STUDENT LIFE
THE INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER OF WASHINGTON UNIVERSIT Y IN ST. LOUIS SINCE 1878 The No. 1-ranked women’s volleyball squad has done it again, upending four teams over the weekend on the way to 19-0. Page 6.
Porn, homophobia, and social norming are just three of the topics you can read about in today’s Forum. Check it out. Page 4.
VOLUME 127, NO. 20
From “Hair” to “Elizabethtown” to “Domino,” Cadenza has all the reviews you need to plan your weekend. Page 8.
What would happen if the American radio waves played nothing but folk music? Cadenza explores the unthinkable. Page 10.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2005
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Health Services to move to South 40 By Laura Geggel News Editor By spring semester of 2006, Student Health and Counseling Services will move from its main campus location in Umrath Hall to a larger site in Forsyth House on the South 40. The $2 million relocation will put both Student Health and Counseling Services (SHCS) and Health and Promotion Services into the lower level of the one-year-old residence hall. “There’s going to be a lot of enhancements. The physical layout of the space is going to be more efficient. It was also designed with privacy being a primary focus,” said Dr. Alan Glass, director of SHCS.
Glass explained that the larger location will allow the school’s healthcare professionals more freedom in treating small wounds. Students will now be able to get stitches, as well as have minor infections drained. “We have people on our staff that are certainly very capable of performing [minor operations], but we haven’t had a space to do it in the past,” Glass added. Forsyth House, located on the corner of Big Bend and Shepley Drive, opened for student housing in the fall of 2004. “It was built to be a resident hall and, at the last minute, we put a lower level into the building [for Student Health and Counseling Services],” said Steven
Rackers, manager of capital projects. Rackers supported the University’s decision to move the small clinic to the South 40 as it is “the largest residential concentration of undergraduates on the campus.” “We recognize the issue related to accessibility for students who don’t live on the 40, but I think we have done our best to accommodate those needs. The University shuttle routes have been extended out to the new area where Health Services is going to be. We have 16 spaces of parking allotted for people who need to drive to the Health Service,” said Glass. “Quite honestly, when you walk from the present Health
Service to the new Health Service, under the underpass, it’s about a five minute walk, so it’s really not too far.” Stephanie Beamer, a senior who lives in the Central West End, thought that the new location would be inconvenient for students who live off-campus. She agreed that the designated parking would “help matters, but it still doesn’t seem practical,” she said. Sophomore Eric Gradel, who lives on the Northside, in House 9, disagrees. “I’m not bothered. I think it will benefit students because then health services will be more accessible to students on the Forty,” he said. The new clinic, at 8,463
square feet, will be over 1,600 square feet larger than the space SCHS has occupied in Umrath Hall for the past 30 years. The new office will include an office for Health Promotion Services (HPS), currently located in the Woman’s Building. HPS, which provides advice and materials about safe sex, drug additions, and fitness, among other services, aims to help teach students how to stay healthy. “When you look at the big picture of college health, it isn’t just coming in when you’re sick or when something’s wrong. It’s trying to teach yourself ways to keep that from happening,” said Glass. On the physician’s side,
SHCS will continue to provide the basic services. Glass noted that they typically treat illnesses ranging from sore throats and ear aches to bronchitis and urinary tract infections. Over 95 percent of the cases SHCS receives are treated on campus, although sometimes health practitioners “see complex medical conditions that require the collaboration with our colleagues at the medical school,” Glass said. For nonemergency situations, not able to be treated on the Hilltop Campus, students need to acquire a referral from health services in order for it to be fully covered by Aetna, the mandatory student insurance plan.
University continues to research genetically modified crops By Helen Rhee Staff Reporter In creating the Governor’s Advisory Council for Plant Biotechnology last spring, Missouri Governor Matt Blunt selected two members of the Washington University community as part of a nine-person board that would address public policy, economics, biology, agriculture and industry. Blunt appointed University Chancellor Emeritus William Danforth as an advisor and Roger Beachy, professor of biology and president of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, as chairman of the council that will work to better maximize the state’s agricultural potentials. Danforth and Beachy’s appointments mark the University’s continued involvement in plant biotechnology research, stretching back more than 20 years. The fi rst genetically modified plant research began simultaneously in three laboratories throughout the world, in 1983: Mary-Dell Chilton’s lab at the University, the Monsanto lab in Creve Coeur, Mo., and In Science Laboratories in Ganta, Belgium. Mary-Dell Chilton is a renowned scientist and a former professor of biology at the University whose pioneering research provided the foundation for genetically modified crop research, as well as the development of plant biotechnology. Beachy began his research in the early 1980s in the University’s biology department. He drew upon his predecessors’ research conclusions to create varieties of crops resistant to viral infection. The technique came as part of an attempt to create virus-resistant tobacco plants. In 1987, Beachy’s team fi rst successfully genetically engineered a food crop with a disease resistance trait. “My own work was really made by possible by Dr. Chilton and other scientists at Monsanto Company,” said Beachy. “What my own work in
the department of biology did was to use the genetic transformation technique to create varieties of crops that are resistant to viral infections.” In 1991, Beachy moved to Scripps Institute in, La Jolla., Ca., to study how viral-resistance works inside crops. Upon his return to St. Louis in 1999 he was named the president of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, an independent and non-profit science research institution. His focus is now on developing viral-resistant plants and seeds with higher nutritional values. Working with researchers at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, Beachy has developed a variety of food products, which include viralresistant papaya and squash. Beachy hopes that in eight to 15 years they will be able to use the technology on Africangrown plants such as cassava. “We hope that these technologies will be available to be of use to farmers in Africa in five to six years to improve their agricultural yields,” said Beachy. Beach said that researchers at the Donald Danforth center are also working to make increase knowledge of and develop a better understanding of how plants create energy and convert sugars. “The knowledge can be used to develop energy such as bio-diesel and bio-ethanol,” said Beachy. He hopes that the technology might reduce the U.S. dependence on foreign petroleum by allowing plants to be used as an alternative biorenewable energy source. In the private sector, Monsanto, a St. Louis-based company, has led the research and the development of biotechnology products such as Roundup, an agricultural herbicide that has the unique characteristic of being biodegradable in soil. Monsanto has also developed varieties of plants resistant to viral infections.
ALWYN LOH | STUDENT LIFE
Awareness Week participants take a break from flyering Monday evening in the underpass. Pride Alliance’s flyering campaign and painting of the underpass are just two of the ways students on campus are seeking to raise awareness about GLBTQIA issues.
New Pride Alliance sponsors Awareness Week until Oct. 16 By Alison Curran Contributing Reporter GLBTQIA Awareness Week, an event designed to spread the awareness of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersexed, asexual and ally issues on campus, kicked off on Saturday and will run through Oct. 16. Sponsored by new student group Pride Alliance, Awareness Week focuses on educating the Washington University student body on GLBTQIA matters, as well as providing social activities, said junior Tom Giarla, the Pride Alliance’s co-president. Pride Alliance formed when Spectrum Alliance and Outright merged earlier this year. The group’s mission includes education, activism
and social activities. “There is a new motivation and a new drive to get people aware and involved,” said Giarla. Already, the group has hosted a number of events during Pride Week, including a parent/family discussion over Parents Weekend, a night of “guerilla flyering,” and a coming out story exchange earlier in the week. For the remainder of the week, the Pride Alliance has organized a City Museum trip for Friday, and a viewing of “The Laramie Project” fi lm on Sunday. “The Laramie Project” tells the story of Matthew Shepard, a college student who was brutally beaten to death in 1998 because of his homosexuality. Giarla instructed students to make the most of the week.
“Educate yourself. It seems like people are misinformed. Go out and get educated,” he said. “We want to make sure people know we are here. We want people to know they have resources.” Pride Alliance stressed the importance of ally involvement in GLBTQIA awareness. “This is important for allies, too,” said sophomore Lori Weingarten, the co-president of Pride Alliance. “GLBQTIA issues affect everyone’s lives,” she added. GLBTQIA Awareness Week is not just a University activity, said Weingarten. “This happens at campuses all over,” she said. Weingarten explained that the week’s timing has to do with National Coming Out Day, Oct. 11, and the anniversary Matthew Shepard’s death on Oct. 16.
Throughout the week Pride Alliance will have a table in Mallinckrodt, where they will be selling shirts and spreading awareness of GLBTQIA issues. Giarla and Weingarten encourage interested students to stop by the tables and sign up for the group’s e-mail list. For those unable to visit the table, Pride Alliance can be reached by e-mail at pride@ restech.wustl.edu. Pride Alliance’s efforts to raise GLBTQIA awareness do not stop after this week. The group has planned several projects for the remainder of the year, including a week of programming surrounding Transgender Day of Remembrance, several visiting speakers, and Safe Zones education. The fi rst-year group plans to grow and develop throughout the year.
See CROPS, page 3
Tulane professors find refuge at WU By Mandy Silver Contributing Editor
KRT CAMPUS
Dr. Robert Fraley, chief technology officer at Monsanto, looks at soybeans containing omega-3 fatty acids in Chesterfield, Mo., on April 20. Monsanto is a leading force in the biotechnology production industry.
Scott Grayson, a chemistry professor at Tulane University, arrived on his campus only two months before the levies in New Orleans broke on Aug. 29, leaving the entire city submerged in water. Originally expecting to teach a graduate course in the fall, and organic chemistry in the spring, he instead found himself scrambling to secure temporary placement. He found a spot at Washing-
ton University in his home city of St. Louis. In addition to the undergraduates from the devastated Gulf Coast region accepted as visiting students, the University has welcomed several displaced professors, including Grayson and Mark Fink, another professor of chemistry. Since fall classes started before Fink and Grayson arrived, neither were able to teach undergraduate or graduate classes. Both professors have continued to
make progress on their respective research, however, in lab space provided by the University. In the aftermath of Katrina, Grayson said he was partially drawn to St. Louis because of his family roots. But the main attraction for him was Professor Karen Wooley’s parallel research interests in exploring how to use polymers to improve the effectiveness of drugs and vaccines. “Professor Karen Wooley invited me as visiting fac-
ulty for the semester,” said Grayson. “She is a leader in her field, and has similar research interests. It was a logical connection, so that my graduate students can interact with her graduate students. She also offered me access to her equipmentation—the things polymer chemists require to synthesize and characterize new materials.” Like Grayson, Fink, a 22year professor of chemistry
See TULANE, page 3