Tuesday, November 22, 201 1 I TechNews

Illinois Tech Cycling Team
presents Bog Sprints

By Ryan Hynes
OPINION EDITOR

The Illinois Tech Cycling Team is
hosting the second annual Bog Sprints Friday,
December 2nd at 7:00 PM: The sprints consist
of two bikes on computrainers, which hold the
bikes in place and allow the riders to simulate
a race: The trainers are linked to computer
software that calculates the speed of each rider
and projects a virtual image of the racers onto
a screen:

The races are brief, lasting no longer
than 30 seconds, and the winner of the race will
move on to the next round of the competition.

Head to Head Roller Races

Prizes

Illinois Tech Cycling’s sponsors have provided
the team with several prizes to award to the
winners of the sprints:

The Illinois Tech Cycling Team is
a club sport, but competes in the Midwest
Collegiate Cycling Conference against several
big name schools including Michigan, Michigan
St:, Notre Dame, Ohio State, and Purdue to
name a few The Illinois Tech Cycling Team has
experienced a lot of growth over the past few
years, and is gearing up for another promising
season:

Come blow off some steam before
finals and meet the Illinois Tech Cycling Team
for a night of fun and friendly competition: 7:00
PM, Friday, December 2nd at the Bog:

 

Image courtesy ofRyan Hynes

 

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ESW impacts campus with events

By Harshita Iver
TECHN ews WRITER

The semester is coming to a close
soon, and with finals around the corner,
things are hectic and stressful It has been a
packed semester, with multitudes of student
organizations keeping students busy (as if
course loads didn’t do that job well enough):
One such student organization was ganGreen,
IIT’s campus sustainability organization, which
is going through a transition phase to join
Engineers for a Sustainable World (ESW): With
ganGreen joining a national organization and
becoming one of its chapters, ganGreen will
ofiiciallybe renamed ESW, it will have resources
outside ofIIT

The organization made its first ripple

of the semester with Sustainability Week, in
October, which was a weekelong series of
campus events: a farmer’s market, a green
resource and career fair, movie screenings,
and speaker events: (Acting upon the response
received from the IIT student body, ESW will be
organizing another one next semester) Earlier
this month, they organized a speaker event with
the Climate Reality Project, an organization
headed by former Vice President Al Gore:

The event showcased various
presentations made to show governments how
much people are interested and concerned
about climate change: There was also a tour
of “The Greenest House in Chicago," the
Helenowski Residence, this past Saturday The
LEED Platinum house is “netezero,” producing
no energy waste:

Students Speak survey results
(continued from page 1)

policy and procedural issues such as meal
plan requirements and guest signein:

For the CMC, which actually showed
an increase in four percentage points in
satisfaction from the previous year, students
mainly pointed out aspects such as alack in the
availability of j ob opportunities and employers,
a need for increased staff assistance, better
service and opportunities for international
students and those with diverse majors as areas
in need of improvement:

According to the students, Public
Safety’s main flaws include rude or uncaring
behavior from officers, slow response time,
lack of patrols, visibility and monitoring, and
mediocre escort services and availability

The most improved campus
department was the Office of Financial Aid: In
comparison to past years, this department has
gained strides in student satisfaction, especially
involving student respect and accuracy of
information: The least improved campus
departments were Student Life and Public
Safety, which experienced consistent declines
in student satisfaction:

New to the Students Speak survey this
year was a section on capital priorities, which
gave students the opportunity to choose where

they would like to see the university’s capital
investments be applied: The outcome of this
survey item was the indication by most students
that improved classrooms, labs, and studios
should be the top capital priority, followed by
a new or improved indoor recreational and
athletic facility

So, what is the next step? In order for
this survey to be effective, an inedepth analysis
of the results, coupled with departmental
responsiveness and the implementation of
student advisory groups to work alongside
those departments in need of improvement,
will be crucial: Initially, an executive summary
of the results will be presented to President
Anderson and Provost Cramb on Monday,
November 21: A larger report will then be
carried out at the Students Speak Summit on
January 20, during which the importance of
the Students Speak process will be conveyed,
dialogue will be facilitated amongst students
and university leadership, and the president
and provost will talk about expectations and
guidelines for departmental action planning,
along with a strategy for following up on action
plans: Definitely expect more articles regarding
the Students Speak and its implications coming
your way next semester:

Eid UlAdha celebration @IIT

By Tanim Taher
TECHN ews WRITER

On Saturday November 12, the
Muslim Students Association (MSA) and the
Pakistani Students Association (PSA) hosted
the annual Eid Ul Adha party at IIT: Eid
Ul Adha is one of the two biggest religious
festivals of the year that Muslims around the
world celebrateithe other being Eid Ul Fitr:
The actual date of Eid Adha was November 6
and people traditionally celebrate the actual
Eid day with friends and family Typically, the
Eid celebrations last for several days or a week
afterwardsiand the MSA/PSA party was the
occasion to share the joys and festivities of
Eid with the entire IIT community Each year,
MSA holds an Eid Ul Adha party at IIT, but
this time, by partnering with the PSA, they
were able to deliver the biggest Eid festival to
date:

The party was held outside at
Morton Park with a carnival theme: Some
members of MSA thought that an outdoor
party during the month of November might
be a risky idea, but, fortunately, the weather
that day turned out to be mostly sunny, with a
607degree high: Nevertheless, to be on the safe
side, the Campus Conference Centers (CCC)
provided MSA with three large tents along
with tables and chairs, in case the weather
did not cooperate: There were also tents for
entertainers: a caricaturist; a balloonist, who
made teddy bears, puppies, hearts, bracelets,
and whatnot with balloons; a face painter; a
henna tattoo artist; and the jewel in the crown,
great food: A restaurant called Al Bawadi
catered: Eid, in Arabic, means a festival, and
Eid Ul Adha means “festival of the sacrifice"

During Eid Ul Adha, Muslims (those who can
afford to) sacrifice an animal (cow/ sheep/ goat)
in commemoration of Prophet Abraham’s
willingness to sacrifice his own son to God:
Muslims believe that this was a diflicult trial
which God wanted to test Abraham and his
son, Prophet Ishmael, with: They also believe
that it was God’s plan all along to have the
sheep sacrificed in place of Ishmael, but before
that God wanted to test how far Abraham was
willing to go to obey the command of God:
According to scripture, Abraham and Ishmael
successfully passed this test from God, and
so by God’s command, Muslims sacrifice an
animal in commemoration and in honor of
the great patience that these two prophets of
God showed:

To Muslims, Eid Ul Adha also
means being thankful for the food and
livestock which God has provided, hence the
sacrifice of the farm animal for food: Also,
charity and hospitality are important parts
of Eid Ul Adha: Traditionally, one third of
the meat from the sacrificed animal must
be donated to the poor and homeless, and
another third is to be distributed among
friends; only one third is left for household
consumption: Since charity is a central theme
of Eid Ul Adha, MSA and PSA organized a
fund raiser through Islamic Relief USA and
IIT’s Office of Student Life (OSL): Throughout
the week preceding the Eid party, and during
the event itself, charitable funds were collected
to help the people devastated by the recent
floods in Pakistan.

MSA and PSA would like to thank
all the volunteers, participants and attendees
who helped make this Eid party so successful: