URBANA – The president of the University of Illinois system is working from home after testing positive for COVID-19. In a statement to the university, Tim Killeen says he tested positive for the virus on Saturday. He says his symptoms are ‘relatively’ mild. The 70-year-old says he is fully vaccinated and has had two booster shots.
URBANA – Longtime Illini sportscaster Jim Turpin died Sunday. The News-Gazette said the 90-year-old Turpin had recently suffered a fall and died with family members at his side. Jim Turpin first broadcast Illinois football, basketball and baseball games on WILL Radio in the late 1950s, while he was a University of Illinois student. After a
URBANA – Ripple effects from the war in Ukraine will likely be felt in all corners of the globe — especially when it comes to the food supply. The conflict is exacerbating already-existing supply chain disruptions and sky-high food prices. Not to mention, Ukraine and Russia provide nearly 30 percent of the world’s wheat and
URBANA, Ill. – When Daniel Brandys, the vice president of the Ukrainian Student Association at the University of Illinois, was growing up, he said many people in the U.S. had no idea what Ukraine was. Now, with Russia’s recent invasion of Ukraine, Brandys said he’s finally seeing people standing in solidarity with the country that
The WILL Radio archives include hundreds of hours of recorded programs captured on acetate discs from the 1940s and 50s, including a 1957 reading at the University of Illinois by 20th century African-American poet Langston Hughes. Jameatris Rimkus, an archivist the University of Illinois Library, tracked down the mislabeled discs, rescuing them from obscurity.
2022 marked the 100-year anniversary of WILL-AM, the oldest component of Illinois Public Media. The University of Illinois launched the station at a time when the idea of using radio to reach a mass audience was new and cutting edge. Over the century to come, WILL became a national leader in educational broadcasting, and more recently, public broadcasting.
URBANA — The University of Illinois announced Monday that it will delay the start of in-person spring classes on its Urbana campus by one week. Chancellor Robert Jones said in a mass email to faculty, staff and graduate students that the first week of classes next semester will be online starting Tuesday, Jan. 18. U
TIAA-CREF invests heavily in farmland, so it paid a university to research it. Read Part I and Part III of this series. CHAMPAIGN — In 2013, mammoth U.S. investment company TIAA-CREF gave $5 million to the University of Illinois — to study an area of investment where the company has made a, sometimes controversial, name
Large donors can put universities in potentially awkward positions when faculty conclusions conflict with the interests of those benefactors. Data collected by Harvest Public Media and Investigate Midwest show corporations have given at least $170 million to ag colleges in the past decade. Read Part II and Part III of this series. CHAMPAIGN — A major donor to the
URBANA — Faculty and students at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign get an annual chance to air grievances and clear up rumors with the president of the university system. One rumor at the latest U of I Senate’s Annual Meeting of the Faculty was whether the university system is planning to expand to the Quad
BOSTON — For University of Illinois wheelchair athletes Tatyana McFadden and Daniel Romanchuk, it was quite the whirlwind. Less than 24 hours after winning the Chicago Marathon wheelchair women’s and men’s wheelchair divisions, respectively, the two standouts both claimed second in the Boston Marathon on Monday. McFadden placed second behind Manuela Char, clocking a time
URBANA- Subdivisions and parks throughout Champaign County have been trying to control the goose population for years– using methods ranging from hazing dogs to culling, or killing, geese. Now, a new goose rights organization named Friends of Geese is recommending non-lethal methods for controlling the population. Susan Parenti, a Friends of Geese activist, says the
CHAMPAIGN – Governor J.B. Pritzker was in Champaign Tuesday to sign a bill allowing Illinois college athletes to profit off of their name, image and likeness. Now, NCAA athletes throughout the state of Illinois can sign endorsement deals with businesses and brands. Speaking at the University of Illinois’ State Farm Center, Governor Pritzker said he
URBANA – The University of Illinois plans a return to near normal class schedules in the fall, and campus life free of face masks, social distancing and regular testing for the coronavirus. But university officials say that’s only possible with COVID-19 vaccinations for everybody. U of I President Tim Killeen announced the vaccination requirement for
URBANA — When people think cannabis, they often think marijuana. But the cannabis plant takes many different forms, from medicinal cannabidiol (CBD) to industrial hemp. A new class at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign aims to break down all the different uses of the crop and provide a foundation for students interested in entering the