As Autism Awareness Month draws to a close, a new bill in the Illinois General Assembly could guarantee equal rights protection to individuals diagnosed with autism.

House Bill 3010 expands the definition of “disability” to include any mental, psychological or developmental disorder such as autism. This guarantees individuals on the autism spectrum receive equal rights to public facilities like gyms and theaters.

State Rep. Daniel Biss (D-Evanston) passed the bill, his first since being elected in November, through the state House on March 29 to protect autism spectrum disorders as disabilities under the Illinois Human Rights Act.

“The diagnoses have made society grapple with the question of how best to care for, support and include this population,” Biss said. “I thought legislation to help work on that would be meaningful.”

Biss said the legislation is especially relevant due to the spike in autism diagnoses during the past 10 to 15 years. About one out of 110 children have an autism spectrum disorder, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website.

“There have been instances of kids getting thrown out of restaurants, or libraries or public transportation, and it’s worth putting this provision legally into the state,” he said.

Raising awareness about autism is extremely important, said Jonathan Slack, executive board member of Autism Speaks U at NU. Sometimes, people will give judgmental looks toward those with the disorder, he said.

“There was a sibling of an autistic child who actually made a button that said, ‘I’m not misbehaving. I’m autistic,'” the Weinberg freshman said. “He got tired of explaining to strangers why his sibling was acting the way he was.”

Slack said autistic individuals struggle to understand the norms of society, likening them to a playbook they never read.

“It creates a barrier for them to interact because they don’t understand the social rules they have to act by,” he said.

Others at the lower end of the spectrum cannot or have difficulty communicating verbally and will never live independently, Slack said.

The root cause of autism is in question by the scientific community.

“We’re kind of just playing a defensive game because autism is growing rapidly, and we’re not sure why that is,” Slack said. “There’s still a lot of research that needs to be done.”

The bill is currently being reviewed by the state senate, where state Sen. Jeff Schoenberg (D-Evanston) is the primary sponsor. The bill hasn’t been assigned to a committee yet, Biss said. If passed, the bill will be sent to the governor’s office for approval.

Regardless of who wins next year’s presidential election, the majority of Americans eligible to vote will not vote for the winning candidate.

Given the intensity of public discourse and the enormous impact the executive branch, low levels of involvement cannot be said to stem from apathy or lack of an incentive. Yet every election cycle, Americans fail to turn up at the polls, allowing for increased centralization of political power among incumbents and the interests that support them.

An electoral process in which so many do not participate is a weakened form of democracy. While voting is accessible to almost all, in reality higher-income Americans are better-represented than our poorer countrymen and women at the polls. According to exit polls taken by CNN after the 2008 elections, people making over $150,000 a year represented 8.3 percent of the country’s population but 12 percent of the voting population. By contrast, those making under $15,000 a year made up 13 percent of the population but merely 6 percent of voters.

This disparity has logistical causes. Though poorer Americans have as much at stake (in the form of federal assistance), they are less likely to vote because of challenges such as taking time off from work and finding affordable transportation on Election Day.

While some would like to increase voter turnout by implementing a system of compulsory suffrage, similar to the one currently in place in Australia, I believe that practice infringes on Americans’ rights to express their disapproval of the political process through non-participation. Instead, an effective way to increase civic participation (an integral aspect of any government calling itself a democracy) would simply be to make Election Day a national holiday.

Making Election Day a national holiday would underscore the importance our society attributes to voting, reminding all that the purpose of the day is to focus on choosing who should represent their values in government. In addition, we need universal Election Day registration to enable more citizens to exercise their voting rights.

If the addition of another holiday to the federal calendar worries some about another loss of productivity, Election Day could be moved to the second Tuesday of November and be combined with Veterans Day. This day might then emphasize the importance of civic involvement while honoring those who have fought to protect our right to it.

Our current system encourages politicians to create legislation based on self-preservation, not equity. Thus, it is no surprise that moneyed interests are best represented in the halls of government. Increasing the accessibility of voting would diversify the contingencies responsible for politicians’ successful elections. A larger electorate would force politicians to govern with interests more representative of those they represent at heart, instead of being governed by the vested interests of a cadre of power-wielders determined to protect the status quo.

Though the wealthy will always exercise undue influence in our electoral process through unlimited campaign donations now equated with “First Amendment free speech,” making Election Day a national holiday would increase popular participation.

As the results of NYU’s student elections come in and Republicans begin to announce their presidential bids, let’s think of how we can strengthen grassroots democracy. This reform would help Americans realize the egalitarian principles codified in our founding documents.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer vetoed a bill on April 18 that would have allowed guns to be carried in public rights of way at public universities and community college campuses.

The Arizona House of Representatives had previously approved the measure in a 33-to-24 vote. The bill, designated as Senate Bill 1467, would have allowed firearms to be carried in the open or concealed in places like campus sidewalks, but not into classrooms. Brewer’s signature was required for the bill to become law, but she called it “poorly written” in her official veto statement.

The Associated Students of the University of Arizona, the Graduate and Professional Student Council and the Faculty Senate all passed resolutions opposing the proposed legislation.

GPSC President Emily Connally said that Brewer made the “right move” by vetoing the bill. Connally explained that the bill contained many flaws, such as a lack of description as to what a public right of way actually was and the fact that the newly written bill did not require constituents to have a concealed weapon permit.

“In all reality, someone could have shot a gun for the very first time on campus,” she said.

More than 150 graduate and professional students told Connally that they called the governor asking to veto the bill or lobbied against the bill at the state capitol in Phoenix. According to Connally, five graduate students told her that they supported the bill.

“She’s right that the bill crossed the line, and (Brewer) made the right decision.” Connally added.

In Brewer’s official statement explaining her veto, she said the bill did not define public rights of way and could have been interpreted to apply to K-12 schools as well as to universities and community colleges.

ASUA President Emily Fritze said that she was “very happy” the governor chose to veto the measure because it showed that she listened to many of her constituents, including the state universities, students and faculty members who expressed concern. Fritze said the veto also showed that student and faculty efforts did not go to waste because organizing, lobbying and being involved in the political process helped in some way.

Elma Delic, board chair of the Arizona Students’ Association, said that although ASA did not take an official stance on the bill, all of the student governments across the state were opposed to it.

“I’m happy that the governor listened to student voice and opinions across the state,” Delic said.

Two bills seeking to outlaw abortions of all kinds are being considered in the Health Committee of the Alabama Legislature.

Rep. John Merrill, R-Tuscaloosa, sponsored House Bills 405 and 409 out of a desire to protect the rights of the unborn, he said.

If passed, the bills would be the first in the nation to shift the legal definition of personhood to the moment of fertilization so that abortions would be deemed a violation of an unborn person’s right to life, Merrill said.

“It brings it down to the basic point of conception,” Merrill said. “This will begin a process to eliminate all abortions.”

No exceptions are made in the legislation for victims of rape or for therapeutic abortions, which are done for the health of pregnant mothers.

Merrill’s inspiration for sponsoring the bill derives from a passage in Psalm 139:13, which reads, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb,” according to the New International Version.

Before the bills are passed, Merrill said they must first exit the Health Committee to be debated on the floor of the Legislature.

Throwing legal roadblocks in the path of accessible abortions has historically led to women with unwanted pregnancies seeking unsafe, illegal abortions to avoid bearing children, said Lisa Lindquist-Dorr, associate professor of history, in an emailed statement.

“Before Roe v. Wade was passed in 1973, it wasn’t uncommon for large hospitals to have entire wards devoted to women suffering the after-effects of botched abortions,” she said. “In 1960s, for example, one hospital in Chicago cared for more than 5,000 women per year who were suffering from sepsis, blood loss, or a perforated uterus as a result of illegal abortions.”

The anti-abortion legislation would place women with unwanted pregnancies in a bind due to the current weakening of the social safety net for mothers in need of government assistance, she said.

“Food stamps, welfare, housing assistance, child care, health care programs are all getting slashed,” Lindquist-Dorr said. “All this concern about the fetus before birth vanishes the instant the baby is born. The same conservatives who want to outlaw abortion also want to eliminate the programs that support single mothers who choose to have their babies.”

Popular forms of contraceptives, such as birth control pills, that impede the fertilization that is safeguarded in the bills would be criminalized as a result of the legislation, she said.

The anti-abortion legislation could also open the door to further intrusions into women’s privacy by encouraging legal measures that target sexually active women for the sake of preserving their potential pregnancies, she said.

“Who would know whether or not she was carrying a fertilized egg?” she asked. “That seems an unwarranted intrusion on the liberties of all women of child-bearing years, and certainly an intrusion that men would never face. It would be, to say the least, inherently discriminatory.”

Despite the intention of the legislation, the right for women to obtain abortions will not be outlawed because of the approval of medically safe abortions from the Supreme Court, which is the final legal authority on the matter, said Bryan Fair, professor of constitutional law.

“Ultimately, it’s not a legislator’s position to define when life begins,” he said. “The Supreme Court has said that the state has the right to protect fetal life, so the state can encourage regulations that make abortions safe, but I don’t think the U.S. will ever go back to a time when women will not have the right to terminate a pregnancy.”

Harvard physicists at the Greiner Lab recently devised a “quantum magnet” that could aid with the development of high-temperature superconductors and quantum computers and may thereby expand the possibilities for future material science engineering.

“The idea is then we provide some feedback—by studying the matter from a fundamental microscopic perspective—to the people who actually do real material science,” Physics Research Assistant Waseem S. Bakr said. “We help them choose which materials might be suitable candidates for things that might have applications in technology.”

The bigger objective, said Post-Doctoral Fellow in Physics Jonathan Simon, is to “understand real materials that are too complicated to simulate on real computers.”

The quantum magnet is governed by quantum mechanics rather than classical mechanics, according to Bakr, which enables particles to exist in superpositions—meaning they can exist in multiple states simultaneously. Bakr and Simon emphasized the application of the quantum magnet in high-temperature superconductors, which allow the transfer of energy without dissipation.

“The magnet’s ability to exist in multiple states at a time makes it invaluable to constructing the high temperature superconductors,” Simon said. “The classical picture of this has been well-developed and understood over the last 100 years but, recently, we’ve been reaching a limit where you need to see non-classical correlations and entanglements—the concept of existing in multiple states at one time—between the electrons to understand the behaviors of the materials.”

Although quantum phase transitions have been observed before in 2001, this magnet spurred the first observation of a quantum phase transition in a magnetic system with cold atoms, according to Bakr. While traditional phase transitions occur when temperature is altered, quantum phase transitions result when other physical parameters of a system are changed.

“A difficulty we encountered was reaching a limit where thermal fluctuations aren’t a problem,” Simon said. “Thermal fluctuations can drive phase transitions and they can, more importantly for us, destroy the initial magnet.”

Although Simon said there was a lot of controversy over whether temperatures this cold would be accessible, the researchers were able to reach temperatures that approximated 100 trillionths of a degree Kelvin.

“In the end, we want to make new materials, and it turns out that ultra-cold atoms can be very good simulators of the same physics that happens in the real material,” Bakr said, adding that the frigid temperatures allow scientists to more closely control the parameters of the system.

The development of the magnet should also aid the larger efforts of the physics community to develop a quantum computer, which can be much faster than a classical computer at certain types of computations.

Markus Greiner, senior author of the research paper and Associate Professor of Physics, is out of town and could not be reached for comment.

A union representing nearly 12,000 academic student employees throughout the UC system filed an unfair labor practice charge against the University of California Friday afternoon, more than six weeks after union members at UC Berkeley filed 63 grievances and a formal information request over a campus benefits decentralization policy.

A trustee from the United Auto Workers Local 2865 – a union which represents graduate student instructors, readers and tutors systemwide – filed the charge with California’s Public Employment Relations Board on behalf of the union, alleging that the university made unilateral changes to its commitment to fund fee remissions and health benefits for union members, failed to meet over a campus benefits decentralization plan and violated the union’s collective bargaining agreement.

UC spokesperson Steve Montiel declined to comment on the charge.

Specifically, the unfair labor practice charge addresses multiple information requests that union members submitted to the Labor Relations division of the campus Human Resources Office Feb. 28, over a campus benefits decentralization policy that was implemented April 1.

“From February 28, 2011 and continuing to this date the employer has refused to provide the information requested despite multiple requests made to the employer,” the charge states.

According to the charge, the union submitted information requests on Feb. 28, April 12 and April 19.

Though the union members and campus labor relations representatives previously had difficulty choosing a mutually agreeable time and neutral location to meet to discuss the grievances filed over the policy, they are slated to meet May 6 in Sproul Hall.

One production company is looking to merge MTV’s The Real World, NBC’s Friday Night Lights and a little bit of Jersey Shore into one to highlight the Southeastern Conference football life of students.

Atlanta-based Crazy Legs Production Company hopes to feature six or seven students from major universities in a reality TV show that follows them for the six-month football season.

The show, Saturday Night Lights, would highlight a group of die-hard students from the start of practice to the culmination of bowl season.

Tom Cappello, executive producer, said his idea sparked from a straightforward strategy.

“Plain and simple, we love Southern football,” he said. “And the rest of the world needs to see inside the passion of Southern college football fans. Sports networks have done feature stories about football in the South, but no one has seen the season through the eyes of the fans.”

The show would film their home lives, tailgating, pre and post game.

Crazy Legs has started casting and hope to film in the 2011 football season. The company is generating interest through their Facebook page and email.

Cappello said the company is looking for passion in submissions. He said there is a lot of competition.

“Any SEC or ACC school would say they have the best fans and this is your chance to prove it,” he said. “This is your chance to settle the argument once and for all. What are your lives like outside of football?  What will we see when football season starts. Don’t hold back.”

Stephanie Skipper, a senior majoring in marketing, said she thinks the show would be a hit.

“I think it’s funny,” she said. “When it all is said and done, I don’t know if I would actually try out for the show. But I think it would be interesting to see how the production company goes about presenting each college.”

Cappello said the company is currently in discussions with a major cable network. The network wants to see video of the cast.

“We are compiling the craziest, most passionate fans we can find until we find the right mix,” he said.  “We hope to have cameras rolling for the 2011 season and airings to happen sometime in the end of 2011 and the beginning of 2012.”

Cappello said he won’t know if the students will be paid until the series is cast. He also is still determining casting and when students can start applying to participate.

Robert Fender, a senior majoring in business, who will also be returning in the fall to complete his degree, said the show does not appeal to him.

“I just think it would be boring,” he said. “Why would I want to watch on TV what I can I step outside of my house and live and breathe on gameday?”

Henry Thomas, a junior majoring in journalism, also said the show does not appeal to him.

“All it sounds like to me is a bunch of girls getting too drunk to even make it to the games,” Thomas said. “If they want to highlight SEC football fans, they should talk to die hards, not some college kid who knows nothing about the sport.”

Jon Gruden said Friday that Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor has “dominated college football” and could make it in the NFL.

“I have met Terrelle Pryor, had a chance to watch him,” Gruden told the media after speaking at the 80th annual Ohio State Football Clinic. “This is a freak of nature. This guy is really something with the ball in his hands.”

While ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. has made it clear he does not see Pryor making the transition to pro quarterback and that Pryor instead would make a better tight end at the next level, Gruden, Kiper’s colleague, disagreed.

“Terrelle Pryor can run and he can throw and he’s a hell of a competitor,” Gruden said. “You might have to cater your offense, to a degree, towards his strengths, but I think this guy can develop his passing.

“His win-loss record speaks for itself. He’s not playing against the choir boys. This is a guy that’s dominated college football.”

Despite Pryor’s success on the Buckeye squad, Gruden said, the team won’t be in too much trouble for the first five games of next season, during which Pryor is suspended for selling memorabilia.

“They’ve got a hot shot guy in here from Dayton. No. 5 is all I know,” Gruden said with his trademark grin. “Braxton (Miller) is his name. He’s pretty darn good too.”

Pryor has been sidelined with a foot injury during the spring, and Gruden said he thinks it may help the Buckeyes’ quarterback dilemma in the long run.

“It’s really a blessing in disguise that Terrelle’s foot is being rehabbed,” he said. “I think the challenge is to settle in on two guys that are going to take the majority of reps early in training camp and see who can lead this offense.”

Gruden, who won Super Bowl XXXVII as the coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, arrived in Columbus on Wednesday and spent the latter part of the workweek watching and studying OSU’s football team. He was the keynote speaker at Friday’s clinic, where high school and college coaches gathered to take advice from Gruden and other master coaches, including former OSU coaches Earle Bruce and John Cooper.

Gruden is a commentator on ESPN’s “Monday Night Football,” and said he is helping coach his son’s high school team right now but would like to return to coaching full time. He didn’t specify when or in what capacity.

“You miss the players. You miss victory,” Gruden said. “Those are feelings you can’t duplicate.”

The Nintendo Wii has definitely been a cultural phenomenon and its place in pop culture is secured. The only problem is that its technology is over 10 years old.

How is Nintendo going to be able to continue to compete with the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3? It all comes down to two words: Project Café.

Project Café is the codename for Nintendo’s newest console that Game Informer leaked the first details of last week.

Since then, other inside sources have informed other members of the press the details behind Nintendo’s new console.

The first information to come out about the console is that it will be more powerful than the Xbox 360 and PS3. It will sport a processor similar to the Xbox 360 coupled with a graphics card that is more powerful than the PS3 and Xbox 360.

This is a smart move on Nintendo’s part as it lets them be competitive with the current market while keeping costs down. The rumored parts contained in the new console will already be a few years old once Project Café launches in 2012. This allows Nintendo to sell the console for a competitive price and still make a profit on each machine sold. They used this same strategy with the Wii.

The most exciting information coming from developers who already have development kits is the controller. The controller will sport all the usual trappings of a standard controller (i.e. two analog sticks, two sets of triggers, eight buttons), but it will also have a 6.2 inch touch screen embedded in the front of the controller.

Alongside that, the controller will have a camera and double as a sensor bar for use with Wii remotes.

The controller will act as a streaming device in that it will allow the console to stream game content wirelessly to the controller for display on the screen.

Nintendo has played with this concept in the past with the GameBoy Advance link cable for the GameCube. This allowed for additional information to be displayed on the GBA adding extra capabilities to the game.

As an example, imagine a “Legend of Zelda” game on Project Café that uses the controller’s screen for item management and for the display of maps. This would free up the actual television screen allowing for deeper immersion.

According to reports that emerged Thursday, Project Café will also allow the use of Wii remotes or something similar alongside the new controller. This would create a dynamic cooperative experience with one player controlling the game with the Wii remote while another uses the tablet controller to help the player.
Unlike most rumors, these have been confirmed by multiple inside sources.

Expect Nintendo to formally announce the console’s existence in late April/Early May. It’s already been confirmed that Nintendo will show off the new console in its entirety at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in June.

With Sony and Microsoft not expected to release new consoles until 2014, this allows Nintendo to recapture the hardcore gamer for at least a little while before the other console manufacturers release new machines.

I for one am extremely excited about this new console. Nintendo has never let me down in regards to their console experiences. I have high hopes that they will be able to recapture the hearts of hardcore gamers they disappointed with the Wii.

CLAREMONT, Calif. –– Vanderbilt University received an “A” rating and was one of the top five universities recognized in a recently released analysis of environmental and social sustainability transparency.

Using data collected during the spring of 2010 from university websites and other voluntary reporting initiatives, the Roberts Environmental Center (REC) at Claremont McKenna College analyzed the 50 top national universities. The study examines voluntary environmental and social intent; reporting, and performance by national universities utilizing criteria such as financial transparency, institutional vision, environmental policies and management; community engagement; air emissions reporting; recycling; utilities management; employee safety; green building and green purchasing.

Student researchers working on the report noted that large universities in the United States have “dramatically increased the extent to which they address sustainability, since last scored by the Roberts Center three years ago.”

The Sustainability and Environmental Management Office (SEMO) at Vanderbilt has worked hard to communicate Vanderbilt’s current environmental performance and management system to not only the Vanderbilt community but also the local and national community as well.

“We have a robust online presence, including our SustainVU website and Facebook page, ThinkOne Energy Conservation website, Environmental Health and Safety website and our publicly available Greenhouse Gas inventories and Environmental Commitment Statement,” said Andrea George, director of SEMO. “This report acknowledges our objectives as well as our results and the extent to which they have been shared with the Vanderbilt community and the broader public.”

Vanderbilt performs particularly well in categories that evaluate environmental and social sustainability intent. University policies and commitments to environmental protection, diversity, environmentally and socially responsible procurement, and employee safety helped propel Vanderbilt to being the No. 1 ranked university in the country in “environmental intent” and “social intent” factors, receiving a perfect score of 100 for social intent.

“Many university websites represent the institution as being responsible when it comes to sustainability, but oftentimes the materials and information on the website do not provide evidence of that, therefore giving them lower scores,” conclude the study’s researchers.