Tag: Urbana

A man dressed as Santa talks to a young boy holding a baby doll.

The Champaign Urbana Autism Network hosts annual sensory-friendly breakfast

With Christmas just around the corner, the Champaign Urbana Autism Network hosted its sensory-friendly breakfast Sunday, at the City Center in Champaign. Children with autism can struggle waiting for hours in crowded places, which can make it hard to attend other holiday events for kids, said Julie Duvall, executive director of CU Autism Network. “It’s

Gaza march

Urbana voters support advisory referendum asking U.S. to end military funding for Israel

  URBANA– A majority of Urbana voters backed an advisory referendum asking whether the U.S. should end its military funding for Israel.  Residents petitioned to get the measure on the Cunningham Township ballot earlier this year in response to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. Based on unofficial results from the Champaign County Clerk’s office, around

A man stands on a ramp next to a plaque and a wreath commemorating Lincoln's speech against the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

Community honors 170th anniversary of Lincoln’s Urbana anti-slavery speech

  Before he was elected president, Abraham Lincoln spoke in Urbana on Oct. 24, 1854, to denounce a law that allowed for the expansion of slavery. On Thursday, one hundred and seventy years later, a commemoration was held at the Champaign County Courthouse. Around 50 community members gathered to hear the history behind those remarks.

A woman holds a microphone. People with SEIU shirts and signs stand in the background.

University of Illinois building and food service workers vote to strike

Updated 6 p.m. Sept. 13, 2023 URBANA — As a building service worker at the University of Illinois, Melody Decker has cleaned up feces in shower stalls and vomit that just missed trash cans.  Despite her own visceral reactions to bodily fluids, she loves her job. She said she has made lasting friendships with students

Principal of Urbana’s new multilingual school: ‘It’s really refreshing’

URBANA – About 16 % of the 300,000 English learners in Illinois are taking public school classes to become bilingual in both their first language and English.  Few of those schools are fully multilingual. One is in Champaign and after years of debate, Yankee Ridge Multilingual Elementary School opened in Urbana earlier this month. IPM

A 6-year-old grins at the camera in a pink t-shirt while her father holds her arm. Both are in a car.

Families have mixed feelings as Urbana opens its first fully multilingual school

URBANA — Felix Ayanbode has statistics at his fingertips for why his daughter should learn multiple languages.  His first grader, Faith, is learning to be bilingual in French and English at Urbana District 116’s first multilingual school, Yankee Ridge Elementary.  “When you know another language, you are able to have a peek into another culture.