Sea and Schmear: KoFusion and Einstein Bros. Bagels expand to campus FEATURES, 6A
Off the launchpad Illini headed to WNIT quarterfinals SPORTS, 1B
The Daily Illini
Friday March 29, 2013
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Vol. 142 Issue 127
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Donors to fund 3/4 of Assembly Hall renovations BY DAN WELIN STAFF WRITER
Director of Athletics Mike Thomas announced Thursday that 75 percent of the $160 million Assembly Hall Renovation Project will be funded by donors. In early March, students approved a referendum for a $25-per-semester fee, which will cover 17 percent of the cost. Thomas said about 8,000 season ticket holders, as well as I-Fund donors, who supply financial gifts to the athletic department, will be receiving brochures in the mail this week outlining premium seating and suite prices at the renovated Assembly Hall. The deadline for them to respond to the brochure is April 19. The premium seating outlined in the brochures will make up 10 percent of the total seating. But Thomas said some
seating will be lost because of the overhaul of the A and B sections that will start from “ground zero.” The new capacity will be between 15,200 and 15,300, and student seating in the lower bowl will increase from 700 to 1,200. The premium seating detailed in the brochure will include 12 suites with 14 seats, 80 four-person mini-suites, approximately 1,000 club seats and 120 courtside seats. Thomas said the estimated total cost of the project is between $260 and $300 million once it is paid in full over the course of the 30-year bond. The Los Angeles-based architectural firm AECOM submitted its design to University officials Nov. 1, and construction will take place from March 2014 to November 2016. Thomas said basketball
See ASSEMBLY HALL, Page 3A
BRIAN YU THE DAILY ILLINI
Governor Pat Quinn speaks at the Blue Waters Launch at the National Center of Supercomputing Applications on Thursday. Blue Waters is a new supercomputer developed with joint funding from the National Science Foundation and the University.
Blue Waters officially opens Supercomputer will aid research BY BRITTANY GIBSON STAFF WRITER
FOLAKE OSIBODU THE DAILY ILLINI
Athletic director Mike Thomas speaks about the renovations of Assembly Hall at the press conference held on Thursday.
The University officially launched its petascale computing project called Blue Waters. The supercomputer boasts a sustained performance of one petaflop, making it one of the most powerful supercomputers in the world. At the launch event, held at National Center for Supercomputing Applications building Thursday, Gov. Pat Quinn declared it Blue Waters Supercomputer Day in celebration of the project’s completion. Blue Waters offers more advanced computing capabilities for researchers in science
and engineering fields than previous supercomputers, said Trish Barker, public affairs coordinator at NCSA. “One of the things we’re excited to see over the next few years is who uses the computer and what they do with it, (including) what kinds of things they study and what they accomplish,” Barker said. Thomas Dunning, director of NCSA, said Blue Waters can help researchers understand and possibly solve problems that have been unsolvable for researchers in various fields. He cited examples like HIV, world hunger and natural disasters. “Although there are some equations that can be solved analytically, there are far more you can’t solve in a closed form,” Dunning said. “There are some problems that are so difficult that no matter
Follett’s to close at end of month
how clever a mathematician you are, you are not going to be able to solve those equations.” Blue Waters weighs over 683,000 pounds and is housed in its own custom-made room. The computer was built by Cray Inc. and will be primarily funded by the National Science Foundation. “It’s really something that sets the University of Illinois apart from other universities that definitely don’t have something of this scale,” Barker said. “It can do quadrillions of calculations every second ... With a calculator, that would take you about 32 million years.” Blue Waters was finished in October and has since gone through several stages of testing. In that time, different researchers have started working with the computer. During an early testing period,
a project headed by University physics professor Klaus Schulten successfully mapped part of the HIV capsid. This enhanced understanding of how HIV infects human cells and might one day lead to a cure. “Our systems, when put in the hands of capable scientists and engineers, have the ability to change the world,” said Peter Ungaro, President and Chief Executive Officer of Cray Inc. Blue Waters was designed and created by a team of more than 80 members and has taken five years and $400 million to complete. “Today is a special day for our planet,” Quinn said. “It’s amazing what human beings can accomplish when no one worries about who gets the credit.”
Brittany can be reached at news@ dailyillini.com.
Lincoln Hall contractor pleads guilty to mail fraud University to be paid $500,000 in restitution DAILY ILLINI STAFF REPORT
BY RYAN WEBER MANAGING EDITOR
Follett’s Bookstore, a long-standing campus-bookstore-turned-general-merchandisestore, will close its doors May 29, a few weeks after the spring semester ends. JSM Development bought the property from Follett Corporation, based in River Grove, Ill., last week, said Elio DiStaola, director of campus relations for Follett’s. He said the two companies discussed ownership of the property, located at 627 S. Wright St. in Champaign, for some time. DiStaola said the closure was largely a business decision. “Over some time, it was clear that the value of the property was increasing and sales were getting soft,” he said. Jill Guth, director of commercial leasing at JSM, said the bookstore’s location has been on the company’s radar for five to seven years, but discussion escalated late last fall. She said JSM was looking to add four to five new retailers at the location. The company wants to add more food and clothing stores in this
BRENTON TSE THE DAILY ILLINI
Follett’s Bookstore, on the corner of Wright and Green Streets, will close its doors May 29. The property was sold to JSM Development and will likely be replaced with food and clothing stores. “strategic location on campus,” Guth said. DiStaola said the campus bookstore stopped selling course materials in 2010. Since then, the store has sold only general merchandise like clothing, said Store Manager Alex Paul. Scott McCartney, senior associate director for retail operations at the Illini Union Bookstore, located at 809 S. Wright St. in Champaign, said business will not be affected too much. Sales from course materials that the Illini Union Bookstore would pick up from Follett’s happened a few years ago when it
stopped selling textbooks, he said. McCartney is not expecting any change in the bookstore’s general merchandise sales either, and he said Gameday Spirit would likely pick up that business. Gameday Spirit’s Green Street location manager Cory Shumard said he couldn’t be sure of the immediate impact that Follett’s closure would have on business. Gameday Spirit is scheduled to leave its current location around the same time as Follett’s clo-
See FOLLETT’S, Page 3A
Thomas Williams, contractor for the renovations of Lincoln Hall, was ordered to pay $1.5 million in restitution to the state of Illinois after pleading guilty to two counts of mail fraud Wednesday in Sangamon County Circuit Court. Williams admitted to falsely claiming that his company would pay minority-owned subcontractors, as required by state law, for millions of dollars of work in renovating historic Lincoln Hall at the University and building a new science complex at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. He also admitted to telling the Illinois Capital Development Board, which issued the contracts, that his company would employ BJB Enterprises, Inc., a minority-owned Peoria-based firm, on the projects. According to Attorney General
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Lisa Madigan’s office, BJB did no work and did not provide any materials for the projects. University of Illinois system spokesman Tom Hardy said that the University is expected to receive $500,000 in restitution. “The University was a victim in this, as well as the state,” Hardy said. Williams, the former president of a Peoria-based construction firm, was also sentenced to two and a half years probation. The fraud was discovered and reported by employees of the state’s Capital Development Board, which oversees all nonroad, state-funded construction projects, according to a press release from Governor Pat Quinn’s office. Hardy said the University fully cooperated with the attorney general’s office, and they were “satisfied with the outcome.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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