U of I to warn students about Mexico travel

URBANA -- The U.S. State Department and universities around the country are warning students headed for Mexico for spring break of a surge in drug-related violence south of the border.

The University of Illinois is among the schools alerting students.

An advertisement in the Daily Illini next month will notify students of the state department's warning. Cancun, Mexico, is a spring break destination for some of the 42,000 students at the Urbana-Champaign campus.

The university's Student Legal Services department is placing the ad. It urges students to avoid areas of prostitution and drug-dealing and take other commonsense precautions.