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Show DAILY UTAH CHRONICLE Monday, March 1, 2010 3 Engineers show off technology Pension reforms pass Amended bill gives retirees more options to potential science students Michael McFall NEWS EDITOR The College of Engineering plans to entice young minds with its latest engineering and computer science inventions tonight to help attract them to the field. The U's goal in hosting the event tonight is to increase the number of engineering and computer science graduates enrolled at the U by at least i8o per year, especially wornen, who are greatly outnumbered in the field and in the U's engineering courses, administrators said. The college's enrollment has steadily increased by at least 20 students a year since at least 2005, but each year there are always about three times as many men as there are women, according to the U Office of Budget and Institutional Analysis. The attendees will have the opportunity to see some of the inventors' latest work, such as a magnetic oil that seems to defy gravity, wire- less devices that can track people who are moving behind solid walls like Batman's sonar technology in "The Dark Knight," a safety belt for mobile phones and more. "High school students often don't realize that within a few years, they can be inventors working on leading-edge technologies," event organizer Peter Jensen, a professor in the U computing department, said in a statement. "Our goal for 'Meet an Inventor Day' is to have our faculty and students show the younger students what they can accomplish: that with a little vision, a career in invention is within their reach." The college is hosting the event tonight as part of a $2 million National Science Foundation grant the U received. The grant is meant to encourage high school and community college students to make the move to university-level engineering and computer science classes. There is also a service-learning program component to the grant that requires U students to prepare some of the hands-on engineering lessons and demonstrations for the high school students tonight. m.mcfall@ chronicle.utah.edu Meet an Inventor Day The College of Engineering demonstrates its latest technological innovations. Pizza will be provided at 5:30 p.m., with presentations starting at 6 p.m. The event is free to the public, but registration opens at 5:15 p.m. and is recommended. Visit eng.utah. edu/inventor to sign up. Time: Today, 5:30 p.m. to 8 P.m. Place: The Warnock Engineering Building I want to ride my bicycle Kendal Angell STAFF WRITER State employees are bracing for retirement and pension reforms that, as of last week, have passed all of their major legislative hurdles. Originally, Senate Bill 43 withdrew pension from state employees who are rehired after they retire, and Senate Bill 63 was set to establish a new system after July 1, 2011 that commits 8 percent of state payroll to retirement for new employees. The two bills were conceived to combat the state's deficit from the market crash of 2008. It's a deficit of $6.5 billion in unfunded liability that would take at least $4 million a year with a 4 percent growth rate for 25 years to pay off, according to analysts for the bills. Lawmakers tweaked both bills in response to concerns over the retirement and pension reforms. Under the now-amended S.B. 43, retirees returning to work will have the option of retaining their pension instead of having it be placed on hold. However, they would not receive the added enhancement of the retirement benefits that would accompany a suspension of their pension. "The main thing was to make options available for the retiree," said Rep. Stephen Sandstrom, R-Orem, who made the request to change the bill to the new version. Lawmakers also responded to a widespread concern that S.B. 63 would reduce the pension of current employees. "If you spent a day, or any time in your history working for the state government, you come into the original system you're in," said Sen. Dan Liljenquist, R-Davis. He said the bill is only for people who have never contracted with the state or local government, and it applies only to those who are hired after July I, 2011. He then reiterated that "the first goal of pension reform is to ensure that we can meet ioo percent of the pension obligations we've made." An amendment was also made to S.B. 63 at the request of Rep. Bradley Last, R-St. George, over a broad concern from a number of cities about how much they would have to pay the state if the bill passed. Each city wanted to ensure that it was paying toward its specific rate based on its own system, instead of an overall broad rate for the state, and also establish that any city could give additional retirement benefits if it would like to. The amended bill passed, satisfying each of the concerns, including language that ensures cities pay their own rate. The public input in response to the changes was divided, as sentiment has been from the beginning. Tom Hardy, of the Utah League of Cities and Towns and city manager of Bountiful, said, "The bills you see today...are in our opinion, necessary medicine in the right dose at the right time. Now, do we like taking the medicine? No. Do we believe it is the right medicine for the illness affecting the retirement system? Yes." He said the system cannot recover on its own without the "medicine," and recommends full support of the bills, concluding with his belief that "it is a beneficial long-term solution." Other input did not appear to be as optimistic, such as that of Capt. Ryan Miller of the Salt Lake City Fire Department, a state department with a stake in the lawmakers' decision. "So many things are happening with this bill, and there could be some very serious consequences in the future...and we may not have this disease," he said, making reference to the earlier comments by Hardy. He said he is concerned that cutting retirement and benefits will have an adverse effect on the applicant pool of the fire department. The bills passed the House on Friday and will be sent back to the Senate for final approval. k.angell@ chronicle.utah.edu Senate Bill 43 Sponsor: Sen. Ross Romero RICHARD PAYSON/The Daily Utah Chronicle Former U students and longtime friends, Michael Bossi, Joe Bown, Brad Roggman and Ryan Evans ride their longboard-style bikes through campus on their way downtown. The group rode TRAX up to the hospital to start their trip. SEXUALITY continued from Page 1 youth are the product of alienation and internalized bullying, behaviors that don't have to be inevitable, Huebner said. "These numbers indicate the failure, if you will, of our schools and our families to take care of our children," Rosario said. Members of the Utah Pride Center were present to show support and reiterate that there are resources available. The Pride Center offers a number of programs to the community, including the support group Tolerant Intelligent Network of Teens, Genderlandan event specifically for transgender youth—and Queer Prom, a high-school style dance for the community. The U now has its own group of researchers within the psychology department to explore sexuality and provide further insight into issues such as gay-related stress, said Don Strassberg, a U professor of psychology. "Those of us who primarily do research on the negative impact have the luxury of doing the research, publishing the research, talking about the research and getting to limit what we do to that," Strassberg said. "In contrast, there are those on a daily basis who have to deal with the kinds of issues that we are researching." Advocates believe that getting information out to the public is the best way to create change in the lives of lesbian, gay and bisexual youth. "This is a crisis," said Shannon Minter, legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights and the keynote speaker. "It is an urgent, serious problem. We are letting people get destroyed, and thrown away and treated as absolutely worthless. I can't imagine anybody could listen to those statistics and not feel like something must be done to make life less damaging for those young people." t.thorne@ chronicle.utah.edu Description: Someone who is rehired as a state employee after at least a year of retirement can receive a type of pension and forfeit certain benefits, or earn RICHARD PAYSON/The Daily Utah Chronicle Margaret Rosario, professor of psychology at the City University of New York, talks about the statistics of how lesbians, gays and bisexuals have higher suicide and depression numbers. ir NEED FUNDING FOR A r BENNION JEWELERS le ;1 1,0611i.i Your engagement spec allsts" 107 S. Main Salt Lake City 801.364.3667 Students, faculty, & staff receive 20% discount www.bennionjewelers.com LSTUDENT PUBLICATION? Student publications are eligible to receive funding from the Student Media Council for the 2010-2011 academic year. Contact Jake Sorensen, Business Manager, at jake.sorensen@utah.edu to receive an application. Completed applications are due Wednesday, March 10, 2010 before 4:00 pm. STUDENT MEDIA COUNCIL THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH |