Vol XI No 1 by Orbis Magazine

ORBIS 05.

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06. c o a l o n c a m p u s 09. b r e n t w o o d v . the contributor

Vol 11 No 1 09.2011

Orbis / In This Issue / September 2011

Inside Orbis Features

Commentary

06. Coal usage on campus

04. A Change of Pace

Meghan O’Neill and Carol Chen

Dylan Thomas

“On some mornings, a giant semi rumbles into the power plant lot behind Sarratt and pours tons of coal into a large bin. If you walk around 24th Avenue, you’ve probably seen a few of these trucks...

09. The Contributor faces legal

“When the Transportation Security Administration introduced body scans and those infamous “pat-downs” into American airports last year under its Enhanced Screening Procedures program, civil libertarians on the left and right created an exceptionally loud stir. Outraged citizens saw a glimpse of George Orwell’s Big Brother...

Steve Harrison

04. Life as a transfer proves

battle in Brentwood, TN

“Sidewalk bans in Brentwood, TN, ten miles south of Nashville, have presented the first challenge to homelessness paper The Contributor in its four year history...

10. Nashville weather worsens with climate change Jim Gillin

“Weather isn’t just small talk anymore, but a politically charged discussion. Even if you don’t like to look at line graphs of increasing temperatures and conjectures as to water level...

difficult Sae Park

“I am a new junior transfer student here at Vanderbilt University. One of the first things I received from Vanderbilt upon sending in my deposit was a packet of enrollment information, including transfer orientation. Now, as a junior in college, I neither expected nor wanted...

Published with support from the Center for American Progress/Campus Progress Online at http://www.campusprogress.org

Orbis

Amplifying Vanderbilt's Progressive Voices

September 2011

Volume 11, Number 1

What is Orbis? Orbis is a forum for social and political commentary relevant to the Vanderbilt, Nashville, and greater communities. By providing a voice for alternative viewpoints at Vanderbilt University, Orbis creates a platform where diversity can be a unifying force in the community. Visit us at www.vanderbiltorbis.com.

05. The fall of WRVU, the rise of a new year Rachel Young

Editor-in-Chief Andri Alexandrou

“If you’ve tried to tune in to your favorite WRVU radio show this semester, you might have been unpleasantly surprised to find it replaced with classical music and news broadcasts by WPLN. From letters written to Chancellor Zeppos...

Associate Editors Carol Chen

Meghan O’Neill

Features Editor Steve Harrison

08. Grad

school not a good option for uncertain students Andri Alexandrou

“There’s a reason professors begin their freshmen seminar classes - in physics, psychology, even art history - with “You should be a --- major. Law schools love --- majors”: they’ve got a captive audience. So many of us undergraduates enter school not knowing why we’re there...

Commentary Editor Dylan Thomas Designer Ricky Thomas Web Editor Matt Joplin Editor Emeritus Jon Christian

11. Facebook changes reflect online weirdness Dylan Thomas

“I was a little creeped out (okay, maybe embarrassed) when I logged onto Facebook one day this summer and, in a sidebar, found my status updates “from this day” one, two, three years ago. Then, just days after Facebook launched this feature...

photo credits cover//jon christian/andri alexandrou//02//andri

alexandrou//04//andri alexandrou//05//andri alexandrou//06//andri alexandrou//09//cj giordano//10// andri alexandrou

Students in greater numbers are commuting on bikes.

Questions, comments, concerns? E-mail us at vanderbiltorbis@gmail.com. E-mail submissions to the address listed above, or send to Box 1669, Station B, Nashville, TN, 37235. Letters must be received one week prior to publication and must include the writer's name, year, school and telephone number. All submissions will be verified. Unsigned letters will not be published. Orbis reserves the right to edit letters for length and clarity. All submissions become property of Orbis and must conform to the legal standards of Vanderbilt Student Communications, Inc., of which Orbis is a division. Editorials represent the policy of Orbis as determined by the editorial board. Letters and commentary pieces represent the opinions of the writers. Please recycle.

Orbis / From the Editor / Calendar / September 2011

a note from the editor Another year, another Orbis, another chance to let the alternative voices on campus be heard. If this is your first time seeing us, whether you’re a freshman or a senior, get to know us. We’ve been on campus for eleven years, striving since day one to “amplify Vanderbilt’s progressive voices.” If you’ve read one thing in this paper, it’s probably that phrase. It fits for us. “Progressive” is an elusive term, sure. Unlike the terms liberal and conservative, it allows for an alternative space where we can mold ourselves to the issues that present themselves - not the other way around. Especially in our technologically-advanced, increasingly globalized world of widening binaries and fuzzying nuances, the political ideologies that have tried to stay rigid for about seventy years don’t apply as well now as they once did. This first month of school, we cover The Contributor as it faces its first legal battles after Brentwood tried to ban vendors from selling issues. Graduate schools aren’t the beacon of possibility they advertise themselves as. Facebook changes could indicate a Jekyll and Hyde nature of our online habits. And, of course, the Nashville weather gets stranger as the effects of climate change make themselves more apparent. On campus, we look at what happened to WRVU while all of us were on summer vacation, and how they’re trying to move forward to maintain a strong presence on campus as well as in the community. Being a transfer student on campus exposes Vanderbilt’s lack of options for social interaction. The coal burned on campus may not be environmentally friendly, but compared to the poor efficiency rates of other power plants, ours presents a possible first step toward improvement. Last, Dylan Thomas introduces her column of living life, as she puts it, “less wanting and more satisfied.” As our mission statement says, we provide a forum for this kind of discussion. Discussion, because awareness is the first step to improvement. If it ever seems that inequality has disappeared, it’s because it’s no longer being fought, no longer being pushed by those it affects the most. This becomes our responsibility. We’re not here simply to be the liberal voice, or the counterweight to a conservative campus. We’re here to confront bias, as well as admit that we have some of our own. Good luck this year, and thank you for reading. Andri Alexandrou

Campus Progress

engages students in national

issue campaigns on critical issues

—

from global

warming to civil rights, student debt to academic freedom.

Visit CampusProgress.org/issues more.

for

September/October 2011 September 27 “Pregnant Men, Heteroflexible Women, and Gaga Feminism” - a lecture, open to all students and faculty, at 4:00pm in Wilson Hall. October 2 Nashville Slutwalk, a growing international movement in support of rape victims, comes to Nashville in Centennial Park. Slutwalk is a march against placing blame on female rape victims for the way they dress, with the goal of eventually guaranteeing justice for the 94% of rapists who go unincarcerated. October 4 Michael Moore, liberal critic famous for his investigative documentaries Sicko and Bowling for Columbine, visits Langford Auditorium. Tickets are free to Vanderbilt students. October 6 to 8 The Office of Active Citizenship and Service brings back its fall break Eco Rolling Seminar focusing on mountaintop removal in the Appalachian Mountains. Participants will focus on the environment and energy while hiking, attending panel discussions, and exploring beehive reclamation sites. $75 fee for Vandy students; apply by October 3. October 13 The Reel Rock Film Tour, an annual compilation of breakthrough rock climbing around the world, comes to Nashville’s Belcourt Theater. Tickets are $13 on sale at the Belcourt and at Climb Nashville. October 19 The last operating day of the season for the 12 South Farmer’s Market at 3000 Granny White Pike. The market features over twenty vendors with fresh produce and artisan goods. Check it out before the season ends! October 19 The 17th annual Lambda Association Drag Show comes back to Vanderbilt. Stay on the lookout for more information! October 28 The Green Bird, a theatrical fantasy play by Carlo Gozzi, opens at Neely Auditorium. Tickets are free for Vanderbilt undergraduates. Showtimes continue through opening weekend, followed by performances November 3-5 and 10-12.

Orbis / Commentary / September 2011

Column:

A Change of Pace

Dylan Thomas COMMENTARY EDITOR

When the Transportation Security Administration introduced body scans and those infamous “pat-downs” into American airports last year under its Enhanced Screening Procedures program, civil libertarians on the left and right created an exceptionally loud stir. Outraged citizens saw a glimpse of George Orwell’s Big Brother in the x-ray scans and feared that the United States was transforming into a hazy image of Orwell’s dystopian world of government-imposed fear. Were they right, though? Neil Postman, a cultural critic writing during the year of Orwell’s predicted doomsday, would say no. In his 1985 magnum opus, Amusing Ourselves to Death, Postman rejected the contemporary preoccupation with 1984 as a book of prophecy and turned instead to the book’s postmodern counterpart, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. For those who haven’t read the book, Huxley’s story also details a futuristic dystopia, but one in which the crippling element is constant distraction, rather than constant oppression. Postman’s idea, in essence, is that while we cite “1984” and become paranoid about a supergovernment robbing us of our freedom, we fail to notice the dehumanizing effects of our near-constant use of mass media and technology, the ones Huxley tried to warn us about. I don’t necessarily agree with Postman that America is on the same steep downward spiral as Huxley’s dystopia, but when he argues that we lose our autonomy to distraction rather than domination, I can’t help but take his side. Our generation, equipped with resources, knowledge, and technology that our parents and grandparents couldn’t even have imagined, has huge potential. We also have an imperative responsibility to treat this colossus of resources with respect and careful consideration, and that’s a bit harder to do. Instant communication, up-tothe-minute news updates and the overall buzz of today’s busy world are so embedded into our lifestyles that we often fail to take a step back and really think about the technology we use, why we use it and the habits we develop as a result. And that’s where my column begins. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t an idealist. John Muir and Wendell Berry have a special place on my bookshelf, and I’ve been caught with my head in the clouds more than once. This column, however, isn’t a place for lofty ideals alone - it’s a place for me to take those ideals and find pragmatic ways to turn them into action, and to share with you the outcomes. Here’s where my personal projects toward a deliberate lifestyle will find themselves on paper, and where you can check out the results. Expect some DIY projects, some personal experiments and some advice. Don’t expect my writing to follow a tight, narrow theme or touch on the same thing month after month. This is a column about a personal adventure into a simpler, more deliberate lifestyle, and about finding easy ways we all can take a step back from our busy lives and act with meaning. It’s about an adventure in being a little less distracted and a little more productive, a little less wanting and a little more satisfied. Come on the adventure with me.

Is Greek Life the Only Way to Go?

Life as a transfer exposes institutional gaps and lack of social opportunity Sae Park STAFF WRITER

I am a new junior transfer student here at Vanderbilt University. One of the first things I received from Vanderbilt upon sending in my deposit was a packet of enrollment information, including transfer orientation. Now as a junior in college, I neither expected nor wanted the kind of orientation program that first-year students go through. At the same time, I did feel the need for some kind of program to help me find my way around Vanderbilt, especially socially. It is probably a different story if you plan to become involved with a fraternity or sorority, as Greek life clearly has a strong presence in the Vanderbilt social scene. As a school that has a very established Greek system, I really cannot blame the transfer students at Vanderbilt from feeling that the fastest and easiest way to adjust socially is to join a fraternity or sorority. It may seem appealing to transfer students because they would be able to become a part of a large social system that is well integrated into the Vanderbilt campus community. I was having a conversation with two juniors who had been at Vanderbilt from freshman year, and both said that they still do not know much about what to do for fun outside of campus since they had always depended on the Greek system for social activities. Although I am not necessarily trying to say whether Vanderbilt Greek life as a whole is good or bad, I do question the implications of its nature for transfer students. There might even be a certain amount of pressure for transfer students to go Greek, similar to what first-year students feel during their first semester at Vanderbilt. In the end, I do not think that transfer students should feel that joining a fraternity or sorority at Vanderbilt is the only viable way to adjust socially. Jessica D’Angelo, a student participating in Vanderbilt’s three/two nurse practitioner graduate program, echoed these sentiments. “I have many friends who were transfers and ended up being a part of the Greek system. However, I quickly realized that I was pursuing it simply because it was a convenient

way to make friends and not because I actually cared about being part of a sorority… It may have taken me longer than others, but in the end I found my niche in a student organization and I’ve had a blast spending time with the people.” So as a transfer who does not plan to become involved in Greek life, I would contend that extracurricular activities are ultimately the easiest way to adjust to life at Vanderbilt. No matter where you come from or what your past experiences are, joining clubs and organizations that pique your interests really is the key to meeting like-minded individuals and eventual friends. All the transfer students I’ve had the chance to converse with so far, regardless of how long they have been at Vanderbilt now, emphasized the

There might even be a certain amount of pressure for transfer students to go Greek, similar to what first-year students feel during their first semester at Vanderbilt. importance of getting involved in clubs. Altogether, it is very much up to the individual to make good use out of the resources that Vanderbilt offers to all its students, transfer or not. So I appreciate that Vanderbilt expects its transfer students to be self-reliant in adjusting to their new school. Although I will have a somewhat different experience as a Vanderbilt student than the ones who have been here from the beginning, I fully subscribe to the notion that no matter where you go, college is really what you make of it. I am very much ready to pursue my interests both in and out of the classroom and make the most out of the remaining time I have at Vanderbilt.

Orbis / Commentary / September 2011

WRVU: The Post-Mortem Report The future of a radio-less station Rachel Young STAFF WRITER

If you’ve tried to tune in to your favorite WRVU radio show this semester, you might have been unpleasantly surprised to find it replaced with classical music and news broadcasts by WPLN. From letters written to Chancellor Zeppos and the board of Vanderbilt Student Communications to “I LOVE WRVU-FM” stickers pasted on their laptops, students have expressed their loyal support of Vanderbilt’s radio station since its sale was proposed last September. Although the 91.1 frequency still technically belongs to Vanderbilt Student Communications, Nashville Public Radio has been able to use it since June, following a down payment of $300,000 in a lease-topurchase agreement. If they can come up with the rest of 3.5 million at the end of 18 months, WPLN will own the license. Despite the controversy, it seems that WRVU has come to accept the loss of its broadcast frequency and is now determined to improve upon the media outlets that it does have, such as its website and mobile application. Robert Ackley, the current General Manager of the station, said, “there is a lot that we can do and are doing to take advantage of our online presence. We’ll be adding more concert and album reviews on the website and begin a video archive, as well as posting information like what will be on rotation for the week and topplayed tracks and albums.” WRVU is also beginning a major marketing push to enlarge its community presence, particularly among Vanderbilt students. In addition to bringing more artists into their studio to film, they will be hosting events on campus, such as the upcoming WAVE event on October 1 which will be broadcast in collaboration with

VTV. As of now, the staff and affiliates of WRVU seek to “make the most of what we have and produce even better and more content than we had before.” Sophomore Evan Jehl returned to Vanderbilt this fall looking forward to broadcasting his own playlists across middle Tennessee. After spending a semester in training, he was disappointed to find WRVU already converted to an online-only station. “It’s unfortunate because I never got to experience it the way it once was,” he said. Jehl, and many other staff members, were disgrun-

It was the board’s position that Vanderbilt should begin adapting to the changing world of media. tled with VSC’s attempt to “sugar over” the situation surrounding the sale. DJs who expressed their oppositions were told that they would not be reprimanded or removed from the station, which for the most part was true. However, four community DJs who were coincidentally perceived to be the most vocal last year were held back from having their own shows this year, the justification being that others would be able to move forward without working in a disruptive environment. In a Vanderbilt TV interview between Robert Ackley and Mark Wollaeger, chairman of the VSC board, immediately following the announcement of the poten-

tial sale, Ackley expressed his view that it doesn’t really make sense to pursue the sale when VSC is in no immediate financial danger. To many, it seemed like a pretty radical solution to a non-existent problem. Adding to the controversy, Nashville Public Radio is leasing the frequency instead of buying it upfront: this gives them 18 months to raise the money they need, primarily through donations, a chance that WRVU simply didn’t have in two semesters’ time. Since there are many paid positions within VSC, it has also been noted that there is conceivable self-interest in pursuing the sale as some of the money inevitably will contribute to salaries. However, the VSC Board has explained that the endowment created by the sale will fund all four of its divisions: InsideVandy, The Hustler, WRVU and VTV, securing their existing costs and contributing to future innovations. With print ad revenue from VSC publications and the market value of radio stations both in decline, it was the board’s position that Vanderbilt should begin adapting to the changing world of media. It has been a year since the heated words and arguments surrounding this issue began. VSC has been portrayed as the heartless entity with purely fiscal motivations, WRVU the sentimental victim. While Vanderbilt has bruised its kinship with students by not being as transparent with the details of the sale as they perhaps could have been, VSC has no hidden agenda and believes that this sale will greatly benefit its divisions equally. The WRVU staff has been subject to criticism as well, for not taking full advantage of community and alumni support and for lack of organization. But realistically, any student-run organization would not have been fully prepared for an event such as the sale of their broadcast frequency. Though dispirited since its conversion to an online-only station, WRVU is looking forward with optimism.

Orbis /Features / September 2011

The Elephant on Campus Why is there a smokestack in the middle of our arboretum? Meghan O’Neill and Carol Chen ASSOCIATE EDITORS

On some mornings, a giant semi rumbles into the power plant lot behind Sarratt and pours tons of coal into a large bin. If you walk around 24th Avenue, you’ve probably seen a few of these trucks they’re around a lot. Perhaps you’ve wondered, why on Earth are we using all that coal? The coal is used to generate electricity. Vanderbilt, as a community that includes both the campus and the hospital, uses a lot of energy. On average, we use 29.5 million kilowatt-hours a month. That’s enough energy for 472 million women - about three times greater than the number of women who live in the United States--to blowdry their hair. At Vanderbilt, we use this energy to do things like power our lights, air conditioning, medical equipment, lab equipment, computers and dorm appliances, heat our water, and, yes, blow-dry our hair.

Vanderbilt uses a combination of purchased energy and self-generated energy. We purchase about 24.5 million kilowatt-hours a month, roughly 80 percent of our energy, from Nashville Electric Service (NES), which is owned by the Tennessee Valley Authority. The on-campus power plant provides an average of 5 million kilowatt-hours a month, supplying the other 20 percent of our energy. When Vanderbilt was founded, there was no way to purchase power in Nashville. So, in 1888, Vanderbilt constructed its own power plant to light and heat the school. Since then, the power plant has been moved and rebuilt, all while undergoing several renovations. We continue to need our own power plant mainly because, among other reasons, we need a constant, uninterruptible source of power to ensure that the hospital campus always has electricity and heat, both for patients and for research experiments. NES power outages would have disastrous consequences for essential campus activities. For

example, the May 2010 flood knocked out power in Nashville for several days. Had Vanderbilt not been able to generate its own energy, there could have been potentially fatal consequences for many hospital patients. Vanderbilt’s power plant is a duel-fuel, co-generation plant fired by both coal and natural gas. It produces about 20 percent of our energy and 100 percent of our steam, which is used in about 90 percent of campus heating and about 40 percent of cooling. According to Andrea George, Director of the Vanderbilt Sustainability and Environmental Management Office, “the co-generation process is quite efficient: heat, which would otherwise be a wasted byproduct of electricity and steam generation, is used to produce more steam and hot water. The steam can then be used to produce more electricity without having to burn additional fuel.” The campus power plant’s usage of coal reflects a nationwide practice of generating electricity from a very plentiful resource available domesti-

Orbis / Features / September 2011 cally. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that American coal reserves could power the country for another 200 to 300 years. About 93 percent of the coal mined in the US is used for creating electricity. Burning coal produces steam, which powers mechanical turbines that generate electricity. Coal affects the environment because burning coal releases pollutants in the extraction process. Burning releases sulfur and nitrogen into the atmosphere where it combines with water vapor, such as clouds, and comes back down as acid rain. Regulations and better filtering techniques can now filter out 95 percent of the impurities that lead to acid rain. While coal makes 48 percent of U.S. electricity, it accounts for 81 percent of the country’s carbon dioxide output, according to the U.S. Energy Information Agency. The mining of coal can be a source of deep contention. Digging into the earth in search of coal seams, miners excavate one billion short tons of coal a year. It conjures up images of dark, dirty underground mines snaking through the Appalachian mountains, and a large portion of mining continues in this vein. However, 70 percent of American coal comes from surface mining, sometimes known as strip mining. Miners remove layers of soil and rock to access coal seams. Its more extreme variation is mountaintop removal, where mountains are demolished with dynamite to reach coal and the soil displaced to other areas. This method of extraction is twice as efficient as underground mining. Regulations demand that the mountain is put back to its “approximate original contour,” but in practice this often does not occur. Even if it does, the same plants and animals cannot necessarily thrive when the original topsoil is buried under the detritus of rock. For individuals living in areas where strip mining is a fact of life, there are difficult trade-offs. An article in the New York Times in April 2011 followed residents of Lindytown, West Virginia, a formerly thriving mining town now on its last dying breaths as people leave and mining operations radically transform the land. They hear explosions frequently and, as one citizen observed, “you could wash your car today, and tomorrow you could write your name on it in the dust.” The mining company, a subsidiary of Massey Energy, gave two households $25,000 each in return for not speaking against the firm or its practices. For all the evils of coal, Vanderbilt’s coal usage looks more like a compromise. Vanderbilt’s power plant uses an average of 4,500 tons of coal a month, or about 150 tons a day. The amount is highest during the summer months and lowest during February, March and April. Though this is a staggering number, burning our own coal is a much better option than buying the equivalent amount of energy from NES, for a couple of reasons. First, the Vanderbilt power plant is about 70 percent efficient, whereas the NES plants are only 30 to 40 percent efficient. Second, the coal that Vanderbilt uses to power its plant has a BTU value of about 12,000, whereas NES coal has a BTU value

of roughly 4,000-5,000, meaning Vanderbilt coal produces about twice as much energy per ton than the coal that NES uses to power its plants. Third, having its own power plant reduces Vanderbilt’s greenhouse gas emissions by about 20 percent, or about 100,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent a year, compared to solely buying power from NES. As bad as even high-efficiency coal is for the environment, it’s the cheapest energy option. Therefore, the discussion of its usage on campus really boils down to the classic conundrum facing advocates for cleaner, greener energy: at what point is paying for greener energy better than a cheap but

Therefore, the discussion of its usage on campus really boils down to the classic conundrum facing advocates for cleaner, greener energy polluting option, and at what price? This is a question directly pertinent to students, who would inevitably see any costs reflected in a tuition increase. The campus can eliminate its coal usage only through very costly measures. It can stop burning coal and instead use only solar power, burn more natural gas, or a number of other options, but these are very expensive. Also, remember that the power plant generates only 20 percent of our campus electricity, and the coal used by NES is a lower quality with more pollutants. Decreasing our dependency on coal would be a difficult road. Nevertheless, Vanderbilt has been making efforts

in recent years to reduce its energy usage and its impact on the environment. Coal use has been reduced almost 20 percent since 2007, and filters are in place to clean pollutants out of the air before it is released through the stack. Vanderbilt has become the largest purchaser of green power, a new option, from NES, and has reduced its car fleet size and fuel consumption. Recent construction, including the Commons, has been LEED certified. To reduce future consumption, Vanderbilt has three strategies: make older buildings more efficient, make new construction energy efficient, and promote energy saving measures among the Vanderbilt community. Furthermore, last week Vanderbilt completed installation of a system of 8.16 kilowatt solar panels, funded by the Vanderbilt Green Fund, to increase the proportion of renewable energy resources used over nonrenewable sources. Though Vanderbilt is making strides in reducing its energy use and emissions, the rest of the country is miles behind. Even the most efficient coal-fired power plants in the United States achieve only about 40 percent efficiency, according to The New York Times, in part because theirs do not use co-generation methods like ours does. This inefficiency leads to massive waste and a much larger negative environmental impact than is necessary. According to the World Alliance for Decentralized Energy, co-generation plants produce about 8 percent of the energy consumed in the United States each year. However, the Department of Energy aims to have co-generation plants comprise 20 percent of our energy by the year 2030. As it is, our usage of coal is a stopgap measure between the ideal of having completely clean energy and the troublesome alternatives of cheap but harmful sources. As the country awakens to the necessity of restraining our insatiable demand for energy, alternatives like these more efficient power plants reveal possibilities for more immediate ways to bring about positive environmental change.

Orbis / Commentary / September 2011

Don’t Just Go to Grad School

Why America’s finest are choosing a life in academia, and what it’s doing to us Andri Alexandrou EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

There’s a reason professors begin their freshmen seminar classes - in physics, psychology, even art history - with “You should be a --- major. Law schools love --- majors.” They’ve got a captive audience. So many of us undergraduates enter school not knowing why we’re there. Of course, this is natural. When senior year rolls around, even after majors and minors are acquired, internships had and jobs posted, many of us still wonder where we’re headed. Add to that the ever-increasing pressure for students to dream big, to use the resources available to them that were not available even, in some cases, to their parents. A Psychology Today article titled “The American Nightmare” pinpoints this pressure, calling it now “the American expectation,” as the cause of discontent in many Americans even after they grow a family, own a house and find a job. Especially when compared to their European counterparts, Americans more than anyone else equate their job with overall happiness. When less than 20% of college graduates are finding jobs, more education seems like the wise choice. Ostensibly, staying in school means finding your purpose, all while getting enough degrees to put you in a higher pay grade when you graduate so that, hopefully, the pay will compensate for the time and money already spent. This time of recession has pushed even more students to go to grad school, to get the degree and wait out the storm at the same time. So it’s understandable that more and more students approaching graduation choose to keep going to school rather than enter this paradoxical “real world,” where it seems a paycheck will only bring disappointment - if they are, indeed, able to acquire a paycheck. Rather than finding a perfect job and making back that money, students enter a dangerous loop. Especially when students enter graduate school in

the humanities, their prospects for jobs narrow down to professorships. These students are becoming overly educated, yet under-experienced, for the standard workforce. Thus they revert to staying in academia. I’ve heard it countless times - “I can always teach, right?” In this land of limbo - where grad students float between doing their own research and working as assistants to professors, themselves overworked -

[Grad school] is a waiting game with no returns. universities maintain graduate school acceptance rates promising lucrative positions to each and every one even as the recession forces those same schools to cut faculty. The Humanities Indicators Prototype, a recent effort to accumulate objective data of those attending and working in academia, saw that even while more than half of the teaching jobs available are part-time, offering no benefits or insurance, the amount of students entering school each year equals the number of instructors already in the field. Still, the grad students are encouraged. Thomas Benton, himself a former professor writing for The Chronicle of Higher Education, attacks these bogged-down traditions. Students are given more and more promises, told jobs are always available for good people, told that the baby boomers will soon retire and leave jobs open for new talent. This simply isn’t true. Even if it were, he says, the postdoctoral students waiting for the mythical gap in employment are piling on top of each other. It’s a waiting game with no returns. These students-cum-postdocs are misled, and often overworked. For the universities, grad students are an inexhaustible resource more than willing to do extra work to get the degree and

the letters of recommendation. Graduate student unions all over the nation work to make sure that positions as assistants to professors merit a fair amount of work and pay. Students in the humanities are not the only academics feeling the crunch. Law students find themselves falsely advertised to, being promised employment rates of up to 80 percent, when often that’s just not the case. A New York Times article, “Is Law School a Losing Game,” details the falsifying of statistics where law schools count stocking store shelves as much of an employment as being hired to use the law degree. Sure, “the real value of an education is hard to measure,” but in these circumstances, when students opt for graduate school as a delay-tactic for avoiding the world of the work force, education only serves as a path to losing time and money. As the saying goes, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. When the two in the bush become the twenty post-docs waiting for one part-time instructor position at a university, that one sales coordinator position in the hand starts to look much more appealing. So please, don’t just go to grad school. The pie chart Vanderbilt doesn’t want you to see. [Hint: ours adds up to 100%]

Employed 33%

17%

Grad School

20%

Military/ Travel/Other

30%

Still Searching

Orbis / Features / September 2011

Brentwood Bans The Contributor

Homeless paper unwelcome in wealthy suburbs of Nashville Steve Harrison FEATURES EDITOR

Sidewalk bans in Brentwood, TN, ten miles south of Nashville, have presented the first challenge to homelessness paper The Contributor in its four year history. On June 24th, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Tennessee sued the city of Brentwood on behalf of The Contributor, a monthly Nashville street newspaper focused on homelessness issues and sold by homeless and formerly homeless vendors, sparking a summer-long legal battle that has yet to conclude. The lawsuit stems from a Brentwood city ordinance that disallows street vending in all its forms, making it impossible to sell The Contributor legally. The ACLU subsequently prosecuted The Contributor’s case on the basis of protecting the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of press, speech and expression. According to The Contributor’s website, vendors “have the constitutional right of freedom of the press to sell printed material on public sidewalks.” However in January of this past year, the city of Brentwood issued two citations to Contributor vendors Calvin Hart and Andrew Harrington for distributing merchandise illegally on Brentwood’s sidewalks. Over the next few months, five more Contributor vendors received the same type of citation. After a Brentwood court upheld the legality of the citation rulings in March, outrage against the ordinance amassed rapidly as the ACLU became inundated with phone calls and citizens signed

petitions to demonstrate community alignment with The Contributor. The ACLU then represented The Contributor in a lawsuit against the city of Brentwood. In filing this lawsuit for The Contributor, the ACLU of Tennessee decided to question the constitutional legality of the Brentwood ordinance. Instead of appealing for a special permission for

The Contributor circulates over 100,000 copies per month for $1 per paper, classifying it as the highest-circulating street newspaper in North America. each individual vendor cited in violation of the ordinance, only The Contributor as an entity and the initial two vendors cited are listed as plaintiffs in order to emphasize that a fundamental legal change must result. By using this tactic, the ACLU hopes to ensure the longevity of The Contributor’s sales in Brentwood by achieving declaratory and injunctive relief. The relief sought is specified two-fold: first, the decree must be stricken down as unconstitutional, and second, Brentwood must halt further enforcement

9 of the ordinance. Affirming the ACLU’s intent, ACLU of Tennessee Legal Director Tricia Herzfield said, “[We are] committed to vigorously protecting the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of speech, expression and press which is why we are challenging the City of Brentwood’s repressive restrictions.” In the midst of this ongoing legal battle, the city of Brentwood actually amended the ban on the sidewalk vending of printed material like newspapers on July 26th, seemingly permitting the unrestricted distribution of The Contributor. Still, the First Amendment Center has found that certain restrictions, such as sidewalk vendors not being able to legally sell papers to vehicle occupants, still infringe upon freedom of the press rights. Accordingly, the ACLU of Tennessee and The Contributor are still embroiled in the legal process with the ultimate goal of securing the type of unfettered vending in Brentwood that the paper currently enjoys in Nashville. On September 14th, ACLU of Tennessee Communications Director Lindsay Kee clarified the status of the lawsuit and said, “The lawsuit has been filed and is pending.” The pending status of the case prevents any comment from the ACLU of Tennessee, but it is evident that no decision has been reached thus far. The Contributor has helped 35 percent of homeless vendors to afford their own housing. Therefore, this decision is critical for those hoping to remain gainfully employed. The paper employs over 400 vendors per month who work as micro-business owners. Vendors buy discounted newspaper stock from The Contributor and must maintain daily business activity, as well as manage paper supply, in order to secure a steady income. The Contributor circulates over 100,000 copies per month for $1 per paper, classifying it as the highest-circulating street newspaper in North America. The ACLU of Tennessee typically selects its cases in order to protect constitutional rights or fight against any violations of those rights. Some lawsuits that the ACLU of Tennessee has been involved in over the past year include defending a labor blogger who criticized a collective bargaining shutdown in the city of Memphis. The ACLU also argued against a Sevierville law that prevented a fortune teller from operating her small business, and challenged a new Tennessee state law that makes it a crime to post any picture on the Internet that may cause emotional distress. The Contributor, founded in Nashville in 2007 and now servicing the Middle Tennessee area, forms part of a wider national street newspaper movement designed to raise awareness of the problems facing the homeless in its articles. It also empowers the homeless by providing them with jobs as vendors. If you would like to support The Contributor and its vendors, visit www.thecontributor.org to find out more and to sign the petition supporting The Contributor. You can also receive updates from the ACLU on this case and others by subscribing to its alert messaging system

Orbis / Features / September 2011

Effects of Climate Change Building in Nashville

Jim Gillin STAFF WRITER

Weather isn’t just small talk anymore, but a politically charged discussion. Even if you don’t like to look at line graphs of increasing temperatures and conjectures as to water level in the next twenty, fifty, or one hundred years, it’s hard to ignore the drastic changes even just here in Nashville. Climate change has been a statistical

What does this mean? While we won’t starve, necessarily, we’ll see a greater reliance on food imports. This will drive up prices across the board. Not only that, we’ll need more gas-powered trucks to transport the food. threat for the past several decades, and current weather behavior reveals those projections are starting to become a reality in surprising, and devastating, ways. Summer temperatures here are consistently

higher than ever. Heat-related deaths, damaged crops, and larger armpit sweat stains are just the start of our problems as global temperatures rise. According to the National Weather Service Forecast Office, Nashville’s high temperature rose above 90 degrees Fahrenheit on 24 out of 31 days this August, with an average high of 92 degrees. The historical average high is 89. Alarmingly, the recordhigh August temperature was set only four years ago when it reached 106 on August 16th, 2007. High temperatures are just the start of the story, unfortunately. Last year’s “Report on the U.S. EPA Southeast Climate Adaptation Planning Workshop” points out that extremes will occur more frequently - meaning that, in addition to higher average temperatures, intense heat waves will happen more often. The effects of these changes may be devastating - much worse than having to dress lighter or crank up the AC. For one, Tennessee’s agriculture stands to be crippled. Temperatures higher than 86 degrees cause damage to corn and soybean crops, Tennessee’s two largest crops, reducing yields. In a paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, professors from North Carolina State University and Columbia University predict that yields for these crops

could decrease 30 to 46 percent in the next century under moderate estimates for global warming, and up to 82 percent in the case of extreme change. Michael Roberts, a lead author in the study, explained, “While crop yields depend on a variety of factors, extreme heat is the best predictor of yields.” What does this mean for us? While we won’t starve, necessarily, we’ll see a greater reliance on food imports. This will drive up prices across the board. Not only that, we’ll need more gas-powered trucks to transport the food. Higher prices of food could cause rippling changes in quality and pricing in the meat industry as well. The extreme heat creates yet another problem for our farmers: cows are less willing to lactate in higher temperatures. This food chain reaction threatens to build exponentially. The behavior of water in higher heat could present another devastating chain reaction, as we saw in the Texas fires. Warmer temperatures also lead to a quicker rate of evaporation, which leads to less frequent, yet heavier, rains. The Nashville flood in May of 2010 serves as a close, and tragic, example. Allergies are affected by climate change as well. In a city consistently ranked among the worst cities to live in for the allergy-prone, we are now seeing longer and stronger allergy seasons. Earlier springs cause formidable pollen counts. For all of us who have trouble keeping our face out of a tissue in the spring, we have climate change, in part, to thank. The direct impact of high heat on the human body has already begun to increase. Tennessee has witnessed at least 5 heat-related deaths this year, including two during Bonnaroo, Tennessee’s blowout music and arts festival held every June. The freak weather we’ve seen - the increasing hurricanes, the daunting effects of high heat on crop yield and stock behavior - reveals how imperative it is to live green. Just being aware of personal electricity and energy consumption is a step, one that is not always easy because we are not billed on utilities if we live on campus. Energy is not just the lights, but it is also the heated water for showers, the TV left on all day. Far removed from some of the harsher effects of climate change, it is easy to forget that each little appliance we leave on out of habit is part of a bigger story. Next time, think to yourself whether you really need the air conditioner on high set to 60 degrees, or the light in your hallway on all night, or three lights to do your homework, or such a long shower, or the TV and the radio going at once. Chances are, you probably don’t.

Earlier springs cause formidable pollen counts. For all of us who have trouble keeping our face out of a tissue in the spring, we have climate change, in part, to thank.

Orbis / Commentary / September 2011

Check In, Keep Out Changes on facebook reveal dichotomy of our experience online Dylan Thomas COMMENTARY EDITOR

I was a little creeped out (okay, maybe embarrassed) when I logged onto Facebook one day this summer and, in a sidebar, found my status updates “from this day” one, two, three years ago. Then, just days after Facebook launched this feature, I found on the site a plethora of new privacy options that allowed me to put virtual blindfolds from my online content on anyone I wished. I found the curious mix of new updates to be a bit mismatched, to say the least. On the one hand, Facebook has once again taken steps toward its publicly proclaimed mission of giving people “the power to share.” We Facebook users can now let our online friends know our exact whereabouts and company at any given moment. At the click of a button, we can see archived documentation of our “friendship” with any person, from events we’ve attended together to the pictures taken of us while we were there. Most recently, Facebook introduced a “subscribe” button, which is fairly self-explanatory: click it and receive a given person’s public updates at the top of your news feed. Whether these updates are practical, excessive or just plain creepy, Facebook’s ever-increasing number of active users is a good indication that most members of the site don’t feel too negatively about its evolution. Despite most users’ passive acceptance of new changes, though, some express a growing concern: where does personal privacy fit into the Facebook equation? The site’s programmers and designers clearly realize that to ensure Facebook’s success, users must be allowed to choose not just what information to share, but what information to be kept private. To complement the site’s more invasive features, then, we can preview our public profiles from a stranger’s-eye view, seeing our page as it appears to anyone on the Internet. We have the option to approve tags of ourselves in posts and photos, so our distant relatives don’t have to see pictures of last Friday night in their news feeds. And we have control over who sees each post we publish: a pre-created network of people, all our friends minus one or two, or no one at all. Even with Facebook’s fairly reasonable privacy options, though, paranoia about the security of our personal information is lush. This summer, Facebook users went into a scare when news sources and chain messages reported that the site was sync-

ing users’ cell phone contacts with their database and creating, more or less, a public phonebook. The story turned out to be only half true: Facebook does sync the phone numbers of Facebook Mobile users to their personal profiles, but those numbers are only visible to the specific user. Yet even after the rumor was quashed, many users expressed discontent with what seemed to be an invasion into their personal lives. With its separate goals of enhancing interconnectivity and ensuring privacy, Facebook seems to be moving in a nearly paradoxical direction; but the site, like any other corporation, is only responding to the desires of its consumers. Then the question begs to be asked: what drives us to crave more transparency and more security at the same time? One answer is obvious. People want to protect their identities on the Internet, and for good reason. A push for better privacy options, then, is just a natural response to Facebook’s growing emphasis on sharing even the most trivial aspects of our lives. But maybe there’s more to it than that. Perhaps our simultaneous yet conflicting desires for openness and secrecy on the Internet reflect a subconscious yearning we have for more “real” communication - not status updates or location check-ins, but vocal, physical interactions with people we really know and care about. We are drawn to the idealistic concept of total openness with others, and that explains why Facebook is so successful. Yet after a point, we recoil, unwilling to immerse ourselves totally into online social networks at the price of real, organic communities from which we derive a sense of fulfillment. Facebook is practical, and for that reason, it won’t see a drop in popularity anytime soon. No matter how much satisfaction we get out of face-toface interactions and in-depth conversations, the convenience and accessibility granted to us with wall posts and status updates is nearly irresistible. And there’s nothing wrong with that. In the meantime, though, maybe our conflicting feelings toward social networking could be alleviated by taking a small step back from our online lives. There’s nothing pragmatic about posting seven statuses a day or tagging ourselves everywhere we go. With that in mind, we may find ourselves less preoccupied with our online privacy - after all, we’ll have less to keep private. The solution lies not in more updates and privacy regulations, but in our personal decisions. Live in real time, and Facebook’s imperfections will slowly fade into the background.

Despite the changes, some express a growing concern: Where does personal privacy fit into the Facebook equation?

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Orbis / Entertainment / September 2011

ranked #17 on US News and ain ag ce on elf its nd fou ilt erb This year Vand leges. Boring. To lighten the col st be ’s ca eri Am of list al nu World Report’s an tems - and e alternative college ranking sys som o int ked loo bis Or le, litt a air in some places we didn’t expect. r de lea a as ing erg em ilt erb nd found Va

This summer The Daily Beast, a subset of Newsweek, released sets of college rankings under its article “The Best College for You.” Using methodology spanning multiple categories using z-scores, Daily Beast gave Vandy the following spots:

#22

Happiest School

With an average of 205 sunny days per year and 8:1 student ratio that’s hard to remember while sitting in a macroeconomics class, Vandy landed a spot on The Daily Beast’s list of happiest schools, which may help to explain the next ranking with a bit more clarity.

Horniest

That’s right - of every school in America, we’re the seventh most likely to hook up. In terms of appearance, Daily Beast gave our girls a solid A+, while the guys received an A. We got extra credit, too, for appearing on Playboy’s 2011 list of best party schools. Well done, Vanderbilt.

Princeton Review, a for-profit organization that offers test preparation services and college counseling, compiles its own set of rankings reflecting the social and academic environments at American colleges. To build the rankings, Princeton Review selectively administers a multiple choice test to a sample of college students from nearly every four-year university, and compiles the results using a formula. Here’s where Vanderbilt stands:

#13 Great College Towns

Despite our reputation for keeping inside the “Vanderbubble,” Vandy students by and large recognize Nashville as a terrific place to spend four years, thanks to great restaurants, unique music venues and tons of free community events. With the implementation of the Beyond the Bubble Bus, perhaps a growing number of students will get a taste of our great college town this year.

#16

Little Race /Class I nte raction

Vanderbilt finds itself on the list of schools where students of different racial and socioeconomic backgrounds rarely blend, yet in recent years, each incoming class has been more diverse than the one before it. How large is the gap, really?

Frat and Sorority Scene

No surprises here.

BONUS: Extending beyond Vanderbilt, Nashville didn’t go unnoticed in Sperling’s Best Places, an information site that seeks to help people choose places to live. The methodology assigned Music City a peculiar award...

Manliest City

According to Sperling’s, Nashville is “the Mecca of manliness.” A variety of odd influences placed Nashville at the top of the list, such as high sales of salty snacks and the number of domestic cars and pickup trucks on the road. Oh, and the surprisingly high number of Maxim subscribers in Nashville was a deciding factor, too.