The Daily Illini: Volume 142 Issue 116

Page 3

The Daily Illini | www.DailyIllini.com

Thursday, March 7, 2013

EOH offers variety of programs, demos BY EARN SAENMUK

ILLINI EXPRESS FROM PAGE 1A According to data from the Department of Transportation, 47 percent of inspections of LEX vehicles over the last two years have revealed violations that must be corrected before being allowed back on the road. “I designed my buses, which were an older style model of a bus, that they (the FMCSA) didn’t like, and pretty much, that led to a lot of my problems,� Frazier said. “If I was that bad, they should have shut me completely down, but they didn’t. They said you are okay, but you can’t do the regular schedule.� Frazier was referring to his other company, Illini Tours, a charter bus service for group trips, which has not received any warnings from the FMCSA. He said after LEX was shut down, he realized how much the business meant to him. “I really loved this business more than I thought I did,� he said. “LEX (is) ingrained into the community ... so that has given me the passion to want to come back and do it again.� Frazier said refunds for LEX tickets are still being distributed to students.

Select Exhibits

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The 93rd annual Engineering Open House will be held from Friday to Saturday throughout the Engineering Quad and at the Illini Union. EOH is an event run by the EOH Central Committee of the Engineering Council, which includes students from all engineering disciplines. Gloria Lin, a director of the committee and senior in Engineering, said there will be more interactive demonstrations this year because of presentations from many big companies including John Deere, Caterpillar and Boeing. The committee will also partner with the University and Champaign Police departments, who will demonstrate the bomb squad robots. which cost about $300,000. “Every year we try to get bigger and better,� she said. “We try to bring in more attractions, and more cooperative sponsors.� Lin said most of the main attractions will take place Friday, including a concert with a light show that uses more than 30,000 volts of electricity, led by Lippold Haken, lecturer in ECE. There will also be a talk called “Death From the Skies� by Phil Plait, an astronomer, lecturer and blogger. In addition to the shows and exhibits, there will also be creative design competitions for students in middle school, high school and college. All the events are open to the public. T he Nationa l Center for Supercomputing Applications, or NCSA, is offering self-guided tours of the Blue Waters Supercomputer on Saturday at the National Petascale Computing Facility, 1725 S. Oak St., Champaign. Blue Waters is one of the most powerful supercomputers in the world, and is used in a range of scientific problems. People interested in this supercomputer can see Blue Waters as well as the infrastructure required for it during the tours. Trish Barker, a spokeswoman for NCSA, said EOH is a good opportunity for people who are interested in Blue Waters to come and learn more about it. “People can just come in anytime and look around,� Barker said. “We’re

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CONCRETE CRUSHING Basement, Talbot Laboratory: Both days (10:00/11:30/1:00/2:30)

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DORM ROOM FIRE SIMULATION Bardeen Quad: Friday (11:00/1:00/3:00) RUBE GOLDBERG MACHINE 106B3 Engineering Hall: Friday (9:00/9:45/10:30/11:15/12: 00/12:45/1:30/2:15/3:00/3:45),

Saturday (9:00/9:45/10:30/11:1 5/12:00/12:45/1:30/2:15/3:00) Q

PHYSICS VAN LECTURE DEMO 141 Loomis Laboratory: Friday (10:30/12:00/1:30/3:00) Saturday (10:00/11:30/1:00/2:15)

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TESLA COIL MUSIC South End of Bardeen Quad: Friday (9:00PM onwards) UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS/ CHAMPAIGN POLICE BOMB SQUAD 112 Transportation Building: Friday (9:30/11:30/1:30/3:30)

Carina can be reached at lee713@ dailyillini.com.

The complete schedule of events can be found at http://eoh.ec.illinois.edu/ attractions/2013-visitors-guide/.

BOARD FROM PAGE 1A

usually not open on the weekend, and we give tours by appointment during operating hours only, so this is the easiest time to come and see Blue Waters.� The Beckman Institute of Advanced Science and Technology will also have an open house concurrent with EOH. The Beckman staff will provide tours and presentations, along with interactive demonstrations of the research done at the institute. Lin added that there is a smartphone application for Engineering Open House, as well as a Twitter account and a Facebook page for people who want more information about EOH events.

Earn can be reached at saenmuk2@ dailyillini.com.

Center for Farmland Research and the Grainger Center for Electric Machinery and Electromechanics. All three centers would be established on the Urbana campus. In addition, Chancellor Phyllis Wise will present a “dashboard indicator� report of the Urbana campus. This presentation will update board members of the campus’s enrollment numbers, graduation rates and research performance, as well as goals for the upcoming semester. University spokesman Tom Hardy said the rest of the meeting will be fairly routine. MICHAEL BOJDA THE DAILY ILLINI

Jakub Walkosz working on his entry into the Jerry Sanders Creative Design Competition at the 2012 Engineering Open House.

Lauren can be reached at rohr2@ dailyillini.com.

Quinn challenges lawmakers on comprehensive pension reform BY JOHN O’CONNOR AND SOPHIA TAREEN THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Gov. Pat Quinn proposed severe spending restrictions Wednesday in what he called the “most difficult budget ever,� telling a joint session of the General Assembly that the state is virtually paralyzed until it fixes its public-employee pension crisis. With a scolding tone, the Democrat facing re-election in 20 months used tough language to describe the pension hole that will suck nearly $7 billion of the state’s general revenue in the coming year. He challenged lawmakers to send him a legislative fix and answered critics by laying out specific provisions he wants to be part of the solution. “This is the most difficult budget Illinois has ever faced, and it is only a preview of the pain that is to come if this General Assembly does not act decisively on comprehensive pension reform,� Quinn said in a 30-minute address that focused almost entirely on the pension mess. But his speech barely addressed the “pain� that Quinn aides hinted at the previous evening, not even mentioning, for example, the $400 million cut in public education necessary in large part because of the state’s required contribution to employee retirement accounts.

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After years of state underfunding, the five systems have a whopping $96.7 billion deficit in the amount necessary to pay benefits to everyone they cover. Quinn proposed closing tax “loopholes� to produce money to pay down the state’s gaping backlog of $9 billion it owes to vendors. He would eliminate three tax breaks, at least temporarily, to produce an extra $445 million annually for a “Bill Payment Trust Fund.� The bulk of that would come from ending tax-free foreign dividends, which Quinn’s staff says could encourage multinational corporations to move operations to overseas subsidiaries. “The more corporate loopholes we suspend, the faster we can pay down our bills,� Quinn said. “Why should we give costly, ineffective loopholes to some of the biggest and most profitable corporations on earth when we have bills to pay?� He hinted he would be open to a heavily regulated expansion of legalized gambling, as long as the new revenue generated went to education. Later Wednesday, the Senate Executive Committee endorsed yet another proposal to add five riverboat casinos in Illinois, including a land-based operation in Chicago, which would direct up to $1 billion in revenue from the slot

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Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn quickly departs to his office after delivering his State of the Budget address to a joint session of the General Assembly in the House chambers at the Illinois State Capitol Wednesday in Springfield. Ill. school days and larger class sizes, Cross predicted taxpayers will start feeling the pinch of lack of pension action, and begin pushing for action. “In the (House) speaker and perhaps the (Senate) president’s mind, you’re not going to lose an election because you haven’t passed a pension reform bill,� Cross said. “Now that we’re starting to talk about effect on other services, people will start to realize.�The state’s employer contribution to pensions of $6.8 billion in the coming year will represent nearly one-fifth of the $35.6 bil-

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machines annually to public schools. Quinn has vetoed two similar bills in just the past year. Quinn budget spokesman Abdon Pallasch stressed Quinn wants a pension fix first but said the governor remains open to talks on gambling. Quinn was pointed in his challenge to the lawmakers to act on the pension crisis. “So, members of the General Assembly,� he asked, “what are you waiting for?� Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, responded afterward that he was already taking action, having planned a committee hearing next week on his combination legislation. It would offer employees a choice on whether they want retirement health care or annual cost-of-living increases, combined with a House-authored backup plan that would reduce postcareer benefits and increase employee contributions. “He’s frustrated, and he wants us to do something, so we’re going to start next week,� Cullerton said after the speechHouse Democrats, with support from House Republican Leader Tom Cross of Oswego, have a separate plan. Although Quinn didn’t hammer on the impact of budget cuts, such as the $400 million education reduction that will mean more teacher layoffs, shorter

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Thursday March 7, 2013 7:30 pm Knight Auditorium Spurlock Museum 600 South Gregory Urbana

ADVANCED STUDY UNIVERSIT Y OF ILLINOIS

Leveraging Science and Technology to Transform International Security: The Social Responsibility of Engineers and Scientists Charles D. Ferguson

President, Federation of American Scientists, Washington, DC

Traditionally, security has often been narrowly viewed through the lens of military defense and acquisition of weapons. This view must change. Today and increasingly in the future, every nation’s security will depend more and more on a new mindset: the security of everyone will hinge on cooperative means to ensure adequate energy, food, and water. However, humanity is on an unsustainable path in use of these resources. Increasing competition for scarcer supplies could lead to major armed conflict or other massive suffering. Dr. Ferguson will discuss the role of engineers and scientists in developing and deploying science and technology to achieve greater security for all nations. These presentations are free and open to the public. For more information, contact the Center for Advanced Study at 333-6729 or www.cas.illinois.edu.

lion general revenue — money spent for state operations such as education and public safety — expected to come in during the budget year that begins July 1. Perhaps answering critics such as Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno, who said the governor has been “woefully absent� in the pension debate, Quinn laid out specifics of the bill he wants to sign. It must guarantee the state pay its obligated share each year and dedicate $1 billion a year to pensions beginning in 2020, the year pension loans are paid off.

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