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STUDENT LIFE
THE INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER OF WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS SINCE 1878 VOLUME 129, NO. 47
WWW.STUDLIFE.COM
MONDAY, JANUARY 28, 2008
Students mobilize to counter Gonzales’ visit BY KAT ZHAO
The torture issue, according to sophomore Sean Rhoads, a member of the Peace Coalition, is the main cause of disapproval for many students planning to attend the protest, although some also hope to address Gonzales’ role in the misuse of the National Security Administration (NSA) surveillance program in 2005 and the controversial dismissals of U.S. Attorneys in 2006. “Gonzales is in the epicenter of all those things if you look at the paper trail,” said Rhoads. According to sophomore Becky Hufstader, vice president of the College Democrats, large posters detailing Gonzales’ actions in the Bush administration will go up around campus two weeks prior to the event. A faculty panel coordinated by the College Democrats and the Peace Coalition will also lead a discussion on torture issues at 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 13 at Ursa’s Fireside. “Gonzales has been indicted in Germany for war crimes,” said Hufstader. “That really plays into the question of why we’re inviting an indicted criminal on campus to speak.”
STAFF REPORTER
MCT
U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announces his resignation from the Bush administration on Monday, August 27, 2007, in Washington, D.C. Gonzales will speak on Feb. 19 at Wash. U.’s 560 Music Center. His appearance on campus is expected to be met with mixed responses.
With three weeks to go before former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is scheduled to speak at Washington University’s 560 Music Center, students across campus are preparing a myriad of responses to his arrival. Several St. Louis area organizations including the College Democrats and Washington University Peace Coalition will be staging a peaceful protest on Feb. 19, the day of Gonzales’ appearance. Ben Guthorn, president of the College Democrats, also stressed his group’s campus educational campaign leading up to the event. “Our main goal is simply to educate the public about Alberto Gonzales—his past record, what he’s done in the past, quotes he has said and the things he’s done to condone torture,” said Guthorn, a sophomore. Guthorn blames Gonzales for allowing the ill treatment and abuse of captured Al-Qaeda and Taliban prisoners, which Guthorn says violated a code in the Geneva Convention.
v Looking behind
Taking a deeper look at students’ politics BY MICHELLE STEIN With the College Democrats, College Republicans and student groups for particular candidates currently active, and with more than two-thirds of the campus voting, students do not need a poll to tell them that Washington University is politically involved. Taking that into consideration, the Student Life poll from Jan. 15 has some insights into the Washington University campus culture. When asked what issues were the most important for this country in the coming election, students from Arts & Sciences, and the schools of Engineering and
Law all responded with the same answer: the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Twentyfive percent of students in the Olin School of Business who responded to the poll, however, believe that the economy’s performance was the biggest issue facing the United States. Why the split? According to Professor of Political Science Steven Smith, students without jobs who are not yet a part of the working economy are not affected as much by the economy’s status as is the nation as a whole. “Young people wouldn’t worry quite as much about the economy, as they are still in college not holding down jobs yet,” said Smith.
“It makes sense they would worry about the war as it is largely being fought by people their age.” Smith added that because business school students are studying the economy, it may concern them more. The poll also weighed in on how students view the U.S. Congress and the President. Eighty-two percent of Democrats, 70 percent of Independents and 30 percent of Republicans believe that the country is going in the wrong direction. Despite the fact that the University is a very Democratic-leaning campus, with 42 percent of the respondents affi liating with the Democratic party, 47 per-
cent of Democrats, 58 percent of Independents and 60 percent of Republicans either disagree or strongly disagree with the job that the Democrat-controlled Congress is doing in Washington. If the students disagree with Congress and with the president and most put the Iraq and Afghanistan wars as the most pressing issue facing our country, then it is no surprise that Senator Barack Obama, D-Ill., is the Democratic or Democraticleaning students’ choice for a candidate. The poll indicates that Democrats want change—in their President,
See POLITICS, page 2
Approval Ratings:
President Bush Disapprove 25.35% Strongly Disapprove 57.44%
Neutral 7.01%
Approve 7.52% Strongly Approve 1.03%
Approval Ratings:
Congress
Disapprove 41.83%
Neutral 25.66%
Strongly Disapprove 10.97%
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dent of the College Republicans, wrote disapprovingly of the planned protest, calling it “intolerance” and “disappointing at an academic institution such as ours.” Fischer said that the Peace Coalition’s accusations “are not grounded in fact, and it would be in their best interest to actually listen to the other side of the story for once.” “It is ironic how a party that weds itself to the First Amendment selectively abandons that principle when a Republican speaker is involved,” wrote Fischer in an e-mail regarding the College Democrats’ contribution to the protest. The protesters hope that security will not prove to be an issue. It is uncertain at the moment whether they will even be allowed on the property. “We still don’t have a good sense of where we’ll go, and we’re a little unhappy with that,” said Rhoads. Hufstader said that all the protesters will demand will be a presence either directly outside the building or across the street.
See GONZALES, page 2
Law and Order: WU
NEWS ANALYSIS: CONTRIBUTING REPORTER
Student Union (SU) approved the College Republicans’ proposal last semester for Gonzalez to speak, in an effort to draw more well-known though perhaps more controversial speakers to the University’s lectern. Rhoads and Guthorn agree that while they enjoy the polarization and politicization on campus, they feel ambivalent about a figure such as Gonzales being invited to campus using the student activity fee. “Personally, I’m always interested in hearing both sides of the story,” said Guthorn, “but this makes me apprehensive.” Gonzales will receive a payment of $30,000 for his speech while $4,000 will go toward security, airfare and first class accommodations, said Guthorn. In reaction to these figures, Professor of Political Science Gary Miller said, “That isn’t how I would use my money.” “Even many members of the Republican Party have issues with Gonzales,” said Guthorn. “It’s ironic that the College Republicans would choose this figure to represent the party.” Junior Charis Fischer, presi-
I don’t know 8.45% Approve 8.45% Strongly Approve 0.10%
A splash of victory Plunge into the world of swimming and diving to see how both men’s and women’s teams fared against Principia College. Sports, Page 6.
WUPD as they investigate crime on campus BY JOHANN QUA HIANSEN STAFF REPORTER Detective Don Moore was in the Washington University Police Station on Friday night when he received a call about a mugging near Park House. According to Don Strom, chief of the Washington University Police Department (WUPD), police responded within 60 seconds. The first patrol officer on the scene conducted a preliminary investigation and interview of the victim to determine suspects and the nature of the crime and to generate as many leads as possible. “If there are viable leads, [officers] are empowered to follow them,” said Strom. When investigating crimes, many WUPD officers are also trained to collect basic physical evidence such as fingerprints, DNA and footprints, which can be run through Automated Fingerprint Identification System and other databases to produce suspects. The officer then types up an initial report at the station. “A lot of it starts with the patrol officer,” said Moore. “That information gathered allows us to get out there with both feet running.” This report also provides much of the information found in the police bulletin. “From the time we had the facts and a good description of the suspect it took less than 10 minutes to send an e-mail bulletin out,” said Strom. The preliminary report then undergoes internal review and is reviewed by a supervisor to see if the department can develop suspects or recover property before the case is formally assigned to one of the two fulltime WUPD detectives. Unlike
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patrol officers, detectives are able to follow leads off campus. These detectives work from Monday to Friday and sometimes on the weekends, and handle about 12 or more investigations at any given time. “It’s not uncommon to be working from 8 a.m. to midnight six, seven or eight days through,” said Moore, who has worked for WUPD for seven years and has over 20 years of experience in law enforcement. “Ultimately, we go out and make arrests.” According to Moore, crime investigations are a team effort involving 16 or 17 officers and technicians. Detectives review images from closed-circuit TV cameras that monitor public areas and talk to 20, 30 or even more potential witnesses to fi nd the one detail that could break a case open. Police also conduct a canvass of the area, in which they knock on doors and ask students if they had seen or heard anything. “[The interview] was quick and easy,” said freshman Aric Skurdal, who was interviewed at Park House following the recent robbery on the South 40. “Professional would be a good way to describe it.” “The investigative and forensics capabilities we have exceed a lot of smaller departments,” said Moore. If WUPD cannot conduct needed tests, it can send forensic evidence to the St. Louis Crime Lab or, for crimes of an even more serious nature such as rape, to the FBI. WUPD also relies on a network through which it can share information with law enforcement agencies across the region. In his seven years at WUPD, Detective Moore said that students have never had to testify in court because the detectives’ cases have been solidly built. However, the difficulty with investigations at a university, according to Moore, is the tran-
See WUPD, page 2
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