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  Intramural sports available through Campus Recreation at Illinois

  Basketball: 3-on-3 in fall; team in spring
  Broomball
  Dodge ball
  Flag football: team in fall; 4-on-4 in spring
  Golf, 2-person
  Ice hockey
  Kickball
  Sand volleyball
  Soccer: outdoor in fall; indoor in spring
  Two-pitch softball: 12-inch in fall; 16-inch in spring
  Volleyball
  Wii Sports

  

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  Illinois entry wins two competitions in Solar Decathlon

  For the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2011, the UI created Re_home, a rapid deployment relief house for a family rebuilding after natural disaster. 
  The solar-powered Re_home placed first in the appliances competition and tied for first in the energy balance competition, two of the 10 contests during 10 days of the event that gauge each house’s performance, livability and affordability. Overall, the Re_home placed seventh.
  
  Showcasing two years of innovation, the Re_home features a central living area that allows for community gatherings and offers natural lighting and innovative storage spaces. The living room leads to a small flexible space for an office that could transform into bedroom space.
  
  The challenge to 19 university teams in the biennial competition:  Build a solar-powered house on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., that balances cost-effectiveness, consumer appeal, and design excellence with optimal energy production and maximum efficiency.

  

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  Illinois among top producers of Gilman Scholars to study abroad

  Thirteen UI undergraduates were offered federally funded Gilman Scholarships to study abroad during the summer, fall and academic year 2011-12 terms, placing Illinois among the top five institutions nationally this year in number of Gilman recipients.


  
  The scholarship provides financially needy students who are eligible for federal Pell Grants with scholarships of up to $5,000 to study abroad. Illinois recipients were among the 1,500 awardees nationally from the 5,100 applicants for these terms.
Most of the 13 students are studying abroad for a full year. 


  
  The Gilman Scholarship Program aims to diversify the kinds of students who study abroad and the countries and regions to which they go. The program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and administered by the Institute of International Education.


  
  The recipients: 
Karolina Wasiniewska, of Arlington Heights; Fahd Hussain, of Beach Park; Eda Xian, Suyun Cai, Marcin Michniowski and Ashley Doruelo, all of Chicago; Richard Dembinski, of Des Plaines; Sharon Lee, of Hoffman Estates; Dana Vattanavanitkul, of Morton Grove; Gina Chung, junior, of Palatine; Lindsey Stirek, of Riverside; Bianca Serrato, of Rolling Meadows; and Reese Hartmann, of Savanna.

  

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  Rare 'corpse' flower bloomed at UI greenhouse in July

  A rare tropical plant indigenous to the rainforests of Sumatra, Indonesia, got a lot of attention this summer when it bloomed. An exotic titan arum, also called the “corpse flower” (Bunga Bankai) for the rotting-meat odor that the plant emits, was the crown jewel of the Plant Biology Greenhouse for a couple of weeks in July. View a time-lapse video.
  
  A member of the Araceae family and cousin of Calla lilies, peace lilies, dieffenbachia and philodendrons, the titan arum, latin name Amorphophallus titanum, is notoriously difficult to cultivate and blooms unpredictably. Fewer than 100 corpse flowers have bloomed in cultivation in the U.S. since the first titan arum unfurled at the New York Botanical Gardens in 1937.


  
  The UI’s titan arum was grown from seed that was given to the university by Mo Fayyaz, a botanist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison 10 years ago.
  
  As Titania neared the blooming stage, it grew at an astonishing rate. For most of its life, a titan arum cycles through periods of dormancy and activity, producing a single, umbrella-like leaf each year that can tower up to 20 feet tall and span 15 feet.

  

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  UI named 'bicycle friendly'

  The League of American Bicyclists recently announced that the UI is one of six new bicycle friendly universities.
  
  The announcement was made at the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education conference in Pittsburgh.
  
  The Urbana campus’s efforts earned a Bronze BFU award.
  
  The campus was praised for having a strong campuswide bicycling culture, bicycling skills and theft-prevention outreach, and an on-campus bike shop for bicycle education and repair assistance.
  
  “The Bicycle Friendly University award validates all the hard work our faculty, staff, students and community members have devoted to bicycle enhancements,” said Morgan Johnston, sustainability and transportation coordinator for the UI. “The BFU designation will help us leverage support for additional improvements.”

  

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  UI student in social work wins Truman Scholarship

  Senior Stephanie Maldonado has won a $30,000 Truman Scholarship. She is one of about 60 students chosen from 602 students nominated by U.S. colleges and universities.

She is the first UI student to receive a Truman Scholarship in nine years.
  
  Maldonado, of Chicago, spent much of her childhood in Puerto Rico. She plans to be a school social worker and eventually direct an advocacy agency serving the Latino/a community in Chicago.
  
  Maldonado enrolled at Illinois in 2008. She is in the university’s first class of bachelor of social work candidates. She is a founding member and the president of the Bachelors of Social Work Student Association and a member of the James Scholar Honors Program.
In addition to conducting research with a professor, she also has been a Multicultural Advocate for her residence hall at Illinois for two years.
Maldonado also serves in a new social justice resource intern position at Illinois, and is developing training modules for other multicultural advocates.
  
  The Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation was established as an Act of Congress in 1975 to “award scholarships to persons who demonstrate outstanding potential for and who plan to pursue a career in public service.” The foundation provides merit-based scholarships to college juniors seeking to attend graduate school in preparation for careers in public service.



  

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  University Housing's Constant Rate program

  Beginning with the 2011-2012 school year, any undergraduate hall resident who lives continuously with University Housing can lock in their room and board rates when they sign up to live with University Housing in the undergraduate halls for an additional year.

   

  

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  Illini-Alert system delivers emergency info

  If your son or daughter has not already registered, please encourage him or her to visit emergency.illinois.edu to sign up and receive text-message alerts in the event of a campus emergency. Students can register their cellphone number, up to two others, and up to three personal email addresses.
  
  Additional information about the Illini-Alert service is available online at cites.illinois.edu/illinialert.

  

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  Students living in the residence halls have thier world at their fingertips

  From their computers, they can
  • View the status of washers and dryers in any residence hall. Check to see if any machines are available, or view how much time is left. Sign up for an alert to get an email when their laundry is done or when a machine becomes available.
  • Receive a text or an email (or both) when a package is delivered at the residence hall.
  • Check meal plan balances online.
  • See what’s on the menu, as well consult complete nutritional information for all food items.
  • Report a need for cleaning or repair in their hall.
  • Request a NetTech visit their room to help with computer connection issues. The online form can be accessed from a computer lab, so even if their computer is the one that’s not working, they can still submit an online request.

  

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  Campus is now 3-D on Google Earth

  Using building footprints from the Geographic Information System and models constructed with the 3-D modeling program Google Sketchup, the Facilities and Services’ facilities information resources department has been building a warehouse of models of the Urbana campus for Google Earth.
  
  Chad Kupferschmid, chief engineering draftsman for F&S, has been leading student workers in the effort. Since early 2011, more than 150 models have been uploaded and have been accepted by Google Earth for its 3-D buildings layer and are now viewable online.
  
  Google Earth can provide accurate models of buildings and proposed building sites that are beneficial to planners, designers and students working on campus projects. The models may be downloaded and saved for use in a variety of ways, including site planning and construction of physical models for presentations and class projects.
  
  To view the 3-D models, go to Google Maps (http://maps.google.com), type in a campus address and click on “Earth.” The Google Earth application can be downloaded at http://earth.google.com. When viewing the models through the Google Earth app, the models can be downloaded and the user can get additional information about building specifications and history.

   

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