the EAGLE
JANUARY 28, 2010
news 4
Expert fears dismal future for Haiti By STEFANIE DAZIO Eagle Staff Writer Dr. Robert Pastor is no stranger to earthquakes. He is a survivor of the 1985 Mexico City quake that registered an 8.0 on the Richter scale and has been caught in many others. “It’s a frightening moment,” said the School of International Service professor. “The first time I was in an earthquake, I had no idea what was going on, because it’s so disorienting. It seems like the whole world is moving except you and so your first reaction is ‘there’s something wrong with me.’ But after you’ve done one, you know immediately when it’s happening again.” But even after witnessing concrete sidewalks ‘undulating’ like ocean waves, Pastor is still shocked by the damage of the Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti, a 7.0 on the Richter scale. “To be honest with you, this is the most devastating I’ve seen,” he said. For Pastor, a former Caribbean adviser to President Jimmy Carter, the earthquake is only the most recent in a series of problems for Haiti. Pastor holds a Ph.D. and a master’s in public administration from Harvard University. He did his undergraduate studies at Lafayette College. In 1994, former President Bill
Clinton nominated Pastor to be U.S. Ambassador to Panama, but former Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., prevented a vote on his nomination by the full Senate. From 2002 to 2007, Pastor was AU’s vice president of international affairs. In that position, he created the Abroad at AU program. In 2002, Pastor founded AU’s Center for North American Studies and Center for Democracy and Election Management. He was director of both centers from 2002 to 2007 and has been co-director since then. “The trouble with Haiti is that you don’t even know where to start,” he said. “There is no infrastructure, practically no education, terrible diseases, malnutrition, every problem in the world exists in Haiti, only it’s magnified. And then, on top of all of that, you have this earthquake.” Pastor was a senior adviser in 1994 to Carter, former Secretary of State Colin Powell and former Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., when the group traveled to Haiti on behalf of Bill Clinton to persuade the military to relinquish its command back to former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The mission was ultimately successful and constitutional government was restored. “It’s a country that’s extremely poor, overpopulated, without an effective government and it’s had
KELSEY DICKEY / THE EAGLE
HELP FOR HAITI — School of International Service Professor Robert Pastor served as a senior adviser during former President Jimmy Carter’s 1994 trip to Haiti. Pastor says that unlike most countries he has worked to develop, Haiti remains the most difficult to help. a very long, sad history,” he said. “Most of that history has been characterized by man-made disasters. Only last year and this year saw the arrival of natural disasters — hurricanes and now the earthquake.” Pastor said he believes the cur-
rent Haitian government is not equipped to deal with this natural disaster and its “catastrophic” devastation, saying the country is near medieval. “I have long believed that the U.N. should establish a trusteeship over Haiti and govern it for
Honors moves to Hughes By JULIA RYAN Eagle Staff Writer The University Honors Program is facing significant changes to its offices and on-campus housing next year as Housing and Dining moves much of the Honors program to Hughes Hall for the 2010-2011 school year. The honors office had been in communication with Housing and Dining while deciding what would happen to their offices and housing, according to an e-mail from University Honors Program director Michael Mass to the Honors Community. But Housing and Dining’s choice to make the housing announcement on Jan. 4 when school was not in session prevented him from getting feedback and suggestions from the broader honors community. In the e-mail, Mass said he would have liked to have had the opportunity to consult with the Student Honors Board and other members of the honors community before the Jan. 4 housing announcement. Starting next academic year, the University Honors Center will be moved from its current location
on the second floor of Hurst to the first floor of Hughes Hall. Honors housing will be expanded to Hughes’ fourth and fifth floors, in addition to Hughes’ sixth and seventh floors that honors students already occupy. Honors students will also continue to have the option to live on the third floors of Anderson Hall or Centennial Hall, and the Anderson Honors Lounge will still be the center for South side Honors activities. There are also plans to eventually convert Hughes’ second and third floors to honors housing as well. Mass said he stands by Housing and Dining’s decision, but he wanted to make sure the honors community was aware of the changes brought by the housing announcement, he said in an email to The Eagle. “The purpose of [my e-mail to the Honors students] was to be sure that our honors community understood the changes and were reminded that their comments and questions were always welcome,” Mass said. Sam Hagedorn, the Student Honors Board communications director, said he was at first taken aback by the housing announce-
ment. “To be honest, I was concerned when I received the e-mail from Housing and Dining that said honors would be moving to Hughes,” Hagedorn said, “It was a complete surprise, and that’s not been my normal experience with the honors program.” Hagedorn said he is glad that Mass sent the e-mail to explain the changes to the honors program’s offices and housing. “Dr. Mass’ e-mail answered a lot of the questions raised by the Housing and Dining e-mail,” he said. “It appears that honors [housing] is going to begin moving to Hughes next year, but the process isn’t going to happen overnight.” Student Honors Board President Mike Roche said he is satisfied with how Mass handled the honors students’ concerns about South side housing. Roche stands by the decisions regarding the move of Honors housing and offices, he said. “Mass has been in contact with Housing and Dining regarding this policy and has actually helped to limit the changes we can expect next academic year,” Roche said, “This is in line with the stance [the Student Honors Board] would
AhealthyU encourages faculty to get moving By SARAH PARNASS Eagle Staff Writer Students might catch more glimpses of professors in sneakers and gym shorts this spring, thanks to the new incentives of the Office of Human Resources’ health and wellness program. As colleges across the nation are encouraging faculty and staff to stay in shape, HR recently reinvigorated its program, AHealthyU. During the first half of the spring semester, AHealthyU began offering several new activities that revolve around physical activity, according to Health Promotion Manager Amy Farr. “Our goal is really to provide a variety of programs to AU faculty and staff to really help them find a balance between work and life and [to] help [making] healthy lifestyle choices a little bit easier,” Farr said. These programs include a lunch series called Brown Bag Workshops, Weight Watchers and a competition tracking their exercising progress, Farr said. HR will also offer seated massages, costing $1 per minute, to relieve tension and give out financial rewards for completing an online health assessment. The issues of eating right and exercise have become popular in the metro area. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., introduced a bill concerning healthy living on Jan. 13 encouraging the Centers for Disease Control to limit obesity through public and professional education on the topic. Elsewhere in D.C., Georgetown University and George Washington
University also have health and wellness programs for their faculty and staff. At Georgetown, the program called GUWellness started in 2007 and incorporates stress management, exercise and programs to help smokers quit, according to the school’s faculty and staff newspaper, Blue & Gray. GW’s program, Colonial Community, encourages faculty and staff to participate in such programs as the U.S. President’s Council on Physical Fitness Challenge and Weight Watchers at Work, according to the school’s Web site. But the incentives for the Weight Watchers meetings GW held in October differed from those offered under AHealthyU. Faculty and staff who participate in the program at AU are required to go to fewer sessions. Also, participants receive a $65 rebate if they attend at least 10 of the 12 meetings. One Weight Watchers session at AU would cost a staff member about $1.50 less than at GW. Some might find programs involving weight loss and other health statistics to be overstepping privacy boundaries, according to a December article from the Chronicle for Higher Education. AU did not intend these activities and incentives to seem intrusive. Instead, they hoped to encourage those on campus to take control of their health, according to Farr. Gay Young, director of the Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Program and a professor in the College of Arts and Sciences, liked the idea of rewarding employees for making healthy
choices, but she worried that a health and wellness program might lead to negative consequences for those who could not afford to eat right. “I think you have to realize that in reality being healthy, eating well, getting enough exercise and rest does mean that you have a certain level of resources, of material resources, frankly,” Young said. “Fast food is cheap.” AHealthyU got off the ground in 2008 with the hiring of Farr, according to CAS School of Education, Teaching and Health Professor Anastasia Snelling, who supervises Farr and sits on the Benefits Committee. Before AU discovered Farr, plans for the program had begun in accordance with the last step of the 2001 “15-Point Plan,” Snelling said. However, AHealthyU was not mentioned in a 2006 progress report on the plan. AHealthyU is “inclusive,” Farr said. She did not think anyone had been turned away in the past, but her goal was to see the program expand its audience in the future, she said. Farr hopes to also be able to expand HR’s services to spouses or same-sex partners of university employees, she said. “It’s nice when you can not only just affect the people here at work, but then when we can start to impact the family, then we know that the likelihood of changing a particular health behavior is going to be much greater,” Farr said. You can reach this staff writer at sparnass@theeagleonline.com.
have taken, had we been given the opportunity.” Executive Director of Housing and Dining Programs Chris Moody said the lack of communication between the Student Honors Board and Housing and Dining was not an issue of permission, but one of timing. Housing and Dining got final approval for the housing plan on Dec. 4, but they did not want to send out the announcement during finals week. Announcing these changes during winter break gave students time to consult with their parents and to make their housing plans in the month and a half before the room selection process begins. Moody said he plans to keep an open line of communication between Housing and Dining and AU student organizations throughout the housing changes. “We intend to continue working with the Residence Hall Association and the Honors program on the implementation and evaluation of the housing strategy,” Moody said. You can reach this staff writer at jryan@theeagleonline.com.
about 20 years,” he said. “But the problem with that idea is that Haitians are very proud and nationalistic, and that won’t work unless they want to cooperate. I think we need a new pact between the Haitian people, government and the international community to reno-
vate and reform Haiti so that it can move into the 21st century.” Pastor said Haiti is a series of contradictions, citing successful Haitian immigrants around the world. “The people are very engaging; they have a lot of charm, a lot of enthusiasm, though they are very uneducated,” he said. “Yet they can’t ever make that country work, and the paradox, which is so difficult to explain, is why Haitians do so well when they emigrate to other countries, including the United States, but do so poorly in Haiti.” Although this crisis represents an opportunity to do just that, Pastor said he is not sure if it is possible to plan for a new Haiti. “It’s a huge, huge task,” Pastor said. “I don’t know whether the international community has adequate funding to keep everybody alive while they completely rebuild the city. I think it will involve huge amounts of funding.” Just as Pastor is not sure if the rebuilding will be successful, he does not consider his own work in the country to be either. “Unlike almost any other country I’ve worked in, I’ve not felt that I made much progress in Haiti,” Pastor said. Why is that? “I wish I knew.” You can reach this staff writer at sdazio@theeagleonline.com.
Voting rights not touched by SOTU n
from STATE OF THE UNION on page 1
to educate Americans about it,” Zherka said before the speech. “And two, the Congress needs some pressure from the president on D.C. voting rights and on D.C. democracy as a whole. They really need to hear from him that it is important.” DC Vote conducted an online competition in which fans of the Facebook page or visitors to the Web site could submit language to be voted on for the statement being sent to Obama. A number of AU students and faculty members are involved with D.C. voting issues, and some students participated in DC Vote and this specific project. Zach Bernstein, a junior in the School of Public Affairs, said he has lived in D.C. his whole life and is registered to vote as a citizen of the district. Bernstein submitted an entry for the DC Vote contest, he said in an e-mail. While this entry did not make the final cut for statements voted on by DC Vote supporters, Bernstein sent it in because “despite what critics say about this being somehow unconstitutional, I truly believe it’s what the Founders would want - one man, one vote, no matter where they live,” he
said in the e-mail. Another native Washingtonian at AU, Professor Jason Fabrikant, teaches politics courses for the Washington Semester program and is currently developing an online course for the summer entitled, “Taxation without Representation? D.C. and Voting Rights,” he said in a phone interview. Whether to allocate full federal representation to D.C. residents is a question that should be studied and debated, and the petition to Obama was worth the effort, Fabrikant said. “It’s a very healthy thing to do ... I think that’s part of the democratic process to voice opinions, have petitions,” he said. While Obama did not include D.C. voting rights in his State of the Union address, Gans hoped he would address it sometime in the future, he said. “At some point he may be willing to risk some political capital by trying to persuade [congressmen] to vote for [a bill on D.C. representation]. I don’t think he’s going to do it any time soon,” Gans said. “I’m hoping at some point he will pursue it.” You can reach this staff writer at mfowler@theeagleonline.com.