirements.
“We want to continue to have a good,
dedicated workforce,” he said. “We’ve had
some amazing people here and we thank
them for the tremendous work they have
done. Our employees have a passion because
they feel like they can make a contribution.”
While the decline in manpower represents a temporary workforce strain,
Dempsey said he is most concerned with
the longer-term struggle to replace work-
ers who possess decades of “institutional
knowledge.”
That concern is shared across the university, he said, as many of the newly retired
have been working on the Urbana campus
for decades.
“Somebody who’s been here 10 years
can get things done more efficiently and effectively,” he said. “There are going to be a
lot of people across campus asking, ‘Who is
it that does this now?’ It’s not just the crafts
and trades.”
Other challenges include making competitive offers to workers despite recent
benefit reductions for new employees, and
finding ways to keep them for the long term
despite continued financial uncertainty.
And despite the difficult period,
Dempsey said he is confident F&S will persevere, with minimal interruption and continued top-notch work.
“I think people are just going to step up
and make it happen,” he said. “This is a
chance, as an employee, to stretch yourself.
We just have to rise to the challenge.”u
Childhood cancer
Adults that had
childhood cancer,
especially between
the ages of 6 to 12,
are more likely to have
employment problems.
PAGE 6
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INDEX
A MINUTE WITH … ™
4, 8
BRIEF NOTES
7
DEATHS
2
InsideIllinois
PAGE 2 July 5, 2012
New way to grow, isolate cancer cells may help fight disease
By Liz Ahlberg
Physical Sciences Editor
T
he news a cancer patient most fears
is that the disease has spread and become much more difficult to treat. A
new method to isolate and grow the
most dangerous cancer cells could enable
new research into how cancer spreads and,
ultimately, how to fight it.
UI researchers, in collaboration with scientists at the Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China, published
their results in the journal Nature Materials.
“This may open the door for understanding and blocking metastatic colonization,
the most devastating step in cancer progression,” said Ning Wang, a professor of
mechanical science and engineering who
co-led the study.
The most dangerous cancer cells are the
ones that can break away from the primary
tumor and travel through the body to form
a new tumor in another tissue, a process
called metastasis. Fortunately, only a small
percentage of cancer cells have the ability
to become new tumors. Unfortunately, the
tumor-seeding cells are the ones hardest to
kill with chemotherapy – and it only takes a
lone survivor to mount a resurgence.
Cancer researchers have theorized that
these elusive tumor-spreading cells may
be responsible for recurrences after surgery or treatment. They are very interested
in studying these cells in hopes of better
understanding and ultimately combating
them. However, identifying and isolating
metastatic cells from a general cancer cell
population is very difficult.
One hotly debated question is whether
metastatic cells share characteristics of
stem cells, and if so, to what extent. Some
studies have found cancer cells with stemcell markers, others have displayed stemcell-like behavior, and yet others have suggested that cells can spontaneously switch
photo by Jason Lindsey
Cancer cells UI professor Ning Wang and colleagues in China use soft gels to
culture the elusive cells that spread cancer from the primary tumor to other places in
the body.
from a primary cancer cell to a stem-celllike cancer cell and back.
Wang’s group at the UI had previously
found that stem cells grow better in a soft
gel than on a rigid plate. They wondered if
this principle would also apply to cancerspreading cells, since they share some other
qualities of stem cells. So they suspended
single cells of mouse melanoma, a type of
skin cancer, in soft gel made of fibrin, a fiber-like protein found throughout the body.
They cultured the cells into colonies and
compared them with those grown on a stiff
flat surface, the traditional method used by
cancer researchers.
After five days, the soft gels were rid-
deaths
Judy A. Bensyl, 64, died June 27 at Vermilion Manor Nursing Home, Danville. Bensyl
worked at the UI from 1984-1993 as an account technician II for the Grants and Contracts Division in the Office of Business and
Financial Services.
Frances C. Crowley, 90, died June 17 at
Carle Foundation Hospital, Urbana. Crowley retired from University Housing as an
account technician II in 1990 with 27 years
of service. Memorials: American Cancer
Society, www.cancer.org/.
Carolyn S. Genzel, 67, died July 1 at Carle
Foundation Hospital, Urbana. Genzel had
worked at the UI for 27 years. She was an
office manager at the Coordinated Science
Laboratory. Memorials: Carle Inpatient Oncology Departement, www.carle.org; or St.
John’s Lutheran Church, 109 N. Oak St.,
P.O. Box 6, Buckley, IL 60918.
Herbert Henry Osterbur, 82, died June 23
at Memorial Medical Center, Springfield.
He retired from Facilities and Services as
an operating engineer in 1984 after 30 years
of service. Memorials: Hope United Church
of Christ Foundation Repair Fund, 23334
CAMPUS
UPDATES
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State Route 49, Armstrong, IL 61812.
Curtis Lee Porter II, 67, died June 22 at
Provena Covenant Medical Center, Urbana.
Porter retired in April as a building service
worker with Facilities and Services after 17
years of service.
Dorothy “Dot” Weeks Richardson, 90,
died June 9 at Country Health Care, Gifford. Richardson worked at the Illini Union.
Memorials: Trinity Lutheran Church, www.
trinity-urbana.org/.
Faraba G. Anderson Shirley, 97, died June
25. Shirley retired from the UI. Memorials: Stewardson United Methodist Church,
216 S. Cedar St., Stewardson, IL 62463; or
University Place Christian Church, http://
uniplace.org/.
Memorial Service
A memorial service for Benjamin C. Kuo
will be from 3 to 5 p.m. July 28 in the Chancellor Ballroom at the I Hotel and Conference Center. Kuo, 81, died June 12 at his
Champaign home. Kuo was a professor of
electrical engineering for 35 years, retiring
in 1989. u
InsideIllinois
Editor
Doris K. Dahl
217-333-2895, [email protected]
Assistant Editor
Mike Helenthal
Photographer
L. Brian Stauffer
News Bureau contributors
Liz Ahlberg
engineering, physical
sciences
Craig Chamberlain
media, international
programs, social sciences
Phil Ciciora
business, labor, law
Sharita Forrest
education, social work
Dusty Rhodes
arts, information science,
humanities, library
Diana Yates
agriculture, applied health
sciences, life sciences
dled with spheres of soft cells, many more
colonies than grew on the harder surface. In
addition, the cells were softer and grew in
spherical clumps – unusual for most cancer
cells, but signature characteristics of stem
cells.
“Starting from single cells, by day five,
you have more cells in the soft substrate
proliferating,” Wang said. “This is exactly
the opposite from most cancer cells, which
prefer a stiffer substrate. But these cells like
to grow in the soft environment. Why is this
important? Because they turn into tumors.”
The researchers found that the cells
grown in the 3-D soft fibrin were much
more efficient at causing tumors in mice
EASTER, CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
He said each campus has its own “unique
role” in improving the lives of the state’s
residents and that the university’s core
missions are unchanged.
“(The Urbana campus) has been my
only professional home,” he said. “It’s
been great getting to meet the faculty
and staff members (from the other campuses).”
He said it would take the hard work
of staff and faculty members at all three
campuses to “expand our rich legacy.”
Some of the time during Easter’s formative months has been spent on lobbying efforts before the Illinois Legislature,
which has targeted university pension
and health benefits in efforts to reduce
costs and a burgeoning state deficit.
“Those legislators are truly critical (to
the university’s mission),” he said.
While some of those benefits have
diminished, Easter said the university is
still competitive compared to other universities and continues to be “an attractive place to work.”
Easter said a top priority is finalizing
next fiscal year’s budget, which will re-
Inside Illinois is an employee publication of the
Urbana-Champaign campus of the University
of Illinois. It is published on the first and third
Thursday of each month by the News Bureau of
the campus Office of Public Affairs, administered
by the associate chancellor for public affairs.
Distribution is by campus mail.
News is solicited from all areas of the campus
and should be sent to the editor at least 10
days before publication. All items may be sent
to [email protected]. The campus mail address
is Inside Illinois, 507 E Green St., Room 345,
Champaign, MC-428. The fax number is 217-2440161.
than cells prepared traditionally. In fact,
injecting as few as 10 cells from a culture
grown in a soft gel was sufficient to induce
tumors in a large percentage of mice, while
10,000 cells from a traditional culture are
needed to achieve results with the same
incidence of cancer. This suggests that,
while a traditional culture of cells has only
a few capable of starting new tumors, the
soft substrate method is capable of isolating
these cells and promoting the growth and
multiplication of these cells in culture.
The researchers then tested their soft fibrin substrate with other cancer cell lines
and found that they also formed stem-celllike colonies of highly tumorigenic cells,
showing that the process is generalizable
for many types of cancer. The cells grown
in a soft gel even caused tumors in normal
mice, called “wild-type,” rather than only
the immune-compromised mice typically
needed for such studies.
The researchers also found that the
tumor-repopulating cells express a selfrenewal gene called Sox2, which is usually
only expressed in stem cells and not in traditionally prepared cancer cells. When the
researchers blocked the Sox2 gene, the cells
started to differentiate, becoming traditional tissue-specific cancer cells.
Now, the researchers will continue exploring the molecular mechanisms that
make these tumor-seeding cells so good at
surviving in distant organs and so efficient
at seeding tumors. They hope that knowledge will contribute to treatments to stop
the spread of cancer.
“Since these cells are more resistant to
current cancer-killing drugs than differentiated cancer cells, we would like to see if
there are ways to identify and develop new
molecules and methods that can specifically
target and kill these cells,” Wang said. u
flect a 6 percent reduction in state funding.
He said the change in university leadership has not diminished the problems
facing the university, which include student tuition and access issues.
Easter said he will challenge the UI
to rediscover its roots, formulated in the
1862 Morrill Act, and to “focus on engaging the ordinary people, not the elite”
in sharing the “transformative power of
education.”
“It’s being tested now as never before
in our history,” he said of that mission.
“We can allow ourselves to drift into mediocrity, or we can define a future that is
consistent with our history and our core
values.”
He said the new era includes a period of
introspection as leaders consider what programs and offerings are supportive of the
university’s core mission and what are not.
“Our challenge is to understand what
counts,” he said. “And we need to do all
this with an eye toward economic growth.
I sense a desire to make the tough decisions.” u
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July 5, 2012 InsideIllinois
PAGE 3
Idea Garden provides inspiration, as well as meditation
By Mike Helenthal
Assistant Editor
Bursting at the
seams The Master Gardener
T
he Champaign County Extension
Master Gardeners’ Idea Garden, an
annual focal point at the UI Arboretum, is more than an oasis of brightly colored flowers and unique plants.
It is an exercise in democracy.
Each flowering section within the garden’s 15,000 square-foot footprint sprouts
as the result of a team of Master Gardeners charged with deciding what to plant and
who will deliver daily care. The section
leaders, along with three Idea Garden cochairs, form the garden’s governing committee.
“If any one of the sections is planning
to do something big or unusual, they have
to bring it to the overall committee,” said
Sandra Mason, a UI Extension educator.
“We’re a public garden, so we have to keep
that in mind. It’s been effective in maintaining an organized approach.”
The team approach, which draws from
nearly 200 members of the Champaign
County Master Gardeners’ chapter, has led
to a consistent annual presentation in which
even walkways and common areas are
agreed upon. New volunteers are quickly
incorporated into the team, learning new
techniques along the way.
“Design is always the hardest thing because it’s such a personal expression with
each gardener,” Mason said. “It usually
works out in the end because everyone is
here just for the love of gardening and we
all want to share it.”
While some members participate more
than others, Mason said as many as 75
volunteers keep the Idea Garden flourishing, with thousands of maintenance hours
logged since the garden’s creation in 1997.
Volunteers log more than 2,500 hours annually for its upkeep.
Champaign County Master Gardeners’
volunteers also have created and cared for
several other community gardens, including those at the Urbana-based Crisis Nurs-
Idea Garden, located at the
UI Arboretum, has been home
to hundreds of varieties of
flowering plants since its
creation in 1997. The garden
is cordoned off by section,
with groups of volunteers in
charge of each. Garden sections
include borders, sensory,
vegetable, children’s, special
projects, gazebo, rose, berry
patch, color, work-in-progress
and tropical.
How does your
garden
grow?
photo by L. Brian Stauffer
ON THE WEB
http://arboretum.illinois.edu/
our_gardens/
an ideal place to do that.”
But it wasn’t always that way.
“Back when we first started, there was
nothing here,” said Phyllis Brussel, a master gardener involved with the initial planning and development of the Idea Garden.
“As far as you could see it was just grass
and weeds.”
Mason said the idea for a local “learning
garden” began solidifying after the group
took a tour of Cantigny Park gardens in
Wheaton, which offers an Idea Garden as
part of a multitude of nature-themed programs.
“We liked what we saw so much we even
took the name,” Mason said. “We liked the
gazebo they had in the center and that they
had sectioned it off for the
different varieties.”
The Arboretum location,
once the home of the Hartley Trial Garden, was offered to the Master Gardeners group after the Hartley
Gardens were relocated in
1994.
“It was a perfect location
for us,” she said.
Brussel said the end result has been because of
the perseverance and hard
work of volunteers – all
possessing the desire to
have a hands-on laboratory
to share time-tested garden
knowledge with the public.
“This spot was available
so we just took it,” Brussel said. “Out of nothing
came this beautiful garden.
We were stunned that it
all worked, and it’s been a
continuing learning experiphoto by Anne TIce
Weed whacker Master Gardener Diane Hatch is one ence – just making it square
and putting up a fence was a
of many volunteers who weed, water and prune the
challenge.”
15,000-square-foot Idea Garden. Volunteers spend more
“We wanted it to be an
than 2,500 hours annually working at the garden.
opportunity to try different
ery, the county’s Juvenile Detention Center things and provide a showcase for the puband an Alzheimer’s Garden at the Cham- lic,” Mason said. “It’s been a nice benefit
for campus, too. We’re close enough we get
paign County Nursing Home.
But the Idea Garden has become a sum- classes out here quite often.”
The former proprietor of a gardening
mertime focal point for the community,
along with the Hartley Gardens and Japan store, Brussel said she became involved with
House. An on-site registry regularly shows Master Gardeners to keep her knowledge
visitors from around the world who have fresh and to learn soil and plant science.
“The only way to remember all of that
left positive comments about the garden.
Eventually the group would like to have information is to use it,” she said. “Plus, the
a visitor’s center or add QR codes to signs term ‘master gardener’ sounded so good.”
Although considered an expert and mento provide visitors a fuller and more-educator by members, Brussel said she continues
tional experience.
“Sometimes people just come out to get to learn through Master Gardeners’ educaoutside and walk,” Mason said, “and this is tional programs – and from working along-
side other members.
“If you have a question, there’s enough
expertise in this group that somebody will
come up with an answer,” she said. “It’s really widened my horizons and I get so much
being a part of it. It’s just a group of friends
sharing knowledge.”
Ana Tice, a retired dermatologist and
2000 graduate of the Master Gardeners’
program, didn’t think she had that much to
learn about gardening when she joined.
A self-described “rabid” gardener, she
had since childhood helped her Iowan
grandparents raise a variety of garden
and flower selections. As a youngster, she
boldly – and unsuccessfully – tried to grow
peach trees in Iowa.
“I thought I knew something until I took
the program,” she said. “And long after taking the program, I continue to learn.”
She said the organization is the local
equivalent of a garden information superhighway, a place where members together
address unknowns and find answers.
One of her favorite Idea Garden pastimes, shared by other members, is answering general questions of the visiting public.
“I also just love being out here, and now
I can pass some of these things on to others,” she said. “You learn you can’t just
throw information out there you ‘think’ you
know. You have to make sure and look it
up, and if you still can’t find it, you can call
Extension with questions.”
She said the group’s committee and intern structure gives everyone a voice – and a
way to move up the chain of responsibility.
“One of my first jobs was pulling the
same kind of weed, over and over,” she
said. “Out here, it’s a shared thing. There
is a core group who puts in a tremendous
amount of time. We’re happy for any hours
that people can contribute.”
Mary Morris, a retired X-ray technician
from Texas and a 2001 Master Gardeners’
graduate, said the organization is a humbling experience for anyone who thinks
they know how to garden.
“I felt like I was doing it right until I became a Master Gardener,” she said. “That’s
when you realize how little you know about
gardening. I went back and did everything
all over again.”
She said the camaraderie among members is unmatched because everyone is dedicated to learning – and sharing that knowledge freely.
“You have to have teamwork because
you’re going to need help at some point,”
she said. “Our motto is kind of, ‘you help
rescue me and I’ll help rescue you.’ ”
She said gardening has numerous benefits, especially for seniors. It’s good exercise and relieves stress. She said upperbody strength is of primary importance,
especially when it comes to weeding or
moving dirt.
“You’re using every muscle imaginable,
including brain power,” she said. “Getting
out in the garden is very therapeutic. There’s
something about playing in the dirt.”
And there also is a feeling of legacy
among members. They are keenly aware
that healthy, well-maintained plants can last
generations.
“We trade personal plants all the time
and you remember who you traded with,”
Morris said. “If that person is deceased, you
remember even more. There are lots and lots
of friendships that have been made here.” u
photo by Anne TIce
Wild things This undated photo shows a zoo-themed topiary section that once was
part of the Idea Garden. Any substantial additions or subtractions at the garden must
be approved through a Master Gardener committee system.
InsideIllinois
PAGE 4 July 5, 2012
Carol Tilley
media literacy expert on
encouraging kids to read
Editor’s note: Some kids love to read, and some
don’t. If your child falls into the second category,
odds are that you have an even tougher time
coaxing him or her to read during the summer,
when school isn’t in session. Carol Tilley knows how to handle this type
of reluctant reader. A former school librarian, Tilley is a professor in the UI
Graduate School of Library and Information Science, where she teaches
courses in youth services librarianship, comics in libraries, and media literacy
and youth. Tilley shared some suggestions with News Bureau news editor
Dusty Rhodes.
What advice do you have for parents
whose children are capable but
uninterested in reading?
Aliterate kids – those who know how
to read, but choose not to do it – can be a
conundrum for parents, teachers and librarians.
First, recognize that reading isn’t always
about someone getting lost in a novel.
Look for “hidden” reading – websites, text
messages, baseball cards, magazines, cereal
boxes, whatever – acknowledging and encouraging it when you notice it.
Second, go with your kids to the library
or a bookstore regularly; make it part of
your family’s time together. Maybe your
child won’t select the books you would, but
remember, it’s not about you and what you
like.
Third, find other ways to make reading a family activity. Make sure your child
sees you read – whether for work or for
pleasure. Talk about what you’re reading.
Read aloud to your child: That’s an activity
that often stops when your child learns to
read on his or her own, but it doesn’t have
to! Listen to audiobooks on family trips or
even while running errands around town.
Parents tend to regard comics as the
“candy” of the reading pyramid — treats
to be consumed sparingly, and only
after reading “real” books. Should
parents worry if their kids gravitate
toward comics? My short answer is, no.
For many decades, librarians, teachers,
parents and other folks who care about kids
and their reading have relied on metaphors
that books and reading are like food or ladders or steppingstones. These metaphors
are easy but not always accurate ways of
thinking about children’s literacy development.
Most contemporary scholars of reading
argue – and I concur – that reading is reading, at least in terms of gaining fluency,
which is an aspect of reading that involves
expression and understanding. Comics,
gaming websites, sports pages, text messages, novels and any other kind of reading
you can imagine help develop a person’s
reading fluency.
Beyond that, it’s important to understand that comics aren’t all funny animals
or superheroes – not that either of those
genres is bad or suspect. This medium
comprises a wide variety of styles, genres
and formats that can also help readers of
all ages develop empathy, learn new ideas
and more.
In a lifetime of reading comics, this
medium has challenged me to consider
what makes the American political mythos
both inspiring and troubling (for example,
Mark Millar’s “Superman: Red Son”) and
what lies at the heart of friendship (for example, Andy Runton’s “Owly” series). I’ve
learned about important events in history
(Jim Ottaviani’s “T-Minus: The Race to the
Moon”), gained insights into life in little-
photo by L. Brian Stauffer
understood realms (Guy Delisle’s “Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea”) and
relived not-always-pleasant moments from
adolescence (Mariko and Jillian Tamaki’s
“Skim”). And I’ve been enchanted by the
worlds I’ve encountered in comics such as
David Petersen’s “Mouse Guard” series,
Shaun Tan’s “The Arrival” and Linda Medley’s “Castle Waiting.”
And no, not all of those titles are for
kids!
How did comics get such a bad rap?
Comics have a long history of being
considered questionable reading. When
newspaper comics first became popular in
the early 1900s, many adults feared that
children who read them would become
disrespectful toward elders, incapable of
using “proper” grammar and unable to
enjoy “good” literature. These fears were
so great that women’s groups, religious
leaders, librarians and educators launched
protests – sometimes successfully – to get
newspapers to cease printing comics.
When comic books entered the American cultural landscape in the mid-1930s,
some of those same fears were resurrected.
In the years following World War II, comics became one of the many scapegoats for
a perceived increase in juvenile delinquency, leading to sustained public outcry and,
subsequently, restrictive self-regulatory
actions in the comics industry. Although
more than 95 percent of American kids
read comics regularly in the 1940s and ear-
Michael LeRoy
labor expert on the NFL
concussion lawsuit
Editor’s note: Recently, a lawsuit on behalf of
thousands of former National Football League players who suffered concussions and other head trauma in their playing days was filed against the NFL,
setting up a potentially costly case for the scandal-plagued sport. Labor and
law professor Michael LeRoy is an expert in collective bargaining and the author
of a legal casebook titled “Collective Bargaining in Sports and Entertainment.”
In an interview with News Bureau business and law editor Phil Ciciora, LeRoy
discusses the league’s potential legal liability.
Does this lawsuit have any merit, or is it
simply an attempt by former players to
extract more money from a sport that is
awash in cash?
Even if the players have a financial
motivation, the fact that there is more
evidence of long-term harm caused by
concussions is reason enough for players
to consider litigation. If one were to look
for an ulterior motive, I would note that in
the most recent round of negotiations with
the NFL (including a trip through federal
court), retirees found that their interests
were subordinated to the interests of active
players. So retiree benefits were substantially improved, but their bargaining demands were not met.
Generally speaking, how successful are
lawsuits from ex-employees seeking
damages from former employers?
It depends. Often, these lawsuits are
framed as torts, and this body of law
subdivides into negligent and intentional
wrongs. However, many of these actions are precluded because another law
– worker’s compensation – provides an
injured employee an exclusive remedy. So
an actual lawsuit by a former employee to
recover damages from a workplace injury
is relatively uncommon.
Does the fact that the former
players were once covered by a labor
agreement mean anything for their
lawsuits?
Yes, it does. About 10 years ago, Korey
Stringer, an offensive lineman for the Minnesota Vikings, died of heat exhaustion
during an ill-advised summer practice with
his team. His wife sued the Vikings, the
NFL and equipment makers for damages.
Most of the lawsuit was dismissed because
player safety and medical assistance are
UI photo
subjects that the NFL and players bargained. In effect, the court ruled that the
only type of action was a grievance that
might go to arbitration – but again, this
was not a suitable subject for courts. This
type of reasoning could come into play
again.
What is the most likely outcome? After
the recent scandal involving bounties –
paid to players who injured opponents –
do you foresee a quick cash settlement
from the league to make this new black
eye go away?
The NFL will not likely see any connection between the bounty scandal and
these lawsuits, even if fans recognized that
aggressive or illegal play may be a reason
for long-term mental disabilities. So, no, I
don’t expect a quick settlement.
More to the point, the burden is on the
players to prove by a preponderance of evi-
ly 1950s – a higher percentage than uses
the Internet or even plays video games
today – our collective concerns stifled
this readership, and comics have never regained their appeal among kids.
Are some comics more “nutritious”
than others? What are some of your
favorites?
Well, if you think of reading in those
terms, sure, some comics are more nutritious than others, just like some TV shows
or films or novels or magazines are more
nutritious. But don’t we all need a little
cotton candy every now and then?
Some comics for younger readers that I
think do an admirable job of helping support a more balanced reading diet include
Matt Dembicki’s edited volume, “Trickster: Native American Tales, A Graphic
Collection”; Doug TenNapel’s “Ghostopolis”; Chris Duffy’s edited volume,
“Nursery Rhyme Comics,” Nik Abadzis’
“Laika”; and Barry Deutsch’s “Hereville:
How Mirka Got Her Sword.” The Toon
Books imprint of Candlewick Press has
lots of other great comics for early readers
as well.
How does manga rank compared to
other comics?
Manga is a Japanese form of comics,
although Korea and China also produce
similar styles of comics. Just as there’s
a great diversity of styles and genres in
American (and European and Latin American and all other sorts) of comics, manga
comes in many shapes and sizes. In the
past 15 years or so, manga has become
increasingly popular among young readers,
especially girls, in the U.S. Because comics embody the cultures in which they are
produced, it’s important for adults to know
that some manga titles, even those popular
with younger readers, have a more carefree,
less rigid, attitude toward nudity and sexuality than U.S. comics; if that’s an issue for
you as a parent, then you’ll want to be even
more involved in helping your younger
readers choose their reading materials. u
A Minute With ...™ is provided by the
UI News Bureau. To view archived
interviews, go to illinois.edu/goto/
aminutewith.
dence that football-related activities led to
their mental decline. Hypothetically, some
of the plaintiffs may have taken a punch
to the head; or in a more benign way, they
may have had dietary or hereditary factors
that led to their mental decline. There are
many people who never take a hit to the
head, but still develop these types of health
problems. All of this means that the NFL is
not going to be motivated to settle soon.
If the courts were to rule in favor of the
players, what ramifications would that
have for professional football as it is
currently played, if any? Would we see,
say, the elimination of the three-point
stance, or some other radical changes
to reduce the chances of injury?
It would depend on the findings of fact,
and also the amount of damages. It is possible that a court could rule that the NFL was
negligent, but contributed only to a small
percentage of the causation of the injury. A
small award might not change much – and
keep in mind, the NFL now has a very protective head-injury policy in place.
But in the realm of anything-is-possible,
there might be a huge award. In this extreme situation, one could imagine the
NFL would consider doing away with hard
helmets, thereby making the game much
less violent by forcing players into a more
passive style of play. u
A Minute With ...™ is provided by the
UI News Bureau. To view archived
interviews, go to illinois.edu/goto/
aminutewith.
InsideIllinois
July 5, 2012 PAGE 5
By Sharita Forrest
News Editor
B
ehavioral problems in preschoolers may mirror the
intensity and frequency
of their parents’ marital
conflict and signal possible child
maltreatment, suggests a new study
co-written by Jun Sung Hong, a
doctoral candidate in the UI School
of Social Work, and researchers
at Ewha Womans University and
Duksung Women’s University, both
in Seoul, South Korea.
The study, which included
more than 340 children, their
mothers and their teachers at 20
day care sites in Korea, was part
of a longitudinal project exploring possible links between family
conflict and school violence with
the goal of developing intervention programs for at-risk children.
“Considering that many social
problems have their roots in family experiences, scholars have become interested in exploring potential family factors – including
marital conflict – that are correlated with young children’s aggression,” said the study’s lead author,
Hyun-Sim Doh, a professor in the
department of child development
in the College of Social Science
at Ewha Womans University. “Although the study involved children
and their families in Korea, the
findings could be relevant to children and their families in the U.S.
and other countries because child
maltreatment and family violence
are worldwide social problems.”
Additional co-authors were
Nana Shin, Min-Jung Kim and
Sangwon Kim, Ewha Womans
University; and Mi-Kyung Choi,
Duksung Women’s University.
The children in the study,
all 3-year-olds, met the criteria
for aggressive behaviors – such
as fighting with other children,
breaking other people’s belongings and bullying peers through
physical and relational aggression
– on the Child Behavioral Checklist, a widely used parent-report
questionnaire used to assess children on maladaptive behaviors
and emotional problems.
Mothers who reported experiencing the most severe and
frequent conflict with their marital partners were more likely to
report that they also neglected
or physically or psychologically
abused their children.
Accordingly, the severity of
the children’s aggression was
significantly associated with the
level of maltreatment and with the
frequency and severity of marital
conflict reported by the mothers.
Several prior studies suggested
that children’s aggression might be
correlated with inter-parental conflict. However, the current study
explored the possibility that child
maltreatment might be involved
as a mediator between child aggression and parental conflict. The
findings indicated that the mediating relationship was consistent for
girls as well as boys.
Prior research has shown that
children who witness inter-parental
violence may model that behavior,
viewing aggression as an acceptable means of resolving conflict.
“It’s important for practitioners
to focus on aggressive behavior at
an early developmental stage as
young children are likely to be
more responsive to primary prevention,” Hong said.
Traditionally, patriarchal social values in Korea treated marital conflict and domestic violence
as family matters, and researchers
shied away from studying these
areas, but a recent surge in school
violence has pushed family relationships to the forefront of the
research agenda, Doh said.
In a related project, Kim, Doh
and Choi collaborated with Hong
on a study that tested an intervention program for aggressive
children, which comprised social
skills training and a parent education component that focused on
fostering secure parent-child attachments, promoting communication and problem-solving skills
and teaching appropriate disciplinary measures.
Aggressive behavior significantly decreased, and pro-social
behavior and emotional regulation significantly increased among
the children who participated in
the intervention, and their mothers scored higher on measures of
warmth and acceptance at the end
photo by L. Brian Stauffer
Parental conflict may manifest itself in preschooler behavior
Childhood aggression Jun Sung Hong, a doctoral
candidate in the School of Social Work, collaborated with
researchers at two universities in Seoul, South Korea, on
studies that examined the origins of preschoolers’ aggressive
behavior and tested an intervention program.
of the program.
The study about the intervention was published last year in the
journal Children and Youth Ser-
vices Review. The marital conflict
study became available online in
May with the same journal in advance of publication. u
By Phil Ciciora
Business and Law Editor
T
he unilateral efforts of a
single country or region
to reduce the emissions of
greenhouse gases could reduce exports, increase imports and
lead to higher emissions elsewhere
– what economists call “leakage.”
Unilateral efforts could, however,
work better if other sources of
energy were used as substitutes,
thereby creating “negative leakage,” according to research by UI
energy policy experts.
Don Fullerton, a finance professor and former deputy assistant secretary of the U.S. Treasury
Department, says the fear of any
one country raising its own costs
of production through a carbon
tax, and thus making itself less
competitive with its neighbors, is
somewhat unfounded.
“Other researchers have missed
this ‘abatement resource effect,’
or what we call ‘negative leakage,’ ” said Fullerton, a researcher
in the UI Institute of Government
and Public Affairs and in the Center for Business and Public Policy
in the College of Business.
Fullerton, who co-wrote the
paper with Kathy Baylis, a professor of agricultural and consumer
economics at Illinois, and Dan
Karney, a graduate student in economics at Illinois, says the omission has led to overstated fears
about the leakage from a unilateral carbon policy.
“What we show is that, in
some cases, those fears are overstated, and leakage may not be
that bad,” Fullerton said. “With
some concentration on those favorable cases, one country might
be able to undertake some good
for the world without the fear that
it is going to lose business to other
countries or other sectors.”
Fullerton says positive leakage
arises when consumers substitute
away from the taxed country or
sector’s output to the other output.
“If the context were two countries that produce the same traded
good, like steel produced by the U.S.
or China, then a carbon tax in one
country always increases imports
from the other country,” he said.
“That creates positive leakage.”
If the two goods are quite different, however, then consumers
might still demand the good produced by the taxed sector.
“Given these conditions, the
taxed sector draws resources away
from the unregulated sector or
region, which could reduce their
output and emissions,” he said.
So if producers can shift their
inputs easily – away from greenhouse gas emissions to windmills,
solar cells and other energy-efficient machinery and vehicles –
then that taxed sector could draw
resources away from the other sector, Fullerton says.
“If that effect is large enough,
the result might shrink those other
sectors’ operations overall, and
thus possibly shrink emissions
elsewhere,” he said. “But even if
overall leakage is still positive, it
may be overstated in models that
do not allow for substitution in
production. If consumer flexibility is low compared to producers’
ability to abate pollution by use of
other resources, then we show that
overall leakage may be negative.”
The best possibility for negative leakage might be a tax or
permit price for carbon emissions
only in the electricity-generating
sector within one country.
“Demand for electricity is usually thought to be inelastic, which
means consumers buy almost the
same amount of it even as the
price rises,” Fullerton said. “If
firms need to produce almost as
much electricity, while substantially reducing their greenhousegas emissions, they would have
to invest a lot of labor and capital
into windmills, solar panels and
carbon capture and sequestration
technologies. With any given total number of workers and investment dollars in the economy, then
fewer greenhouse-gas emitting
resources are used to produce all
other goods.”
Fullerton cites California’s
unilateral effort to enact a carbon
tax as an example.
“They are a small open economy and, depending on how they
do it, they might be able to get
away with it,” he said. “Electricity is a good that doesn’t really
transport all that well. In other
words, it’s possible for California
to buy electricity from Nevada or
Oregon, but not from Iowa. So
California might be able to put a
carbon tax on electricity because
people buy nearly as much electricity as they did before, and it
provides some incentives to companies to build alternatives like
windmills and solar cells.”
If California had a carbon tax,
the question then becomes what
does it do at the border for any
imports, Fullerton says.
“What they would like to do
is tax any import according to its
carbon content, which is called a
border-tax adjustment,” he said.
But the reason that’s tricky is
that you don’t really know the
carbon content of the electricity –
or any other good – that was produced somewhere else.
“It’s hard to know how to do
that, exactly, except maybe for
oil or coal,” Fullerton said. “Who
photo by L. Brian Stauffer
‘Negative leakage’ could be key to reducing carbon emissions
Carbon tax Don Fullerton, a finance professor and former
deputy assistant secretary of the U.S. Treasury Department, says
the fear of any one country raising its own costs of production
through a carbon tax, and thus making itself less competitive
with its neighbors, is somewhat unfounded.
knows how much carbon dioxide
was associated with the production
of, say, a washing machine, toaster
oven, or some other widget.”
Although it seems somewhat
esoteric, the concept is important,
Fullerton says.
“Every economist who studies
leakage seems to assume it must
be positive,” he said. “They just
can’t fathom any way in which it
can be negative. They automati-
cally assume that anyone who
unilaterally imposes a carbon tax
must be raising the cost of their
own production, thereby putting
themselves at a competitive disadvantage and handing business over
to some other country who, when
they increase their output, will
increase their emissions. Therefore the carbon tax doesn’t do any
good. But that’s not necessarily
the case.” u
PAGE 6 InsideIllinois
July 5, 2012
Childhood cancer can have negative impact on future career
By Sharita Forrest
News Editor
Y
oung adult survivors of childhood
cancer often have problems maintaining jobs and relationships,
researchers have found. A new
study of childhood brain tumor survivors
by disability researcher David Strauser, a
UI professor of community health, suggests
that a battle with cancer during a critical
developmental period in middle childhood
may negatively affect career readiness and
achievement as an adult by compromising
children’s development of an effective work
personality.
The study has been accepted for publication in the journal Disability and Rehabilitation. Related research by the same author
indicates that the developmental theory of
work personality has broader implications
than previously thought.
Adult survivors of childhood cancer experience significant problems finding and
keeping employment. In a study of young
adult survivors of central nervous system
cancer in childhood, Strauser found that
people who experience the most employment problems were diagnosed between the
ages of 6-13, the period known as the “industry versus inferiority” stage in psychologist Erik Erikson’s model of psychosocial
development.
During these years, children hone their
self-concepts by mastering increasingly
complex tasks. They also adopt behaviors
and attitudes toward work that later enable them to function effectively – or ineffectively – in work environments as adults
through social interaction and by observing
role models in their home and school environments.
Being diagnosed and treated for cancer
during that period may disrupt the developmental process, depriving children of social
interaction and other opportunities that affect their career readiness and formation of
an effective work personality, Strauser said.
“People learn to work, and they learn to
value work,” Strauser said. “If you’ve never
been around anyone who works or values
work, you won’t learn to value it either.”
participants had been
away from treatment
more than seven years
on average.
Cancer survivors’
scores were compared
to those of 295 college
students that ranged in
age from 18-23.
“Kids who were diagnosed before the age
of 6 and after the age of
13 had higher work personality than the group
that was diagnosed between the age of 6-12,”
Strauser said. “Those
diagnosed before age
6 had some stabilization in their cancer care
by the time they began
school. If they were diagnosed after 13, they
were already past that
critical period. When
they were diagnosed in
the age 6-12 range, that
was when their involvement in school was disrupted, and they missed
photo by L. Brian Stauffer
a lot of the social inCritical development A new study by David Strauser, a
faculty member in community health, sheds light on why adult teraction and activities
that would reinforce
survivors of childhood cancer often have trouble keeping
their work personality.
employment, particularly if they were diagnosed during a
So that was very supcritical developmental period between the ages of 6-12.
portive of our theory,
Using a 26-item Developmental Work too, that it’s a really critical age.”
Recent studies have found that many
Personality Scale that he developed,
Strauser assessed 43 cancer survivors on individuals who survive childhood cancer
behaviors, role models and tasks consis- struggle with obtaining and maintaining
tent with Erikson’s industry vs. inferiority employment as adults. Survivors of central
developmental model. Using another tool, nervous system (CNS) tumors – who have
Strauser assessed the extent to which the a higher prevalence of functional limitacancer survivors’ career decisions were af- tions and participation restrictions – are
fected by confusion, anxiety, reluctance to especially vulnerable to career and educommit and external conflict such as self- cational problems. They are 15 times less
likely to work or attend school than their
perception and input from others.
The study sample comprised young siblings and five times more likely to be
adults ages 18-30 who had been diagnosed unemployed than peers that did not have
with brain tumors during childhood. The cancer. CNS cancer survivors also are more
average age of onset was 9 1/2 years, and likely to quit jobs, be employed in lower-
skill positions, be socially isolated and have
problems identifying appropriate career and
educational goals.
Until now, the work personality theory
of vocational development has been used
mainly in relation to workers with disabilities, but Strauser believes that it has broader
implications, influencing career readiness
and achievement in the non-disabled population as well.
In a related study, which appeared in
the June issue of the Journal of Employment Counseling, Strauser and his co-authors found a positive relationship between
work personality, work engagement and the
amount of effort that college students invested in their academic work.
“We validated our notion that work personality is important and that it accounted
for a significant portion of the variance in
the amount of effort that non-disabled individuals reported putting into their studies,” Strauser said. “So it is an important
construct for everybody. It was predictive”
of higher levels of academic effort, particularly for male students.
Work personality was an important predictor of academic effort among female
students as well, but work engagement –
feelings of fulfillment, dedication and absorption – had an even greater impact on
women’s academic effort.
The inventories developed for the research could be used to identify vocational
behaviors such as task orientation that can
compromise career success, Strauser said.
“So a person that’s not as high achieving, someone that is going to work at factories, manual labor or service-related jobs
who might have trouble keeping those jobs
because they don’t get along with people or
because they have problems showing up to
work on time, we can identify some of those
deficiencies and design interventions to help
them,” Strauser said.
The study was co-written by Deirdre
O’Sullivan, a professor in the educational
psychology, counseling and special education department at Pennsylvania State University, and Alex W.K. Wong, a graduate
student at Illinois. u
Anti-bullying efforts should be tailored to victims’ needs
By Sharita Forrest
News Editor
G
irls with poor self-control become as physically aggressive
as the average boy when they’re
bullied, suggests a new study by
psychologists at the UI.
Whether victims become more aggressive or mired in self-blame and despair after being victimized is influenced by their
temperament, gender and the type of bullying they experience. Intervention programs
need to be sensitive to these differences and
provide resources and strategies tailored to
victims’ individual needs, said the study’s
co-authors, graduate student Niwako Sugimura and Karen D. Rudolph, a professor in
the department of psychology.
The researchers tracked 283 secondgraders’ psychological adjustment for a
year, examining how temperament and sex
influenced bullying victims’ subsequent development of aggression or depression. The
children and their teachers were surveyed
about the children’s victimization by peers,
and their overt and relationally aggressive
behaviors toward others. Overt bullying includes physical assaults and verbal taunts
or threats; relational bullying is intentionally excluding a child from a group or spreading rumors about them.
Parents also completed questionnaires
about their children’s moods and feelings
that corresponded with depressive symptoms and reported on two traits pertaining
to their children’s temperaments – inhibitory control and negative emotionality.
“Inhibitory control is like self-control,”
Sugimura said. “Kids with poor inhibitory
control have trouble stopping themselves
from doing something too quickly or they
don’t think before they act. Negative emotionality refers to how easily kids become
angry, frustrated or sad. Children with high
negative emotionality not only become angry or sad easily, they also stay upset longer.”
Not all children with high negative
emotionality are depressed, although they
may be more likely to become depressed
than other children when they face a severe
problem such as bullying, Rudolph said.
In the study, girls with high negative
emotionality who had been bullied overtly
or relationally were more likely to show
depressive symptoms a year later. However, boys with high negative emotionality
showed more depressive symptoms regardless of the amount of bullying they experienced, while boys with low negative emotionality showed depressive symptoms only
in response to relational bullying.
“We know that there is a genetic component to some of these traits, so it might
be that boys with high negative emotionality are predisposed to depression,” Rudolph
said. “And it doesn’t matter what their
experiences are; they’re just more likely
to be depressed. However, boys with low
negative emotionality were not predisposed
to depression, so they were more reactive
when they were bullied and became depressed.”
Contrary to the researchers’ expectations, girls – not boys – with poor inhibitory
control were more reactive to overt and relational victimization and were more likely
to display heightened aggression later on,
becoming as physically aggressive as the
average boy.
Sugimura and Rudolph weren’t certain
photo by L. Brian Stauffer
Anti-bullying efforts A child’s temperament, sex and the type of bullying they
experience all influence whether the child subsequently becomes depressed or more
aggressive after being victimized, indicates a study by graduate student Niwako
Sugimura, left, and psychology professor Karen D. Rudolph.
why, but theorized that girls with low inhibitory control may be particularly impaired
in their abilities to regulate their behavior.
Or because overt aggression is less common among females, girls may view it as a
greater threat and affront, prompting them
to react violently.
“What they might be doing is trying
to defend themselves when they’re bullied and trying to regain status within their
group,” Sugimura said. “And because they
have poor self-control, they might rely on
kicking and hitting instead of trying to solve
the problem.”
Responding aggressively to bullies tends
to incite – not prevent – further victimization, triggering a cycle of violence, studies
have shown. The researchers want to figure
out ways to interrupt that cycle, developing
interventions that protect victims against
some of the emotional outcomes and to keep
them from becoming more aggressive.
Although recent media attention on bulSEE BULLYING, PAGE 7
InsideIllinois
July 5, 2012 brief notes
PAGE 7
Deputy CIO search
OUTSIDE at the Research Park
Finalists to make public presentations
Free outside concerts are July 13, Aug. 3
Finalists for the position of deputy chief information officer/executive director of Campus Information Technologies and Educational Services are making public presentations to the campus community and CITES staff members.
Candidates are describing how, if they were to be chosen, they would support and advance the strategic goals of
the UI.
Feedback from the campus community is an important
part of the search process. To provide feedback, go to www.
cites.illinois.edu/news/2012/deputycio-candidates.html.
Log-in is required; feedback is anonymous.
Matthew Behrens, the infrastructure services division
administrator for the state of Iowa, made his presentation
June 27.
Remaining forums will be held in Room 141 Wohlers
Hall:
n Joseph (Greg) Gulick, the application services director, CITES, 11 a.m. July 10
n Michael Corn, the chief privacy and security officer
(Urbana campus) and university chief information security
officer (university administration), 11 a.m. July 12
n Marsha Henfer, the chief information officer, University of Wisconsin-Extension, University of Wisconsin Colleges, 11 a.m. July 17
For more information, go to http://www.cites.illinois.
edu.
Krannert Center for the Performing Arts joins Fox/Atkins
Development LLC, to present two summer concerts at the UI
Research Park. Both outside concerts are free and open to the
public.
OUTSIDE at the Research Park offers music, food and an
open, relaxed environment. The performance space and seating
area are located just south of the building at the corner of First
Street and St. Mary’s Road in Champaign.
The Brazilian-rooted, Deep South funk band Nation Beat
will perform July 13 with opening act Bow-Dacious String
Band beginning at 6:30 p.m.
Bluegrass rockers The Giving Tree Band are featured Aug.
3 along with Mo’ Betta Music. A Green Fair and Bike Rodeo
(with tips on bike handling and safety) begin at 6 p.m. with
music beginning at 6:30 p.m.
Free parking is available in the lot south of the Caterpillar/
SAIC Building at 1901 S. First St.
BULLYING, CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6
lycides – youth suicides believed to
have been caused by bullying – and
school shootings by bullying victims
have prompted mandates for anti-bullying curricula in schools, few of the
programs have shown much efficacy
with children in the U.S.
“Most of the programs focus on
intervening at the level of preventing
something bad from happening, but
we also need to work on skill-building
Public hearing
Meeting: Beckman moving to OVCR
A public hearing will be held 4 to 5 p.m. July 13 in Room
1005 of the Beckman Institute regarding the transition of the
Beckman Institute from the Office of the Provost to the Office
of the Vice Chancellor for Research.
In addition, comments may be sent to Frances Miller ([email protected]) by July 6. Comments may be confidential. u
and teaching kids emotional competence skills,” Rudoph said. “Of course,
it’s important for schools to prevent
bullying from happening in the first
place, but if kids respond to bullying
more effectively, this also might reduce bullying eventually. If you teach
kids with poor self-control or high
negative emotionality how to think before they act and to deal with emotions
effectively, you’re increasing the posi-
Ads
removed
for online
version
tive skills that they can rely on; this
may help prevent some of the negative
cycles that evolve.”
The study, available online, has
been accepted for publication in the
Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology.
An Arnold O. Beckman Award
and a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health supported the
research. u
PHONES, CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
“It’s not always easy to adapt to a new system, but we’ve had great participation from
campus in getting this implemented,” he said.
“We want to thank everyone for their time, patience and partnership throughout this whole
project.”
He also thanked CITES employees for
their extra effort during the switch.
“They have really gone the extra mile to
implement the system, working many late
hours to ensure everyone understands the process and the system is working as it should,”
he said.
One early glitch discovered during testing
was that the locational element of the university’s E-911 service wasn’t compatible with
the local emergency dispatch system. He said
employees worked tirelessly with campus
Public Safety and Metcad until a solution was
found.
“Now it’s working and you likely won’t
notice any difference from the old, landlinebased system,” he said. “When you call 911,
the system will receive location information.”
He said officials are still awaiting word for
how to dispose of or recycle the old phones.
In the meantime units are asked to store the
phones until a disposal program is developed.
Gulick said CITES managers will continue
monitoring the performance of the new system to ensure it’s working as it was designed.
And they are urging anyone with complications to call for help so that solutions can be
quickly identified and implemented.
“We’re encouraging anyone who is experiencing problems with the new system to
contact us,” he said. “We want it to work for
everyone, no exceptions.”
Problems may be reported by emailing the
CITES Help Desk at [email protected] or
calling 217-244-7000. u
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InsideIllinois
Kurt T. Lash
UI expert on the health care law
ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court
Editor’s note: Kurt T. Lash, the Alumni Distinguished Professor of Law at Illinois, is one of the
nation’s leading scholars on constitutional law. He
spoke with News Bureau business and law editor
Phil Ciciora about the surprise ruling in one of the
most publicized (and polarizing) U.S. Supreme Court cases of recent years.
In siding with the left wing of the
court, do you think Chief Justice John
Roberts became worried that his court
would be viewed as too political? Is
he embracing the “umpire” role he
talked about during his confirmation
hearings, or is it more a matter of the
Constitution being clear on the power
of Congress as a taxing authority?
I think we have to assume that Chief
Justice Roberts believed what he wrote
represented the proper interpretation of the
law. It would not be the first time that the
chief justice has embraced a broader interpretation of federal power than Associate
Justice (Anthony) Kennedy. What makes
the case surprising was the chief justice’s
reliance on the tax power to uphold the
mandate, an argument that had been rejected by every lower court. The weaker the
argument, of course, the more people will
conclude Roberts’ opinion represents more
an act of institutional politics and less a
good faith interpretation of the law.
In fact, his argument that the law is not
a tax for the purposes of the Anti-Injunction Act but is a tax for the purposes of the
constitutional power analysis, as well as
his conclusion that the mandate is not really a mandate and the penalty is not really
a penalty, will be debated for years. However, whether the argument is persuasive, I
nevertheless presume it represents what the
chief justice truly believes.
Does the court’s rejection of the
Commerce Clause and the Necessary
and Proper Clause signal a major
blow to the authority of Congress to
pass social welfare laws or otherwise
intervene in national affairs?
Chief Justice Roberts agreed with the
four dissenting justices that the insurance
mandate would be an unconstitutional exercise of the Commerce Power. The Article
I, Section 8 power to regulate interstate
commerce does not include the power to
force people to engage in commerce. Even
if one considers it dicta (a point of law
unnecessary to the actual judgment), this
seems to represent the reading of the Commerce Power by a majority of the Supreme
Court. This is a significant development.
In the past, many legal commentators argued that this was a frivolous theory of the
Commerce Clause. No longer.
But this new reality does not threaten
any current federal program since Congress has never before tried to force people
to enter into private commercial contracts.
The real impact would have been if the
court had accepted the argument that the
Commerce Power allows Congress to
compel people to purchase products. This
would have opened the door to a very
attractive regulatory option in times of
economic stress. Of course, the court has
now opened the door for Congress to do
the same thing under the taxing power. It
remains to be seen whether Congress will
find exercising the taxing power is as at-
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July 5, 2012
photo courtesy College of Law
PAGE 8 tractive as exercising the power to regulate
commerce.
In interpreting the individual mandate
as a tax, do you foresee the tax code
now being used more extensively to
pass other laws pertaining to big issues
of national importance?
There is a reason why Congress declined to call the mandate a “tax.” One
presumes it is the same reason that President Obama insisted on national television
that this was not a “tax.” People generally
oppose higher taxes and they often punish politicians at the polls who increase
taxes for reasons that are not broadly persuasive. Chief Justice Roberts saved the
mandate by calling it a “tax.” This allowed
Congress to pass a law that escaped the
criticism that would have occurred had the
public known that Congress was passing
an enormous tax increase. However, the
public is now on notice that any similar
“penalties” proposed in the future are actually proposed “taxes.” That fact alone may
deter Congress from walking through the
door just opened by the chief justice.
Chief Justice Roberts is just 57 years
old, and will probably lead the court for
at least another 20 years. What kind
of insight into the philosophy of the
Roberts court can we glean from this
ruling and the other major rulings of
the last week of this term?
To date, Chief Justice Roberts has been
far bolder in leading the court toward his
vision of due process, equal protection
and individual rights than he has been
in crafting a jurisprudence of federalism
and limiting the general scope of federal
power. Compare his forceful opinions in
the Citizens United and Parents Involved
cases with his quiet joining of Associate Justice (Stephen) Breyer’s opinion
in United States v. Comstock (upholding
federal power to extend incarceration for
federal prisoners beyond their served sentence) and his almost apologetic embrace
of Associate Justice Breyer’s theory of the
taxing power in NFIB v. Sebelius (the new
name for the health care cases).
On the other hand, I think it would be
unwise to ignore those aspects of Chief
Justice Roberts’ opinion that insist on
maintaining a federal government of limited enumerated powers. A majority of the
court not only announced significant limits
to the Commerce Power, they also limited
the scope of the Spending Power. Don’t
forget, in the second half of his opinion,
Roberts joined four other votes in striking
down the attempt by Congress to condition all federal Medicaid funding on the
states’ willingness to expand their current
Medicaid benefits. This is the first time
since the New Deal that the Supreme Court
has actually enforced limits on the national
power to “tax and spend.” This shows that
the chief justice is not afraid to apply principles of federalism even where they have
real bite.
In the end, the chief justice may have
planted seeds in NFIB v. Sebelius that will
grow in later cases. u
A Minute With ...™ is provided by the
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interviews, go to illinois.edu/goto/
aminutewith.
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