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the independent newspaper of Washing ton Universit y in St . L ouis since eighteen sevent y-eight ORIENTATION 2009
Vol. 130, No. 1
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Work on new Umrath, Wohl WU administration going ‘as planned,’ officials say moving forward
with tobacco ban Some criticize lack of student input and communication
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EVAN WISKUP | STUDENT LIFE
EVAN WISKUP | STUDENT LIFE
COURTESY OF FACILITIES
Phase I of construction on the South 40 will be completed with the opening of Umrath Hall and part of the new Wohl Center this fall. Left: Umrath Hall under construction this summer. Right: the architect’s rendered image of the finished building.
Jack Marshall Contributing Reporter With move-in day quickly approaching, Washington University administrators say construction of the longawaited Umrath Hall and Wohl Center on the South 40 is going as planned. “There are certain activities lagging, certain activities ahead of schedule, but we are overall on schedule,” said Steven Rackers, director of capital projects & records. While masonry and landscaping are slightly behind schedule, some interior furnishing remains ahead. Phase I of the construction will be done before fall move-
in, according to Project Manager Nancy Marshall. This first phase includes the new Umrath and Wohl residential areas, a fitness center, certain stations at Bear’s Den, part of Bear Mart and a temporary dining facility. Residential spaces will be ready for early move-in students, which includes freshman participants in pre-orientation programs, student advisors and resident advisors. Phase II—which consists of the completion of the new Bear’s Den, an upgraded Bear Mart and College Hall, an assembly space for the residential colleges—will be done by August 2010. Dean of Students Justin
Carroll wrote in an e-mail that construction for College of Hall will start after the old Wohl is completely demolished. The University, he wrote, expects it to be done by fall 2010. According to a description from the architecture firm Mackey Mitchell and Associates—Umrath and Wohl’s designers—the lower levels of Umrath and Wohl will feature student activity spaces to accommodate 3,000 residents and a new dining service facility. “Modeled after European streetscapes, the site features an upper and lower plaza, which creates ‘outdoor rooms.’ Cascading stairs, ramps and a sloped garden lead from the
adjacent parking garage to the lower plaza, creating a social heart for the residential neighborhood,” the firm’s description reads. Due to the new Wohl’s LEED Silver certification, there will be other noticeable changes in Bear’s Den, such as china dishes instead of disposable ones to help reduce waste. The kitchen will use energyefficient hoods to reduce energy use, and food wastes will be sent to a composter. The loading dock near the dining facilities will be sheltered by a green roof that provides not only recreation space but also a vegetable and herbs garden for students to
See SOUTH 40, page 2
New dining options await students Chloe Rosenberg Staff Reporter As members of the Class of 2013 prepare to make Washington University their new home, Dining Services is scurrying to finish the new dining facilities on the South 40. The new Wohl Center, currently under construction, will house the new dining facilities. The former Wohl Center, where most of the South 40’s dining facilities were located, was demolished in mid-June. Amid student concerns, Bon Appétit insists the quality of the food options offered on the South 40 will not suffer from the transition.
The new Wohl Center will be built in two separate phases— the first of which will be finished before August move-in. The first phase will house both permanent and temporary dining facilities. A permanent dining facility will be completed with the second phase to replace the temporary one. The new dining hall is set to offer many of the same options previously available at Bear’s Den, including a bakery, grill and sandwich station in the permanent section, along with a tacquería, salad bar, global station and a hot kosher station in the temporary facility. A temporary Bear Mart also will be available for the 2009-
2010 school year. Ursa’s will be the only South 40 dining facility to remain unaffected by the changes. “It is going to be one of the top food programs and living and learning concepts in the nation,” Nadeem Siddiqui, resident district manager for Bon Appétit, said of the new facilities. The second permanent wing, which will open for the 20102011 school year, is set to house an Indian station and a Mongolian grill. In 2010, the temporary facility will be replaced by offices and a kosher kitchen—the first of its kind on campus. Until this point, all kosher food items have been prepared at the nearby Hillel
House and delivered to campus. Vegetarian options will be broadened next year as well. The dining facilities will have a separate grill and fryer for vegetarian food. Plans are underway to have at least one vegetarian option available at each food station. “I think that having the separate fryer is a good option. Seeing my food touch meat is a personal turn-off to me. That’s really good that they are trying to be more sensitive,” said junior Meghna Srinath, a vegetarian. All of the food in the new dining hall will be served a la carte. Though there will be no replacement for Center Court, a
Dan Woznica News Editor
Ashtrays soon will be a relic of bygone days at Washington University as all of the institution’s campuses move toward the implementation of a complete smoking and tobacco ban in July 2010. The decision to prohibit smoking and the use of all tobacco-related products on University property was announced last April by the administration, which framed the ban as a public health initiative intended to reduce the effects of secondhand smoke. “We’re not passing judgment on what you should or should not do,” said Jill Carnaghi, associate vice chancellor for students and dean of campus life. “We’re saying on our campus we want as healthy an environment as possible.” Carnaghi’s sense is that most undergraduates agree with the ban. But she feels many who supported it were nonetheless frustrated that the University made the decision without taking student input into account. “I think there was a good number that didn’t like the way the decision was made,” Carnaghi said. “They were upset with how the process went in the decision, rather than the decision itself.” Senior Tom Aylmer was one such student angry with how the University implemented the ban. “The people who implemented it didn’t give the students any say in the decision process,” Aylmer said. “I’d like them to at least inform the students as to how they
made the decision, what kind of research they did. They should address why they didn’t give the students any consideration.” Student Union (SU) also decried the lack of student involvement in the administration’s decision. Last April, SU passed a resolution requesting that the administration reconsider the ban after hearing students’ opinions on the matter. Although the University is not currently planning to reevaluate its decision, Carnaghi is leading a committee of around 12 undergraduates in the coming year that will offer student input to the administration concerning the ban and its implementation. “We’ll pull together a committee to identify what are the issues, what are the concerns and then how do we as a group—which is made up of a lot of students, some I hope to be smokers and some not—move forward with this in a realistic way,” Carnaghi said. The committee likely will include representatives from student groups that may be affected most by the ban, such as international students from cultures more permissive of smoking. Carnaghi said the committee also will work to engage the broader undergraduate population through open forums for students to express their opinions. The administration has created separate committees for working with the rest of the University population. The faculty and staff committee is headed by Alan Glass, director of Student Health Services, and Brad Freeman, associate professor of surgery, while the graduate and professional students committee is headed by Sheri Notaro, associate dean in the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. At present, while the Uni-
See BAN, page 3
See DINING, page 2
Financial troubles: University prepares for another hard year In the midst of the worldwide economic crisis, Washington University is dealing with a difficult financial situation of its own. The administration estimates the University’s endowment is down by 20 to 25 percent as of the end of May, according to Chancellor Mark Wrighton.
“That [estimate] might be a little better than we had in mid-April, when I communicated it to the community,” Wrighton said in reference to an e-mail he sent to students, faculty and staff to inform them about the University’s financial situation. He followed up that e-mail with a “State of the University Address” on April 23, providing the community an opportunity to ask questions.
Wrighton said donations to the University have held relatively steady, even as the number of donors to the University has decreased. “[It] might even be ahead [of] last year,” Wrighton said. In fact, the total amount of money donated to the University in fiscal 2009 as of the end of May was 4 percent higher than the previous year, according to David
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Blasingame, executive vice chancellor for alumni and development programs. Blasingame said the University is also outperforming peer institutions in donations. “I think most places are experiencing downturns,” he said. Blasingame attributed the University’s slight upturn to
See CRISIS, page 3
MATT MITGANG | STUDENT LIFE
Chancellor Mark Wrighton speaks on issues affecting the University at the “State of the University Address” on April 23.
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