STUDENT LIFE
THE INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER OF WASHINGTON UNIVERSIT Y IN ST. LOUIS SINCE 1878 Does Student Union adequately represent students’ interests? Read the editorial board’s take on the Treasury election in Forum. Page 4.
Will Taco Bell be missed? The editor in chief’s Women’s basketball is hot, hot, hot! With five latest cartoon suggests so, but today’s Word wins already under their belts, this season’s on the Street says otherwise. Page 6. prospects are lookin’ good. Page 7.
VOLUME 127, NO. 37
Laguna Beach cast members gave us their take on intoxicated students, the Emory “war” and Taco Bell. Page 3.
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2005
WWW.STUDLIFE.COM
Impromptu election outrages Treasury reps By Ben Sales Contributing Reporter Several Student Union Treasury representatives are furious in the wake of an effective housecleaning of the group’s executive leadership Tuesday night, following the resignations of key executives and an unannounced midterm election. Although the election’s proceedings were technically legal, some of the candidates were made aware of the upcoming election, while others were not. “It was apparent to me that some people were informed that elections would be called, whereas others had no clue that it was coming,” said Leslie Forrest, former co-chair of the Budget Committee who left the
meeting in protest following the call for elections. As a result of the elections, Harsh Agarwal assumed the office of secretary of the Treasury, replacing Judson Clark, who declined to run due to his recent rise to Beta Theta Pi’s presidency. Budget Committee co-chair Rafael Walker lost his re-election bid to Treasury Representative Tommy Honton, who now chairs the committee with Tyler Greene. Forrest resigned before the elections, a decision she had made the preceding week. Treasury elections proceed unannounced The controversy over the elections stems from a perceived power play on the part
of Student Union (SU) leadership to oust Walker, former co-chair of the Budget Committee, and fill executive positions with members of a certain group of insiders. At the general Treasury meeting, Agarwal resigned from his position as Student Groups Activities Committee (SGAC) co-chair, prompting Honton to call for open elections. Once that motion was seconded, all executive seats were up for contest. This process, though not mentioned in the SU Constitution, is, according to Agarwal, detailed in Robert’s Rules of Order. “As I understand, [a Treasury representative] has the right to call for an election as long as the motion is sec-
onded,” said Andrew Benard, former SU election commissioner. “Unless there’s an objection, you don’t necessarily have to put [the election proposal] to a [general] vote.” Walker was asked to consent to the election, which he did. “I asked Rafael, ‘Do you need more time? Take whatever you need,’” said Agarwal. “And he specifically said he was okay with it.” Forrest noted that Walker said more than a simple “okay.” “Rafael said he was comfortable but made clear that he had no idea the elections were coming up and that he hadn’t prepared for an election setting,” she said.
Plans were already in the works to have an election for the organization’s leadership before Tuesday’s Treasury meeting. Honton had spoken with Treasury Representative hannah draper after an emergency committee meeting Monday night regarding his personal plans to call a midterm election. Draper had served with Forrest and Walker on the Budget Committee. “Tommy Honton…told me on Monday night that he and Tyler Greene were going to be challenging Rafael Walker for the position of Budget Committee Chair because Tyler refused to work with Rafael,” said draper. “I was under the impression that
Tommy would have the balls to tell Rafael to his face.” Walker, who was unavailable for comment, was apparently unaware that any election was about to take place. “I feel very bad about this,” said draper. “I’ve lost a lot of respect for [Honton].” Agarwal assumes new role as speaker Agarwal, the newly elected speaker of Treasury, emphasized different points of his election. Unlike Walker, he had been informed of the plan for an election before the Tuesday night meeting.
See TREASURY, page 6
WU seniors snag more jobs By Marla Friedman Contributing Reporter University graduates of 2006 will have more jobs to apply to compared to students graduating last year, as the jobs proliferate across the country. A report by Michigan State University predicted that job opportunities would expand by six to 14 percent this year. Graduates in consulting, research, information management and e-commerce are predicted to experience the largest gains. The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) supported this finding in their report that employers will hire almost 15 percent more college graduates this year than they did last year. Overall, NACE officials say that two-thirds of employers are expected to hire more graduates. Jim Beirne, associate dean and director of the Weston Career Resources Center, said that trends in the business school are in sync with the improvements predicted by Michigan State University. “When I compare our oncampus recruiting companies to last year, a snapshot from earlier this month shows that we are experiencing a 44 percent increase in the number of companies coming on campus,” said Beirne. “We also did the same thing for the number of positions they are interviewing for, and in November we were projecting a 60 percent increase. These are pretty
good leading indicators that the market is improving.” Beirne agreed with the report that jobs in consulting will be seeing the largest increases in hiring. “There’s a bigger jump in consulting organizations in general. When business is improving or getting worse, consultants need to hire more graduates because they can change with the growth or help to solve the problems. When business is normal, consultant organizations don’t grow that much.” Senior Katie Corey is looking for a career in marketing, sales or even consulting. “I have a couple offers right now, but I’m still looking because I’m not sure if those offers are the right fit. I think job offers depend on the person; the top students are getting a lot of the opportunities,” said Corey. “It also depends on your major—a lot of the accounting or finance majors have job offers. Marketing recruiting season isn’t until the spring, so I wasn’t expecting to have an offer this early, but I have a couple.” “I definitely think the job market has improved, but I’m not saying it’s easy. It’s a very hard, long process,” said Corey. Mark Smith, assistant vice chancellor and director of the Career Center, sees increasing opportunities for all University students. “I have seen improvements across the board. They have
See JOBS, page 6
DAVID BRODY | STUDENT LIFE
A look at college honorary societies By Troy Rumans Contributing Reporter At first glance, college honorary societies, with large member bases, direct mail advertising, and yearly dues, leave many invited students suspicious. So what is the real deal behind these organizations? Do such societies present a legitimate outlet for student co-curricular activities, or are they just more résumé padding? Margaret Threadgill, president of the Washington University chapter of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars (NSCS), said she has seen the opportunities offered by such an honorary society first-hand. “On a per-member basis, aside from a general opportunity to get involved with the community, the way we’ve set up our system allows people to get to experi-
ence the process of organizing one of these events,” said Threadgill. The University’s NSCS chapter was founded four years ago, and only last year began to gain a larger interest on campus. Their first meeting recorded over 200 attendees. A key benefit of the society, noted Threadgill, stems from the method used to organize events. For each event that NSCS organizes, three people sign up to head up that project from the regular member base. All members are encouraged to sign up. “We offer an opportunity for anyone who wants a leadership role to take a leadership role. We have all the contacts [for these projects]—the legwork is already done for them, but there’s still a challenge for them to be a leader there,” said Threadgill.
Of course, membership in one of these societies will not necessarily translate into such experiences. Steve Malter, undergraduate advisor for the Weston Career Center and college recruiter alumnus, recognizes the boons and pitfalls of NSCS and similar honorary societies. “For honoraries or anything, more is not necessarily better. You want to be involved in something, and be able to actually answer questions [about that society],” said Malter. “You want to display substance, depth of knowledge, and depth of involvement. Don’t be a part of 40 organizations and involved in none.” Indeed, a common problem with these societies is that students simply sign up for their attractiveness to employers, rather than to participate and gain mean-
ingful experience from their membership. “One thing that’s a blessing and a curse is that we invite anyone to be a member [who’s] over the designated G.P.A.,” said Threadgill. “It’s good because it gives us a large member base, but also a problem because people might just sign up to put it on their résumé.” Yet according to Threadgill, NSCS is now able to provide a wide range of benefits and opportunities to students, despite only having really taken off this year. “We are kind of a baby club, so we’ve been having to figure out things as we go along. Because people are so busy and overcommitted at Wash. U., we’ve had to do things a little differently,” said Threadgill. Membership in an honor-
See HONOR, page 3
‘Greeks Care’ faces WU recycling contract hurdle By Elizabeth Lewis Staff Reporter
OLIVER HULLAND | STUDENT LIFE ARCHIVES
Fraternities and sororities have started a recycling program called “Greeks Care,” but have faced significant roadblocks along the way.
Washington University fraternities are trying to start a student-run recycling program they hope will help the environment and local schools—but there’s one hurdle in their way. The recycling program, “Greeks Care,” calls for all materials collected to be sold to a local company called Recycling Challenge, which will compensate the Greeks per pound. The dollars earned will be donated to the Greeks in Motion program, which will in turn distribute that money to local schools. The Greeks cannot work with Recycle Challenge, however, because the University already has an exclusive contract with a recycling provider. The University is negotiating to get out of the agreement. “Once the University sees what recycling program we want, we can proceed. We would like to see our recycling benefit the community as much as possible,”
said Patrick Biddix, a member of the Greek Life Office who oversees the House Managers. In the interim, the Greeks are collecting recyclable items, sorting them and making sure they’re put in the right place. They have also started a program to educate students about recycling. “When a chapter chooses to be a part of the program, they educate their members about it. During meetings, the coordinating person talks about the importance of recycling,” said Biddix. Sigma Alpha Epsilon is in charge of piloting the program, with senior Joshua Jones, the fraternity’s house manager, spearheading the program’s efforts. Satyam Khanna, a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon and Joshua’s freshman-year roommate, was the one who originally approached Dean Jill Carnaghi with the idea for a Greek recycling program. Materials and pilot programs began in March 2005, and in April, Greek Life partnered with Student Union for funding.
This October, they came up with an educational component for the program and set a launch date for it. Besides making sure the program remains completely student-run, Jones said he wanted to expand the program. “We want to take [the program] to the next level by spreading it to other campuses and by having the cans benefit charity,” he said. In the short term, the leaders hope to create a recycling initiative that members run in the Greek community, to provide responsibility and awareness of the environment in the Greek community, and to participate and to cooperate with other recycling programs on campus. Additionally, the fraternities would like to expand the program to the sororities sometime next semester, and perhaps eventually include the entire campus. The fraternities are working with Green Action, a campus organization that raises awareness and educates students about recycling and the environment.
Green Action has helped the fraternities by supporting them in their endeavor and by telling them how to make their program more effective. This union is overseen by junior Jonathan Lane, a member of Tau Kappa Epsilon and of Green Action, who serves as a link between the two groups. Max Frankel, a sophomore and Alpha Epsilon Pi’s house manager, just joined the endeavor this year, but already has a definite vision of what he would like the program to accomplish. “I would like to see the program expand into the entire campus. We’re the catalyst all throughout campus for studentrun recycling,” said Frankel. “It would be a great idea to get students involved. Having students in their own dormitories be in charge brings recycling to the forefront. When something is student-run, awareness becomes bigger,” said Frankel. Jones also has high expectations for the program. “I hope people participate,” he said.