The slate is the second to enter the race after Bold Slate, led by junior Nate Ferguson, announced its run last week.

While DeBaun is running for student body president, sophomore Kirsten Miller is seeking the position of vice president of administration, junior Eliot Walker is running for vice president of finance, sophomore John Harrison York is running for vice president of programming, and sophomore Cody Katz completes the slate as the candidate for vice president of public relations.

Around the room, sheets of paper were put up on which students were encouraged to write what they thought about the slate’s proposals.

In her speech, DeBaun explained the vision for SU that she would pursue if elected. According to DeBaun, SU has not given students the opportunity to reach their full potential because it has “gotten caught up in bureaucracy” when it should be a “beacon for student empowerment.”

Katz then spoke on what SU could do for students and how it could use its clout to ensure that student views were heard.

“Co-programming between student groups should be encouraged by Student Union, not made difficult,” Katz said.

Katz said that groups that wish to pool resources to program often face obstacles that should be removed.

Miller focused her speech on establishing a student rallying center, which she envisioned as a place where students could gather to study.

“We want to be able to use this space for more student groups,” she said.

She also said that the space could be home to a weekly “cultural cheap lunch,” in which student groups such as Ashoka would be able to sell food during lunchtime, serving as both a fun event for students and a fundraiser for the respective groups selling the food.

York presented the vision for bringing big speakers to campus that students want to go see. He brought up 2008’s vice presidential debate as an event that brought the campus together, as there were various events happening on campus that all students took part in. He also mentioned political strategist Karl Rove and adult film star Ron Jeremy as big-name figures who recently visited campus and sparked discussion.

York said that he would rather see one $50,000 speaker than 10 $5,000 speakers, as it would be a more effective use of resources.

“We really want to go big or go home with this stuff,” he said.

He also mentioned that he would like to see the return of Thursday club nights, as they were discontinued halfway through last year, despite the fact that many students attended.

Walker spoke about making the process of appealing for funds easier to encourage individuals or groups of students to come forward with their own initiatives.

“It’s your Student Activities Fee, and it’s available to you,” he said.

After the candidates finished speaking, three guest speakers talked about what they want to see happen at the University. Former Vice President of Administration Trevor Mattea spoke about changes he wanted to see made to SU. He is currently collecting signatures to get his proposals on the ballot for students.

The Student Sustainability Fund and the Washington University Climate Alliance were also represented at the event.

The first slate to enter the race, Bold Slate, announced its candidacy on Feb. 3. Bold Slate hopes to improve the student experience by increasing school pride and increasing campus card functionality so that it may be used off campus. Bold Slate’s platform also includes making SU more accessible to students, helping people feel comfortable approaching SU and viewing it as a tool for advocacy and event planning, as well as drafting a five-year strategic plan to improve SU.

Election packets must be turned in to the SU office by Feb. 22.

Senior Regis Murayi said that he was interested in what the slate had to say, so he attended the event.

“It surprised me that there was an event like this,” he said. “I don’t think I’d seen something like this. I thought it was a good idea, and wanted to see what other ideas they had.”

Richard Wilson and the Genomics Sequencing Center at the University are handling the sequencing of all 600 tumor samples that will be studied during the three-year project. The first few tumors are already being analyzed. The first 50 tumors will be sequenced and analyzed within the first year of the study.

“There have been all kinds of studies that call themselves cancer genomics studies,” Wilson said. “Most of them have looked at small numbers of genes that are genes we know are involved in various types of cancer, and the idea is simply to look at those cancer patients and see if you can find mutations and say you know what caused this person’s cancer.”

What sets the study apart from previous projects is its scale. Samples from 600 patients will have their entire genomes sequenced in three years.

“To actually look at whole genomes for 600 patients is really unprecedented,” Wilson said. “You can look at a few genes in a lot of patients, or you can look at a lot of genes in a smaller number of patients. Those two extremes have been what’s been done so far.”

Wilson said that the study is taking a broad look at the genome without preconceived ideas about what genes might be more likely to play a role.

“Every type of cancer is different,” he said. “If you know of some genes that are mutated in lung cancer and then you go study breast cancer and you only look at those genes, you probably won’t find much. There may be some overlap, but for the most part, different cancers are caused by different gene mutations. We learned that we really needed to look at all genes, so this is really a science that’s been pioneered here at Washington University. Throw a rope around the entire genome and determine what mutations may have occurred.”

Since the study is so over-arching, there are unique challenges that Wilson said the team is prepared for.

“It’s like taking two haystacks and trying to find the bits of hay that are different in the second one,” Wilson said. “It’s an enormous computational problem. The human genome is 3 billion bits of information. Most of the software we utilize for the analysis is stuff we’ve developed over the last few years.”

Wilson said that while the University will analyze the tumors, St. Jude’s plays several critical roles.

“It sounds like it’s straightforward, but it’s not so simple,” he said. “There are a lot of careful methods you have to utilize to preserve the tumor sample. There’s an amazing amount of clinical information. We’ll work together on some downstream experiments. It’s going to be a really nice collaboration.”

The project’s goal is to try to identify genes that play a role in cancer so they can be a target for future treatment. Wilson mentioned that there have already been gene mutations that affect responses to certain drugs.

“In the long term it helps you better understand the disease so you can think about new drugs that might be even more effective or even better, are targeted to the patient’s exact mutation, and you’ll be able to dial in exact treatments,” he said. “What we learn in the short term is how to better utilize the drugs we already have.”

The study divides the tumors into three broad areas: leukemia, brain tumors and solid tumors, in other places, known as sarcomas.

Wilson added that holding the study in St. Louis has been advantageous.

“St. Louis is really one of the only places where this could happen,” Wilson said. “We’ve pioneered these methods. People at Wash. U. should be proud that we’re leaders in this field.”

The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center will receive millions of dollars for project funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. (Courtesy of Donald Danforth Plant Science Center)

The aim of the funding is to help create jobs and a domestic biofuel industry.

The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center is the main institution receiving funding. Funding will be divided among several universities, research institutions and companies, said Karla Goldstein, vice president of public and government affairs of the center.

“The entire $44 million doesn’t come here,” Goldstein said. “It’s about $4 to $5 million that will be at the center. They sort of carve up the work.”

Goldstein said the center’s previous work with renewable energy likely assisted the center as it sought the award.

“I think that we were chosen because of our expertise in this area; because of the Enterprise Rent-A-Car Institute for renewable fuel,” Goldstein said.

Goldstein said that the additional resources coming to the center permit the addition of new dimensions to its research. Projects funded by the grant will seek to make further strides toward renewable energy.

“This also has a little bit beyond basic research,” Goldstein said. “This has more applied [research]. It also includes a pilot algae production facility in Missouri.

“The point of the whole NAABB [National Alliance for Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts] is to develop a systems approach for sustainable commercialization of algal biofuels,” Goldstein added. “In other words, to determine the economic viability of algae as a source for biofuel.”

Goldstein noted the benefits that the funding will provide for the St. Louis area.

“It really cements St. Louis as a leader in algal biofuels research,” Goldstein said. “The work that’s going on here at the center—it strengthens that work.

“It built on the Taylor family gift of 2007 [and] the DOE award of last year,” she said, referencing a $15 million award that the center received from the Department of Energy and a $25 million grant from the Taylor family, which owns Enterprise Rent-A-Car.

Goldstein said that the involvement of several institutions in the research shows that the St. Louis region is a global leader in this type of research.

“The work that’s going on at Washington University, the work that’s going on at UMSL—it really shows that St. Louis is a leader in this area,” Goldstein said.

The funding comes in the midst of a great inflow of stimulus funding. As of Dec. 31, 2009, prior to receiving the grant, the University received 236 individual awards, totaling over $83 million, with only $16 million spent. Much of the funding has gone to the medical school, but the College of Arts & Sciences, the School of Engineering and the School of Social Work have each received a notable amount.

Goldstein said that the research team is excited that the work got support from the stimulus.

“We’re elated,” Goldstein said. “We worked very hard to put together a quality team and we’re just thrilled that the Department of Energy recognized…the skills of that team and provided us the award.’

In his statement, William Danforth, the chairman of the board of the center, was similarly excited for the funding of the project.

“I am delighted that Dick Sayre and Jose Olivares of our institution will be leading the consortium that will be doing this important work,” Danforth’s statement read. “The award also triggers a $16 million industry match and comes on the heels of significant investment in St. Louis by the Department of Energy last year. Our region is playing a leading role in our nation’s efforts to create a domestic bioindustry, reduce our dependence on foreign oil and preserve the envwironment.”

The center carries out research related to increasing agricultural production and increasing the nutritional content of plants to improve the human condition and also promote economic growth in the St. Louis region since its founding in 1998.

Click here to see a breakdown of funds the University has received.

Some of the organizers of the mock Russian Gulag on Washington University’s campus last November were arrested in New Orleans on Tuesday after they attempted to tamper with phones at the office of Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La.

Two of the four men arrested, James O’Keefe and Joseph Basel, were in costume at the mock Gulag constructed on campus. Two other men, Robert Flanagan and Stan Dai were also arrested.

According to the FBI affidavit signed by Special Agent Steven Rayes, Flanagan and Basel entered the Hale Boggs Federal Building, where they met O’Keefe, each wearing blue denim pants, a blue work shirt and construction-style hard hats.

The affidavit stated that the two claimed to be employees of a telephone company and requested access to a telephone in the office. A staff member, identified only as “Witness 1” in the affidavit, directed the men to the U.S. General Services Administration to access the main telephone system.

Basel tried to call the phone from his cellular phone and said he could not get a call through.

According to the affidavit, Flanagan and Basel “attempted to enter…for the purpose of willfully and maliciously interfering with a telephone system.”

When asked by a second witness for credentials to show they actually worked for the company, the two said they had left them in their vehicle. U.S. marshals then arrested the men.

The affidavit states that O’Keefe and Dai admitted to assisting with planning and coordination for the incident to federal agents. O’Keefe also said he had been videotaping the other two while they were in the office.

According to Dirk Doebler, president of the University’s chapter of Young Americans for Liberty (YAL), O’Keefe was present at the November Gulag event on campus doing filming.

Some initial reaction to the incident referred to it as “Louisiana Watergate.” Officials do not believe that the intention was to wiretap the office. Just before midnight on Wednesday, O’Keefe posted the message “Govt official concedes no attempt to wiretap” on his Twitter account.

“Their lawyer said there was no wiretapping going on,” Doebler said. “[O’Keefe] does try to get the story in an unorthodox way.”

No further information has been released regarding what the men planned to do with the phones, and the affidavit did not give details about what they did with the phones.

Flanagan had previously written blog posts that were critical of Landrieu for her stance on health care legislation and that raised questions regarding campaign finance.

O’Keefe gained notoriety after he posted videos of himself consulting with Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) workers on advice about how to open a brothel while he and an associate, Hannah Giles, posed as a pimp and prostitute. ACORN is suing O’Keefe and Giles over the so-called “pimpgate” video.

Landrieu has been the target of anger over the recent health care legislation, as she was one of the last Democrats to sign onto the plan.

The men were released on $10,000 bond and a preliminary hearing has been set for Feb. 12. If convicted, the four men could face sentences ranging from a fine to 10 years in prison.

While O’Keefe was present during the Gulag display, according to Doebler, no further contact between the University’s YAL chapter and O’Keefe has ensued.

“We haven’t had any contact with them,” Doebler said. “There hasn’t been any contact since that event. I met O’Keefe that week [of the Gulag event].”

Among the key goals of the plan, which aims to create a more sustainable campus, are reductions in carbon emissions and the number of single-occupancy cars coming to campus. Administrators will hold a series of forums to gather feedback before finalizing the plan.

Assistant Vice Chancellor for Sustainability Matthew Malten and Executive Vice Chancellor for Administration Henry Webber contributed to the draft plan.

“Assuming that the final plan is similar to the draft plan, I think you would see a continual evolution toward a more sustainable campus,” Webber said. “This is an ambitious plan, and it’s a plan that recognizes that we’ve already made a good bit of progress. There are challenges and it will take a long-term commitment.”

Webber believes that the changes will happen over time. He brought up the University’s gradual implementation of recycling programs—going from no recycling to making changes toward the new single stream program—as a model for how the changes will be made.

“So far the comments on the draft plan have been very positive and very helpful,” Webber said. “The vast majority of people have responded positively to the thrust of the plan.”

According to Webber, one of the main challenges will be meeting goals that require action by outside entities.

“We control, as an institution, some of the key levers; some of them we don’t control,” Webber said. “We can have a large impact on our consumption of electricity, but we don’t produce electricity.”

Webber mentioned that power companies must soon begin producing 15 percent of their output from renewable sources. According to Webber, those companies will have to meet their own requirements to achieve the emissions goals.

Metro will also play an important role in transportation.

Malten said that many of the measures already have elements in various stages of implementation on campus.

“Students will start to notice more changes,” Malten said. “Some will be a little more subtle than others. One of the key components within the plan is we’re really trying to make our efforts and performance really transparent.”

The strategic plan has several areas that will directly impact students, such as several points aimed at food service on campus.

“This is going to be hard work and it’s going to require our focus and hard work for multiple years and it’s going to require that everybody within the campus community play a part,” Malten said.

Malten said that it is going to be a challenge to coordinate campus projects, as meeting the goals will require renovations of several older campus buildings.

Some parts of the plan do have set target dates for completion.  For example, the goal for 2012 is to have reduced the number of students arriving in sole-occupant cars by 10 percent. The plan also calls for reducing carbon emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 without purchasing carbon offsets. Information provided with the plan said that the reasons for not purchasing offsets were that it is difficult to track their validity, the money may not be used appropriately and the money might go to projects that would be completed anyway.

Peter Murrey, president of Green Action, believes the University will be able to set more ambitious goals for itself in years to come and is excited to see how the current goals are implemented.

“That’s the timescale in which our University works,” Murrey said. “Would I like to see it implemented faster? Yes, but we have to work with the current structure, and that’s just a fact of how our University works. It’s slow.”

Murrey said that the choice about carbon offsets shows that the University has carefully considered how to make the plan effective.

“We’re seeking to make actual improvements here instead of outsourcing the emissions somewhere else,” Murrey said.

Webber noted that some of the goals are likely to face challenges because the University does not have control over all aspects.  For example, there is no facility in the area that can process organic waste.

“I think that’s kind of a cop-out,” Murrey said. “If there are no facilities, we are a leading institution. Why don’t we create one and become an innovator?”

Murrey said that his organization wants to become as involved as possible, and encouraged students to read and respond to the plan.

Murrey also noted that he would like to see the University become carbon neutral by 2050, if not before, as a long-term goal.

“Ultimately, our University needs to become carbon neutral,” Murrey said. “We still have not signed on to the Presidents’ Climate Commitment, which so many universities and all of our peer institutions have done.”

The plan will be reviewed regularly as well. It is to be reviewed and updated in 2012 and again in 2016.

“This is not something that we think we have all the answers to today, and it’s not something that we think the goals that are appropriate today will remain appropriate several years from now,” Malten said. “We know that technology is going to certainly change. We’re going to be able to continue to do more and more and improve our performance.”

Webber said that those who want to comment on the plan should attend one of the forums or e-mail comments to sustainability@wustl.edu.

(Katie Sadow | Student Life)

Undergraduate tuition at Washington University will be $39,400 for the 2010-11 academic year, a 4.2 percent increase over the 2009-2010 tuition of $37,800, the administration announced Thursday.

The state of the economy was cited as a major reason for the increase.

“Like all of us, Washington University has felt the impact of these forces,” the letter read.

The announcement came in letters that were mailed to parents on Wednesday and were put in students’ mailboxes on Thursday.

>> Click here to read the letter sent to Washington University parents.

According to the letter, there has been improvement in the endowment since the announcement that it had declined by a quarter of its value. The endowment is still 15 percent below its value a year and a half ago, however.

Charges for housing and meal plans will increase as well. Depending on the housing style and meal plan students choose, the total amount students will pay next year varies. Students living on campus in a double-occupancy room will pay between $7,982 and $8,828 depending on housing style, a 4.3 percent increase over this year’s rates. The price of meal plans increased by 3 percent.

Fees in graduate programs saw the same 4.2 percent increase in all schools except the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, where the increase was 4 percent, and the School of Medicine, whose prices will be set in March.

“Despite University efforts to contain costs, some expenses cannot be restrained if the institution is to offer ever-improving programs,” the letter read. “Examples include updating classrooms and laboratories, hiring the best faculty and facing rising health-care costs for employees.”

The University faces a projected annual $30 million shortfall, and is taking steps to reduce costs to close the gap as well. Administrative salaries were also frozen, and Chancellor Mark Wrighton volunteered a 10 percent reduction to his salary.

Director of Student Financial Services Bill Witbrodt said that the increased tuition is factored into how financial aid applications are considered.

“The increase in tuition will cause an increase in financial aid,” Witbrodt said.  “The formula that determines how much financial aid is forwarded is based on cost. The University has planned to increase financial aid for the coming year, and I know that the University has launched a capital campaign to raise scholarship funds.”

The capital initiative, Opening Doors to the Future, was announced during the fall semester and seeks to raise $150 million for scholarships.

Witbrodt said that even students who have not received financial aid in previous years can apply. Changes in family circumstance are also taken into account.

“Anyone who hasn’t had access before to financial aid is invited to apply for financial aid,” Witbrodt said. “We know that in the current economy, our students’ families are having difficulty. We know that we’re probably going to have to increase financial aid to allow them to continue their education at Washington University. We hope that any students who are concerned about finances and their ability to stay at the University will contact us.”

Witbrodt said that despite the tuition increase, the University has the resources to meet financial need.

“The increase in tuition is a benefit for the University overall,” he said. “As far as we’re concerned, we’ve been provided financial resources to make sure that our students have the financial resources to continue their education at Washington University.”

According to the letter, financial aid to undergraduates has increased 22 percent over the past two years. Sixty percent of students receive aid.

David Messenger contributed to this story.

>> Click here to read the letter sent to Washington University parents.

The Web site initially copied the format of official site for the Consortium for Clean Coal Utilization, http://clean​coal.wustl.edu, but both sites have since undergone several changes that eliminated much of the similarity.

The real aim of the Consortium for Clean Coal Utilization (CCCU) is “addressing the scientific and technological challenges of ensuring that coal can be used in a clean and sustainable manner.” The parody Web site, however, disagrees with the message of the CCCU and serves to undermine its purpose.

Brian DeSmet, creator of www.cleancoalwustl.org, said that the format of the Web site was taken from the official site in order to gain more attention.

“If I just made a site that was critical of [the CCCU], who would ever know about it?” DeSmet said, referring to legal pressure on the site. “It really does bring the potentiality that someone at the University or one of the companies would do what they’ve done, so in a sense they did what I wanted them to. I got a thousand hits before I got a cease-and-desist letter from Peabody, and I’m sure I’ve gotten a lot more since.”

DeSmet said that he works for an environmental non-profit organization, but he created the Web site independently.

“To really lend the University’s credibility to a phrase like that, even using ‘clean coal’ in the URL, I had a real problem with that,” DeSmet said.

DeSmet hopes that the site will lead people to become involved in discussion about the CCCU.

“I’d like to see a broader conversation about how this happened and why they are doing this,” DeSmet said.

DeSmet said that his understanding of fair use allowed him to use the logos of the CCCU, Arch Coal, Peabody Energy and Ameren since he did not try to deceive visitors. He said that his goal was to make a point about the CCCU.

“Once you read past the first few lines, I don’t think anyone is going to be confused,” DeSmet said.

But the three corporate trademarks were removed after DeSmet received a cease-and-desist order from Peabody Energy. The CCCU trademark has had a red “censored” bar placed over it.

Richard Axelbaum, director of the CCCU, said he was not aware of any action by the University but wrote in an e-mail that the consortium itself had not taken action against the parody site.

Axelbaum said that the parody site would draw people’s  attention to the official site as well, helping the CCCU spread its message about the research being conducted.

“One of the goals of the Consortium is to help the public become better informed about ways to utilize coal cleanly, and so the additional activity that the Consortium Web site has experienced following the publicity of the parody Web site is helping us to achieve our goals,” Axelbaum wrote.

Green Action President Peter Murrey said he shares DeSmet’s view on the term “clean coal.”

“We have no problem with the research that is being done,” Murrey said. “The data that is coming out of it is amazing stuff. With that being said, under the name ‘The Consortium for Clean Coal Utilization,’ it’s very hard to take those results seriously.”

Murrey said that Green Action and other student groups prefer to register their objections to the CCCU by engaging the administration. Murrey said the professors have been open to discussion and he hopes to reach a cordial agreement.

“[The Web site] gives us a great opportunity to come back to this and put it in another light,” Murrey said. “Say, ‘University, this is how you’re looked at by outside members. How do you want your peer institutions to look at you?’”

Under the resources area of the parody site, links are provided to blogs such as Mountain Justice, Climate Ground Zero and the Rainforest Action Network. A posting for America’s Energy Future: Challenges and Opportunities states that “Admission is free, but checking reality at the door is required.”

NASA’s Spirit rover, part of the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Mission, is currently spinning its wheels on Mars in an area scientists have named “Troy” after the besieged city in Homer’s Iliad. Spirit landed on Mars on Jan. 4, 2004, three weeks before its twin, Opportunity. Each rover had an anticipated mission span of 90 Martian days, which last the equivalent of 24 hours and 37 minutes, and each was expected to drive about one kilometer total. This January will mark six years on the Martian surface, and the two have driven more than 25 kilometers combined.

“It’s way out of warranty,” said Ray Arvidson, director of the Earth and Planetary Remote Sensing Laboratory here at Washington University. “It’s like an old ’55 Chevy.”

The problems begin
While the mission is unprecedented in the amount of data collected over the length of the mission, Spirit now finds itself in a predicament. Last May, the rover broke through the surface it was driving on, sinking into loose soil at the outer edge of a crater. The rover has not been able to move from its current location.

In addition, researchers found that a large rock was positioned under the rover’s belly, further imperiling its mobility. Buried rocks in the soil could interfere by resisting the rover’s wheel turns to the point that the motor stalls, providing a challenge to the planners.

“Since there are probably buried rocks, it’s so easy to encounter one so there’s so much resisting torque that the motor stalls,” Arvidson said. “We’re concerned there might be these buried objects that could get caught in the wheel.”

The aging rovers are encountering more problems in addition to losing mobility. For one, the right front wheel of Spirit stopped rotating some time ago, so the rover drives in reverse, dragging the nonfunctional wheel behind it.

Arvidson said that the rovers also suffered from bouts of amnesia in which they fail to “wake up” when the sun hits them each morning as they are programmed to do. There have also been problems with storing information in the rovers’ flash memories.

Making the most of it
“In interim, we’ve done more detailed measurements of one place than we’ve ever done before and it turns out to be a fascinating place because there’s a crater that’s 8 meters across and maybe 25 centimeters high, and we wound up right on the side of it,” Arvidson said. “In fact, the edge of the crater goes right down the middle of the rover. The material in the crater is really neat stuff.”

Arvidson said that they have been able to take measurements of the material at several different depths, which had not been done at other locations when the rover was on the move.

“What we’re seeing is the material varies as a function of depth,” Arvidson said.

Arvidson explained that calcium- and iron-containing compounds are differentially distributed in the area based on depth.

“You can’t see those sulfate sands until you turn them up,” Arvidson said.

Students at the University have also been involved in gathering data.

“The advantage to remaining in one place for so long was we could do detailed study with our instruments,” said junior Kirsten Siebach, who has worked on the project while at the University.

Planning an escape
No one can be certain how long the extraction process will take or whether it will be successful. Freeing the rover may take weeks or months, according to online statements by NASA.

To plan an escape route for the rover, tests have been done in a test bed with a duplicate rover at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., and computer-based models of the rover’s predicament have been designed. The test bed can be tilted to the correct angle, and the proper mix of soil can be added.

Graduate student Kim Lichtenberg worked at JPL over the summer trying to find a simulation for a test bed that would best represent the soil around the rover. She brought a geologic point of view to the testing.

“Unfortunately, it turns out that for each of these separate maneuvers we tried in the test bed, there wasn’t one that leapt out at us,” Lichtenberg said. “It was very small, minute differences in how the rover behaved.”

The rover stopped taking measurements in mid-November, and the team started sending commands to the rover in attempts to free it.

Opportunity found itself stuck in a region the team named Purgatory earlier in the mission. In that situation, the solution was to simply back out, but Arvidson said that Spirit’s situation is more complicated.

“This is way more complicated because the vehicle is rolled about 12 degrees, the left wheels are badly embedded, the right rear wheels are embedded, the right front wheel doesn’t work,” Arvidson said. “There’s also a rock that’s pushing up against the underbelly, and there might be buried rocks that could get entangled in the wheel system.”

The team attempted the first extraction drive on Nov. 16 but was unable to make progress. Spirit determined it was tilted farther than parameters for the drive allowed, ending the attempt after less than a second. The team is being careful not to make moves that might put the rover in more danger.

“It’s moving. Every time we command a drive, we move, so it’s not stuck, per se, it’s just mobility impaired,” Arvidson said. “It’s not a situation where we do a command and nothing happens.”

A looming deadline
The mission is up against a deadline with regard to moving the rover. Within about two months, it will be winter in Mars’ southern hemisphere. With each day, less sunlight reaches the rover’s solar panels, giving the rover less power to use. If Spirit cannot generate enough power to heat the important electronics, the rover may not respond when the team tries to communicate to it.

Currently, the rover is tilted to the south 1 degree and needs to be tilted 5 degrees to the north, toward where the sun will be during the Martian winter. There are slopes not far from where the rover is located where it could park for the winter at the necessary angle, but first it needs to regain mobility. In addition, dust accumulates on the solar panels, reducing their efficiency.

“It really depends on how much dust is going to come on the panels. There’s some time pressure to get out of here,” Arvidson said. “On the other hand, you don’t want to rush anything, because we’d be pretty close to turning this into a lander, not a rover.”

Members of the team realize the possibility that Spirit may have reached its final resting place.

“We’re going to try our darnedest to try and get her out, but in the eventuality that she does end up spending the rest of her life in this spot, there are so many scientifically interesting things to study in this area,” Lichtenberg said. “This is really one of the best places we could have picked to get stuck.”

“It’s terrific that St. Louis had three institutions in the top rankings,” said Hank Webber, executive vice chancellor for administration at the University. “I think that reflects a broad commitment of higher education institutions to the city and the region.”

The survey considered several aspects of a university’s contributions to its community for the ranking, including faculty and student involvement in community service; presence felt through payroll, research and purchasing power; effect on local student access and affordability to attend college; and length of involvement with the community.

The University of Pennsylvania and University of Southern California tied for first in the ranking, while the University of Dayton and the University of Pittsburgh tied for second. The University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC), Case Western Reserve University and Emory University also made the top 25.

Evan Dobelle, president of Westfield State College in Massachusetts, announced the top schools during a presentation titled, “Saviors of our cities: A Survey of Best College and University Civic Partnerships.” Dobelle delivered the address to the 15th annual conference of the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities.

Community service was an important criterion in the rankings.

According to the University’s Community Service Office, 73 percent of students participate in community service compared to a national average of 61 percent. Eighty-six percent of seniors have been involved in service while at the University.

Although the ranking puts an emphasis on “real dollars invested” in the community, it can be difficult to put a fixed value on the University’s involvement in the area, said Cheryl Adelstein, director of community relations and local government affairs. Adelstein noted that the University’s impact is made clearer in difficult economic times.

“The University in a recession doesn’t leave. While [other businesses] have contracted, the University stays, continues to build and continues to invest,” Adelstein said.

Washington University has some 13,000 employees, more than half of whom work on the medical campus. Barnes Jewish, the University’s healthcare partner, is the largest employer in the city.

Webber mentioned that SLU is also one of the top employers in the city.

“These [universities] become the largest economic entities, [and] we don’t go anywhere, we’ve stayed and grown,” Webber said.

Despite the state of the national economy, Adelstein said the University has a $2.5 billion economic impact on the area.

The survey report cited Saint Louis University’s efforts to revitalize downtown St. Louis as a principle reason for its selection. The school’s emphasis on social justice and the urban poor in research and student involvement was another point made in the report.

The report also mentioned social services in explaining its selection of UMSL. UMSL operates several clinics, including Community Psychological Services and University Eye Center.

The full list of schools and additional information about Evan Dobelle’s report can be found at http://www.wsc.ma.edu/Announcements/Top_25_Saviors.html.

For information on Washington University’s programming and impact in St. Louis: http://impact.wustl.edu.

Apparently the result of a fungal infection, many frog species are dying off rapidly, leading researchers to worry about the diversity of frog populations and the implications for the region as well as the world as a whole.

Jonathan Chase, director of the Tyson Research Center and co-author of the paper, said there are many mechanisms that can lead to such a decline.

“Usually the first culprit is habitat loss—when you lose area you lose species,” Chase said. “It’s the most important relationship in ecology.”

Chase also discussed the role of the fungus in the frogs’ decline. According to Chase, it is suspected that the fungus, amphibian chytrid fungus, is not native to the areas where it is causing extinction and that humans have caused it to travel into the areas. Since the fungus is not native, the frogs have no evolutionary experience with it.

“Oftentimes massive die-offs like this are associated with invasive species,” Chase said.

Kevin Smith, associate director of the Tyson Research Center and first author of the study, has been leading studies looking at the presence of the fungus in eastern central Missouri at Tyson and other natural areas near the St. Louis area.

The fungus is found all over the world but has caused large-scale extinctions in Europe, Australia, Central America and western North America. Chase said there are multiple theories of where the fungus originated, including South Africa and Japan.

“We know the very same pathogen or at least what appears to be the very same pathogen, this amphibian chytrid fungus. It’s causing declines and extinctions in south Central America, in Australia, in Europe and even in other parts of North America, yet in a lot of the eastern United States including Missouri, it seems to be present but doesn’t have any effect at all,” Smith said. “We very rarely find that frogs in this part of the country are associated with this pathogen.”

The rapid extinctions cause fewer and fewer species to make up the bulk of the frog population.

“Biodiversity loss has many implications, some of which are aesthetic—it’s simply sad that we’re losing huge proportions of the species that used to be present, and the loss seems to be something that humans have caused,” Chase said.

Central America was chosen, according to Smith, because it was the first known area to show such extinctions due to the pathogens. He said tracking the pathogen is difficult because it has been known only for 10 years but probably had an effect long before it was discovered. Also, the fungus is microscopic, and other than a few minor symptoms, it is hard to identify infected animals in the field.

“Do frogs affect our daily life? Probably not. But is the extinction of many frogs going to influence the world’s ecosystems? Yeah, [frogs] are a very important species,” Chase said.

Chase cited the fact that frogs feed on many species of insects and play a vital role in the food web and the regional ecology where they are found.

“It doesn’t seem to be causing the massive die-offs that you see in some of these other areas, and that’s another area we’re interested in—trying to understand why,” Chase said.

Chase said studying amphibian populations can give insight into what impact climate change can have for other organisms.

“A lot of people want to say amphibians are canaries in the coal mine,” Chase said. “They tend to be more sensitive to environmental change.”

Changes in regional ecology such as this as well as decline of coral reefs can be indicators of changes happening in the world. Chase said the frog extinctions might be a combination of the fungus, elevated pollution and other factors.

“It shows that if extinctions occur non-randomly, if they’re selective, if there’s a pattern to the way the extinctions are happening, you can end up losing a lot more biodiversity than if it were just random extinction going on,” Smith said.

At the Tyson Research Center, there is ongoing work examining Missouri’s own ecology.

Karen Lips from Southern Illinois University was also an author of the study and collected much of the data. The article ran in the October issue of Ecology Letters.

Smith said the next steps for the studies would be to look at other waves of extinction to see if they are selective and identify the causes. He said it is important to study the pathogen where it does not cause extinctions because one hypothesis is there may be an additional environmental trigger.

“I think it shows how important it is that there are biologists out there doing this kind of work all over the world, because at some point this data is going to be used and this is one of those cases,” Smith said.