Thursday, September 15, 2011
Our first stop today was the Office of Student Legal Services. It is located in the Illini Union (room 324), and is where students would go to get legal services and help with the law. To be eligible for its services, the student must be enrolled in at least 6 credit hours and have paid for the Student Organization Resource fee. Students who are unable to pay for an attorney have priorities for its services.
The available services include:
-Tenant issues -Traffic tickets -Name changes -Car accidents
Excluded services include:
-Claims against U of I -Student suing another student -Wills -International law
The website, http://www.odos.uiuc.edu/sls/, also has a page on courtroom appearances, with detailed instructions on dress, timeliness and conduct!
The available services include:
-Tenant issues -Traffic tickets -Name changes -Car accidents
Excluded services include:
-Claims against U of I -Student suing another student -Wills -International law
The website, http://www.odos.uiuc.edu/sls/, also has a page on courtroom appearances, with detailed instructions on dress, timeliness and conduct!
The Illini Tenant Union was right next door to the other office, so we lucked out! The Illini Tenant Union can be used for a variety of reasons: checking a landlord's complaint history, having a lease reviewed before signing, getting help with rental housing problems, and filing complaints against a landlord. Whenever contacting the Illini Tenant Union, confidentiality is taken very seriously. Students should not be afraid of landlords finding out that tenants have submitted complaints. The Tenant Union is located inside the Illini Union and is open 9-5 Monday through Friday.
Next we took a trip to the corner of Wright and Green Street to the Career Center. The Career Center offers many services for the students at UIUC. A useful tool at the Career Center is the resume/cover letter reviews. Monday through Friday from 2-4:30 p.m. students can stop by so that they can have their resume or cover letter reviewed and critiqued. Also, the Career Center holds many events throughout the year such as career fairs. An event that was recently held was the Business Career fair at the ARC. A very useful service that the Career Center offers are mock interviews. If anyone is interested in having a mock interview before a real interview, he/she can stop by and the mock interview will be recorded. This way, when the person takes the DVD home, he/she can check posture, non-verbal actions, and speech patterns during an interview. Overall, the Career Center is the perfect place to visit if one has any concerns about a career or interest.
The Women's Resource Center next door was our next stop.
Here, Program Coordinator Rachel Storm explained in detail the responsibilities of this office. The Women’s Resource Center deals with gender- related concerns and continues to work on developing programs that address these issues. Employees within this office work to advocate for students and correct gender inequalities on campus. They provide counseling to students struggling with related issues. The office works to encourage students to celebrate diversity, experiences, cultures, and identities. We also learned that despite their title, the Women’s Resources Center, works with ALL students, even males! They also plan several events in order to educate individuals on present issues. This is a great resource to available to students at UIUC!
Right before class we headed to the Fred H. Turner Student Services Building, to visit the Office of the Dean of Students. The Office of the Dean of Students at the University of Illinois (ODOS) is extremely dedicated to aiding its students. On a campus as large and diverse as Illinois', a place like the ODOS is necessary to ensure students are treated equally and are receiving the education they deserve. The ODOS is split into five units. These are the Career Center, Counseling Center, Leadership Center, the Office of Minority Student Affairs, and the Office for Student Conflict Resolution. Other programs the ODOS provides include the Emergency Dean, a system that looks out for students who may be struggling with illness or a family emergency and needs to be excused from class. The Emergency Dean also serves as a locator if a student is missing or needs to be contacted about an emergency issue. The ODOS is also in charge of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs and New Student Programs. Currently, the Dean of Students (and Vice Chancellor) is Kenneth T. Ballom. Ballom graduated from Texas A&M with a Bachelors in Counseling and from Western Illinois University with a Masters in College Student Personnel. His last position before becoming the Dean at the U of I was at the University of North Texas, where he served as the Dean of Students for 10 years.
