STUDENT LIFE
THE INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER OF WASHINGTON UNIVERSIT Y IN ST. LOUIS SINCE 1878 Our final Friday Features section of the year boasts a holiday Word on the Street and coverage of campus disability resources. Page 6.
Inside Forum: we’ve got coverage of all your favorite gripes: cold weather, orb pyramids, the job market and more. Page 4.
VOLUME 127, NO. 40
Sports has hot (or, well, cold) snow action, plus updates on water polo, college basketball, and a farewell to this season’s seniors. Page 10.
That’s all, folks—Student Life is out for the semester. Look for us on newsstands again starting on Jan. 18.
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2005
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Committee formed to improve local relations By Shweta Murthi Contributing Reporter As part of an effort to improve community relations with the surrounding St. Louis area, Chancellor Mark Wrighton has founded a new Steering Committee for Urban and Community Programs headed by Edward Lawlor, dean of the George Warren Brown School of Social Work. The initiative will be a collaborative effort between the Hilltop and Medical School campuses to create a more positive impact on the surrounding community. “We’re meeting next week for the fi rst time,” said Lawlor. “We’re going to be looking particularly at initiatives that run across the academic departments and professional schools to see how we can impact the surrounding commu-
nities, such as University City and Forest Park Southeast.” On the Committee’s agenda are ways to align the academic interests of the campus with community interests. Currently, most of the health services offered to St. Louis residents are through the Washington University Medical School, and several therapeutic clinics are run to help the community through the School of Social Work. Wrighton discussed opportunities in the law school, where “we have an environmental clinic and a couple of other clinics that are opportunities for students to be involved in legal work to help others in the community and give them an opportunity for a practical experience.” “The business school dean, the Arts & Sciences dean, and the medical school dean are al
involved. I believe that that we have at least one representative from every school and we have some senior leadership involving Pam Lokken, vice chancellor for governmental and community relations, and Robert Blain in that area of activity with the medical school,” said Wrighton. While the Committee will focus primarily on relations between the University and St. Louis, collaborations with other campuses and institutions are likely in the future. “We do a number of things collaboratively with other schools, and we gave them information about the things that we are doing,” said Wrighton. “For example, math and science education, which is an Arts & Sciences effort—we’re doing that in partnership with other institutions such as the St. Louis
Science Center and Mizzou [the University of MissouriColumbia].” “It’s conceivable to work with Saint Louis University (SLU). Right now, we’re trying to get a better inventory of the academic leadership in the things that we’re already doing. The Brown School of Social Work has already been collaborating with the University of Missouri-St. Louis (UMSL) and SLU in our field education programs,” added Lawlor. Neighboring suburbs such as University City and Clayton have been particular focuses for the Committee, which is looking for ways to compensate for the new construction and the noise levels associated with the campus. “It’s a new undertaking stimulated in part by the fact that we purchased some
REQUEST FOR WARM WEATHER: DENIED
property north of Delmar and in a way we’re assessing what we can do there. We’ve developed the residential area [the South 40] and some of the neighbors don’t like the noise or the dust, so near-neighbor relations are important,” said Wrighton. City Manager of University City Frank Ollendorff noted, “I think we have an excellent working relationship, and I think that there’s a lot of mutual respect for each other’s projects.” He added that the University has already made an impact on University City services. “I think the University is cooperating greatly in providing services and assistance to our school district, “ he said. “I’ve seen a lot of programs that the University offers that I would say are doing a lot for
Questions still abound regarding Treasury election By Ben Sales Contributing Reporter
ALWYN LOH | STUDENT LIFE
PHOTOILLUSTRATION BY MEGHAN LUECKE | STUDENT LIFE
us—everything from the University City daycare center to assisting with improving properties and contributing to policing efforts.” When asked about the general sense of community that the students on campus have been involved in, Dean Lawlor was enthusiastic about the continued efforts of students. “One of the things that I’ve been surprised at so far is all the different ways that students are involved. Just from [the Brown School], our students are spending over 200,000 hours a year in community service-based organizations in St. Louis. I know there are similar activities coming from the medical school. There’s probably more going on than what the general perception is.”
EITAN HOCHSTER | STUDENT LIFE
Snow obscured the campus landscape on Thursday. TOP: Students had to forge their own paths across main campus. BOTTOM LEFT: The South 40 before and after it snowed. BOTTOM RIGHT: Snow glazes the “OP” sculptures. Turn to today’s back page to see more snowscapes.
In the wake of controversial proceedings at the Student Union Treasury meeting last Tuesday, a Student Life investigation into the meeting’s events has shown that the recent midterm Treasury elections could have been illegal. “The vote of confidence motion [for elections] needs a [general] vote. We set that precedent two years ago,” said Chris Wray, a former speaker of the Treasury and a certified parliamentarian. “This is in sharp contrast to the events of last week.” According to “Robert’s Rules of Order, Newly Revised,” the handbook used by Student Union (SU) to guide their proceedings, “If the question is not debatable, or debate has been closed by order of the assembly, the chair, immediately after stating the question, puts it to vote…” In layman’s terms, this means that any motion, after being debated, must be put to a vote before taking effect. “There is no justification for their actions,” said Wray. “You would need at least a majority, if not a super majority [two-thirds of the body].” At last week’s meeting, the election was triggered by only a motion and a second, not a vote on the part of the entire body. Former Co-Chair of the Student Group Activities Committee Harsh Agarwal was
unanimously selected as the Treasury’s speaker. Despite the required adherence to “Robert’s Rules,” several top SU executives were unable to cite the legal justification for the events of last week’s meeting. When asked about “Robert’s Rules,” SU President David Ader and Assistant Vice Chancellor for Students Jill Carnaghi each referred Student Life to Agarwal. Yet Agarwal referred reporters to former Speaker of the Treasury Judson Clark, who declined to comment and referred reporters back to Agarwal. “As far as the legality of the election is concerned, I go by common sense. We did not have a vote,” said Agarwal. “It seems logical.” He added, “‘Robert’s Rules’ does not do the best job of guiding how elections work.” Agarwal did not run the proceedings of the election. “Effectively, there was no speaker to run the meeting [at the time of the election],” said Agarwal. “I was not the one who approved elections. The previous speaker would be the one who would have to. I don’t know what was going through the previous speaker’s head.” He added that there was an unofficial general consensus to have an election. “It was agreed to by everyone in the room that we should fi nd a new speaker fi rst and then he or she would run the
See TREASURY, page 3
Student blogs on the rise, despite security risks By Jessie Rothstein Contributing Reporter As the popularity of online Web logs, or “blogs,” has skyrocketed in the past couple of years, it is starting to become clear that the sense of security users have in these sites is oftentimes incredibly misplaced. Although Web sites such as MySpace, LiveJournal, and Xanga include privacy provisions, they oftentimes end up being available to anyone who can connect to the Internet— including unwanted strangers, prospective employers, and even someone’s parents. According to a recent study released by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, at least 8 million youths ages 12 to 17 read or create blogs. The Facebook, which had only
a few hundred users in 2003, its fi rst year, now boasts more than 8.5 million profi les. Scott Granneman, professor of the University College course “From Blogs to Wikis: Building an Online Community in a Virtual Environment,” attributes the wide popularity of social software such as blogs not only to the fact that they have become incredibly easy to use, but also to the “unique combination of structure and lack of structure” that they provide. In other words, blog sites give users a box where they can not only write, but put down absolutely anything that they desire. Junior Jazzy Danziger, coadministrater of the Washington University students’ LiveJournal community, credits the growing popularity of blogs
to the fact that the stigma attached to them has declined. “The stereotype of the ‘nerd with a blog’ is fading,” said Danziger. She noted that another aspect of people’s attraction to blogs has to do with ego. “We all want to believe that people are interested in our everyday lives,” she said. Yet many recent issues involved with these Web sites have raised concern among both users and campus leaders. Despite privacy protections put in place by these Web sites, much of students’ information, including cell phone numbers and dorm room numbers, may be made available to a much wider and unknown audience, creating potentially dangerous circumstances. As the Chicago Tribune reported, Michael Sul-
livan, deputy bureau chief for the High-Tech Crimes Bureau of the Illinois attorney general’s office, has already taken reports of students being approached by unwanted visitors after posting this type of information in their online blogs. These dangers are compounded by the fact that students oftentimes use online journals as a type of counseling forum, discussing past issues such as sexual abuse or depression. As Sullivan noted in an interview with the Chicago Tribune, “You’re not only putting out how to get ahold of you, but you’re actually telling what the problems are in your life, which gives predators a chance to know what buttons to push.”
SCREENSHOT OF SUITE3100.BLOGSPOT.COM
One student’s blog, called Suite 3100, features four fictional characters See BLOGS, page 3 who each exhibit a different aspect of the student’s personality.