At Uni High, we strive to foster an environment where everyone, inclusive of race, color, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, political beliefs, ability, language, and religion, will feel welcome, visible, and heard.

Students for a Better World (S4BW) will be having a Lemonade Stand on April 30 in the first-floor hallway during lunch to celebrate the warm weather! We will have lemonade with fresh fruit and syrups available for you to customize your drink. It will be cash only and all proceeds will go to The National Immigrant Justice Center.

It's time to determine the winner of this year's March Madness competition! Between now and Friday, vote using the link below. Harrison will announce the official winner on Monday, April 14 in UniWeek. Prediction bracket winners will receive an email by Friday, April 18 for instructions on how to claim your prizes. Thanks for participating!
Vote Now: https://forms.gle/5DkbLkDHbL3iJudv6

Laughter Lab will meet for the second time this Wednesday during lunch in room 106N. We’ll start at 11:40 and spend 15 minutes or so laughing on purpose, experimenting with what makes us laugh, and (if we succeed) experiencing contagious laughing. All Uni students and staff are welcome.
If you plan to come and want to suggest something that might make us laugh (or want an email reminder about Laughter Lab), please offer your suggestions at this form.

The 2025 Chang/Kolodziej Writing Competition is now accepting entries from students at all grade levels in Fiction and Nonfiction. The deadline for submissions is the end of the day Monday, April 14, and winners will be announced at the Awards Ceremony on May 12. See the information sheet for further details, and fill out an entry form to accompany your submission. Contact Mr. Mitchell (mtmitch@illinois.edu) with any questions.

Callie Standerfer was awarded the honor of being named 1st Runner Up in the State Final for Poetry Out Loud for Illinois on March 17 in Springfield. Congratulations, Callie!
Along with this honor comes a donation to Uni High from Poetry Out Loud. Callie has shared that she would like that funding to go toward poetry books and support for future poetry events in the Uni High Library.

Thank you for all the donations for the Orchestra Outreach Club’s St. Elmo Brady supply drive! Thanks to the wonderful participation from the Uni community, we have nearly enough paper towel rolls for the event – however, we are still low on boxes! Again, tissue boxes, cereal boxes, and other cardboard boxes of similar sizes can all be donated. Collection boxes are located on Uni stairwells and in the library, clearly labelled. Our goal is to get 50 more boxes before Friday (04/11). Help us bring the joy of music education and environmental conservation to kids in our community!

We have run out of food for Uni's lunch program several times recently before all participants had a chance to get food. A reminder that if your name is not on the list for the lunch program, you aren't allowed to get a lunch. If you've paid and your name is not on the list, please correct the error in the main office.

Due to this problem, we will no longer allow participants to get seconds during the lunch period. (We'll still put any leftovers out after school). If you can't pick up your school lunch during lunch, let the main office know and we'll do our best to set aside a lunch for you.

We're just a week away from St. Elmo Brady Day at Booker T. Washington STEM Academy! Students, please sign up for a particular activity at go.uni.illinois.edu/StElmoBradyDay by Wednesday, Apr. 9. Students who haven't signed up by the end of the day on Apr. 9 will be assigned to an activity.

Uni’s elevator is intended for individuals with physical or other needs that prevent/limit use of stairs. However, we've had an increase of students using the elevator without approval or need. 

This may seem like an silly rule to you, but it is causing serious concerns and delays at all hours of the day for students/staff who need it to be available to them and it is not.

• If you don't have permission, use the stairs.
• If you have a need for the elevator, get permission.
• If you have permission, it is for you alone. You shouldn't be taking others with you.

Be considerate of your fellow Uni community!

Updates were made to the Student-Parent Handbook as directed by the campus Title IX Office for this reason:
Title IX regulations that led to policy and procedure revisions in 2024 were recently vacated in State of Tennessee, et al v. Miguel Cardona, et al. Accordingly, the Aug. 1, 2024, updates have been withdrawn, and the Sexual Misconduct policies and procedures that were in place July 31, 2024, have been restored. 

Many thanks to all the generous businesses who donated items to this year's Silent Auction: Art Coop, Art Mart, Buffalo WW, Champaign's Hair Lounge, CPD, Cloud Mountain, Cocomero, Costco, CU Adventures, Culver's, Dr. G's BrainWorks, Drury Hotels, Fannie May, Farm & Fleet, Hua Nian Art Studio, The Idea Store, International Galleries, Jane Addams Book Shop, Jarling's, Jupiter's, Krannert, McAlister's, Olive Garden, Perkins, Savoy 16, Portillo's, Priceless Books, Seating and More, Sola Salons, YMCA, Sun Singer, Timpone's, Uni Advancement, Urbana Acupuncture, Urbana Boulders, and UPD. 

Many thanks to all the generous individuals who donated items and/or their time to this year’s Silent Auction: Mary Kate Arend, Nick Arend, Sheree Denham, Cathy Elliott, Greg Elliott, Kyle Hummel, Ben Leff, Carol Lombardi, Annie McManus, Khuyen Nguyen, Karl Radnitzer, Cyndi Smyser, Sprabitat students, Stylist Kennedy Smith at Sola Salons, Stylist Queen at Champaign’s Hair Lounge, and Andy Wilson.  The PTSA would also like to thank all the students, families, and staff members who came out to play trivia and bid on Silent Auction items.  We greatly appreciate your support! 

We'd love to have some parent chaperones help out on Monday, April 14 for Uni's St. Elmo Brady Day activities. If you're available to help between 7:45 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., please sign up at https://go.uni.illinois.edu/BTWChaperones. See the sign-up form for more information about volunteering shifts/roles.

Uni's 2nd annual St. Elmo Brady Day at Booker T. Washington STEM Academy will be taking place on Monday, April 14 in place of Uni's regular school day. Please carefully review the details in this document for information about drop-off at Douglass Community Center that morning (or transportation options for students dropped off at Uni), Uni's 1:30 p.m. early dismissal, and more!  All students will need to turn in a signed permission slip to participate. Your student will have received paper copies of these forms in their English classes last week for you to review and sign.

The PTSA has extended the deadline for contributing to our new cookbook:  "Uni_ted Around the Table: Celebrating Uni Kitchen."  We hope to feature a “Potluck Dishes” section, a “Seniors" section of family favorites for students to take to college, and a “Freshman Pie Contest” section, but we need your recipes to make these sections possible!  Please submit your recipe(s) along with a brief note about the significance of the dish(es) and appropriate section(s) by May 1 to:  https://createmycookbook.com/projects/uHW6EbAxo

The PTSA will hold its next general meeting on Wednesday, April 16, from 5:30-6:30 p.m. in DCL 1320.  Everyone is welcome!   We will be voting on a full slate of candidates for next year's executive board, and we will also be voting on whether to amend our bylaws by adding this final sentence to Article I: "This PTSA is incorporated under the laws of the State of Illinois."   Other topics of discussion will be our May Teacher Appreciation Week festivities, our Disorientation Pizza Party, and our end-of-school luncheon for Uni staff.  Please join us!

Trigger Warning: Suicide

Early intervention for declining mental health can be an important prevention measure for suicide. If you or someone you know are at an immediate risk of suicide, please dial 911. We are here for you. You matter and we value you.  
If you are having thoughts of suicide or suicidal ideation, please contact the resources below:
• National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: 988
• Call Blackline support prioritizing BIPOC individuals: 1800-604-5841
• Crisis Text Line: 741741
• The Trevor Project LGBTQ Crisis Hotline: 1866-488-7386
• Trans Lifeline: 1877-565-8860

The Uni counselors see students for a variety of different reasons: scheduling, connection to outside resources, mental health counseling, academic supports, summer opportunities, future career exploration and more. If you're interested in making an appointment with your counselor, please contact them directly or fill out the "Counselor Appointments" form.