Law school rankings: UIUC drops to No. 47 two years after LSAT, GPA inflation ONLINE
Obsession & control
Melanie Stone’s story darkens AS A GIRL THINKS, 4A
The Daily Illini
Tuesday March 12, 2013
www.DailyIllini.com
The independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois since 1871
Vol. 142 Issue 119
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Progress continues on ECE building
UI combats strike with Extra Help SEIU pickets Illini Union, dining halls
Expected to open in 2014
BY ATOOSA SAYEH
BY EARN SAENMUK
STAFF WRITER
University Housing have called in Extra Help workers through Wednesday while members of the Service Employees International Union Local 73 are on strike. University spokeswoman Robin Kaler said student workers, employees in other positions and volunteers from other units on campus are helping fill the void. “Today has gone very smoothly, and we’re confident that Tuesday and Wednesday will as well,” Kaler said Monday. Union members — about 800 of the University’s food and building service workers — picketed around campus Monday outside Ikenberry Dining Hall, Illini Union and other locations. The workers were joined by students on the picket lines. Adam Rosen, SEIU communications director, called Monday’s pickets successful. Rosen said that student support was overwhelming, offering the examples of students who gave out hot chocolate to members on strike. Jack Dempsey, executive director of Facilities & Services, sent a mass email Monday to students advising of possible service reductions. “The campus community will experience a disruption/delay to regular building services and to campus mail pick up and delivery,” Dempsey wrote. The email said the locking and unlocking of facilities, restroom and classroom stocking and cleaning, and trash removal in classrooms will continue. Dempsey also said some offices will not receive
See SEIU, Page 3A
High: 41˚ Low: 25˚
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Students were updated on the status of construction on the Electrical and Computer Engineering building at an open meeting Monday. Professor Philip Krein, chair of the new building committee, told students at the meeting that the building, located on Wright Street next to the Beckman Institute, is on track for completion by July 10, 2014. Classes will begin in the new building in fall 2014. The new building, which hasn’t been named yet, is significantly larger than the department’s current building, Everitt Laboratory, and will be fully equipped with updated technology. It will contain office spaces, students lounges, classrooms and labs. “Basically every significant lab in the new building will be as big as the biggest lab in Everitt building,” Krein said. It will also be the largest zero net energy building in the nation, he said. The new building will be mainly run by solar energy from solar panels. Although the building will still have to rely on the University’s electrical system, the average energy usage should be close to self-sufficient. It will also have better insulation and a more energy-saving beam cooling-heating system. Krein provided reasons for using solar energy in the new building, although new technologies are
See ECE, Page 3A
PHOTO COURTESY OF PHILIP KREIN
BRENTON TSE THE DAILY ILLINI
Dana Ross of the Service Employees International Union Local 73 pickets outside of the Illini Union on Monday.
Wage discrepancy between public, private sector revealed by study
Public sector tends to be more educated The University’s School of Labor and Employment Relations published a study detailing the differences in public and private sector wages when factoring in educational attainment. Employee educational attainment Public sector
Private sector
3.2%
BY JANELLE O’DEA
Masonry scaffolding shows a place to close up a labatory area on the third floor of the new ECE building.
Proposed cuts to state budget could greatly affect faculty BY CHRISSY PAWLOWSKI
16.9%
STAFF WRITER
Government employees are being paid less than workers in the private sector despite their higher education levels, a study published by the University’s School of Labor and Employment Relations shows. The study was published Monday and compared earnings, benefits and other impacts while controlling for factors like education and demographics. Findings showed that public sector employees had total incomes 13.5 percent lower than those of workers in the private sector. Yet the study also found that government workers with bachelor’s degrees and higher earn 32 to 40 percent less in wage and salary income than private sector workers with bachelor’s degrees. Robert Bruno, lead researcher and director of the school’s Labor Education Program, said he was trying to determine whether assumptions that state workers are overpaid were true. “In this report, we really wanted to address a problematic feature of the public discourse about the cost of public sector workers and about state and municipal budgets,” said Frank Manzo, research associate. Manzo said they conducted the study in response to negotiations that had been going on in January between the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, or AFSCME, Council 31 and the state. The union, which includes about
29.0% 11.7% 5.9%
22.1%
19.5%
20.8% 10.2% 9.3%
Less than high school
Associate’s degree
High school
Bachelor’s degree
Some college, no degree
STAFF WRITER
State budget cuts proposed by Gov. Pat Quinn in his budget address last week could have the largest impact on faculty salaries and benefits, University officials said. Randy Kangas, associate vice president of the Office for Planning and Budgeting, said under Quinn’s proposal, which the Senate will review March 21, about $15 million would be cut from the approximately $238.3 million the state provides the Urbana campus. He said the funding currently generated by the University is $1.965 billion through tuition and student fees. “This would lift the total amount of the reduction since about 2002 to about $214 million in direct appropriation,” he said. “With that said, the state provides us pensions and benefits through another agency, and that certainly helps the University a lot.” Kangas was referring to the State Universities Retirement System, which funds pensions for University faculty, who have a “constitutional guarantee to that payment.”
Don’t Break Up By Phone. Do it in Person. Source: School of Labor and Employment Relations
35,000 state employees, and Quinn administration negotiators reached a tentative agreement on Feb. 28. Scott Adams, director of Research and Employee Benefits at AFSCME , said government employees choose to work in the public sector for job security and the sake of the public’s well-being. “There’s a perception out there that peo-
SCOTT DURAND Senior designer
ple try to disseminate that we’re highly paid and we don’t work hard and we have benefits nobody else has,” Adams said. “(Government workers) know they may not be making as much, but they know they can retire with dignity.” At the University, the Service Employ-
Speedy, Reliable Service to Chicago Suburbs & Downtown www.SuburbanExpress.com See LABOR, Page 3A
If the pension system runs out of funds, Kangas said pensions would only become more expensive for the state because they would likely have to adopt a “pay as you go” system, which would be more expensive than the current system. He said he agreed with Quinn’s statements in the budget address about how the pension system must be fixed before the state’s fiscal situation can improve. “The state clearly has a budget or revenue problem,” Kangas said. “Today the state has about $9 billion in unpaid vouchers. One major part of the budget is benefits and pensions; certainly the state is in a very critical period.” Quinn called for reform of the pension system’s $96.8 billion total unfunded liabilities during that budget address March 6. “Our budget is being squeezed more than ever. And that will continue until we put a stop to it,” Quinn said. In fi scal years 2010 and 2011, the state had to borrow
See BUDGET, Page 3A
Lots and Lots of Trips to O’Hare Daily Service to O’Hare, Oakbrook and Woodfield www.IlliniShuttle.com INSIDE
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