STAFF EDITORIAL | UNIVERSITY SHOULD RECONSIDER NEUTRALITY | SEE FORUM, PAGE 4
STUDENT LIFE
THE INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER OF WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS SINCE 1878 VOLUME 129, NO. 48
WWW.STUDLIFE.COM
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 30, 2008
2008 housing University denies process will allow genderrequest for Obama neutral dorms for upperclassmen BY TEDDY WHITE NEWS MANAGER
BY DAN WOZNICA CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Upperclassmen living in the Village and Greenway Place Apartments next year will have the option of living in genderneutral housing as part of a pilot program being implemented by the Office of Residential Life. According to Cheryl Stephens, associate director of residential life, the security and comfort of all students is one of the main reasons that the program is being instituted. “A housing arrangement based solely on students’ biological sexes may be unsafe for some students,” said Stephens. “We hope these students will feel they have safer housing options now.” In particular, the new housing policy will aim to create a secure environment for transgender students. “Gender-neutral housing provides students with more options to determine how they want to live and learn on campus,” said Mike Brown, coordinator for LGBT student involvement and leadership in Student Activities. “It creates space for individuals on campus who have very little—namely, individuals who self-identify outside of the gender binary. This conceivably includes many transgender and gender-queer people.” Because the policy has only recently been approved, many issues relating to the pilot have yet to be addressed in the upcoming weeks before housing selection. “We still have a lot to put into place,” said Stephens. “But interested students will be able to apply for the pilot through the regular housing processes.” A majority of students on campus seems to favor the policy; according to a 1,300-student poll conducted by Residential Life, 64 percent of students said they were in support of genderneutral housing as an option and 74 percent said they would consider it. Student Union has endorsed gender-neutral housing in a Senate resolution.
“We’re fully in support of it,” said sophomore Kayla Brinkley, an SU senator. In February of 2007, Student Union passed a resolution urging Residential Life to create gender-neutral housing. “Students within the Washington University community are limited by the binary notion of gender present in current residential policy,” said the resolution. According to the resolution, a gender-neutral housing policy would serve to “promote the University’s goal of fostering equality.” Stephens said that genderneutral housing was also recommended by the GLBTQIA Task Force, which was comprised of students, faculty, and administrators. “Gender-neutral housing is not simply an LGBT issue, though,” said Brown. “There are presumably lots of students who do not identify as LGBTIQA who fi nd it frustrating that they
See HOUSING, page 3
After learning that Washington University recently missed out on an opportunity to host a visit by presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., students are expressing frustration with the University policy that prohibited the event, which would have taken place this Saturday. Last week, the Washington University chapter of Students for Barack Obama learned that Obama was planning to make an appearance in St. Louis on Feb. 2 and that the campaign was considering the University as a possible location for an event. Three students in the organization then met with Vice Chancellor for Governmental Affairs Henry Weber to request permission to have Obama speak on campus in the Athletic Complex. “The Vice Chancellor told us that because the University could not offer the same opportunity to every candidate and because of tax concerns, the University could not host Obama,” said senior Ben Kastan, one of the students involved in making the request. According to the IRS Web site, under current tax code the University would need to provide
“equal opportunity to the political candidates seeking the same office,” could not “indicate any support of or opposition to the candidate” and could not allow any political fundraising at the event. “In order to open our doors to one candidate, we are obligated to open our doors to all candidates,” said Rob Wild, assistant to the chancellor. “In order to minimize disruptions, the University has made the decision [not to invite any candidates].” Some students were skeptical about the University’s justification in the tax code. “From what I’ve read, I don’t see any general restriction that prevents a private university from allowing a candidate to speak,” said sophomore Jake Laperruque, another student involved in the appeal. “Many public and private universities have hosted candidates in the last year.” Among the many private universities that have hosted presidential candidates and have not lost their tax-exempt status are Brown University, Wellesley College and Boston University. “[Those universities] are willing to open their doors to any candidate when they request it,” said Wild. “We encourage other means of political involvement
LIKE MOTHER, LIKE DAUGHTER
STAFF REPORTER Washington University, Chrysler LLC and Ameren Corporation are teaming up to see if burning solid paint residues leftover from manufacturing cars can reduce highly toxic mercury emissions from electric power plants. The project originated with the research of Pratim Biswas, chair of the Department of
LIONEL SOBEHART | STUDENT LIFE
Senator Barack Obama, D-Ill., speaks at a rally last semester at Union Station in St. Louis. Students are expressing frustration this week with the University policy that prohibited Obama from coming to campus this weekend as a part of his upcoming St. Louis visit. than inviting candidates.” After the initial request was turned down, the students sent
BY EMILY WASSERMAN CONTRIBUTING REPORTER
MATT LANTER | STUDENT LIFE
Chelsea Clinton, daughter of presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y. and former president Bill Clinton, speaks Monday afternoon at Kayak’s Coffee just northeast of campus. Clinton spoke to a packed house of members of the area community at the town hall event. Ben Guthorn, the president of College Democrats, looks on (left). For full coverage, check out the Political Unit blog on studlife.com.
Energy, Environmental and Chemical Engineering. He demonstrated in the lab, and recently at Meramec Power Plant, that titanium dioxide can be used to control mercury emissions. Titanium dioxide can be found in any paint. It is a benign compound, and burning it has no adverse side effects. Burning the paint residues uses the titanium dioxide in the paint without affecting other processes in the
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plant. “[Chrysler] doesn’t have to dispose [the paint], and we get all the heat value,” he said. “There aren’t any drawbacks. [Ameren] saves coal, and gets more heat and less mercury.” Additionally, because the process is based on retrofitting existing plants, power plants do not have to invest deeply in new equipment to adopt this method on a large scale.
a second request directly to
See OBAMA, page 2
In contrast to 2004, students campaign actively in 2008
Wash. U. team looks to lower mercury emissions BY ANN JOHNSON
visit
“Our ‘Paint to Power’ program in St. Louis is a recycling success story,” said Deb Morrissett, vice president of regulatory affairs at Chrysler. “Rather than fi lling up scarce landfi ll space, we are using these paint wastes to produce power for St. Louis residents and businesses.” For the past year, Chrysler has recycled paint residues
See MERCURY, page 2
Free movies? Why not? Want to see a movie but don’t have the money? How about that classic film that’s being shown on a large screen? Find out how you can do all this right here on campus! Cadenza, Page 8
Looking around at the campaign trail in the 2008 election, one cannot help but notice marked differences from previous elections. Instead of the impassioned doctor Howard Dean challenging the staid Massachusetts senator John Kerry, an AfricanAmerican senator is competing with a former fi rst lady and fellow senator for the Democratic nomination. And rather than a politically inactive youth demographic, this election students across the country are becoming more involved than ever before, and the 2008 presidential candidates are relying on their energetic support. “We are brimming with optimism and excitement at the fact that it is us who are choosing the next president of the United States. This year is something unique in that we’re not voting against someone, we’re voting for something: an idea and a platform much bigger than any one person,” said senior Matt Adler, one of the leaders of the Washington University chapter of Students for Barack Obama (SFBO). From the beginning of 2007 when bids for the candidacy were emerging, students were already being enlisted to help with the various campaigns. As early as March 2007, Republican
INSIDE: Forum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Sports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Scene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Cadenza . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
candidate Mitt Romney offered “Students for Mitt” a 10 percent commission on any fundraising they accomplished over $1,000. “[This offer is] for the kids that want to get involved in a political campaign and they don’t want to spend their summer painting houses,” said Romney spokesman Kevin Modden in a March 27, 2007 MSNBC article. Democratic candidates have also made significant efforts toward enlisting youth support, with and without monetary reimbursement. Especially for Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, the 17 to 24 age bracket is both crucial and sought after. According to a Jan. 23 issue of The Politico, 57 percent of Democratic voters in Iowa between the ages of 17 and 24 support Barack Obama. At such a close margin, however, the race for the Democratic nomination is what sophomore Annie Rushman refers to as “anyone’s game.” On the University’s campus, and even in the dorms, one is bombarded with press, paraphernalia and propaganda for the various candidates. Because of the University student body’s overwhelmingly liberal leanings, as the recent Student Life campus political poll indicates, an especially large group has come together to support Barack Obama for the demo-
See CAMPAIGN, page 3
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