STUDENT LIFE
THE INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER OF WASHINGTON UNIVERSIT Y IN ST. LOUIS SINCE 1878 Forum is packed! Check out what your fellow students think about everything from Hurricane Katrina to Happy Hour. Page 6.
Looking for an offbeat way to spend the weekend? Look no further than our Pulse calendar—we’ve got you covered. Page 2.
VOLUME 127, NO. 6
Into the NFL? Sports debuts this season’s NFL picks feature, “WU do you pick?” The pun never stops with these guys. Page 10.
Into organic food? Sarah Kliff reports on the search for an organic meal on campus.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2005
See Page 5. WWW.STUDLIFE.COM
B-School launches new competition By Troy Rumans Contributing Reporter The first-ever St. Louis Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation Competition kicked off Thursday night with a celebration and a conversation with University City Loop social entrepreneur Joe Edwards. The competition, sponsored by the Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies and the Youthbridge Association, revolves around the rising concept of social entrepreneurship, or the idea of taking innovations and success in the business world and applying them for the benefit of mankind. Teams composed of undergraduates, graduate students and community members will submit project plans to be reviewed by a panel of experts for their merit. The best concepts will receive $65,000 in funding to implement their ideas.
Kenneth Harrington, managing director of the Skandalaris Center, hopes that this competition will help to recognize the efforts of such beneficial projects in ways that were previously impossible. “One of the reasons that we’re kicking off the competition is that we feel that not all of the current approaches to social problems have benefited from the level of innovation...the way the commercial industry has,” said Harrington. He hopes to foster the pairing of successful open-market methods from the past with a social consciousness for aiding those in need. Joe Edwards, owner and developer of Blueberry Hill, the Tivoli and the Pageant, exemplifies the concept of the social entrepreneur. “One of [Edwards’] main goals is to rejuvenate the Loop,” said Harrington, “We think that’s an interesting
story.” Some of Edwards’ most recent projects can be seen in the Walk of Stars on the Loop—originally planned for display in a museum—and his latest role as president of the nonprofit Loop Trolley Company, whose mission is to restore trolley service between the Loop and the Missouri History Museum in Forest Park. Edwards lives by the mantra, “In order for my business to get better, it’s necessary for the neighborhood to get better.” Harrington also noted that the Washington University student body exhibits a strong desire for sociallyminded business ventures, and he hopes that students will join the competition. “When you look at the social consciousness of the undergraduate students, it is likely that not only will they participate, but [that they will] bring invaluable
insight,” said Harrington. A recent example of success can be seen in last year’s winner of the Olin Cup, the Blessing Basket project, which works with weavers in less affluent nations to bring their baskets to the U.S. market. The profits from the venture are then sent back to those countries to fund public works projects. Harrington hopes that a similarly successful project comes out of the competition. A key aspect of the competition stems from the involvement of all the disciplines found in the University. “It’s a collaborative team sport that spans all disciplines, all ages, and different degree levels,” said Harrington. “A lot of learning happens outside the classroom, between the people involved in the activity.” The Skandalaris Center works to foster an entrepre-
RACHIT PATEL | STUDENT LIFE
Joe Edwards, the owner of several different venues, including the Pageant, Tivoli Theatre, Pin-Up Bowl and Blueberry Hill, spoke Thursday See COMPETITION, page 4 night about his own entrepreneurship experiences in the St. Louis area.
MetroLink reopens pedestrian bridge
ENCOUNCIL CHALK PARTY
Project expected to be complete within one year
DAVID BRODY | STUDENT LIFE
DAVID HARTSTEIN | STUDENT LIFE
Construction on MetroLink’s Cross County Expansion continues along Forest Park Parkway north of campus. By Brad Nelson News Editor
DAVID BRODY | STUDENT LIFE
Agents of EnCouncil finished “chalking” Bowles Plaza at about 1:00 a.m. Thursday morning.
A pedestrian bridge linking Forest Park Parkway to the main campus has reopened, making it easier for walkers to get to campus, and for contractors to build the Cross County Extension. The bridge’s reopening is another step in the project, which will bring MetroLink to the University’s front door.
The old bridge, which spanned the Parkway, stopped at Throop Drive. Pedestrians then had to cross Throop and walk up a stairway to make it onto campus. Now, the renovated bridge, a handicap accessible slab of concrete walkways and beams, meanders under the overpass connecting McMillen and Brian Halls and connects to a cobblestone walkway that leads pedestrians to
the Olin Library. “The bridge is a boon to pedestrians as well as bicyclists and rollerbladers and everybody else who may need to use it,” said Steve Rackers, the University’s capital projects manager. Cathy Farroll, a spokesperson for MetroLink, said the new bridge was necessary for construction to proceed.
See METROLINK, page 3
Engineers enter satellite competition By Laura Geggel News Editor Washington University engineers are hoping to send something a little higher than the exosphere for their next competition. For the next two years, students in the Special Topics in Space Engineering class will be working on a nanosatellite named Akoya for an engineering contest called Nanosat 4, to be sponsored in part by NASA. Twelve schools were invited to compete to design and build a prototype satellite for the competition, and the University’s team, led by assistant professor Michael Swartwout, is aiming for the skies. In the last competition, Nanosat 3, Washington University placed second. “I think that this time, we
have a very good chance of winning,” said Karan Kanwar, a junior in Swartwout’s class who also worked as a summer intern on the satellite project. Undergraduate students’ direct involvement in the design process is a central element of the competition—several years ago, a class discussion generated a pioneering idea that has become a central feature of this year’s design. The Akoya probe will feature a smaller satellite that can detach to perform delicate work. Measuring 4 inches by 4 inches by 7 inches and weighing less than five pounds, the smaller satellite—nicknamed Bandit—will be able to fly around its parent ship in space while communicating with it via a low-powered radio. “We were talking about another project, and a couple of
students raised the idea of releasing something from a bigger spacecraft and then having it reenter,” Swartwout explained. “What we’re trying to do on this mission is basically demonstrate that we can release [Bandit] and control it, maneuver it around and return it to dock. No one has done that with an object this small,” Swartwout said. Akoya and Bandit could, in theory, be sent out to assess damage done to a spacecraft or even fix a satellite, if equipped with the proper tools. “There’s a lot of interest right now in the general categories of orbital servicing,” said Swartwout, adding that heat-resistant tile damage and the Hubble space telescope were good examples of spacecraft specimens that could benefit from Akoya-Bandit inspections.
“If your car is broken and you take it to the shop, the first thing the mechanic does is open up the hood to take a look. We don’t have that ability right now [for spacecraft],” Swartwout said. “Because Bandit is so small, you could carry it along with your bigger satellite and release it to fly around and see what’s going on.” Students in Special Topics in Space Engineering are encouraged to come in outside of class for a couple hours each week and work on Akoya and Bandit. Over 80 students worked on the last nanosatellite, though not all of them were undergraduates. “A lot of students are just interested in being involved. Some of them are my graduate students doing research work re-
COURTESY OF MICHAEL A. SWARTWOUT
This prototype was created by the Special Topics in See SATELLITE, page 3 Space Engineering class for the Nanosat competition.