STUDENT LIFE
THE INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER OF WASHINGTON UNIVERSIT Y IN ST. LOUIS SINCE 1878 East Coast Express is shady bordering on criminal, says one alum. Peer advising and Ariel Sharon are also under fire. See Forum. Page 6.
Women’s basketball is tearing up the UAA conference, upending Rochester and Carnegie Mellon over the weekend. Page 5.
VOLUME 127, NO. 47
The U.S. faces an energy crisis—we feel it here as WU raises tuition due to energy costs. How can we combat this? Page 7.
In today’s back-page feature, Cadenza moves beyond indie to take a look at the most popular music on the world scene. See Page 10.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2006
WWW.STUDLIFE.COM
University Center plans move forward By Randy Lubin Contributing Reporter With many of the smaller details beginning to fall into place, plans are progressing for the new University Center, which is slated for completion in the summer of 2009. The latest developments include a tentative layout of the interior areas and distribution of space to the various groups that will occupy the building. The new Center will span approximately 90,000 square feet and occupy the location where Prince Hall currently stands. It will be home to myriad groups and multi-purpose spaces. Jill Carnaghi, assistant vice chancellor for students, described three of the spatial
zones in the plans for the new building. “The western [zone] on the first and second floor is Campus Life: it will be student groups, Student Union, student programming groups, community service, the Rodriguez program, and Greek Life…the middle part is a lot of common area where students can lounge, hang out, eat, and then the southeast pod is the Career Center,” said Carnaghi. David Ross, Freshman Class Council president, was enthusiastic about the plans and felt that the Student Union (SU) space in the new Center will be an improvement over their current space. “I like [the new space that Student Union will re-
ceive] because it will be easy to organize, especially when planning events,” said Ross. “It will be better when everything is consolidated.” Ross identified problems with the current setup in which class council executives keep their files and information in their own rooms because there is no central office. In the current setup, only SU’s executive officers have their own offices. The University Center’s third floor will consist of student media groups, including Student Life, W UTV and KW UR, as well as facilities for the Arts & Sciences graduate school. Although plans for the exact location of facilities for graduate students within
the new Center are tentative, according to James McLeod, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, accommodating undergraduate and graduate students in the same building makes sense. “We want the University Center to be welcoming to all of our students—undergraduates and graduates,” said McLeod. “We want faculty and staff to be comfortable coming in and using the space, relaxing there, eating there, meeting there… Undergraduates have a special relationship with campus, which is different [from that of graduate students]. They [undergraduates] live on campus, and this is their home, and we recognize that. But the University Center should be for everyone.”
Not all groups are happy with the current space that has been assigned to them. One specific concern mentioned by Chris Grabau, coordinator of student media groups, was W UTV and KW UR’s need for soundproof studios. According to Grabau, the plans for the Center are still in their infancy, and the architects want to work with the students to alleviate any concerns. “I think it’s been encouraging to see the groups actually inserting their own input into what they want to see in the building and being articulate as to what their needs are,” said Grabau. In addition to the indoor spaces, Carnaghi is enthusiastic about the building’s ex-
terior design and its relation to the outdoor environment. There will be a new quadrangle in the northeast corner, where the University Center is adjacent to Umrath. Part of the quadrangle will have seating for students to eat or socialize. Eateries will fill a large segment of the first floor. The administration is planning several different food areas which will replace the food court in Mallinckrodt. The new dining area will have multiple eating stations in one area, a bistro in another, and a café in a third area. The food court will seat approximately 450 students, 100 more than Mallinckrodt
See UNIVERSITY CENTER, page 4
Key card tracking surprises students
A VISIT FROM THE TIN...ER, ALUMINUM MAN
By Austen Faggen Contributing Reporter
GEORGE GENNIS | STUDENT LIFE
Sophomore Tim Ingalls sits with one of the “can people” in Bowles Plaza yesterday. About a half dozen of these aluminum can people can be found around Bowles Plaza with recycling information written on them as part of Recyclemania 2006, a competition among 50 colleges that began January 29. As noted on this little guy’s stomach, the University has placed last in the competition for the past three years.
When informed that the new key card system records the times that students enter their rooms, most students living in Shepley House—one of the dorms where the new key card system is installed— were surprised. Just like students’ University identification card, the new key card locks, which are currently installed in the Millbrook Apartments, Village Houses 9 and 10, and Shepley, Gregg and Wheeler Houses, record the times and buildings that students enter. Almost 89 percent of the 30 students surveyed informally by Student Life had no idea their key cards could record their comings and goings. Fifty-two percent of students surveyed would prefer a regular key to the key card that they have. And over 81 percent of students surveyed would want the Washington University Police Department
(WUPD) to have a master key so that they could easily gain access to their rooms in the case of an emergency. WUPD has no such existing universal key or key card. The existing protocol is to break doors down, should an emergency arise in which entering a locked room is necessary. Unlike the University identification cards, the information recorded by the new key cards is stored at ResLife, not by the Facilities Office. Police Chief Don Strom insists that if WUPD ever attempts to access the records from the new key card system, it will need to adhere to the same “strict guidelines” that are in place for accessing other records. WUPD may only access such information when it is needed for a serious investigation. Although the records made by the University’s identification cards have helped to resolve investigations over the years,
See KEY CARDS, page 4
Engineers’ Vertigo dance floor to light up Contemporary Art Museum on Thursday By Troy Rumans Staff Reporter This Thursday, students will be able to see a Washington University creation at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis as well as test it out. The Vertigo dance floor, the feature attraction at the Engineering School’s annual dance party last fall, will be making its second appearance as part of a monthly cocktail party held by the museum designed to foster appreciation of the arts for the Y generation. “We saw it in the [St. Louis Post] Dispatch, and it looks really fun and really exciting, and we’re looking forward to bringing it here,” said Jennifer Gaby, director of public relations for the museum. “When I talk to my colleagues about the dance floor, everybody is really thrilled to have something of that magnitude here. It’s going to be an exciting night.” Gaby noted that the cocktail parties have succeeded in bringing a wide range of people to the museum. She hopes that the inclusion of the dance floor this month will make Wash. U.
students interested in attending. “It’s been huge. We’ve had up to 750 people come here per event,” said Gaby. “It’s culturally diverse, age diverse, income diverse...it’s a very eclectic crowd. You see young professionals, students, artists, people from all walks of life that are in their 20s and 30s that come out for either a happy hour after work, a way to have a good time, or to see exhibits that they couldn’t see otherwise.” Construction of the dance floor itself was a daunting task led by the University’s members of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Spanning over 100 square feet, the floor has 512 unique “pixels” which light up to produce the color of the floor. Each pixel can make any one of 4,096 different shades of color. “We built the floor during the months of September to November 2005,” said sophomore Pehr Hovey, president of the IEEE. “It took more than 30 students and a few professors, 60-plus people, hours to construct...We had ‘solder’ parties in our student lounge where kids hung out and
helped work on the project.” The dance floor is based on a similar one designed by MIT students, with a few notable improvements. The Wash. U. adaptation allows for the user to create a list of animations, scrolling text messages, and control the dance floor over the Internet. The University’s chapter of the IEEE focuses on doing projects aimed at getting students involved and interested in hands-on engineering. Hovey plans on making further improvements to the dance floor, as well as bringing other projects to the University campus. “IEEE is working on a new design for the dance floor concept that will make many improvements over the original, such as increased portability and more rugged construction,” said Hovey. “Our second project this semester is an arcade machine, built from scratch.” The dance floor will be on display throughout the cocktail party from 6-9 p.m. on Thursday, with DJ Randall Roberts spinning. Entrance is free, but guests must be 21 to attend.
RACHIT PATEL | STUDENT LIFE ARCHIVES
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ (IEEE) dance floor, seen here at the Vertigo dance this past fall, will be part of a Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis event on Thursday.