The class, third-level Modern Chinese I, is divided into multiple sections, taught by Fengtao Wu, senior lecturer in Chinese, and Ke Nie, visiting lecturer in Chinese.

The Educational Policy Improvement Center (EPIC), the institution that conducted the study, examined university practice courses across the U.S. to select 10 that best fit the study’s criteria.

Those 10 courses will be used as models to redesign equivalent Advanced Placement (AP) courses in high school. Therefore, a future student who has received credit from the redesigned Chinese AP test could skip third-level modern Chinese.

“It was an extensive nomination process across the country,” explained Terri Ward, senior lead research at EPIC. “The courses were nominated by people in their field, as courses equivalent of their AP course. So when a student comes to an institution with AP credit, the question is, ‘which course do they not have to take?’”

The eight AP courses examined by the EPIC study were the six foreign language courses-Spanish, French, Chinese, Japanese, German and Italian-and the two foreign literature courses-Spanish and French literature.

Third-level modern Chinese, as a 300-level class, expects a degree of fluency when students enroll.

Heritage students-students who have been raised in Chinese-speaking households in the U.S.-require one year of study before taking it, while non-heritage students require two.

“After two years of Chinese, they [students] are supposed to survive in a new environment like China or Taiwan,” explained Wu, who has taught Chinese for 25 years. “They shouldn’t have much trouble communicating with local people about daily needs, such as shopping, buying food, eating in restaurants, living in dorms, talking about everyday life. They should be able to basically communicate with local people.”

However, students at this level still have impediments to overcome.

“They still have quite a lot of problems in pronunciation-accents, grammar, but that does not prevent them from expressing themselves,” said Wu. “When it comes to a discussion relating to economy, tradition, politics, environmental issues or whatever specific topics, they probably cannot go very deep. The most difficult part is their vocabulary, their lack of understanding in differences between words-the shades of meaning, the appropriateness.”

Wu noted that a significant change in future third-level Modern Chinese courses would involve the separation of heritage and non-heritage speakers. The mixing of the two types of students, he said, did not provide for the ideal class.

“We are not very happy with this kind of situation, and the students don’t like it either. We plan to start two tracks beginning next fall. Ideally, we’d put all heritage speakers on one track and the others without any background at all on the other.”

To date, third-level Modern Chinese has been an integrated class, with students who have been speaking Chinese since childhood and those who started learning it in college. Senior Austin Thompson, who has visited East Asia on multiple occasions, belongs to the latter group. However, Thompson said he enjoys learning with heritage speakers in Nie’s class.

“It was something I was looking forward to this year,” he said. “[Chinese] is such a widely spoken language such that you have northern accents, Taiwanese accents, so I’ve found what they’re looking for in class-the Putonghua.”

Putonghua is the term for what is considered standard spoken Chinese.

“But in China they’re not looking for just the biaozun,” said Thompson, referring to the Chinese term for what is “correct” Chinese. “I think it’s great for me so I’m not exposed to just one accent. It’s just a good challenge, and I think it’s improved my Chinese.”

Junior Jessica Lin, a heritage speaker enrolled in the same course, held a somewhat different opinion on the class’s integration.

“I don’t like that they combine heritage and non-heritage because there should be a different technique in teaching students who don’t speak Chinese at home and don’t have a background in Chinese,” said Lin. “In the class they talk to you as if you were a heritage speaker. There’s only one person in my class who’s not a heritage speaker. If it were a one-to-one ratio, it would be far better than having a majority versus a minority, but even that would slow down the heritage speakers.”

Both Thompson and Lin, however, expressed satisfaction with the course’s teaching.

“I feel like the progression of what I’ve learned is faster this year, and she [Nie] teaches to my learning style,” said Thompson.

“There’s not a variety of things you do in the class, and he [Wu] can do a better job of linking past coursework to present coursework, so it would develop,” said Lin. “But Wu does a good job of covering a lot of material.”

As for Wu, he anticipates more benefits than difficulties with the implementing the division.

“Next year, we’ll do something, and I can see there would be problems, but I’m really anxious to do that,” said Wu.

“The compensation package is $2,500 dollars over 10 weeks, but we include room and board here on campus,” said Lawrence Luscri, the student services coordinator for the Skandalaris Center.

The 20 interns, who will stay on campus over the summer, will either work with established businesses or pursue projects involving their own business or social venture.

A student who wishes to pursue the internship with his own entrepreneurial project experiences limits, as the business must qualify as a “start-up” business, and therefore is constrained in terms of revenue, employees and funding. Otherwise, the student would simply work with an existing large company.

Luscri stated that although the individual who made the donation did not do so anonymously, his name will not be released until the end of the week.

Luscri also explained the Skandalaris internship in detail, noting that it originated from the Entrepreneurship Council, on which University Chancellor Mark Wrighton holds a chair.

Students selected as interns will work both with each other and individuals outside the University.

“Part of the program includes a collaborative component where the students get together with other interns-we bring someone from the companies or an entrepreneur and do a presentation to have a networking event, once a week,” said Luscri. “The business will be a part of that event; we choose representatives from those businesses and bring them together.”

Luscri stressed that in any case, interns would work with actual entrepreneurial companies, their own or otherwise.

“All the companies will still be start-up entrepreneurial companies; it’s just a difference of whether the entrepreneurs start on their own or if we pair them up [with companies].”

Luscri added that students interested in projects beyond making money would also have an opportunity to practice entrepreneurial ventures oriented toward social change.

“We’re open to social ventures and non-profits as well. You don’t have to be a business student to be an entrepreneur.”

Kenneth Harrington, director of the Skandalaris Center, stated that the new Skandalaris internship program would serve as a valuable means for student entrepreneurs to spend time between semesters to learn how to establish their entrepreneurial ventures and projects.

“The summer internship program will fill the continuum of learning and experience on campus-connecting students working in various entrepreneurial ventures through weekly seminars and networking opportunities,” said Harrington.

Students taking Hindi will be able to declare it as a minor beginning next fall. The Arts & Sciences Curriculum Committee approved the Hindi minor last Monday.

For Mohammad Warsi, lecturer in South Asian languages, who initiated the conception of the Hindi minor, the approval marks an expansion of the study of foreign language and literature at Washington University.

Currently, the University offers 100- and 200-level courses in Hindi, but will offer 300-level courses in advanced Hindi along with the minor next semester. The minor will be comprised of 18 credits, twelve of which will come from language courses.

“The rest [of the credits] would be from courses in politics, religion, music-courses taught in the history department, the international area studies department,” explained Warsi.

The inspiration for creating a minor at the University stemmed from Warsi’s previous work at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and the University of California at Berkeley.

According to Warsi, there has been a growing demand among students for the minor because of India’s recent increase in economic activity, which is comparable to the growing international interest in China.

“Recently it has been seen that there are growing business and technology in India,” he said. “There are people eager to learn the language and go there not only for education and research, but also for business purposes. It is one of the major factors in the demand for the language.”

The students who study Hindu come from a variety of academic backgrounds.

“Some of them are in the business school, are engineers, in the social sciences, in history and international area studies. So there really is a growing interest in these courses we have. It’s a mixed set of students,” said Warsi.

Students taking Hindi will also learn Urdu. “In most universities Hindi and Urdu are taught together. Basically, the grammar and the structure are the same. As you go higher and higher toward Hindi, you are going to become more proficient in Urdu,” said Warsi.

Beata Grant, professor and general administrator in Arts & Sciences, stated that in past years students often had difficulty finding opportunities to study Hindi.

“Hindi was offered several times through University College, but it was sporadic,” said Grant. “It wasn’t every year and not connected to the University. Students had been asking for Hindi for years, and we’ve had mixed results with having people to teach. Finally, we’ve gotten Dr. Warsi since 2006 and we’re hoping to build up from there.”

Neehar Garg, a sophomore and prospective Hindi minor, said that his older sister, class of 2006, took Hindi, but had to create her own minor-Hindi language and culture studies. Now, however, Garg is able to take courses in Hindi and graduate with a standardized minor.

“For me, it shows that they’ve been speaking about expansion of the program, and this seems like a clear demonstration of it,” he said. “[Hindi] is a language spoken by an enormous number of people, and U.S. trade with India has been getting bigger and bigger. It’s a great idea for the University.”

While there are no immediate plans to initiate a major in Hindi, Grant said the minor will serve as a starting point for the creation of a major.

“As soon as we have enough variety of courses, then certainly,” said Grant. “But for all of our languages in this department, there is that literature component. We don’t have that; we have history now, but we don’t really have someone who does culture and literature courses. I have great hopes for it.”

Fighting poverty and spreading democracy went hand in hand, as author and social activist Francis Moore Lappé spoke Tuesday as part of Washington University’s Assembly Series.

At the event, Lappé spoke about her newest book, “Getting a Grip: Clarity, Creativity, and Courage in a World Gone Mad.”

The book argues that the cause of hunger in third world nations stems from power relations and an absence of democracy.

In 1987, Lappé received the Right Livelihood Award, sometimes known as the Alternative Nobel Prize, which is offered to workers in fields such as environmental protection, human rights, sustainable development, health, education and peace.

The talk was co-sponsored by the University library system and the student groups Feed St. Louis and Alliance of Students Against Poverty. Liz Kramer, co-outreach chair of Feed St. Louis, described Lappé as “a premier activist on hunger issues”.

“Lappé’s new book is about citizen action and talking the service component and doing good for people and using to make change the world,” said Kramer. “Her focus is on democracy and application of democracy.”

Kramer noted that the talk itself did not directly cover issues of hunger and democracy. Rather, Lappé spoke mainly about her book, which encourages the idea that each individual can take action to fight hunger and change how food is distributed.

“We’re very excited to bring Lappé to the Assembly Series not only because of her work in hunger, malnutrition and poverty issues throughout her life, but also because we subscribe to the belief that the service work we do can make a difference in the ways the world is,” continued Kramer. “She’s inspirational in motivating people to use their powers to make positive change.”

When asked whether Lappé’s talk would have an effect on the policies and actions of Feed St. Louis itself, Kramer noted that her group’s goals and Lappé’s goals aligned together.

“Feed St. Louis is in a time of great transition right now, and we are restructuring. our organization. The idea of making change in the ways Lappé describes is right in with the changes we’re making in our organization and the direction in which we hope in head.”

Sophomore Stephanie Koh, who attended the talk, also found inspiration in Lappé’s talk, noting how the “power of an idea” causes positive social change.

“It’s inspiring to have someone who’s actually done stuff,” said Koh. “One thing that really spoke to me was that she talked about the power of an idea-democracy and empowering the individual.”

Koh also noted that Lappé’s speech spoke to her as a student.

“I think her emphasis on making democracy and empowering the individual really speaks to us because of the potential that we have,” she said. “The point in our lives right now, going through university, has a lot of potential. It’s an example for us to use our individual powers. As students, it is easy to feel powerless in a world with such widespread suffering. Lappé’s message reminds us that not only can we make a difference as individuals, it is our duty to as citizens.”

Kramer seemed to agree with Koh’s statement.

“I hope that she can engender involvement and action in not only the Washington University and St. Louis community, but nationally and internally,” said Kramer. “We have so many students on campus who are involved and dedicated to their causes, and we hope she will give encouragement that small steps make a big difference in changing the world.”

The Washington University Genome Sequencing Center issued a public response on its Web site yesterday in response to controversial comments on race and intelligence made by James Watson, the biologist who discovered the structure of DNA along with Francis Crick.

Watson, who shared the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins, recently suggested a genetic difference in intelligence between Africans and non-Africans.

Watson later retracted and apologized for his statement, stating that there was no scientific basis for his claims of genetic inferiority by race. Several days after, he resigned from his post at Cold Spring Harbor National Laboratory.

The Genome Sequencing Center’s (GSC) online statement opposed Watson’s original claims.

“Based on our collective extensive training and experience in biology and genetics, we do not support any notion of intellectual inferiority based on race, ethnicity, or gender,” read part of the statement. “Furthermore, we know of no scientific evidence that demonstrates that this is the case.”

Allan Larson, professor of biology, similarly rejected those notions of race and intelligence.

“[Watson's] statement is a personal prejudice that in my opinion has no validity that even as a scientific hypothesis could be tested,” said Larson.

Larson also questioned the existence of any evidence that could be called genetic intelligence, and suggested that the statements were rooted in personal prejudice and were without any scientific validity.

“What does he even mean by ‘intelligence’?” asked Larson. “My impression is that the statement was illogical and a personal prejudice and he refers to it as if it’s something measurable. He’s making statements about cultures that are variable and probably have different ideas of intelligence. There is no possibility of a scientific basis for his claims.”

Will Ross, director of the Office of Diversity Programs, and assistant at the University School of Medicine, took a similar stance on the matter.

“There is absolutely no evidence to support that sort of correlation; it’s been a pseudo-science by the likes of The Bell Curve,” said Ross. “It really sets this whole issue of race and intelligence back when anyone makes a statement like that; it’s so unsubstantiated. I’m hoping that salient minds prevail and recognize this is an issue not supported by science,” he said.

Ross added that while the University seeks different perspectives, Watson’s comments were not acceptable in any institution of higher education.

“While we do promote an understanding of difference, there has to be an intolerance of things that are hateful and only serve to perpetuate stereotypes, which was the case with Dr. Watson,” he said. “Any university that prides itself on multiculturalism would not allow these comments to go unchecked.”

According to the St. Louis American, a Missouri newspaper targeted to African Americans, the name “watson” was dropped from University e-mail addresses.

The original e-mail servers for the GSC were named “watson” and “crick”-and so e-mail addresses would end in @watson.wustl.edu or @crick.wustl.edu-but over time the GSC has accumulated many servers. The current e-mail server is named “genome.”

Richard Wilson, professor of genetics and director of the GSC, stressed that dropping “watson” from the e-mail server was not a direct effect of Watson’s statements. Rather, the name has simply been disappearing over time.

“In large places they [e-mail addresses] tend to migrate,” said Wilson. “Very early in our days, Watson was the name of one of our servers, and it hasn’t been for many years. The e-mail addresses take time to change and it’s slowly going away. People can make the changes themselves; it’ll probably go away by itself.”

Ross also noted that the issue with the e-mail server at the GSC was not directly related to Watson’s recent comments.

“Wilson made an internal response, which speaks for itself,” he said. “There are larger issues than an e-mail server.”

To read the GSC Statement on Race and Genetics, go to the GSC website.

The residential college armies are coming in November.

GoCrossCampus, an Internet game that allows students to participate in an ongoing battle over Washington University’s campus, will be online for South 40 students in the coming weeks.

Each team will represent one of the South 40′s residential colleges competing for dominance in the massively multiplayer social gaming platform.

GoCrossCampus (GXC), first launched at Yale University this spring, resembles strategic board games such as Risk and Diplomacy, but will be entirely online. The game currently remains in its Beta version.

“Every day is a turn where you get armies, place armies, attack countries with armies, etc.,” explained Matt Herman, the Director of Finance of the Congress of the South 40, who helped initiate GoCrossCampus at the University. “You make all these moves, and GoCrossCampus simulates the battles. Everyone’s on a team, so you have to coordinate your moves with the members. It’s the residential colleges playing against each other, and the map is the entire Danforth campus.”

Matthew Brimer, a Yale sophomore, the Chief Marketing Officer of GoCrossCampus and one of the game’s developers, noted that the prototype for GoCrossCampus proved surprisingly popular after its first release on Yale University. Over half of Yale undergraduates have registered with GoCrossCampus.

“The whole thing started with a prototype game we ran in spring 2007, but right now we have a platform on which we can launch several games at once,” said Brimer. “Over 60 percent of the entire Yale undergraduate body was logging in daily and playing the game; that number, almost 3,000 people, was blowing everyone away. What that inspired us to do was to bring the game to the next level.to new schools.”

Students interested in GoCrossCampus, noted Brimer, were not just those heavily interested in computer games-that is, “hardcore” gamers.

“We found that people playing this weren’t just hardcore gamers, but they were recruiting all their friends to get involved-student leaders, people with big social contacts, people loyal to their residential colleges,” he said.
One of GoCrossCampus’s most engaging facets, added Brimer, was the level of personal involvement students could share in the game.

“The cool thing about GoCrossCampus is that it’s your campus,” he said. “You can walk around and say, ‘my team is holding this territory here.’ It’s an interesting competitive spirit.”

Over the summer, Herman and others from the Washington University Student Union worked with GoCrossCampus developers to make the University one of the institutions whose students would be able to test the Beta version of the game.

Because of its residential college system which resembles Yale’s, the University stood out as a prime candidate for continued testing of the game.

“I knew that [Washington University] had a residential college system similar to Yale’s,” said Brimer. “Wash. U. would be a great inaugural school with which to launch [GXC].”

The structure of the game sits at the level of the residential college. While individual students can spend relatively little time each day on GoCrossCampus, they can also elect-or impeach-commanders that coordinate the team’s attacks and defenses as a whole.

“You’re not playing just for yourself; you’re playing for your entire residential college,” explained Brimer. “How we built cooperation and team effort in the system is that you can democratically elect leaders. That’s a way for the team to come under the leadership of one or several commanders.”

The strength of a team rests on both strategy and members, as the size of a team depends on how many students of its residential college have signed up for the game.

“If one residential college has recruited five hundred people to play, that team will have [that many] people. Everyone has incentive to recruit friends and people in the residential college-it’s a casual game, two minutes a day-place your armies and you’re done. But for the people who want to delve into the strategy, that kind of stuff is more than available.”

Although GoCrossCampus covers the entire Danforth campus, the game will be restricted to South 40 residents until at least next year.

“We plan next year to open this to everyone, to Millbrook or Greenway, but it’s difficult to coordinate it,” said Herman.

Once GoCrossCampus becomes available to Washington University students, they can register at GoCrossCampus.com.

Click here to see photos of the 2007 display

Today, rows of tombstones will stand on the Danforth campus as part of a display by the Washington University Peace Coalition, in an effort to raise awareness over the cost of the on-going war in Iraq.

Although the display has been erected in previous years, this is the first year in which the display will be present at other Saint Louis universities, including the University of Missouri at Saint Louis (UMSL), Saint Louis University (SLU) and the nearby Fontbonne University.

While some students may see the tombstone display as a partisan statement, junior and Peace Coalition member Julia Baskin asserted that the displays were intended to raise awareness and stimulate dialogue.

“The point of the tombstones is to emphasize the negative impact of the war,” said Baskin. “It’s not about politics, it’s not about whom you support. It’s about the fact that people have died. It’s going to throw out some controversy but that’s good because people need to talk about it.”

The first year after the beginning of the War in Iraq, a similar display was created in Saint Louis by the Instead of War Coalition.

“In 2005, the tombstones were already made from the last year’s display, so when I got here, myself and a couple of other students decided to do the display on campus,” said Adam Shriver, a graduate student at the University and a member of the Coalition.

While the war remains a controversial topic, Shriver stated that the general response from individuals on the University has been favorable to the displays.

“We did it again last year, and we had a really positive reception from students and the faculty,” he said. “The first year we did it, a woman from SLU heard about it and she got off work early to find the tombstone for her son. This is a controversial thing, but a lot of people have been thankful for raising awareness.”

Because of the positive response to the displays, the following year they were placed again on the Washington University campus and on the campuses of other schools.

While the tombstone display coincides with the first day of Parents Weekend, the display was not intended to specifically be on display during that time.

Senior Brett Burman, a member of the Peace Coalition, noted that the displays are nonetheless aimed at as large an audience as possible.

“It would be a good time because we want as many people as possible to see it, and it’s not just for Wash. U. students, though they are the primary target,” said Burman. “The displays in general are really for anyone in the community at large to come and see it-it’s a statement of the cost of war. Our idea is to get as many people as possible to come and see it, since we’re not trying to convince [only] Wash. U. students of the costs of war.”

A contortionist, a 14-year-old, a one-armed man and other jugglers will be performing on campus this Saturday for the St. Louis Juggling Festival, or Jugglefest.

Washington University’s National Prestigious Society of Collegiate Jugglers (NPSCJ) will be hosting the event for the first time after the St. Louis Juggling Club’s relocation from the city.

“St. Louis used to have a really big festival every year thrown by the St. Louis Juggling Club, which has moved to St. Charles because they lost their old meeting space,” explained Thom Wall, president of NPSCJ. “There really hasn’t been a juggling fest in St. Louis for two to three years, so this is the first major juggling fest in St. Louis for some time.”

In 1991, the University hosted the International Jugglers’ Association (IJA) Festival on campus. The IJA Festival is the largest juggling event worldwide.

This weekend’s event, said Wall, will see a number of jugglers from across the country, some of them quite renowned.

“We’ve got a very large public show on Saturday,” he said. “We’ve got jugglers from Atlanta, Texas, Arkansas, from all over the place just to see the show.”

Some of the larger names performing at the public show include Book Kennison, a St. Charles juggler and contortionist who can pass his six-foot-tall body through the frame of a tennis racket, and Tony Pezzo, a 14-year-old ring juggler who won the silver medal at the 2005 IJA Festival.

Eighteen-year-old Cameron Ritter, a three-time IJA competition finalist, will be performing at the public show as well.

“I’m looking forward to it,” said Ritter. “The last couple of years, there has been a low turnout. I’m looking forward to meeting new jugglers [at the University] because you see old ones every year.”

Casey Boehmer, a three-time IJA medalist who won the gold medal in 1996, may well attract the most attention at Jugglefest. Boehmer was born without his left forearm.

“Our headliner is Casey Boehmer, who is the only one-armed juggler in the world, and he’s working on juggling five clubs in one hand,” said Wall. “He’s a really amazing human being.”

Boehmer, 25, who began juggling in 1989, started performing with his family and has juggled for audiences worldwide, including at Washington University during the 1991 IJA Festival.

“St. Louis has always got a good convention, where we kicked it in high gear with our family act at [Washington University],” said Bohemer. “It’s always a real good time, with people showing up. I’m looking forward to it; I haven’t been there since the club used to meet in Eliot Hall in the nineties. I’m looking forward to it. It should be full-throttle this year, with a full stage and a good ceiling height.”

Although Boehmer will perform by himself, he expects to pull off a solid performance-provided the Brown Hall ceiling is high enough for juggling five clubs with one hand.

“Four clubs in one hand is extremely technical, even with two hands,” he said. “If the ceilings are high enough, I’ll more than likely do five clubs-jugglers are pretty impressed with that and it’s hard as hell to do. I’ve done up to seven rings, and you get that maybe one out of ten times. Normally I end the routine with rings-with six rings, maybe seven rings.”

Student jugglers will also perform at the public show. Wall himself and Jim Hendricks, a University alumnus, will juggle together as the most technically proficient passing team in St. Louis.

Wall and Hendricks began preparation for Jugglefest during the spring of this year.

“It’s been [Hendricks] and me planning this thing since around May of this year and since it’s just the two of us we’re doing a lot of work,” said Wall. “It looks to be really cool.”

With Jugglefest, Wall hopes that Student Union (SU) will increase funding for NPSCJ. As a recreational club, the organization does not receive any SU funding. With Jugglefest, however, it is possible that NPSCJ will be moved up to a category 2 group, receiving a budget and being recognized as a student group that represents the University.

“There are a lot of other schools’ ambassadors coming-it’s good for the Juggling Club, and as a part of the University, we’re being ambassadors to the juggling world,” said Wall with a chuckle.

The public show will take place on Saturday, Oct. 6 at 8 p.m. in Brown 100. The festival will be held from Friday to Sunday in the Women’s Building. Tickets are $5 and can be purchased at www.wujuggling.com.

“It is a grant that we were awarded to provide additional support to students enrolled in PLTL who have attention deficit disorders and learning disorders,” explained Christine Street, assistant director of disability resources at Cornerstone, who developed the grant. “It was an outgrowth with what we see in our office and it was just appropriate to meet the needs of the student population.”

Cornerstone offers PLTL sessions for large lecture-based classes, including calculus, chemistry and physics classes. During these sessions, students meet in small groups to collectively solve problems of the kind they will later see on tests. Sessions are led by an undergraduate student who has already completed and performed well in the course.

According to Street, there are 300 students registered with Cornerstone’s disability resources office. About 80 percent of those students have attention deficit disorders, learning disorders or both.

“We will be giving the peer leaders additional information and training to meet the needs of the students,” said Street. “We are also employing a learning specialist, David Parker, who will be instrumental in implementing all aspects of the grant.”

However, Cornerstone’s plans to address learning disabilities in PLTL are still being implemented. Part of the grant money will go toward giving the PLTL leaders additional training and instruction.

“We’re in the process of finalizing our literature review and curriculum.and were just awarded the grant so we haven’t started with the peer leaders yet,” said Street. “We will be training the peer leaders on issues of attention disorders and learning disorders, and how students can be intelligent-and in fact brilliant-yet still have problems with time management and organization. We will also be training the peer leaders with strategies and instruction, and that is how to help students improve executive function skills.”

Hiten Patel, a junior who leads a PLTL group for General Chemistry, explained his thoughts about the PLTL system and its current method of teaching students with disabilities. Patel suggested that, in most cases, PLTL could be useful to students.

“The general experience with PLTL has been completely positive,” said Patel. “I was in PLTL before I became a leader, and the group dynamics are helpful. For chemistry, physics and math it works very well, but not with some other subjects. I feel that it’d be really compatible with the grant as well.”

However, Patel also noted that in order to aid students who have, for example, attention deficit disorder, PLTL would have to see some changes.

“Along the lines PLTL is set up now, it would take a bit of work to be adapted,” said Patel. “It works really well now, but it’s going to take adjustment because the point of PLTL is to go beyond the simple material in classes, and puts more emphasis on the group. I feel like the training now would have to be refined-I’m pretty sure you couldn’t use the same system right now.”

On the direction of the NSF-funded research on PLTL, Street hoped that other universities would be able to benefit from the information obtained.

“It’s a great opportunity for all of our students and we hope that what we learn from this project is to see how students are served at Wash. U. and other elite institutions across the country,” said Street.

For University students without learning disabilities, PLTL remains a generally useful resource for students-especially freshmen-who may find the content of some of their classes challenging.

Lana Hompluem, a freshman who attends PLTL sessions for General Chemistry and Calculus II, recently took her first calculus exam.

“I did well on it because of PLTL, because it’s a smaller group in which you get specialized attention, and you get to practice doing problems,” said Hompluem. “The problems are usually more difficult than the ones in the book or WebWork, and it’s good to be exposed to them.”

Today marks the third day of Peace Week, a five-day, 24-hour anti-Iraqi war demonstration that is taking place outside the office of Senator Claire McCaskill’s (D-Mo.) office on the Delmar Loop.

On Thursday, a number of Washington University students from the Washington University Peace & Justice Coalition will be participating in the 24-hour presence.

The Instead of War Coalition, a St. Louis anti-war organization, coordinated the sit-in outside McCaskill’s office.

Adam Shriver, a University graduate and a member of the Instead of War Coalition’s student committee, stated that Peace Week was planned as a reaction to General David Petraeus’ report to Congress. Delivered this Monday, Petraeus’ report discussed the effectiveness of the troop “surge” in Iraq.

“As part of a nationwide movement we decided to have a response to General Petraeus’ report,” said Shriver. “We knew that report would be coming out and that Congress would be voting for funding for the war. We wanted to put pressure on McCaskill to not fund the war unless there was a decision from the Bush administration to bring the troops.”

Shriver noted that McCaskill, while having expressed opposition to the war, “has been voting along with Bush’s plan.” The Coalition intends to pressure McCaskill to halt funding for the war and to reallocate funds toward domestic concerns.

On Monday night, the Washington University Peace & Justice Coalition gathered a number of undergraduate students to participate in Peace Week. University students will try to hold a presence outside the senator’s office

“We’re trying to meet up with students with Saint Louis University, and have a contingent of Wash. U. students overnight at McCaskill’s office on Thursday,” said Todd Zimmer, a sophomore and member of the Peace & Justice Coalition.

On Tuesday, the Instead of War Coalition held an ice cream social for members of the St. Louis community living near McCaskill’s office to spread awareness about the war in Iraq and McCaskill’s policies concerning it.

“The ice cream social [was] aimed at engaging members of the community living close to McCaskill’s office to inform them,” noted Zimmer.

Thursday will see a critical mass bike ride, or Pedal for Peace, where individuals will bicycle through St. Louis, from McCaskill’s office to a forum focused on single-payer healthcare as well as the war’s effects on healthcare funding. Pedal for Peace, noted Shriver, will serve as a symbolic movement from funding of the war to an emphasis on domestic issues.

We’re going to ask how much healthcare we could buy [with Bush's money on the war],” said Zimmer.

While Shriver gauged a positive response from passersbys on Monday, he expressed uncertainty over how much voter pressure on McCaskill would be needed for the senator to respond to calls for the de-funding of the war.

“It’s tough to call,” he said. “About McCaskill’s response, I’m not sure. I’m not sure what it’ll take.”

On Monday, Zimmer expressed optimism about Peace Week, adding that the event would be reflective of antiwar rallies and demonstrations.

“I think that we’re looking forward to it because it’s early in the year and it’s a good opportunity to have Wash. U. students interested in this to have the resources that St. Louis has to offer,” said Zimmer. “It’s also taking part in the national response of the peace movement.”