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FRIDAY, February 27, 2015 lgbt
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thedailyreveille
Volume 119 · No. 98
Student advocates for gender-neutral restrooms BEC converts women’s restroom to family restroom staff reports news@lsureveille.com The Business Education Complex’s third-floor women’s restroom is now a family restroom. MPA student Peter Jenkins requested the change to accommodate genderqueer and transgender students. Jenkins uses the term genderqueer and the pronoun they as an identifier instead of he or she because they identify as a combination of both male and female. Changing a restroom or speaking out about certain questions on medical papers are small changes Jenkins said can make a difference. Having a bathroom changed was about more than advocacy, it was a matter of safety, they said. “I understand that some people who may have the same gender identity as me would just make the choice and feel really bad and internalize that,” Jenkins said. “So hopefully through my advocacy, even on the small things, positive changes will be made.”
Jenkins said they contacted E.J. Ourso College of Business Dean Richard White about a family restroom in the BEC because they found family restrooms safer than the men’s restroom. “For a lot of people who don’t understand or don’t focus on gender identity very much, I look like a guy in a dress, and if they see me in the restroom, people get really upset sometimes,” Jenkins said. “Transgender people have one of the highest rates of being murdered of any group of people, and for me it is a safety issue.” Jenkins said they used to wait to use the restroom or walk to the Student Union before the family restroom was created. White’s response allowed them to feel safer in a BEC restroom, they said. College of Business Associate Dean Timothy Chandler was put in charge of restructuring the BEC bathrooms, an issue over which White expressed concerns. White said there are not enough restrooms in the BEC, and a family restroom was already deemed necessary for
see restrooms, page 11
javier fernández / The Daily Reveille
The South Stadium parking lot is currently undergoing construction to fix problems with the sewer system underneath. parking
Commuter lot faces construction woes Sewer renovation blocks about 40 parking spots
BY amanda capritto acapritto@lsureveille.com Parking on campus is a constant battle for every student, especially commuters. Students duke it out every morning for the parking spots closest to campus, and their struggles are made even more difficult by ongoing construction in commuter parking lots. The latest project on campus
is blocking off about 40 parking spots in the commuter lot on Nicholson and South Stadium drives with various construction vehicles and large piles of sand and rocks. This project is related to the development underway in front of the military science and public safety buildings on South Stadium Drive. Director of Utility Services Jim Mayne said the construction is part of a city-wide project called the Sanitary Sewer Overflow Project. According to the Baton Rouge Department of Public Works’
Baton Rouge Projects website, a sanitary sewer overflow is a discharge of untreated, raw wastewater into local waterways. This overflow can come from various sources, including manholes, cracks and other defects in sewer lines and emergency relief outlets. The city began the project about three years ago and ran piping from the University’s School of Veterinary Medicine to the Football Operations Center. The city project is now
see parking lot, page 11
geology
Researchers travel to Hawaii for planetary science projects Lava tubes and pit craters shed light on Mars
BY jose alejandro bastidas jbastidas@lsureveille.com Scientists have many questions about Mars, and for a University research team, the best place to search for answers lies on the island of Hawaii. Geology doctoral student Donald Hood — along with research assistant professor J.R. Skok, mechanical engineering junior Nicholas Olsen and anthropology and geology senior David Susko — embarked on a weeklong expedition with NASA’s Field Investigations to Enable Solar System Science and Exploration team to study Hawaii’s pit craters, magma chambers and lava tubes.
“Anyone in our lab that was interested in participating on the trip submitted project ideas in order to participate in the expedition,” Hood said. “Hawaii is a fantastic place to do planetary science research, at least on Earth. You can’t pass up an opportunity to go there on a field mission.” Funded by a grant given to Skok and assistant professor Suniti Karunatillake by the Louisiana Space Consortium, the team spent the second week of January collecting samples, measuring craters and visiting different sections of the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park to provide insight on Mars’ surface and the planet’s evidence of life. Samples from Hawaii are a reliable source for research on Mars because the lava forming in both locations is chemically similar.
Hood measured and tried to understand why pit craters in Hawaii differ from those found on the moon, Mars and in Iceland. “There was a paper, I think in 1998, that explained how pit craters form, and even though the science was right, there was something about Hawaii that doesn’t add up for me,” Hood said. “We have a really good grasp about how pit craters form in other places. In Mars, for example, the craters form perfectly in line. Hawaii’s craters don’t, and it’s just bizarre. I want to figure out how they form.” Hood didn’t get the results he aimed for because the magnitude of some craters proved too difficult.
see hawaii, page 11
courtesy of nicholas olsen
Assistant professor J.R. Skok [left] and mechanical engineering junior Nicholas Olsen [right] perform research at a pit crater in Hawaii.