Pesky Penn State Illini outlasts last-place Nittany Lions SPORTS, 1B
The Daily Illini
Friday February 22, 2013
www.DailyIllini.com
The independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois since 1871
Student senate boosts spending, is still on budget STAFF WRITER
The Illinois Student Senate has spent about 146 percent more than it did at this time last year, according to the quarterly fi nancial report released early this month. This includes increases of about 536 percent in spending on events, 152 percent in promotions and 269 percent in travel, as well as an about 48 percent decrease in supply spending compared with last year. Treasurer Kevin Seymour said in an email that despite
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Oh, the weather outside is finally frightful
ILLINOIS STUDENT SENTATE
BY TYLER DAVIS
High: 35˚ Low: 21˚
what looks like a spike, spending levels in past years have been low and too much money has been left over. The senate receives $39,000 at the beginning of the academic year from the University from student service fees. “At this point, (the) senate is on target for spending its annual budget,” Seymour said. “Last year’s spending was very unhealthy, which resulted in a larger amount being rolled over.”
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Illinois Student Senate increases spending Illinois Student Senate spending has increased by 145.95% since last year at this time. Here is how expenditures broke down: $15000
$13,368.02 NATHANIEL LASH THE DAILY ILLINI
February 2012
$12000
Frost gathers on the hair of Jeff Weimer, graduate student, while snow fell on Green Street on Thursday. The National Weather Service issued a winter weather advisory Thursday as hazardous winter weather was expected to roll through Champaign on Thursday night and early Friday morning. Two to four inches of snow changing into a wintry mix were expected.
$10,441.85 February 2013
$9000
Saturday
Sunday
Monday
$5,300.35
$6000
$3,866.81 $3000
High: 31˚
$2,244.12
$2,028.23
$1,641.78
Low: 22˚
High: 38˚
Low: 29˚
High: 40˚
Low: 33˚
$608.94 $0
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Supplies
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BRYAN LORENZ DESIGN EDITOR
Source: ISS Budget
NCSA’s Blue Waters set for official launch UI professors to use new supercomputer to simulate tornadoes, storms BY DARSHAN PATEL
I
ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR
magine simulating a virtual tornado and charting its fi nest details in 10-meter increments. Now take into account the various distances the tornado travels, sometimes over the rare 50-mile mark. Now add wind, surface friction and other weather conditions before running the simulation. And you’ve got a perfect problem for the Blue Waters supercomputer to solve. Tornado reproductions have been done for some time, but never as precise as what a University professor and other researchers plan on doing next month with the National Center for Supercomputing Applications’ prized possession. When researchers simulate tornados, or even thunderstorms on a large scale, large datasets can show details about a tornado’s inner workings, such as its formation, but they could get the “right answer for the wrong reason,” said atmospheric sciences professor Brian Jewett, whose group will be among the fi rst to officially use Blue Waters, as it begins its five-year production stage. This is why a supercomputer of this magnitude is needed: to answer questions like “ W h at ’s going on in t he
CORINNE RUFF THE DAILY ILLINI
Kids from classroom four of the Urbana Head Start share toy cars during playtime. Budget cuts have made space limited in pre-K programs.
Urbana’s preschool programs see rising demand, falling funds BY CORINNE RUFF STAFF WRITER
The walls of the Urbana Head Start preschool classrooms, which serve 105 at-risk children, are lined with posters of the alphabet, and the floors are cluttered with educational toys. Because of budget restrictions, 67 children are on a waiting list for the program and may never have the chance to learn in these classrooms. Early childhood program directors
are concerned that without these resources, these children will not be ready for kindergarten. Nationwide, thousands of such qualified children are stuck on waiting lists for federal government-funded early childhood education programs each year, and federal and city governments have noticed the need to prioritize funding for programs such as Head Start.
Supercomputer to simulate tornadoes Atmospheric sciences professor Brian Jewett and his team will be among the first to officially use the Blue Waters supercomputer when it opens its doors for a five-year operational period. The research group will simulate a virtual tornado to its finest details, trying to form a better idea about how tornadoes develop and sustain themselves.
See HEAD START, Page 3A
UI housing services will continue DAILY ILLINI STAFF REPORT
Even if University food and building service workers go on strike, regular housing services will continue, according to an email sent to University Housing residents Thursday morning. The email, sent by Jack Collins, director of University Housing, said union-affi liated workers have discussed a potential strike in the future against the University. Collins said that if the workers choose to strike, University housing services, which includes dining halls, a la carte loca-
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tions, trash removal, 24-hour maintenance and emergency response, will continue on as usual. Members of the Service E mploye es I nter n at ion al Union Local 73 voted last month to authorize a strike against the University. The union, which represents about 800 food and service employees, has been in contract negotiations with the University since May of last year. Members have cited wages and working conditions as reasons for a possible strike.
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early stages in the formation of a tornado?” or “What makes it possible for a tornado to sustain itself or endure for a long period of time?” “You fi nd the solution at every one of those cross points of your screen and the fi ner you can make (the grid), the more resolution, the more detail you can see in that simulation — so that scale has not been done,” Jewett said. Blue Waters has been fully operational for a few months, but NCSA staffers have been working out glitches during what they call a “friendly-user period.” Now they’ll start charging professors for their use — not in terms of money, but in time allocated, said NCSA spokeswoman Trish Barker. “It’s an interesting problem because once you get a block of time, then it’s like, ‘Do you spend most of that time in one simulation and hope everything goes well? Or do you budget for several, which is pretty much the way science goes,’” Jewett said. This is why his colleague, Central Michigan University professor Leigh Orf, has been testing possible models and various set weather conditions on a smaller-scaled supercomputer named Kraken, located at the University of Tennessee. Jewett’s group earned time to use the supercomputer through a nationwide-allocation process with the National Science Foundation. But University faculty members can also try another route: through a special Blue Waters committee, which comprises top faculty members across scientific and engineering disciplines. Proposals for the fi rst round of allocation through the Illinois process were due last Friday, and the aforementioned group is reviewing them, especially looking to see if the research will take advantage of Blue Waters’ powerful Cray Inc. processors. Barker said if researchers have to work with a small amount of data, there are other options available, such as the University’s shared computing cluster, locat-
See WATERS, Page 3A
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