Triple feature: Football's back, basketball's on deck and Friday is movie night at Memorial Stadium - Champaign/Urbana News-Gazette

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URBANA — Lest anyone forget, Robert Jones holds three academic degrees, all in the sciences.

That allowed the University of Illinois chancellor to be comfortable throughout a chaotic stretch that saw Big Ten administrators go from a hard “no” on playing football in August to a cautious “yes” on Wednesday.

“What allows me to sleep at night as a scientist — as a scholar for several decades now — I’ve always learned to be driven by the data,” Jones said Wednesday. “We made the best decision that we could with the information that we had on hand back on August 11. (I) wouldn’t think about reversing that decision based on the information we had at that time.”

The return of Big Ten football — the nine-game season kicks off on Oct. 23-24 — was only part of an onslaught of promising campus news during a school year that’s had little of it.

Hours after Jones told students in a mass mail that some restrictions would be lifted and that Memorial Stadium would begin hosting limited-seating events this weekend, the NCAA announced the college basketball season would tip off on Nov. 25.

There was no word Wednesday about whether fans would be allowed inside State Farm Center — or any other arena across the country — to watch the most highly anticipated Illini men’s basketball season in years.

But UI students were given Jones’ blessing to begin holding small get-togethers — provided they avoid the sort of behavior that led him to request they limit in-person activities two weeks ago.

In a mass mail, the chancellor encouraged students to limit gatherings to 10 or fewer people, keep them outside and wear face coverings.

“We have made some progress in that time, and our new case numbers and positivity rate are moving down,” Jones wrote. “But, we are still very much at a tipping point, and new cases could quickly and completely erase all of your progress and hard work.”

On Sept. 2, Jones asked students to limit in-person activities to essential activities after the number of cases on campus exceeded expectations, which officials attributed mostly to a small number of students in Greek and non-certified houses.

On Aug. 31, 230 new cases were detected on campus. On Tuesday, that number was 45.

The UI also launched an effort to contact students who test positive within 30 minutes, as some students were avoiding contact tracers and violating isolation and quarantine directives.

It also stepped up enforcement of COVID-19 violations, handing down interim suspensions to eight students and one fraternity.

During the two weeks of limited activity, the cities of Champaign and Urbana both limited indoor dining in bars and restaurants near campus.

While those emergency orders were allowed to expire on Wednesday, Jones encouraged students to “avoid crowded places, especially in enclosed spaces — whether parties, private houses or apartments — where exposure to the virus is more likely.”

Jones said he wants to avoid a superspreader event, where “one infected person, without a mask, talking loudly, in a crowded place can start a chain of transmission that can lead to hundreds of people infected and deaths of those who were not even there.”

“It can happen right here,” he wrote. “And if it does, your sacrifices of the past couple of weeks will have been wasted.”

To encourage students, the UI will be hosting weekly movie nights, variety shows and concerts at Memorial Stadium, with everyone socially distanced and wearing masks.

The movies begin this Friday with a double feature of “Black Panther” and “Hidden Figures,” and the first concert will happen a day later with the local band 90’s Daughter.

“Student Affairs is still finalizing its safety plan with (the C-U Public Health Department), but they anticipate allowing a maximum of 3,942 students to attend each event. That is 6.57 percent of capacity,” campus spokeswoman Robin Kaler said. “They won’t be using the upper decks, to avoid possible congestion at elevators and ramps.”

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Triple feature: Football's back, basketball's on deck and Friday is movie night at Memorial Stadium - Champaign/Urbana News-Gazette
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