Shannon Ballegeer, a senior outfielder on the University of Illinois Springfield softball team, cannot stop checking the weather.
She’s not alone. With their diamond covered in snow and the team stuck indoors practicing, Ballegeer and her teammates are eager to head south to begin the season.
“We are ready to get outside and play,” Ballegeer said. “That’s the reason we keep checking the weather. We’re ready to go.”
The Stars are scheduled to open the season Friday with games against Missouri Southern and Rockhurst in Bentonville, Ark. Expectations are high.
“We want to get UIS sports out there,” Ballegeer said. “We figure the way we can do that is by being successful.”
The team was featured by The State Journal-Register on February 13, 2014.
Read the article online
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Monday, February 10, 2014
College students take page out of LaHood’s bipartisan playbook
The following is a portion of an op-ed written by Ed Wojcicki, associate chancellor for constituent relations at UIS. It was published in the Peoria Journal Star on February 9, 2014.
"Six college student leaders have broken free from a trap that is polarizing America. That’s not enough to eradicate a great national toxin, but it’s a start.
Three of the last five years, the presidents of two student organizations — College Democrats and College Republicans — have been roommates at the University of Illinois Springfield. In day-to-day living, they have learned valuable lessons about civil conversations and common ground.
Two are from the Peoria area. It’s as if they have absorbed the attitude of Ray LaHood, the former congressman and U.S. transportation secretary who preaches that bipartisanship is part of the rich history of central Illinois, going back to Abraham Lincoln. LaHood unsuccessfully led an effort to restore civility to Congress in the late 1990s. He carried on, but the political toxicity and hyperpartisanship in the nation’s capital and in many states have only become more odorous.
Meanwhile, at UIS the unusual living arrangement began in 2009, when Democrat Matt Van Vossen of Oak Lawn and Republican Ryan Melchin of Hoffman Estates chose to be roommates in their junior year. They had been friends since they were freshmen and that was more important than their political leanings."
Read the full op-ed on the Peoria Journal Star website
"Six college student leaders have broken free from a trap that is polarizing America. That’s not enough to eradicate a great national toxin, but it’s a start.
Three of the last five years, the presidents of two student organizations — College Democrats and College Republicans — have been roommates at the University of Illinois Springfield. In day-to-day living, they have learned valuable lessons about civil conversations and common ground.
Two are from the Peoria area. It’s as if they have absorbed the attitude of Ray LaHood, the former congressman and U.S. transportation secretary who preaches that bipartisanship is part of the rich history of central Illinois, going back to Abraham Lincoln. LaHood unsuccessfully led an effort to restore civility to Congress in the late 1990s. He carried on, but the political toxicity and hyperpartisanship in the nation’s capital and in many states have only become more odorous.
Meanwhile, at UIS the unusual living arrangement began in 2009, when Democrat Matt Van Vossen of Oak Lawn and Republican Ryan Melchin of Hoffman Estates chose to be roommates in their junior year. They had been friends since they were freshmen and that was more important than their political leanings."
Read the full op-ed on the Peoria Journal Star website
For Beatles fans, it was 50 years ago Sunday
Michael Cheney is a professor of communications at the University of Illinois Springfield, where he teaches a course called, “The Beatles: Popular Music and Society.” He described the Beatles’ appearance on the “The Ed Sullivan Show” as a tipping point on how music and youth culture would evolve in this country.
Just five months before the Beatles’ American television debut, George Harrison had visited his sister in southern Illinois and was a complete unknown to everyone he met. But the groundwork was laid for a British invasion.
Capitol Records was convinced to release “Meet the Beatles!” in January 1964, despite the belief of some label executives that guitar rock was a passing fad. Then the band’s manager, Brian Epstein, arranged appearances in the U.S., including two on the Sullivan show (a third performance was filmed before the band went home). By the time the band hit American soil, the Beatles had the No. 1 hit in the land with “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”
“That’s how much of a culture change that when on between when George was here in late September until when they appeared on ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’ and almost overnight they became a phenomena,” Cheney said.
Cheney was featured by The State Journal-Register on February 9, 2014.
Read the story online
Just five months before the Beatles’ American television debut, George Harrison had visited his sister in southern Illinois and was a complete unknown to everyone he met. But the groundwork was laid for a British invasion.
Capitol Records was convinced to release “Meet the Beatles!” in January 1964, despite the belief of some label executives that guitar rock was a passing fad. Then the band’s manager, Brian Epstein, arranged appearances in the U.S., including two on the Sullivan show (a third performance was filmed before the band went home). By the time the band hit American soil, the Beatles had the No. 1 hit in the land with “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”
“That’s how much of a culture change that when on between when George was here in late September until when they appeared on ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’ and almost overnight they became a phenomena,” Cheney said.
Cheney was featured by The State Journal-Register on February 9, 2014.
Read the story online
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