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FactsSlang
- Enterprise - The online class registration system.
- Frat Park - The neighborhood in Champaign, near the Six Pack, where most of the frats are located.
- Free Absences - What you use when you sleep in or watch soaps instead of going to class. Usually a teacher gives out about 2–5 absences before docking your grade.
- GDI - Gosh-Darn Independents who won’t go Greek, or something to that effect.
- Late Night Pizza - The legendary ISR pizza that you will dream about for years to come.
- Mallard - Online class notes and quizzes for foreign language classes.
- Massmail - What you will get from the Chancellor every month, informing you and the rest of the campus about safety or world issues.
- Mathematica - An online system if you take a high level math or chemistry class.
- McKinley - The Health Center.
- McKinley - The Health Center where you can go to get sick excuses for class, should your free absences run out.
- Preacher Dan - The scary guy on the Quad who tells us we are all going to Hell.
- The DI - The student-run campus newspaper.
- The Quad - The name for the main area of campus, where the Union and major buildings are located.
- The Six-Pack - Collection of six dorms that is known for its partying freshmen.
- The Stacks - Nickname for the bookshelves in the main library.
- The Undergrad (UGL) - The underground library for undergraduates.
- Timetable - Online or book course description with times.
- Unofficial - Short for Unofficial St. Patrick's Day. A student holiday, celebrated because St. Patrick's Day usually falls over spring break.
- Virgin Vault - What students call the all-girl dorms.
- Wine Night - What people call Tuesdays at Clybourne.
Things I Wish I Knew Before Coming To School
- Always, always have your I-card with you. You need it to get on the bus, to eat, to get in your dorm, and to identify yourself at your exams. And learn your student ID number by heart. In a big school, it is practically your name.
- Be very careful about which dorm you pick. Find out about the living-learning communities, even if you don't think you want to live in them. If you are an art and culture enthusiast, for instance, you might find more people who share your interests in Allen Hall than in FAR.
- Do not take SOC 100 or any easy Gen-Ed classes if you don’t have to; take Gen-Eds that will complement your major, and ones that are actually challenging.
- Don’t come here expecting to always eat in the dining halls. Store emergency “Pasta, again?” reserves in your room. And take advantage of the A La Carte meals. They might not be in your dorm cafeteria, but they are worth the trip.
- Don’t come to an un-air-conditioned dorm without a fan.
- Don’t live with someone you knew from high school. It never works out.
- Don’t wear sandals or heels to walk to class. Even if they are cute. Also, buy lots of hoodies. Come November, you won’t be wearing anything else.
- Join clubs as soon as you get to college. Don't wait because you would rather make friends and get adjusted to school. Your classes won't be hard enough to take up all your time, you'll make a lot of your college friends in a club or organization that you truly enjoy and want to be in. And being in an good organization for four years looks great on a resume.
- Learn the 22 Illini Route (and the other campus buses, but especially this one). Sit there with a map of the bus route and a map of the campus and compare the two as you watch the scene go by. Be sure to mark your classes on the campus map before going on this adventure.
- Meet your neighbors in the first week of school, when people are still making an effort to be social and everyone is in the same boat, trying to make friends.
Tips to Succeed
- Be smart about when you do and do not go to class.
- Don’t be mean to your teachers just because you think you pay them.
- Don’t take an unfair grade lying down.
- Get a job. It will break up your day, and the extra cash is great to use to check out all the cool things on campus.
- Get involved in something (or a few things) and branch out! You're here primarily for school, but joining a sorority or fraternity can give you a very unique experience.
- Go to the library.
- Make a calendar and be sure to check it twice a week or so, if not more often. This is really important if your classes or assignments are online. I know I've made the mistake of not checking a due date for online quizzes.
- Participate in class and get to know your professors. Go in to their office hours to get help even if you don't really need it.
- Realize that going out and getting drunk is a trade-off; it is not always worth being hung over in class on a Wednesday. Decide when you need to study and when you really want to go out.
- Study in between classes. Don’t just waste your time napping. It’s better to work now, and then play later.
- Turn off your cell phone in class. Who are you, Paris Hilton?
Urban Legends
- Hugh Hefner supposedly donated all his Playboy issues to U of I.
- The Assembly Hall was first designed by an architecture student. His teacher told him it was impossible and flunked him. Now it is one of the most admired buildings in the nation.
- The English Building is haunted by the ghost of a girl who used to live there. So far, she has only made the power go out. But she is scheming. She is definitely scheming.
Traditions
- “Illibuck” - The “Illibuck” was a turtle that was used as trophy between the Ohio Buckeyes and the Fighting Illini. After years of changing locations, “Illibuck” unfortunately passed on, and he has now been replaced by new turtles: Sachem of Illinois, and Bucket and Dipper of Ohio State. These turtles maintain peaceful relationships between the two warring teams.
- Lincoln’s Bust - Students with tests in Lincoln Theater often rub the nose on Lincoln’s bust for luck. After decades of use, the glaze on the bust has been worn away, thanks to anxious test-takers.
- Moms & Dads Weekend - Moms and Dads Weekend are two weekends out of the year in which parents are encouraged to come out and visit their children. There are different events planned, ranging from football games to flower shows and fashion extravaganzas.It may be a little stereotypical, but it is still a tradition. It is a good time to visit with your parents and show them the campus, and it is doubly nice because you don’t have to worry about what to do with them, since the whole thing has already been planned.
- Outdoor Movie - A couple times a year, U of I hosts movies outside on the Quad. People gather on the grass with blankets and food and just hang out. It is one of the students’ favorite traditions, and it’s also free.
- Shoutouts - The student paper, the Daily Illini, used to run shoutouts every Thursday in its Buzz section. These shoutouts ranged from the funny to the romantic; the mean to the sentimental. They have recently been discontinued, but there is still a space for shoutouts to seniors in the graduation paper.
- The Chief - The Chief was part of the U of I tradition for 70 years. He dressed in Native American garb and performed pseudo-Native American dances. Many activists felt that the Chief was racist towards Native Americans, since it used parts of their sacred culture for sport and laughs. The NCAA recently decided to mandate the elimination of the mascot, as well as similar mascots for several other universities.
- Unofficial St. Patrick’s Day (aka Unofficial) - A frequently referenced UIUC annual tradition with the original mandate of celebrating St. Patrick’s Day early, since the holiday usually falls on spring break. Now it's a celebration of alcohol in which students drink all day. The goal for many is to drink before classes, after classes (or skip classes altogether), and as late into the night as possible before petering out. The party is usually snuffed out by exhaustion before midnight. The date of Unofficial varies from year to year, but it is usually the first Friday in March, and it is celebrated even when St. Patrick’s Day is not over spring break! (People hardly observe the official St. Patrick’s Day; some half-heartedly wear green.)
School Spirit
School spirit comes and goes in spurts. Everyone is very loyal during the first few weeks of the school year because they are all glad to be back and in good sprits. Then the winter wind starts blowing and none of us can figure out why we came to school here in the first place. When there is any work to be done, people are usually frustrated with being at college, but once the weekend starts, people don’t really seem to mind. On the whole, though, everyone is usually happy with their college decision, and everyone always turns out to support the football team, no matter what the weather. If that isn’t school spirit, then I don’t know what is. Illini or bust.
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