STUDENT LIFE
THE INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER OF WASHINGTON UNIVERSIT Y IN ST. LOUIS SINCE 1878 Is “Fall Break” a misnomer? The Student Life editorial board certainly thinks so. Find out why inside Forum. Page 4.
The Katz controversy continues to grace our pages, with about a half dozen new responses. Get your fill in Forum. Page 4.
VOLUME 127, NO. 21
Inside Sports: a look at the lives of two bookies. One guy’s successful; the other guy is just lucky to keep his car. Page 7.
Friday Features: In part two of a continuing series on music at WU, Cadenza takes on the wild protests of the ‘60s. Page 6.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2005
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Fallacies may fuel WU students’ drinking By Jessie Rothstein Contributing Reporter Students’ perceptions of their peers’ drinking habits are in fact the strongest predictor of personal alcohol consumption, according to a recent nationwide study of 76,000 college students. The study analyzed information from a nationwide database, the National College Health Assessment (NCHA), which collected information from 130 schools from the spring of 2000 through the spring of 2003. Washington University was among the participating institutions. The study, published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol, reported that 71 percent of all students involved in the survey overestimated the norm at their school, and even at schools where alcoholic abstinence was the norm, only 20.6 percent of students held accurate perceptions of this behavior. These perceptions, according to the study, are a “more powerful predictor than gender and…a dramatically stronger
predictor of personal drinking compared with the (albeit) significant effects of other factors frequently noted, such as race and fraternity/sorority membership.” A one-drink increase in a student’s perceived norm predicted almost a one-half drink increase in that student’s own drinking. “We had access to the data and were able to run a variety of different statistical analyses to determine information on how norms affected behavior,” said Michael Haines, a co-author of the article and director of the National Social Norms Resource Center located at Northern Illinois University. The study assessed the extent and prevalence of students’ misperceptions about drinking norms and examined whether more accurate perceptions had any influence on reducing alcohol-related risk. The study used several questions from the NCHA survey, including questions regarding personal behavior and its consequences, expectations of peer behavior and the informational programs at institutions of higher education.
Last year Melissa Ruwitch, coordinator of health promotion and wellness, was in charge of the “Just the Facts” alcohol education program at Washington University. “These campaigns are proven to have a protective influence on the rate of increase of student drinking,” she said. As Ruwitch explained, the University’s alcohol education consists of professional and peer health education, as well as some printed and online resources, including the online AlcoholEdu program for entering freshman, alcohol messages in orientation programs, familiarizing student leaders with resources, the Alcohol Awareness handbook, and various resources for students trying to assess if they have an abuse problem. While the correlation between students’ overestimation of other students’ consumption and their own behavior has been demonstrated several times in the past, never before has it been confirmed conclusively with a database this extensive. Haines and his colleagues
hope that more colleges will take advantage of their alcohol study and implement it into educational student programming. “Only ten of these 130 schools have information programs that are correlated with correcting the misperceptions and thus increasing students’ health,” Haines said. Moreover, Haines noted that information programs at 34 schools were actually correlated with an increase in misperceptions. As the study explains, “the overwhelming majority of schools were either not attempting or not managing to reduce the dramatic misperceptions of campus drinking norms among their students with the information provided.” Haines, along with his fellow co-authors, has presented these findings at national meetings and will soon be sending copies of the published article to many college presidents. “One of the best ways for students to be helped and protected would be for the adminis-
DAVID BRODY | STUDENT LIFE
A “beeramid” of Miller High Life remains after a recent party See DRINKNG, page 3 in Dauten House. University students participated in a nationwide study about influences on students’ drinking habits.
Student groups vie for $70K in Olin Cup Finals
BREAK-FAST AT THE CO-OP
By Troy Rumans Contributing Reporter
RACHIT PATEL | STUDENT LIFE
Seniors Josh Chupack and Becca Weaver pick organic tomatoes and herbs from the Washington University Cooperative’s garden. They returned to the Co-op early Thursday evening after a long day of fasting and repentance at synagogue. Pickings from the garden were used to prepare a meal for the Yom Kippur break-fast.
Last Thursday marked the announcement of the Olin Cup fi nalists, the premier entrepreneurial competition at Washington University. This year two student groups— graduate student Suzanne Shenkman’s Suzanne Shenkman Designs and undergraduate Teddy Purnomo’s homework—proceeded to the competition’s final round. This is no small achievement, as the Olin Cup welcomes entries not only from students enrolled at all levels of the University, but also members of the community such as business professionals. Purnomo’s venture plans to create a Web-based retailer that caters to the international student population coming to the United States. Additionally, Purnomo currently serves as the president of the Foundation for Undergraduate Studies in Entrepreneurship (FUSE). Members of FUSE see this as a vindication of their work toward increasing entrepreneurial awareness at the student level. “We want to sell dorm-related products to them before they come to campus by providing customization services,” said Purnomo. “We want to set it up so they can see what their room will look like, and do decorations all online. Some-
times you bring something to campus only to realize that it just doesn’t fit in the dorm.” Purnomo believes that the University in particular has a significant demand for his business, as 89 percent of entering students come from out of state. His teammates include Steve Xu, Ellen Lo and Alan Perlman, all of whom are also undergraduate students. “We’ve been trying to get more undergrads, and now they’re being very successful,” said Aarin Yu, who heads up the competition aspect of FUSE. “I hope this is an encouragement for more students to apply to the Olin Cup.” FUSE recently hosted a simulated entrepreneurial-related event in which students received counseling from Professor Barton Hamilton, and were then asked to invest capital into three different ventures based on their likelihood of success. Yu sees this as the other side of the coin in regards to the Olin Cup. “In [the FUSE event], you are playing the part of the investor. In the Olin Cup, you are the entrepreneur. This lets you see both sides,” said Yu. The other student-owned venture, Suzanne Shenkman Designs, offers a distinct set of fashion accessories for women and pets using men’s neckties. Product offerings include belts, chokers, pet collars and “wristlets,” a variant on the
bracelet. Shenkman, who will receive her MBA from the Olin School of Business in March, believes she has an extensive breadth of knowledge concerning the scope of her venture. She has marketing experience at both Nestle Purina and Brown Shoe Company, and also works at BJC Healthcare in marketing and public relations. “I’ve got a sense for the pet market and I understand how a number of consumers out there treat their pets. People do like to give their pets something special and differentiate them,” said Shenkman. The next step for fi nalists in the Olin Cup will be the formation of their business proposals, a fi nalized plan for their businesses around 40 pages long. Possibilities of further success aside, Shenkman trusts that she will gain much from her participation in the Olin Cup. “If nothing comes out of this in terms of a month... [the Olin Cup] is just an extraordinary experience in launching a new enterprise,” said Shenkman. “I’m glad this allows us to really dive in without the complete risk you might experience [otherwise]. This gives you real feedback without crushing your spirit.” Purnomo agrees.
See OLIN CUP, page 3
Carlos Fuentes praises ingenuity of ‘Don Quixote’ at Graham Chapel By Helen Rhee Staff Reporter Distinguished Mexican author and political figure Carlos Fuentes delivered an Assembly Series speech on Wednesday celebrating the legendary Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes and his seminal work “Don Quixote de la Mancha.” The lecture, entitled “Celebrating Cervantes and Don Quixote,” reflected on the far-reaching impact that Cervantes’ work has had in the 400 years since its publication. “Religion is dogmatic. Politic is ideological. Reason must be logical, but literature has a privilege of being equivocal,” said Fuentes. Fuentes argued that
“Don Quixote,” often considered the world’s first novel, explores the depth and the multitude of human nature through elements of love, reason, and imagination. It is a story of an elderly man who is disillusioned with a fantasy world and desires to recreate the chivalrous world he had read about in his books. His chivalrous quest to save the romance of his life differs from the realistic, good-natured peasant Sancho Panza, who joins his foolish adventure. Fuentes said that “Don Quixote” was groundbreaking in its revolutionary approaches to truth, realism and romance in literature. Don Quixote’s passionate quest to save Dulcinea, a peasant, has
become the template for romantic literature for generations. He argued that literature offers another side of reality that sometimes gets disregarded by the dogma of religion and ideology of politics. “Human kind will prevail. And it will prevail because, in spite of the reaction of history, novels tell that art restores right in us that was disregarded by history. History is being what was, then literature offers what history has not always been,” said Fuentes. Paromita De, a sophomore English major who attended the lecture, said that she found Fuentes’ ideas engaging. “One of Fuentes’s points that … will stick
with me the most is that he thought fiction serves as a search for truth. I think that is absolutely true. Through literature we get to open a part of ourselves that usually we don’t touch upon in our lives,” she said. Fuentes is known for his works addressing Latin American themes, including his search for cultural identity within Latin and North America. Some of his acclaimed works are “Where the Air is Clearer” (1958), “The Death of Artemio Cruz” (1962), “A change of Skin” (1967), “Terra Nostra” (1975), “The Hydra Head” (1978), “The Campaign” (1990), and “Inez” (2002). His novel “The Gringo” was made into a movie
DAVID HARTSTEIN | STUDENT LIFE
Author Carlos Fuentes spoke of the far-reaching impact of Miguel de Cervantes’ “Don See FUENTES, page 3 Quixote de la Mancha” during his Assembly Series lecture Wednesday.