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THE DAILY ILLINI

TUESDAY October 15, 2013

5he independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois since 1871

WWW.DAILYILLINI.COM

68˚ | 45˚ Vol. 143 Issue 29

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Quinn investing in infrastructure $6.4 million designated for transportation BY JOHNATHAN HETTINGER STAFF WRITER

Construction stopped for an hour at the corner of Race and Main streets in downtown Urbana on Monday morning, though only for an announcement that more construction is on its way. Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn announced a $6.4 million investment in transportation infra-

structure for eastern Illinois at a speech in Urbana on Monday, including $1.4 million for projects in Champaign County. The investment is through Quinn’s $31 billion Illinois Jobs Now! construction program that was passed in 2009. This is the fourth year of the five-year program, which will offer almost $500 million dollars to local governments in Illinois for transportation construction. The money allows local governments to make

SEE QUINN | 3A

PHOTO COURTESY OF SCOTT HURST PHOTOGRAPHY

Satirical singer-songwriter Roy Zimmerman performs on his 50 State Tour in Fort Worth, Texas. Zimmerman is performing a free show at 7 p.m. in Allen Hall’s Main Lounge on Tuesday.

Singer to perform political satires BY F. AMANDA TUGADE STAFF WRITER

With wire glasses resting on his nose and a loosely fitted tie wrapped around his neck, Roy Zimmerman stands in front of a microphone with his feet planted on the stage. His seamlessly unwrinkled polo shirt with rolled up sleeves and dark-fitted slacks make him a mirror image of a politician ready to address his

audience candidly. His guitar is his only companion, accepting the role of a political aide, campaign manager, confidante and friend. Without much adieu, Zimmerman begins set with a smile — a collection of songs satirically targeting the issues surrounding the political sphere. The singer-songwriter performs songs about social issues,

Researchers push for high-speed rail BY JACQUI OGRODNIK STAFF WRITER

After finishing a class in Champaign, a student boards a train to the University of Illinois at Springfield to attend his next class on that campus. Once that class is finished, the student waits at the station for the next train to Chicago’s campus so he can attend a professor’s lecture. After a long day of classes, the student then takes the train home just in time for dinner. This kind of high-speed rail service has yet to be built in Illinois, but according to a recent study by the University’s Rail Transportation and Engineering Center, or RailTEC, and the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Urban Transportation Center, the cost of building such a service, while substantial, is feasible. Funded by the Illinois Department of Transportation, the study concluded that a 220-mph high-speed rail service connecting major Midwest cities could be financially sustainable year-to-year. The rail service would connect O’Hare International Airport through Chicago to ChampaignUrbana before splitting between St. Louis and Indianapolis, servicing Decatur, Springfield and Kankakee in Illinois, among other cities. Express high-speed trains are estimated to travel from downtown Chicago to Champaign in 45 minutes, to Springfield in one hour and 20 minutes, and to St. Louis or Indianapolis in two hours, according to the study. Rail tickets would cost less money than plane tickets. Mohd Rapik Saat, techni-

cal manager of the project and research assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, said the main goal of the study was to determine technically and financially if the system was feasible to be developed in the future. The researchers began focusing on the connection between Chicago and Champaign before expanding the area of study to include St. Louis and Indianapolis. “By including these two other major cities besides Chicago, we could potentially have a larger ridership to support such a system,” Saat said. Richard Harnish, executive director of Midwest High Speed Rail Association, said this kind of connection among these cities ends up tying together a very large piece of the Midwest. It would bring the University closer to Chicago, make the government in Springfield more accessible to the public, and help maintain the relationships between money markets and the professors and staff, he said. “Champaign is a critical university that needs to have a much stronger access to both downtown Chicago and O’Hare,” he said. “Champaign students would have a much easier time to get home or to get to school, possibly go downtown to Chicago to see the plays or whatever you want to do downtown.” Saat said with a 45-minute connection to Chicago, Champaign would become just a suburb of Chicago. “This increased mobility would be something beyond what we could think of today because of the level of connection we have to

peace, war and justice. The San Francisco native is in the middle of an eight-week tour across the country called “Funny Songs and Bad Advice,” which is exactly what it is, according to Zimmerman. He will be performing a free show at 7 p.m. in Allen Hall’s Main Lounge on Tuesday. Laura Haber, program and academic director of Unit One, invited Zimmerman once again to per-

form at the University. “We’ve brought him before, and many of our students seem to like his visit and his performance,” Haber said, adding that Zimmerman’s “thought-provoking and funny” songs are an interesting approach to political issues. Andrew LaPointe, senior in LAS, has seen Zimmerman per-

SEE ZIMMERMAN | 3A

Midwest high-speed rail cuts travel time From Chicago, it would take 45 minutes to reach Champaign, 80 minutes to reach Springfield and two hours to reach St. Louis. CHICAGO

PRIMARY STUDY AREA

CHAMPAIGN

Domestic Violence Awareness Month promoted on campus BY MARYCATE MOST

INDIANAPOLIS

ST. LOUIS

SOURCE: RAIL ENGINEERNING AND TECHNOLOGY CENTER

the cities,” he said. “So we want to connect the brain in Champaign with the money in Chicago,” referring to researchers and investors. This connection could grant access to added resources, which could indirectly support a higher level of graduate student enrollment, develop new classes, and develop new research areas for the faculty, Saat said. Although the operating costs for the service would be covered by the estimated fare revenue, the key challenge is to come up with the capital cost, which has been estimated to be between $20 billion to $50 billion. “Based on our present estimates of our ridership and revenues, they would not be enough to cover all of the capital costs, so the government or some kind of public-private partnership would be necessary to develop the capital funds necessary to build the system in the first place,” said Christopher Barkan, principal investigator and professor of civil and environmental engineering.

JOHNATHAN HETTINGER THE DAILY ILLINI

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn announces in Urbana a $6.4 million investment in infrastructure for eastern Illinois on Monday. The Illinois Jobs Now! project, which is in its fourth year, will give $1.4 million to Champaign County projects this year.

SCOTT DURAND THE DAILY ILLINI

The researchers also estimated the economic benefit of a highspeed rail that they did not quantify in terms of dollars, such as employment, reduction in environmental pollution and accident rate. “When you build a large transportation facility, it often tends to generate revenue-producing activities, such as retail stores, apartment buildings and offices buildings,” Barkan said, which can be observed overseas in Japan or Hong Kong, where high-speed rail services exist. “There are large concentrations of people traveling through these transportation systems, so the stations become very desirable places for a range of activities that generate financial activity and revenues.” Current students might not be able to experience such connectivity before graduation since it takes many years, sometimes decades, to completely build a high-speed rail system. This proj-

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

When Professor Rini Bhattacharya Mehta was in India filming her movie “Post 489A: Shades of Domestic Violence,” she noticed one thing about the women that she interviewed: They had very little in common. Mehta’s observations led her to believe that domestic violence knows no bounds; it can touch anyone’s life, regardless of social class, ethnicity, religion, wealth or geographic location. “The film focuses on the complex problem of domestic violence within a democratic society in a country that is way more diverse than the United States,” said Mehta, professor of comparative and world literature. “The fact that modernity and globalization cannot solve every problem in the world is both depressing and thoughtprovoking, and should make us think twice before we offer a global solution to a problem.” Mehta’s film, which was

screened to an audience of professors, students and other University employees at the University Women’s Resource Center on Oct. 10, is one of the many events planned by the Resource Center in observance of Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Throughout the month, the Center is working to raise awareness about domestic violence, help students deal with domestic violence in their lives and prevent future incidences. According to the Domestic Violence Resource Center, one out of every four women experiences some form of domestic violence in her life. Rachel Storm, assistant director of the Center, said many are surprised to hear how many people are affected by domestic violence. “In the ‘80s women were seeing that a lot of veterans were getting lots of plaques and memorials showing how many men died in the war,” Storm

SEE DOMESTIC | 3A

“It is encouraging to see the involvement of so many wonderful young minds in spreading the message against domestic violence and other social injustices.” RINI BHATTACHARYA MEHTA

SEE RAIL | 3A

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