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Show Wednesday, February 17, 2010 TH E DAILY UTAH CHRONICLE www.dailyutahchronicle.com The University of Utah's Independent Student Voice Since 1890 Vol. 119 1 No. 80 I ©2010 Health care opt-out bill progresses Jake Hibbard STAFF WRITER A bill drafted in an attempt to make Utah exempt from any federal health care reforms passed a legislative committee with a 4-I vote Tuesday. Rep. Carl Wimmer, R-Herriman, who is sponsoring House Bill 67, made his case to the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, after victory in the House, that Utah needs to stand up against the federal government and protect state rights. egislative The bill is making ession progress, despite critics' arguments that it would endanger Utah's federal Medicare funding or that it would be shot down because it might violate the U.S. Constitution. H.B. 67 states that citizens and businesses in Utah would not have to adhere to any federal health care laws the federal government passes unless the Utah State Legislature and governor approve them. "Under no circumstances will we be forced and allow our citizens to be forced to have (mandatory health care) Sustainability office begins initiative review Katie Harrington STAFF WRITER The U's Office of Sustainability began its review Friday of potential campus projects that qualify for funding from the Sustainable Campus Initiative Fund, which makes use of a new student fee that's been collected the past two semesters. More than to proposals are up to receive the funding. The proposals, which were due Friday, include switching rotary evaporators, decreasing the amount of energy vending machines use and modifying the U's solar panels. Last spring, the Associated Students of the University of Utah and Board of Trustees approved plans for SCIF, which collects and allocates money to fund campus sustainability projects, said Marie Martin, outreach and education coordinator. Whitney Williams, the SCIF coordinator, said the program is designed to give students the opportunity to imple- See REFORM Page 3 Horrifyingly great See INITIATIVE Page 3 Court protest to support DeChristopher "My goal is to make this event kind of the Birmingham of the As the more than yearlong climate movement." fight over the fate of U student Hase and other members Tim DeChristopher nears its of Peaceful Uprising, along finale, supporters of his envi- with other environmentalronmentalist cause are pre- ists from across the nation, paring their last battle on his will protest outside of the behalf. Salt Lake City federal court"It will be fun," said Dillon house during DeChristopher's Hase, a senior in political sci- trial, which might be postence who—like DeChristo- poned. DeChristopher was pher, a senior in economics—is indicted last year for allegedly a member of the environmentalist group Peaceful Uprising. See TRIAL Page 3 STAFF WR TER states unless specifically allocated to the federal government in the Constitution. Sen. Patricia Jones, D-Salt Lake City, was the only committee member to vote against the bill, which she described as "clearly unconstitutional." She argued that the threat of the bill being challenged on Constitutional ment sustainable projects on campus. Any U student or faculty member could submit an application for the funding, which is then reviewed by an allocations committee comprising eight faculty, staff and student members, Williams said. Williams said this application pool's proposals came from a variety of programs, including chemistry; graduate environmental engineering; political science; parks, recreation and tourism; and city and metropolitan planning. "The applications are judged on their environmental benefit, creativity and visibility, the educational component and possible financial payback," Williams said. Myron Willson, director of the office of sustainability, said SCIF awards two types of funding to projects. Money from the Revolving Loan Fund will be given to projects that generate monetary return as well as reduce the U's Hikari Loftus discusses the fee's effectiveness >> Jake Hibbard implemented on them," Wimmer said. Attached to the bill is a legislative review amendment that points out that the bill might violate the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which states that federal law supersedes state law. However, the amendment also includes the reason why H.B. 67 could be protected by the loth Amendment, which reserves all rights to the RICHARD PAYSON/The Daily Utah Chronicle 6 "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" will be coming to the U this month. The Babcock Theatere will host the show. U ties MIT for starting businesses Michael McFall NEWS EDITOR The U is now ranked first in the country, along with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in creating new companies from its research-based inventions, and the U did it with a lot less funding. The accomplishment is based on the latest survey of the Association of University Technology Managers, which ranks more than 150 public and private research institutions throughout the country. In a case of David versus Goliath, the U ranked equal to MIT by creating 20 new companies in fiscal year 2008, even though MIT receives five times more research funding—sI.3 billion—compared to the U's estimated $273 million. The U's funding is just slightly less than the average amount of research funding the survey's ranked universities received. "We've always been very efficient," said Kathy Hajeb, operations director for the U's Technology Venture Development, which helps oversee U research and inventions. On average, U.S. universities create three companies, according to a U press release. The University of Florida and California Institute of Technology followed the U and MIT with 14 companies. "This is the U's first year with a firstplace ranking, which was a surprise," said Jack Brittain, vice president for Technology Venture Development, in a statement. The U ranked above even prestigious institutions such as Columbia, Michigan and Johns Hopkins universities. "It was a surprise because this ranking is based on 2008 data when the U's operation was still growing and implementing new programs," Brittain said. Brittain credits the entrepreneurial culture of the U for its success. It's that entrepreneurial culture environment that allows faculty such as Mario Capecchi to win a Nobel Prize for his research, Brittain said in a statement. "If we don't have faculty and inventors, we have nothing," Hajeb said. The U also credits the work of its Technology Commercialization Office, which has been patenting U inventions and turning them into cornpanies since the office's inception in 2005. "They issue patents and copyrights to protect (faculty) ideas," Hajeb said. "Then they license those technologies into companies outside the U, or go through the process of starting a new company." The new companies tend to involve energy, medicine, software and nanotechnology. m.mcfall@ chronicle.utah.edu Canadian prof discusses 'amazing drop' Panel to analyze judicial Deborah Rafferty STAFF WRITER JULIAN GOMEZ/The Daily Utah Chronicle George Homsy, a professor at the University of British Columbia, spoke at the Warnock Engineering building Tuesday. Homsy's speech was titled "Interfacial Fluid Mechanics: New Twists on an old Subject." George Homsy, a professor of mathematics and mechanical engineering at the University of British Columbia, spoke Tuesday about the mechanics of interfacial fluids. An interface is a barrier created between two liquids that cannot be dissolved or mixed together, Homsy said. "(This research) establishes very general principals and applying them in a lot of different contexts," Homsy said. One area of his research involved making chemical mixtures, called emulsions, that can be directly applied to daily See LECTURE Page 3 discretion for sentencing Michael McFall NEWS EDITOR Law Symposium Time: Thursday 10:30 a.m. An upcoming U symposium to 1:30 p.m. will address a now five-yearPlace: The S.J. Quinney old Supreme Court decision College of Law's Sutherland that gave judges more freeMoot Courtroom dom in sentencing criminals. During his time as a federal The event is free and open judge, Paul Cassell, a U law to the public. professor, was vocally critical of imposing mandatory miniSource: The .5.1Quinney College mum sentences on convicted of Law criminals, with no concern for whether the defendant's circumstances called for a sen- symposium titled "Judicial tence adjustment, such as the Discretion: A Look Back and possibility of a lighter sentence. a Look Forward Five Years AfOn Thursday, Cassell and ter Booker." The panelists will a group of other judges and law professors will host a See LAW Page 3 |
