M O N D AY JAN. 31, 2005 Vol. 126, No. 45
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STUDENT LIFE T H E I N D E P E N D E N T N E W S PA P E R O F WA S H I N G T O N U N I V E R S I T Y I N S T. L O U I S S I N C E 1 8 7 8
WU dropout sentenced to 540 years Collins convicted of rape and armed robbery By Caroline Wekselbaum Staff Reporter Former Washington University student and football star Bobby Collins, Jr. was sentenced to 540 years in prison Friday, after being convicted on 20 felony charges last month, including forcible rape and armed robbery. On the morning of March 17, 2002, between 4 and 5 a.m., Collins broke into the home of a St. Louis woman he did not know. He proceeded to tie her up at gunpoint, then violently beat and sexually assaulted her for 30-90 minutes.
Collins was arrested for this attack in August of 2003 in St. Louis, after DNA samples Collins gave during an investigation for a separate robbery he committed matched those taken from the victim. In the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Circuit Judge Margaret Neill, who presided over the trial, called the attack “the most heinous that I have seen during my 12 years on the bench… Heinous crimes deserve harsh punishment.” Collins was attending Washington University at the time of the crime. He was enrolled in University College from the spring of 2001 through the spring of 2002, when he was suspended for academic reasons. The dean of University College, Robert Wiltenberg, was unavailable for comment Friday, although Uni-
versity College Registrar Maria Hunter said Friday that she had “no information” regarding Collins. While pursuing a psychology degree at night as a 27-year-old non-traditional student, Collins worked for his uncle as a plumber during the day and played football and baseball for the Bears. It was his football prowess for which he was most known. As a tailback for the Bears during the 2001 season, Collins broke the rookie rushing record by rushing 1,015 yards and scoring seven touchdowns. His exceptional performance on the football field earned him the University Athletic Association Offensive Player of the Year. With his unusually busy schedule
See COLLINS, page 2
THE DANCE THAT BINDS
Ever driven a motorbike that’s three inches off the ground? Enter the world of pocket bikes in Scene.
Bobby Collins
STUDENT LIFE ARCHIVES
Eliminate your loans–by volunteering?
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By Laura Geggel Staff Reporter
Thinking of studying abroad? Have you considered going to Georgia? Diego Chojkier did, and he discusses his unique study abroad experience in Scene.
PAGE 6 It was an up-anddown weekend for the women’s basketball team. It started with a strong victory over No. 7 Brandeis, but it ended with a tought loss at NYU.
PAGE 2 An alum writes in and recalls the good old days of “flexible flexes” in Forum. Plus, private high school alum Hunter Haas says there is no conspiracy for those from private schools to take over the world.
PAGE 3 INDEX News Sports Forum Scene
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DAVID BRODY | STUDENT LIFE
A dance sequence chronicling the struggle of slaves in American history opened this year’s Black Anthology. A play, “The Ties That Bind,” followed, showing the modern challenges of a black family.
New office opens to aid undergraduate research By David Tabor Contributing Editor Washington University’s College of Arts and Sciences has announced the formation of a new office to promote undergraduate research projects. The Office of Undergraduate Research will help place students in research positions as well as promote their findings and award scholarships. Among the goals being pursued by the Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR) are an online journal of students’ writing, a research symposium and an online searchable database of research opportunities. Associate Dean Henry Biggs, director of the new office, explained that OUR was created to address the difficulties that students were having finding research positions. “There was definitely a need perceived by pretty much every department that people had research opportunities, but they were hidden away on each department’s Web site,” said Biggs. He explained that a centralized listing of positions would be a great aid in matching students to positions, removing obstacles that keep willing students from vacant openEMILY TOBIAS | STUDENT LIFE ings. “I definitely think it’s a wonderful re- Students like junior Sara DuBois will now be able to apply for source, and since I’ll be looking for a research research funding in any discipline. position in the future, I plan on using it,” said sophomore Alejandro Akrouh, a biochemistry major and pre-medical student, about the online Biggs noted. database. The searchable online database is currently availAkrouh said that he enjoyed the Summer Schol- able at http://ur.wustl.edu and lists 190 available ars Program in Biology and Biomedical Research, in research opportunities. Biggs explained that the which he worked in a genetics lab in the University database is in its early stages and is being expanded Medical School, but has not found a particularly ap- frequently. He said that he hopes it will become a pealing research position since. robust resource within a six-month timeframe. “I know people who are in work study positions Plans are underway to provide the OUR with they’re not completely happy with, and an online di- office space in Prince Hall. The staff expects to be rectory with searchable criteria could certainly help moved into their new office in Prince 221 by March them find more desirable positions,” said Akrouh. 1, Biggs said. While laboratory work, both through the University as well as off campus, tends to be common OUR launches with three major initiatives in the natural sciences, Biggs explained that he felt In an e-mail sent Friday, the College of Arts and that other disciplines would fi nd ample opportunity Sciences Office announced the creation of the OUR to contribute. The online database plans to list re- and invited undergraduates to apply to have their search positions across a variety of disciplines, and work considered for three of its new initiatives: the programs that promote students’ work—such as the Undergraduate Research Digest, the Undergraduate online journal—will be accepting submissions from Research Symposium and a series of research schola variety of fields. Analytical writing done for a hu- arships to be awarded this spring. manities class would be at home in an OUR journal,
Five years ago, Carlos Fearn graduated from Washington University with a diploma and a large debt accrued from student loans. Memories of this financial hardship prompted him to create Student Loan Eliminators, a nonprofit organization that plans to help students across the country decrease or terminate their debt before they even graduate. By volunteering for local charities and non-profit groups, students enrolled in Fearn’s program can repay their debts by doing projects like volunteering at soup kitchens and spending time with the elderly. “People want to get something [more] out of their volunteer efforts,” Fearn said. “This way nonprofits and charities can benefit too.” Students interested in the program must visit Fearn’s Web site, www.nostudentdebt.org, fill out an application and pay a $10 fee. Fearn says admission to the program will be selective and not all applicants will get in on their first application. “We will score the applications accordingly,” Fearn said, “[but] the determinate will be the essay questions.” Student Loan Eliminators will re-assess each application monthly for a year so that students will not have to apply more than once. Once chosen, the program will match the participant with a nonprofit that best fits the volunteer’s abilities and interests. “The time frame [for volunteering] will be determinant on the actual amount of your grant. Each individual will be done differently.” Fearn said. Students can earn up to $5,000 toward eliminating their debt. After volunteering the hours they agreed upon, the students, with confirmation from their charity, will contact Student Loan Eliminators to receive their grants. Fearn hopes to support close to 30,000 participants and contribute at least $50 million every year. “It will be set up on a first come first serve basis,” he said, “It’s a national program. One of the things that we definitely want to do is make sure that each campus will get a minimum of one person.” The program is largely financed by other nonprofits, donations and the registration fee. In the process, Fearn hopes to assist other non-profits and charities. “We want to work with a lot of the smaller [places], not large ones like the Red Cross,” he said. Fearn himself is no stranger to entrepreneurship. Before he graduated in 2000 with majors in economics and marketing, Fearn had already started his own eBay-like Web site through which he matched vendors with small businesses and created “Storage for Less,” a storage company for students’ belongings over the summer months. “I’ve been doing my own business even before I left Washington University,” Fearn said. Of his new venture, Fearn noted, “A lot of people volunteer already and a lot of them know they have student loans.” Although Fearn sees Student Loan Eliminators as a chance for students to volunteer their debt away, junior Hiroki Motokubota is worried that students would be volunteering for the wrong reasons. Motokubota currently spends four hours each week as a volunteer with the Pediatrics Emergency Medicine Research Associate Program, or PEMRAP, at the St. Louis Children’s Hospital.
See RESEARCH, page 2
STUDENT LIFE
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