INDEX
Emory Events Calendar, Page 2
Police Record, Page 2
Crossword Puzzle, Page 8
Staff Editorial, Page 6
Student Life, Page 9
On Fire, Page 11
THE EMORY WHEEL Since 1919
The Independent Student Newspaper of Emory University www.emorywheel.com
Friday, April 19, 2013
Every Tuesday and Friday
‘I WENT TO IFEST’
GRADUATE SCHOOL
Laney Students Vote No Confidence in Wagner By Jordan Friedman Executive Editor
E
James Crissman/Co-Editor
mory Students for Israel and other groups, like Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Life and Challah for Hunger, celebrated Israeli culture at the annual iFest. The event, which took place yesterday afternoon in Asbury Circle, included Israeli food and music, free T-shirts and a camel.
FINANCES
ADMISSIONS
Sequester to Impact Health Care New Tactics By Jordan Friedman Executive Editor
THE SEQUESTER The final story in a series about the sequester ’s effects on Emory.
The sequester, a series of automatic federal spending cuts that took effect March 1, will decrease funding for Emory Healthcare, including estimated reductions of $9 million per year for Emory Hospitals and $2.9 million per year for The Emory Clinic and Specialty Associates. As a result, Emory Healthcare will continue the consolidation and standardization efforts to reduce costs that it has started in the past few years, Emory Healthcare CEO John Fox and CFO James Hatcher wrote in a joint statement to the Wheel. Cameron Taylor, Emory ’s director of federal affairs, detailed the impact of the sequester on the University in a March 5 article in Emory Report. She wrote that the sequester “threatens health care jobs, as well as our ability to provide quality health care and train the next generation of doctors. ”
Nationally, Medicare has undergone a two percent payment cut. Taylor wrote that sequestration threatens Medicare hospital and physician payments “at a time when providers already face a broad range of reimbursement cuts in the coming year. ” The sequester was mandated by the Budget Control Act of 2011, a piece of legislation that resulted from Congress ’ failure to enact legislation to reduce the federal deficit. The spending cuts that took effect on March 1 will impact Emory pri-
SPEAKER
EVENT
See Online: For the full series, visit emorywheel.com.
marily in the areas of financial aid, research funding and health care. “Both Medicare beneficiaries and providers will feel real pain from the cuts, ” said Jeremy Lazarus, the president of the American Medical Association (AMA), in a March 1 AMA statement. “Sequestration will widen the already enormous gap between what Medicare pays and the actual cost of caring for seniors. ” A report released on Sept. 12 by the AMA in collaboration with the American Hospital Association and the American Nurses Association found that the two-percent reduction in Medicare funding would eliminate up to 766,000 health care and related jobs by 2021. Emory Healthcare had already been planning for funding reductions prior to the sequester, Fox and Hatcher wrote. According to Fox and Hatcher, Emory Healthcare has for
See SPENDING, Page 4
Welcome Class of 2017
In Support of Wagner 27 percent, or 117 graduate students
Total Voters 22 percent, or 433 of the approximately 2,000 total A vote of “no confidence ” does not affect Wagner ’s employment position as president, but indicates that the Laney student body feels Wagner is no longer fit to lead. In a separate electronic ballot held last week, College faculty rejected a motion of “no confidence ” in Wagner after five days of voting. “Of course I respect the actions of any of our governance bodies to adopt resolutions and make decisions in what they consider to be in the better interests of Emory, ” Wagner wrote in an email to the Wheel last week, in
See WAGNER, Page 3
As Max Zoberman, a Regular Decision applicant to Emory College from Delray Beach, Fla. rushed to leave work on March 27, he paused as he received an email on his phone alerting him that his admission decision was available. Not wanting to know the verdict before getting behind the wheel, Zoberman waited until he could safely view the decision at home on his laptop. Once he logged into his online OPUS, he needed to read no further
James Crissman/Co-Editor
See OFFICE, Page 3
At an open forum, which took place yesterday with University President James W. Wagner, attendees discussed a range of topics.
By Karishma Mehrotra Asst. News Editor
James Crissman/Co-Editor
Emory community members gathered in Asbury Circle Wednesday morning for a vigil honoring the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings.
Vigil Honors Victims of Boston Tragedy By Rupsha Basu Staff Writer The Office of the Dean of the Chapel and Religious Life hosted a vigil on Wednesday afternoon for those affected by the explosions during the Boston Marathon earlier this week.
Campus ministers and religious advisors helped organize an interfaith service for the somber event. The small crowd of students who attended the event at Asbury Circle from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. cut construction paper outlines of their feet and wrote messages of grief and comfort on them, such as “Tears, sadness
NEWS STUDENTS EXPRESS
OP-EDS HUMANITY APPARENT IN
...
68 percent, or 285 graduate students
Wagner Addresses Race, Governance at Forum
DISAPPOINTMENT IN RESPONSES
In Opposition of Wagner
By Elizabeth Howell Student Life Co-Editor
By Wendy Becker Staff Writer
See AMERICA, Page 5
Laney Graduate School students voted through an electronic ballot Tuesday that they do not have confidence in James W. Wagner as University president. The Graduate Student Council (GSC) passed a bill earlier this month that allowed the vote to take place. Twenty-two percent, or 433 students, of the approximately 2,000 total Laney students voted. On the question — “Do you have confidence in James Wagner as President of Emory University? ” — 68 percent of voters, or 295 students, voted no, while 27 percent, or 117 students, voted yes, and five percent abstained. The results were announced on the GSC website this afternoon. GSC President and fifth-year Laney student Rob Rankin wrote in an email to the Wheel that the voting process went well overall. He said about one percent of voters experienced problems. He added that the voter participation rate was “not surprisingly low, ” noting that he wishes Laney students “would be more involved in the University. ”
THE BREAKDOWN
EVENT
Carter Speaks on State of Democracy Former President Jimmy Carter told a packed audience at the Winship Ballroom yesterday afternoon that democracy in the United States has gone downhill due to the deterioration of American moral standards. Carter delivered his speech, titled “The Expansion of Democracy, ” to approximately 200 students, faculty and visitors. Carter discussed his thoughts on current American politics, recounted experiences abroad and answered questions on human rights policy. Emory ’s Institute for Developing Nations (IDN) sponsored the event. Carter, an Emory University distinguished professor, visits Emory about once a month to give speeches and meet with students and professors. “The United States has fallen from
Volume 94, Issue 46
WAGNER ’S PAGE 4
AFTERMATH
BOSTON BOMBING PAGE 7 ...
and love to you each ” and “Chin up, Boston. ” The messages will be sent to Boston University (Mass.) to use for its prayer services. “The purpose is to give the Emory community the opportunity to reflect
See STUDENTS, Page 4
STUDENT LIFE A
CAPPELLA GROUP DOOLEY NOTED PLACES NATIONALLY ... PAGE 9
University President James W. Wagner discussed a range of topics, from his recent Emory Magazine column to sexual assault prevention and race, during an open forum hosted by the Wheel yesterday evening. The event began with an introduction by the Wheel ’s Editor-in-Chief and College junior Arianna Skibell, who focused the forum on the question, “How will we and President Wagner move us forward as a University? ” During the conversation with Wagner, students tweeted their questions to the Wheel ’s Twitter account and sent their questions to Wheel ’s Facebook. Along with Skibell, the Wheel ’s Managing Editor and College junior Lane Billings and Features Editor and College sophomore Nicholas Bradley moderated the evening ’s conversation. Wagner began the discussion by explaining the controversy surrounding his Emory Magazine column that included the Three-Fifths Compromise. He said he has learned that the compromise is widely understood as the epitome of slavery and therefore, he said, is an entity itself that is hurtful to a large number of people.
SPORTS COMMUNITY RALLIES IN AFTERMATH OF
BOSTON BOMBING ... BACK PAGE
SEE INSIDE Editorial board reaction to Wagner ’s responses at open forum. See Page 6.
Sexual Prevention and Awareness Skibell began the forum session with a focus on sexual assault prevention and awareness. The Wheel reported on Nov. 5 that at that time seven cases of rape had been reported since August. “Are there concrete plans to do something about the elevated number of reports? ” Skibell asked Wagner. Wagner said the question people need to ask is how to deal with these cases — either as a conduct case on par with underage drinking or as another type of case. “Our folks do study the processes that do and don ’t work on campus, ” Wagner said. Wagner said the Conduct Council is a part of the process of dealing with sexual assault. Still, one audience member tweeted to the Wheel that even as a member of the Conduct Council she has never been confronted with a sexual assault conduct case. Skibell also asked, “How do we
See SOME, Page 4
NEXT ISSUE
FACULTY WRITE TO GRIEVANCE COMMITTEE ... Tuesday