The Brown Daily Herald F riday, S eptember 5, 2008
Volume CXLIII, No. 64
Damaged line stops water service By Franklin Kanin News Editor
Wednesday morning, Max Ashby ’12 woke up at 10 a.m. and began his morning routine. But when he got to the shower, the water had been turned off. He went back at noon, and again, he was not able to make use of the shower. Ashby was not alone, as water service for 28 buildings on campus were turned off yesterday between shortly after 8:30 a.m. and shortly after noon. The water had to be turned off when contractors working on the Utility Infrastructure Renewal Project damaged an underground domestic water line on Waterman Street, said Paul Dietel, director of project management for Facilities Management. Providence Water was called in to make repairs to the line, and in order to do so effectively, it had to turn off a water main that provides water service for various University buildings, including Faunce House, Hope College, the Rockefeller, John Hay and John Carter Brown libraries and buildings on the Main Green. Dietel said he thought the contractors working on the project and Providence Water did a good job dealing with the situation and getting the water back online as efficiently as possible. While Dietel said it is not uncommon for utilities to sustain damage during construction, this particular problem was unusual. “I can’t remember the last time something like this happened. Not an everyday occurrence, I would say.” Showers were not the only amenities shut down due to the lack of water. The Blue Room was one casualty, and the workers had to scramble to keep it running, said Ken Richardson, a food service worker there. Richardson said they had to get coffee from the Sharpe Refectory, use pre-made sandwiches from Josiah’s and close down the deli line. “It was embarrassing. We couldn’t serve certain things, couldn’t wash our hands, so we had to use other means,” Richardson said, noting the use of hand sanitizer and trips to the Ratty bathroom. “It was terrible.” At the Rock, the bathrooms were out of service. Senior Library Specialist Sue Gervais, who was at the library while the water was down, said they had to use the facilities across the street at Horace Mann. Gervais, who called it “very inconvenient,” said she did not use the bathroom while it was down, opting to stay at the Rock rather than cross the street for those. But Gervais said the library, including the cafe, remained open despite the shut down. “I was able to get coffee. I think we were able to get it all poured before it happened,” she said. “We got all the important stuff.” Ashby was not discouraged by the lack of water. Instead, he walked to Morriss Hall on Pembroke campus to use those showers. “I might start using those regularly anyways,” he joked, referring to the private showers in that dorm.
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CAMPUS NEWS
More EMS patients to be sent to hospital
First-years start off with few EMSed
Night and weekend calls affected by state regulation
cal assistance, they evaluate that person on site and decide if he should be treated there, brought to Health Services or transported to a hospital. In instances involving alcohol abuse, EMS transports the patient to the hospital 43 percent of the time, Sanderson said. Twenty to 30 percent of the time, EMS judges the student does not need
Brown Emergency Medical Services received three calls during Orientation this year, two of which required transportation to a hospital, said Amy Sanderson, manager of safety and emergency medical services. These numbers were similar to those from Orientation last year, Sanderson said, and they represent a decrease from 2006, when there were nine transports to a hospital over the same time period. The change reflects an overall decrease in the number of EMS transports required in recent years for large-scale campus events like Spring Weekend and Sex Power God. “The number of alcohol-related calls have been dropping across the board,” Sanderson said. Before 2007, Orientation had been six days long, beginning with move-in on a Wednesday and courses beginning on the following Tuesday, Vice President for Campus Life and Student Services Margaret Klawunn said. It was shortened last year to only three days. Though there were various reasons for shortening Orientation, Klawunn said, one reason was that the longer Orientation left a lot of free time in the schedule that freshmen spent drinking. Edward Wheeler, director of health services, said he thought that changes in Health Services staffing over the weekend may have also contributed to the lower number of transports.
continued on page 4
— Cameron Lee
By Colin Chazen Senior Staff Writer
Emergency Medical Services has begun transporting patients to Rhode Island Hospital on nights and weekends in compliance with a newly enforced but long-standing state regulation. The Rhode Island division of EMS informed the University in July that it would start enforcing the regulation, which mandates that ambulances transport passengers to a facility staffed by a physician, administrators said. Health Services is staffed by nurses 24 hours a day, but doctors are only on hand during working hours. “During the day, ambulances will operate as they always have,” said Margaret Klawunn, vice president for campus life and student services. “On nights and weekends, if EMS examines a patient and sees they require further care, they would have to be transported to a hospital.” In response to the regulation, the University plans to clarify EMS’s policies that decide if a student can refuse care and issue a written appeal to the state requesting the regulation be removed, Klawunn said. While the regulation has been on the books for years, the Rhode Island Division of EMS only recently decided to enforce it following an internal audit at the agency, Safety and EMS Manager
Chris Bennett/ Herald File Photo
Thirty to 40 percent of students treated for alcohol abuse were previously kept at Health Services. Those students will now be sent to Rhode Island Hospital.
Amy Sanderson said. Prior to the enforcement of this regulation, those needing only minor care or observation were taken to Health Services, Sanderson said. The new regulation will not change the way EMS decides how much medical attention patients need, only where they transport them to, Sanderson added. Currently, when EMS receives a call for a student requiring medi-
br e a k it d o wn n o w
Survey: seniors’ confidence in job prospects down By Scott Lowenstein Metro Editor
Min Wu / Herald
Gerardo Tejada ‘09 performs at the Activities Fair Thursday night.
Sayonara Trattoria The long-running Trattoria line in Sharpe Refectory has been replaced by ‘Tastes of the World’
www.browndailyherald.com
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Gold-digging strippers Tara Schuster‘s ’08 play “Be Brave Anna” was in the New York InterARTS & CULTURE national Fringe Festival
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OPINIONS
American college students aren’t feeling great about life after black gowns and graduation parties. A survey released yesterday by Right Management, a Philadelphiabased employment consulting firm, found that 72 percent of the 236 “recent and soon-to-be college graduates” expect trouble in finding their “ideal job,” up from 59 percent in 2007. Only 26 percent think their ideal job will be “somewhat to very easy” to obtain, down from 37 percent last year. Perhaps reflecting that concern, members of the senior class converged at the Career Development Center’s annual event for careerrelated resources yesterday. While the event is meant to benefit seniors as an early reminder of the potentially stressful job-search season, the members of the senior class who attended the event were on edge in a crowded Salomon 101. The event, led by CDC senior
practical in tibet Rachel Forman ‘09 thinks Tibetan activists should trade in their idealism for pragmatism
195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island
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SPORTS
associate director Barbara Peoples and senior assistant director Ron Foreman, had a distinctly optimistic tone, but the anxiety about finding a job in a weakened economy and graduating with increasing college debt was palpable. When Peoples asked the seniors in attendance if they felt stressed about future job prospects, more than half of the hands in the auditorium went up. Anxiety about post-college plans is nothing new, but the poor economy and lack of money in academic and non-profit work were on the minds of some seniors attending the CDC meeting. Lily Axelrod ’09, a public policy and Latin American studies concentrator who was at the CDC meeting, said she worries about finding a meaningful job that still provides essential benefits like health care. “It’s partially the anxiety of ... not having a firm path, and part of it has to do with the economy,” Axelrod said about her employment angst. She hopes to work for a non-profit or continued on page 4
meet the coaches Say hello to some of the new members of Brown’s coaching staffs
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