STUDENT LIFE
THE INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER OF WASHINGTON UNIVERSIT Y IN ST. LOUIS SINCE 1878 Fun, food and festivities abounded at this weekend’s Thurtene Carnival. Check out the highlights in our photo essay. Page 2 and 3.
Got housing blues? Hate ResLife? Commiserate with Forum editor Chelsea Murphy and her housing woes. Page 6.
VOLUME 127, NO. 77
Track and field ran, jumped and threw their way to victory at this weekend’s UAA championships. Read about it in Sports. Page 7.
MONDAY, APRIL 24, 2006
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New survey shows high levels of sexual assault on campus v Experts say over 90 percent of cases go unreported By David Brody Senior Photo Editor Preliminary results of a survey conducted by the Committee on Sexual Assault (COSA) last year show much higher levels of oncampus sexual assault than Washington University’s official statistics.
Looking for good eats on campus? Scene tells you where to get the best. See Page 10.
Authorities on sexual assault in COSA, the University Police Department, the Judicial Administrator’s office and the Habif Health and Wellness Center all agree that sexual assault is vastly underreported on campus. “Well over 90 percent of the sexual crimes that take place on campus aren’t reported. So you have an impression that [sexual assault and harassment are] not a problem,” said Craig Woodsmall, staff psychologist at the Habif Health and Wellness Center. This figure includes both
official and unofficial reports. Woodsmall has been examining the data collected by the COSA survey, which shows that the University is on target with the national averages for sexual assault on college campuses. The COSA survey was conducted the week after spring break in 2005. COSA asked 3,000 students to participate. Of the 839 responses, 537 were women and 302 were men. Some of the initial findings of the survey are that students are overwhelmingly
HOLI MUD FIGHT, BATMAN
more likely to be assaulted by an acquaintance than by a stranger, are equally likely to be assaulted on campus as off campus and that unwanted touching or groping is the most common offense. The survey also reveals high levels of sexual harassment. Specific numbers on the frequency and types of sexual assault on campus are not yet available because the information obtained by COSA has yet to be fully analyzed.
See SEXUAL ASSAULT, page 5
CELEBRATING CULTURAL DIVERSITY
ALWYN LOH | STUDENT LIFE
Freshman Varun Jain gets his face splattered with mud at Ashoka’s Holi water balloon fight on the Swamp on Friday, April 21. Holi is an Indian holiday celebrating Spring. Hundreds of participants began mudwrestling after the 20,000 water balloons were exhausted in minutes.
Carnival fun at Thurtene benefits kids By Liz Lewis Staff Reporter
RACHIT PATEL | STUDENT LIFE
Students watch as the fan dance is performed at the Spirit of Korea festival, which was a part of Celebrations Weekend.
From sex to religion,WU freshman tells all in new book By Helen Rhee Staff Reporter Within a year, freshman Julia Baskin has appeared on NBC’s “Today” show with Katie Couric and her name has been splashed across publications as prestigious as the New York Times. She even signs autographs for her enthusiastic fans. Baskin and three of her
closest friends are quickly gaining notoriety due to their recently published autobiographical novel, “The Notebook Girls,” a compilation of journals that the four Manhattan friends wrote together during their high school years. The journal details the teenage high school experience, discussing everything from drinking and drugs to
sex. In one particular section, the friends discuss their experimentation with pot the day before the SAT exam. She added that the journal also includes their discussion on relationships. “We talked about relationships and how frustrating it is to see girls conform [in] certain ways to please guys,” said Baskin.
The four friends began writing journals together in the middle of their freshmen year in 2001, when New York City experienced one of the most catastrophic events—September 11. They decided to put down their ideas in a single journal, exchanging it from one friend to another over the period of four years. By the
See BOOK, page 4
Treasury holds internal election By Ben Sales Senior Staff Reporter Student Union Treasury held internal elections Wednesday night, filling out its executive officers for the coming semester. The newly elected officers look to make the body more transparent, as well as to increase collaboration between its committees. “Overall, I think treasury is on the right track,” said
Aaron Robinson, who became Speaker of the Treasury on Wednesday. “Every group coming into treasury has a fair chance [for budget appeals].” Robinson believes that no major changes need to be made to the treasury’s structure or proceedings, due to the improvements of his predecessor, Harsh Agarwal. “We had very effective meetings,” said Robinson. “They were long, but we got
a lot done. Each group got a fair chance.” At the same time, Robinson wishes to make the body’s meetings more understandable and attractive to visitors and student group officers. “I have decided to make [meetings] a little slower so everyone who comes can follow along,” he said. “I will be interacting with students, asking them what they want to see.”
Yewande Alimi, who, along with Marius Johnson, was elected as a new budget committee chair, also sees transparency and accessibility as top priorities. “We want to revamp the committee, to put a face to the name,” said Alimi, whose committee deals with budget allocations and funding. “Budget Committee is usually a twice-a-year stop-by
See ELECTION, page 5
Living up to this year’s theme, “Let Your Imagination Ride”, the Thurtene Carnival provided yet another exciting weekend of rides, food, games and fun. Washington University’s Thurtene is the largest student-run carnival in the nation and drew a crowd of over 120,000 people from the University and the surrounding community. The Thurtene Carnival represented the combined efforts of the thirteen members of the Thurtene Honorary, who planned the event throughout the entire school year; fraternities and sororities, who built façades and performed plays; and numerous student groups, like Ashoka and EnCouncil, who sold food and games. The façades and booths were ornate and ranged from a TexMex restaurant to a Super Mario Brothers game. Delta Gamma and Sigma Nu worked together to build a southern courthouse and began writing their show, a legal drama, in October. “The jury gets to decide the verdict, so audience members will choose the ending. We wrote two different endings [for that purpose],” said Christine Holladay, a senior and codirector in Delta Gamma. Though Delta Gamma and Sigma Nu were plagued with a couple of injuries that affected members of the cast (one had surgery on his knee and the other was in the hospital with mono), they were still able to have everything ready in time to entertain their audiences. Tau Kappa Epsilon (TKE) chose to build a Super Mario façade, complete with a barb-que and toadstool chairs. They advertised their façade by carrying around stuffed turtle shells. “We have been working on [this façade] for most of the semester. We started the design over winter break and drew up plans throughout the
semester,” said Richard Ockers, a sophomore in TKE. Will Jordan, a senior and one of the Thurtene chairs for TKE, thought that the carnival went smoothly this year. “I really think it’s a good year. I have seen a lot of dedication from the other booths. Everyone was way ahead of schedule this year, and everyone [did] an amazing job,” said Jordan. Sarah Lipton, a sophomore and the internal chair of Alpha Epsilon Phi who designed the T-shirts for the carnival, worked hard on the TexMex façade that her sorority cobuilt with members of Alpha Epsilon Pi. “[I have] been so devoted to it, and it has been really fun to work on,” said Lipton. The net proceeds from this year’s carnival benefited St. Louis Scores, an after school program that helps children to fi ght obesity and gain literacy skills through playing soccer and reading poetry. Filipe Macia, the public relations co-chair of the Thurtene Honorary, said that the organization provides a positive and supportive environment for the children. “We went and volunteered, refereed their games and did poetry with them. They are just as enthusiastic about their poetry as they are with their soccer. They cheer each other on and they are really just amazing kids,” said Macia. This year’s carnival took place in the North Brookings parking lot instead of in the parking lot near the Athletic Complex, due to the start of construction in Mudd Field for a new parking garage. Macia thought that the North Brookings location was positive because of the opportunity for increased visibility. “[We] have a lot more visible access from Skinker and a lot more awareness from the community,” said Macia. At the end of the carnival, several awards are presented to the fraternities and sorori-
See THURTENE, page 5