#illinois university

[ew-selfish-art]

Dp x Dc wherein learning magic is similar to learning how to play music. 

So basically, the creation of a summoning spell is like a full composition/song made of smaller components or ‘notes’ for things like gravity shifting, and geolocation, and transportation etc. which is why Magic can be taught and spells can be man-made. 

Danny, however, is the equivalent of having Perfect Pitch. He can compose entire songs of spells without really thinking about it due to his royal titles (ambassador/king/high prince) but doesn’t really know how to be specific which lands him in some trouble with Clockwork. His portals are coming along a lot better with the help of Wulf but its critical that Danny learns how to control the range of his magic *something something, for the timestream something* *blah blah according to the will of the ancients blah blah*. 

So put on the course to learn Magic, Danny decides to hunt down the House of Mystery and study up by himself. He’s doing community college online, what could a little bit of Magic self study really do to his schedule? This place has literally every magic resource he could need! 

Turns out he has a roommate in the House of Mystery- John Constantine does not take well to the fact that half of the spells Danny is creating are causing him issues with the JL. Random shit appearing, random shit disappearing, portals everywhere and don’t get him started on the fucking ICE present on every bloody thing the magic reaches. Not to mention there is no reason a normal human kid should be able to have this much power behind his spells. 

John attempts to teach Danny the basics like a little kid gets stickers placed on the keys of a piano. The problem is Danny has the ability to compose entire scores of Magic all on his own, and absolutely abhors the training wheels John is putting on him. 

Danny: You’re patronizing me! 

John: You deserve to be patronized. 

Just like, Danny learning Magic in various ways that you might teach kids to play musical instruments from the various Magic users in the JLD. Causing chaos along the way, found family, the whole nine. Stickers on the instruments for notes, taking away guitar strings that are ‘more advanced’ and replaying Twinkle, Twinkle little star over and over again. 

Danny can play the Magic equivalent of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake but cannot play Chopsticks. 

[1976desire]

bob dylan (performing with the band), mississippi river festival, southern illinois university, edwardsville, illinois, 1969. photos courtesy of the southern illinois university archives

[chalkskyline]

University Library, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, April 2024

[moleshow]

anime icon ML

contrary to what the press would have you believe there are universities in america that are neither ivy leagues nor private liberal arts colleges, and are not very prestigious.

you do not under any circumstances gotta hand it to the republicans for punishing Thee Libs, especially not for free. there are countries that would pay you to post things like this

[bobdylan-n-jonimitchell]

Joan Baez "Man of Constant Sorrow" University of Illinois, November 29, 1962.

[opabiniasarecool]

Fucking sobbing bc the University of Illinois has a beetle professor, and he's the professor of entomology T^T

Look at him, look at Dr Hanks

[jimmyghearts]

A sneak peek of Jimmy discussing being back at Eastern Illinois this weekend.

I enjoy hearing him talk about his time in college, he always speaks so fondly about his experiences there and to all appearances it seems to have shaped a lot of who he is today.

📸:@eiu

[materialsscienceandengineering]

New PFAS removal process aims to stamp out pollution ahead of semiconductor industry growth

A University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign study is the first to describe an electrochemical strategy to capture, concentrate and destroy mixtures of diverse chemicals known as PFAS—including the increasingly prevalent ultra-short-chain PFAS—from water in a single process. This new development is poised to address the growing industrial problem of contamination with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, particularly in semiconductor manufacturing. The study findings are published in Nature Communications. A previous U. of I. study showed that short- and long-chain PFAS can be removed from water using electrochemically driven adsorption, referred to as electrosorption, but this method is ineffective for ultra-short-chain molecules because of their small size and different chemical properties.

Read more.

[chicago-geniza]

I'm still on the grad school mailing list despite dropping out 3 years ago and the more things change the more they stay the same 💀

[flyingfortress1]

Robert "Lucky" Hugh Leckie Research Part 1:

Well, time for everyone's favorite writer and Jersey boy- Leckie!

Born on December 18, 1920, Leckie first shows up in the 1930 census. And yeah, he's the youngest of a LARGE family- including but not limited to, John Jr. (22 years), FIVE daughters, and then our boy Robert at 9 years of age- his mom is like 45 so she probably had him around 39, which is wild (the sister before him is only a year older btw). So, Mr. and Mrs. Leckie were sure fucking busy. Now unusual thing- John Sr (father) is born in Pennsylvania- like all of the Leckies- but when it comes to his father's birth, it is both listed as Ireland and Penn. He's also in advertising- his eldest son is listed as a painter/printer, but same industry so maybe advertising too? The eldest daughter, Marion (19 yrs) is a stenographer- which good thing he's got kids working because that's a 9 person household to support on one paycheck- whew!

We also have- gasp- an address! 146 Carmita Ave- big house, but big family (also pretty house btw), worth $150 (circa 1930). It hasn't been sold in the past 20/30 years so unfortunately we have no interior pics on Zillow.

Moving on to 1940- still in the same house, but now we only have the parents, two of the youngest daughters, and Robert himself.

Some interesting stuff- Mr. Leckie and Mrs. never finished high school, one of Leckie's older sisters has four years of college under her belt, and Leckie must've finished high school very recently, I think- he was in school by March 1940- and his sisters are in college, or recently graduated. Leckie is working 48 hours a week- as a checker in the airplane manufacturing industry- I'm not totally sure what this is, but he may be the guy who double checks the quality of parts before they leave the factory. That's the best a google search tells me. Lot of responsibility for a 19 year old geez. If anyone knows the answer to that, let me know in the comments. HIs father is the pencil industry- as what, I'm not sure, advertiser maybe is what that says?

Now unlike his buddies so far, we do have some idea of what Leckie's childhood was like- because he wrote a book about it. Introducing:

the Blurb: "This warm, delightful story of Robert Leckie's childhood in Rutherford, New Jersey, tells of life with a distinctly likable family -- their pranks and problems, religion and revelries. There was Father ( called Foddy and sometimes :the Pope"), Mother, five sisters , assorted unemployed uncles, and Robert himself. Father held his position with the skill of an Old School Head of the House. "Lord, what a family!" he would say, when Mother learned to drive by complete intimidation of the Mayor of Park Avenue ( the local cop), or when Bojangles, the spaniel who thought he was people, chewed gum or could barely hold his liquor. When the Pink Fairy, the housekeeper who dressed in pink dress, stockings, shoes, fingernails and hair, locked herself in her room each night with a spike and hammer, Foddy-- answering Mother's excuses-- said, "Euphemism, Marion, does not necessarily lead to optimism. The woman's a nut!""

Only problem is it's out of print- and the copy on Amazon is 75 bucks sooo...I'm looking for it though. If you're interested in it, check your libraries and used bookstores! Might get lucky.

[ew-selfish-art]

Here’s the thing about the Twin AU that people aren’t considering: the Drs Fenton are resourceful! They can make amazing inventions out of household objects and machines!

So when they were accepting a contract from Ra’s to look at the Lazarus Pits in conjunction to their research (ie the best dissertation material ever) they looked at the spare twin that was being sacrificed and said “a perfectly good baby like that would probably be nice to have around!”

Sure, the Spare Heir was ecto contaminated because of the pits and that’s why Ra’s was getting rid of him, but seriously, not everything needed to be brand new these days! Upcycle! Science can fix all the ectoplasm and possession! He’ll be just like new in no time! Take that baby out of the pit and wash em up and take that baby to the Midwest! Teach that baby about stars and Ghosts!

The Drs Fenton take baby danny on their last day, knowing that the league thinks that he’s dead- already sacrificed, Ra’s felt the power shift of the Infinite Realms- and proceed forward like nothing was ever a big deal! They published their findings on the pits, they got another contract/grant and then began the journey to start moving towards their other projects!

Why tell Jazz, she’s only a toddler when they bring him home?

Why tell Danny, he’s just their little man, their Dann-o?

Things will probably be fine, because just like their up cycled machines and portals- an upcycled baby wouldn’t have any problems! Their inventions always worked perfectly! Their son would be just as perfect!

Cue the shenanigans of Damian and Danny meeting, the normal amount of “you’re the clone” finger pointing (which Danny wins because he has actual baby/childhood photos) and then some ghosts of assassins past trying to cause issues for Phantom.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Molly Parker at Capitol News Illinois, via ProPublica:

CARBONDALE, Ill. — I grew up off a gravel road near a town of 60 people, a place where cows outnumber people. Southern Illinois University, just 40 miles north, opened up my world. I saw my first concerts here, debated big ideas in giant lecture halls and shared dorms with people who looked like no one I’d ever met. Two of my most influential professors came from opposite ends of the political spectrum.

SIU was the only four-year college within reach when I enrolled here in the fall of 2000 — both in miles and cost. And it set me on the path to who I would become. That’s why I accepted a job here teaching journalism two years ago. It is still a place of opportunity, but I was struck by how fragile it had become — a fraction of its former size, grappling with relentless enrollment and budget concerns.

Now, it faces new threats. The Trump administration has proposed cuts to research and labs across the country; targeted certain schools with diversity, equity and inclusion programs; and signed an executive order to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education, which manages student loans. State officials estimate that proposed funding reductions from the National Institutes of Health alone would cost SIU about $4.5 million.

In addition, conservative activists are on the lookout for what they deem “woke” depravity at universities. This is true at SIU as well, where students received emails from at least one conservative group offering to pay them to act as informants or write articles to help “expose the liberal bias that occurs on college campuses across the nation.” Schools like SIU, located in a region that overwhelmingly voted for President Donald Trump, may not be the primary targets of his threatened funding cuts, but they — along with the communities they serve — stand to lose the most. There are nearly 500 regional public universities across the U.S., serving around 5 million students — about half of all undergraduates enrolled in public universities, according to the Alliance for Research on Regional Colleges at Appalachian State University. These institutions of higher learning span nearly every state, with many rooted in rural areas and communities facing high unemployment, childhood poverty and limited access to medical care. They play a vital role in lifting up struggling individuals — and in some cases, entire communities that could very easily die out without them.

While Trump’s actions have primarily targeted high-profile institutions like Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania, some regional schools are also under investigation for alleged racial discrimination tied to DEI programs. (So far, SIU hasn’t been named in any federal probes.) “This is definitely one of those baby-in-the-bathwater moments,” said Cecilia Orphan, an associate professor of higher education at the University of Denver, who is a lead researcher with the regional colleges alliance. While the administration has “a bone to pick with a particular type of institution,” she said, “there are all these other institutions that serve your community, your constituents.” Regional schools like SIU tend to operate with fewer resources than their counterparts, relying on federal and state money to support both the students and the school. Greater shares of students rely on need-based federal financial aid like Pell Grants, low-cost student loans and subsidized student work programs. And in terms of research, while attention goes to large, elite schools, hundreds of the schools spending at least $2.5 million on scientific studies — the threshold for qualifying as a research school — are regional public universities. SIU pumps $60 million annually into research. About a quarter of that money comes from the federal government.

At SIU, as at other regional universities, many research projects focus on overlooked issues in their own backyards. Here that means studying ways to help farmers yield stronger crops, to deal with invasive species in the waterways, and to deliver mental health care to remote schools. “We are at a crossroads and facing a national crisis. It is going to have far-reaching consequences for higher education,” said Mary Louise Cashel, a clinical psychology professor at SIU whose research, which focuses on youth violence prevention among diverse populations, relies on federal funding. Supporters of Trump’s proposed research funding cuts say schools should dip into their endowment funds to offset the recent cuts. But SIU’s $210 million endowment, almost all of it earmarked for specific purposes, is pocket change compared with Ivy League schools like Yale, which has a similar student population size but a roughly $41 billion endowment. At present, SIU faces a $9.4 million deficit, the result of declining enrollments and years of state budget cuts; there is no cushion for it to fall back on.

Intertwined with SIU’s fate is that of Carbondale, a town of 21,500 about 50 miles from the borders of Kentucky and Missouri. Since its founding in 1869, the university has turned Carbondale into a tiny cultural mecca and a powerful economic engine in an otherwise vast, rural region that has been battered by the decline of manufacturing and coal mining. Three decades ago, SIU and Carbondale felt electric: Lecture halls overflowed; local businesses thrived on the fall surge of students; The Strip, a longstanding student hangout, spilled over every weekend, music rattling windows into the early morning hours. The “Dirty Dale,” as the town is affectionately known, still carries traces of its college-town energy, and SIU remains the largest employer in the region. But there’s an undeniable fade as the student population is now half the size it was in the 1990s. Some of the local anchor establishments along The Strip have vanished. Now, more cuts threaten to push the university, and the town that depends on it, to a breaking point. [...]

That’s because diversity also means something more in regional public universities: Many students at SIU come from families that are poor, or barely middle class, and depend on scholarships and mentorship to succeed. Paul Frazier, SIU’s vice chancellor for anti-racism, diversity, equity and inclusion, said the way DEI has been politicized ignores what it actually does: “Poor doesn’t have a color.” But beyond helping students, DEI is also about the school’s survival. In 2021, SIU Chancellor Austin Lane rolled out Imagine 2030 — an ambitious blueprint for rebuilding SIU Carbondale. It called for doubling down on research, expanding student success programs and, at its core, embedding diversity into how the university operates, including in the recruitment of students, hiring and training of faculty and staff, and creation of programs that offer extra help to students struggling to keep up in their classes. It also called for growing SIU’s enrollment to 15,000.

SIU won’t reach that goal without targeted recruitment. “You can’t do that without bringing more of the largest-growing population, which is Latinx and Hispanic students,” Frazier said. “It’ll be like an old Western,” Frazier said of the risks of further eroding SIU. “It’ll be a ghost town.” SIU is offering marketing materials in Spanish for the first time in years. Similar efforts are going into reigniting passion for SIU throughout Cook County, home to Chicago; near St. Louis, and in high schools close by. While the plan was new, the desire to bring in students from a wide range of backgrounds was not. From the start, SIU grew against the grain by embracing diversity in a region that often didn’t. [...]

Clawing Its Way Back

It’s easy to destabilize a school. But restoring it? That’s a much harder challenge. Still, recently, it has felt like SIU has been clawing its way back. There have been two straight years of enrollment gains, driven in part by an influx of students coming from Southern Illinois and again from Cook County, as well as by growing online programs. And in late February, the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, which ranks universities by research spending, elevated SIU to its “very high” Research 1 status. In academic circles, it’s a big deal — putting SIU on the academic research map and bestowing it a status symbol that helps recruit top faculty and students. “It’s a great day to be a Saluki,” SIU President Dan Mahony said, referencing SIU’s canine mascot, at a February celebration of that promotion. Then there was a pop, and confetti rained down. But the federal financial directives and cultural wars roiling higher education are, once again, unsettling the campus and wider community. Things escalated earlier this month when SIU became a new target for the right: A social media account known for targeting LGBTQ+ people and DEI initiatives, Libs of TikTok, posted about an SIU professor who had uploaded explicit photos of himself online. The post, about an openly gay School of Medicine professor who has been publicly critical of Trump, took off, racking up more than 3 million views and hundreds of shares and comments. “LoTT INVESTIGATION: LGBTQ professor at a Public University posts extreme p*rnographic videos of himself m*sturbating ON CAMPUS,” it read. His employee profile quickly disappeared from the school’s website, and within days, SIU officials announced he was no longer employed by the university; he was subsequently charged with two misdemeanor counts of public indecency, and an arraignment hearing is scheduled for late April. But the controversy made SIU, not just the professor, a target. The post also took SIU to task for promoting itself on a hiring website as an “anti-racist” community. “SIU receives tens of millions of dollars from the federal government. SIU is violating Trump’s EO and should be stripped of their federal funding,” it read, tagging Elon Musk’s cost-cutting federal Department of Government Efficiency. The irony is high: While Carbondale, where the school is located, is a solidly blue island, it is surrounded by a conservative rural region hanging in the balance.

ProPublica, in conjunction with Capitol News Illinois, reports on how Carbondale and SIUC are fighting to survive Donald Trump’s assaults on higher education and diversity, equity, and inclusion policies.

[bobdylan-n-jonimitchell]

Joan Baez "Oh, Had I A Golden Thread" University of Illinois, November 29, 1962.

Oh boy did I just stumble on a treasure. Someone found a tape recording of a Joan Baez concert at the University of Illinois from 1962. There's two parts and you can find them here.

[couldtheyescortelliewilliams]

Do you want to submit a potential protector for Ellie? Click here if you do!

[purplebutterflies-blog]

Everyone makes our universe beautiful. Always remember that. Even YOU.

💜🦋🫶

CREDIT for the photo goes to:

@ SelfLoveRainbow (found on Pinterest)

[jimmyghearts]

📸: EIU_FB