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The Daily Illini
Friday April 19, 2013
www.DailyIllini.com
The independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois since 1871
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Vol. 142 Issue 142
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Student loan interest rates set to double Without action from Washington, rates to go up July 1 BY JOHNATHAN HETTINGER STAFF WRITER
Many students will pay more for their education next year if Congress doesn’t act by July 1. Federal student loan interest rates are set to double at the beginning of the next fiscal year, from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent on subsidized Stafford loans, effectively raising the cost of a college education by $1,000 for students who need loans, according to the United States Public Interest Research Group. The rates were set to double last July 1, but Congress, in the midst of an election year, voted June 29 to extend the rates one year. Now, government leaders are looking for a more permanent solution to the interest rates. In his recent budget proposal, President Barack Obama suggested tying student loan rates to market interest rates. Rates for subsidized loans will be 1 percent higher than the 10-year Treasury yield rates for subsidized loans, while the increase will be 3 percent for unsubsidized loans and 4 percent for graduate loans. With Thursday’s rates, this would mean a decrease in the rates of subsidized loans (from 3.4 percent to 2.7 percent), unsubsidized loans (from 6.8 percent to 4.7 percent), and direct graduate loans (from 6.8 percent to 5.7 percent). Many Republicans have supported this idea, but some have suggested capping the interest rates if the Treasury yield rate gets too high. “Right now, we are kind of at historic lows in terms of our interest rates being very low,
What this means to students If Congress doesn’t act by July 1, the interest rate on subsidized Stafford student loans will double from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent. Over the course of a college career, the extra interest would likely mean that students on average will pay $1,000 more for their college education, according to the United States Public Interest Research Group.
THE UNIVERSITY BORROWS
SUBSIDIZED UNSUBSIDIZED GRADUATE PARENT PLUS TOTAL
$50,859,086 $36,670,945 $75,950,275 $80,736,089 $244,216,395
THE GOVERNMENT EARNS SUBSIDIZED UNSUBSIDIZED GRADUATE PARENT PLUS
$0.125 $0.333 $0.548 $0.490
EMILY OGDEN THE DAILY ILLINI
The Bee Research Facility, located on South Lincoln avenue, contains indoor and outdoor hives home to thousands of honey bees. This hive encloses around five thousand bees, one of the smaller hives on site.
Bee facility swarms to solve problem
PER DOLLAR LENT THE GOVERNMENT PROFITS SUBSIDIZED UNSUBSIDIZED GRADUATE PARENT PLUS TOTAL
$6,357,385.75 $12,211,424.69 $41,620,750.70 $39,560,683.61 $99,750,244.75
Researchers focused on cause of bee population decline
IF THESE RATES EXPIRE, THE GOVERNMENT WILL EARN AN ADDITIONAL $10,578,6898.89 FOR A GRAND TOTAL OF $110,328,934.63.
BY ELEANOR BLACK
so right now it would be a benefit to the students, but in three or four years, when the interest rate changes nationally, (it may not be),” said Dan Mann, director of financial aid. “If we go strictly to a variable interest rate, is there a possibility that it would always just be a variable interest rate, or should there be a cap put on at some point? Those are the questions that are being asked and debated at this
STAFF WRITER
Wearing nothing but a plaid shirt and jeans, Charley Nye, lab manager of the University’s Bee Research Facility, toured the backyard of the property. Before him was a Styrofoam box; the buzzing of bees became louder and louder as he approached. With the onset of spring, the ground he stepped on was lush and budding with dandelions, the early-season pollen source for the facility’s residents: honeybees. “The year’s kind of ramping up
See LOAN RATES, Page 3A
Viral Facebook post about Suburban Express sparks controversy BY CORINNE RUFF STAFF WRITER
A viral Facebook post has sparked discussion regarding fines and lawsuits from bus company Suburban Express. The original post, which has been shared 789 times and “liked” 646 times in the last two weeks, as of 10:52 p.m. Thursday, traces back to the personal Facebook wall of Jeremy Leval, a graduate student at the University. In his post, Leval describes an incident that occurred during a trip back to Champaign on March 31, on a bus driven by an individual who, according to the company, was not an employee of Suburban Express. Four days later, Leval said he received an email stating that he was permanently banned from Suburban Express and was issued a fine of $500 for liquidated damages and the cost of the ticket. As passengers boarded the bus at the O’Hare International Airport stop, Leval said he overheard the bus driver shouting at an unidentified international student who he said did not understand that the driver was asking her to fold her ticket in half before she could board the bus. “If you don’t understand English, you don’t belong at the University of Illinois or any ‘American’ University.” Leval said in his Facebook post, quoting the bus driver.
INSIDE
tion) looked like it was getting better, the problem was getting less severe ... it’s not yet clear what the problem was this year.” Researchers have not yet found a specific cause of the decline, but May Berenbaum, head of the department of Entomology, said four different factors have been proposed as contributors to the decline. “There’s pesticides, parasites and diseases, management practices, and nutritional factors,” Berenbaum said. “So we’ve got people working on most of the main hypotheses that are out there to account for bee decline.” The Bee Research Facility is one place where University researchers can experiment and test these theories. “The Bee Research Facility exists to support our research
and make possible our research on honeybees,” Robinson said. “Our research on honeybees deals with a variety of topics that generally have to do with understanding the role of genes.” Berenbaum said the main focus of the research is to determine the cause of the population decline. “Identifying the causes opens up possibilities for treatment and prevention,” she said. Researchers are also figuring out ways to preserve the bee population. “There are new efforts to breed resistance, so people are taking a very different approach to the use of pesticides in the hive,” said Berenbaum, referring to a pesticide that protects bees from fatal
See BEES, Page 3A
Suburban Express lawsuits exceed attorneys’ fees Since January, Suburban Express has filed 44 lawsuits toward passengers who have violated its terms and conditions. In the case of Yu Zhang, international student and senior in Business, the cost of an attorney to defend her small claims case was more than the amount for which she was sued. PHOTO COURTESY OF RP FLIGHT SYSTEMS
Leval said he confronted the driver and told him his language was offensive and unnecessary. In a statement provided to The Daily Illini, Suburban Express said after contacting the passengers on the March 31 trip, the company had not yet received “any first-hand knowledge of the incident.” The statement also reads: “An offhand verbal exchange between a driver who is not an employee of Suburban Express and a passenger has been blown totally out of proportion by a meddling, selfaggrandizing student who has chosen to use this incident to promote his own agenda, which seems to be to call as much attention to himself as possible and to promote his own competing business.” Suburban Express owner Dennis Toeppen said in an email later, “We take our obligation to serve all passengers with respect and professionalism very seriously.” Meanwhile, several posts on the Facebook thread had addressed that Leval had attempted to launch a carpooling website called College Rides in May 2012. “College Rides has not been launched, and it will never be launched,” Leval said in reply to a question about his former business plans. On April 4, the same day Leval wrote his post, Suburban Express
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right now,” Nye said. “(The bees) spend the winter clustered together in a tight little ball, warming each other up and slowly eating honey until spring comes and the flowers start blooming.” The box is one of the facility’s man-made hives, and by July, it will be joined by many more boxes as the bee population in the facility increases. But this increase doesn’t reflect the nationwide honeybee population, which saw a dramatic decrease this year, according to University researchers. They are using the facility to look into this decline through genetic research. “This last year was a real shock,” said Gene Robinson, director of the Bee Research Facility and the Institute for Genomic Biology. “(The honeybee popula-
Ill. Senate sends drone surveillance bill to House BY JANELLE O’DEA STAFF WRITER
$320.03 $100 convenience charge $27.75 ticket price $64.69 screening fee $5.59 collection cost
$500 estimated attorney fee for small claims lawsuit
Source: Yu Zhang, international student and senior in Business
$47 screening fee $75 collection cost
Source: Thomas Betz, University student legal attorney
Source: Kim Evans, Ford County circuit clerk
SCOTT DURAND THE DAILY ILLINI
sent an email to passengers who were on Trip 705, asking if they had noticed an incident on the bus, said Hanyu Gu, senior in Business and one of the recipients of the message. Gu said he was sitting two seats behind Leval when he witnessed the scene. He replied to the email: “The attitude of the driver was very rude and arrogant, which made me feel unpleasant. I didn’t
ask the details about the quarrel but I don’t think in any situation the driver should talk to a passenger like that.” But in the statement provided to The Daily Illini, Suburban Express maintained it was not directly informed of the incident. While a lawsuit hasn’t been filed against Leval, other students, who
See SUBURBAN, Page 3A
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The Illinois Senate voted 52-1 in favor of Senate Bill 1587, titled “Drone Surveillance,” on Thursday, passing the legislation regarding unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), or drones, to the House. Champaign County Sheriff Dan Walsh said he will not make any decisions regarding the UAV, which was purchased by his department in 2007, until the law is established. “Right now we’re just going to sit and wait to see what the law and the (Federal Aviation Administration) end up doing,” Walsh said. Senate Bill 1586, proposed by Daniel Biss, D-Evanston, prohibits police or other government agencies from using UAVs unless a judge issues a search warrant authorizing the use of the UAV. Gene Robinson, owner of RP Flight Systems, a Texas-based UAV manufacturing company, said the FAA has been discussing regulations for UAVs over
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the past few years, as well. Because UAVs are a new technology used by police offices and other government agencies, regulations have not been fully developed yet. Robinson’s company manufactured the SkyCamo Spectra purchased by the Champaign County Sheriff’s Office, and Robinson said the FAA’s slow progress in developing legislation has caused him difficulties in his business. “The FAA has a long history of not making their deadlines,” Robinson said. “It’s been a very frustrating situation for manufacturers and also law enforcement officers who want to use the technology, and they cannot.” Walsh said in an email that he and his office purchased the Spectra to assist in search-andrescue missions, mostly, but the UAV could be used for more. He said the UAV could assist in many different situations, such as photographing outdoor crime
See DRONE, Page 3A
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