Johann Qua Hiansen | Student Life

The remnants of the microwave after catching on fire on the 2nd floor of Lee.

The fire on the second floor of Lee was caused by a microwave oven.

“It was not an intentional fire set or anything like that,” said Don Strom, chief of the Washington University Police Department.

Students in the building were evacuated immediately and there were no injuries.

Strom said that a police officer put the fire out with a fire extinguisher.

According to Paul Mercurio, assistant chief of the Clayton Fire Department, the fire was already extinguished when firefighters arrived but there was still “quite a bit of smoke there.”

“[The] floor smelled a little weird,” said freshman Melissa Turkel, a resident of the floor. “I went in my room, grabbed a few things, then went to Beaumont.” Turkel heard her residential advisers on the phone with WUPD as she was leaving.

The firefighters on the scene worked to clear the smoke from the second floor of the dormitory.

Another resident, freshman Annelies DeVos, was moving her laundry when the alarm went off.

“There were already police there when I went outside,” DeVos said.

Mercurio said that the microwave’s wooden stand also ignited from the heat of the microwave.

It is unclear what caused the microwave to catch fire.

“We did not find anything in the microwave,” Mercurio said. “Nothing was burned in the food compartment of the section. It didn’t look like anyone had neglected food that they were cooking.”

The damages to the building are not yet known.

According to students at the scene, at least three fire trucks responded to the fire; an unknown number of ambulances were on the scene. A Student Life staff member who approached the dormitory was stopped about 25 feet away from the building by a police officer because of the fire.

There had been fire drills throughout the dorms scheduled for sometime on Thursday, and the ventilation systems in the building had been cleaned on Wednesday.

Nanette Tarbouni, director of undergraduate admissions at the University, said that she does not expect the number of students applying to the University to fall. She anticipates that the number will stay relatively the same.

“It is too early to be able to predict what will happen with applications this year. We do expect the size of the freshman class to be in keeping with our usual range,” Tarbouni wrote in an e-mail to Student Life.

According to the U.S. News and World Report’s 2008-2009 Best Colleges rankings, a record number of 22,428 high school seniors applied to the University for the 2008-2009 school year. Just 3,887 applicants, or 17 percent, were accepted.

This school year, 1,338 first-time degree-seeking freshmen enrolled at the University.

According to the College Board, not only are record numbers of students graduating from high school, but more and more high school seniors are applying to college. Sixty percent of graduating seniors apply to college, according to College Board data provided to U.S. News and World Report this year.

The increasing competition and rising applicant pools have caused the acceptance rates of most four-year institutions to decline.

With U.S. wages flatlining and the cost of education rising, the ability to pay for higher education has become more difficult, prompting numerous high school graduates to turn to low-cost state schools and community colleges.

At the University, the average total cost for a Wash. U. education after receiving grants based on need is $26,590, a 48 percent average discount.

Despite these factors, none of the schools in U.S. News and World Report’s top 20 national universities, all of which are private, has seen a decrease in applications.

Gregg Walke, a guidance counselor for seniors at Stuyvesant High School in New York City, does not believe the number of students in the U.S., including seniors at Stuyvesant, who apply to Washington University will ever decline.

“With the continuing growth of the popularity of Washington University in St. Louis and the school’s steady position at the top of the rankings, the amount of students that are going to Washington University is most likely to rise,” he said.

Stuyvesant, one of the highest-ranked high schools in the nation, sends a large group of students to highly-ranked schools such as Wash. U. each year.

According to Walke, for the 763-member 2008 graduating class at Stuyvesant, nine students applied Early Decision to the University. Only two were accepted and another was wait-listed.

Of the Regular Decision applicants, 87 other seniors applied to the University. Of those 52 were wait-listed, 18 were accepted and seven were rejected.

Mo Shomrat, a current senior from Stuyvesant, initially thought about applying Early Decision to Wash. U. However, after witnessing the low acceptance rates of students from the previous year who applied Early Decision, he decided to apply Regular Decision.

Shomrat agreed with Walke that the number of students applying to the University will never fall—especially at Stuyvesant.

“Wash. U. more or less has become a dream school for many students here,” Shomrat said. “From the friends whom I’ve talked to, I’d expect the number of seniors applying to Wash. U. this year from Stuy to exceed a hundred.”

Proving the improbable, the University student body aligned with the American public to make history by electing Barack Obama as the 44^th and first African-American president of the United States on Tuesday.

Putting an end to the longest presidential campaign run in history—it started almost two years ago, Obama won a landslide victory, securing wins in key swing states such as Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

Missouri’s tally was still undecided as of press time, but was leaning toward the Republican nominee, Senator John McCain of Arizona.

Obama’s ability to energize young voters was solidified at the polls as 70 percent of voters who, according to the New York Times/CBS poll, said they were voting for the first time, cast their ballots for Obama.

In a considerable increase from 2004, the youth vote, according to CNN, made up 21 percent of the total voters this election cycle.

Reflecting the University’s largely liberal standing student body, data from an exit poll conducted by Student Life showed that 87.22 percent of the student body voted for Obama. Business students were slightly more likely to vote for McCain than the general student body population

“Wash. U. turnout was unbelievable. Close to 100 percent,” Sophie Cohen, president of Students for Barack Obama, said. “I’m very proud of Wash. U. Youth finally showed they do matter a lot. We do have a voice.”

Of the student voters who decided who they would vote for within the last three weeks, 80 percent voted for Obama.

Lining up with the national polls, which suggested that most Americans

placed the economy as their top concern this election, almost a third of University students said that the economy was the largest factor when deciding for whom to vote. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan ranked second at almost 15 percent.

Yesterday was a day for the Democrats to remember, as the party also swept the legislative elections, picking up seats in both houses of congress. For the first time since 1995, the Democrats control the House, the Senate and the White House.

Democrat Jay Nixon won the Missouri gubernatorial race by a wide margin as well.

The Washington University student body however, did clash with the greater St. Louis public on proposition M. The Student Life exit poll showed that an overwhelming 88.64 percent of students voted to approve proposition M, which would increase MetroLink funding, although the bill ultimately failed in the County.

Although the Democrats outnumber the Republicans on campus, the Republicans have also made their voices heard in their efforts to campaign for Senator John McCain.

Republican Monika Monson, a sophomore, said that although she is disappointed that McCain lost, she will stand behind Obama in his presidency.

“I’m going to be gracious in defeat,” Monson said. “I hope [Obama] follows through on all his promises and I wish him luck.”

Student Union Brittany Perez noted the political activism and discourse that reverberated through campus yesterday and called it characteristic of excitement that has flowed from the vice presidential debate here last month.

“On campus a lot of people were really energized. Even though [voting] was early, you could tell people really thought this was there responsibility. There wasn’t even a choice whet they were going to do [vote] or not,” Perez said.

Perez added that that sense of obligation caused students to do more than just vote, saying that they contributed both money and volunteering time to the campaigns.

“People have taken ownership of this election. You can tell from the people that stuck around here and the people that have been getting people out to vote in the last couple of days that they are really invested,” Perez said.

With additional reporting Johann Qua Hiansan.

Two prominent campus political groups, the College Democrats and College Republicans, both utilized the extensive media and interest group activity on campus by making sure that they involved as much of the student body in the day’s events as possible.

“I don’t think any one moment was a highlight. The day was a highlight for campus,” junior Ben Guthorn, president of College Democrats, said. “There was so much going on on campus. [The College Democrats’] main goal was to get people involved in the things already happening. We couldn’t provide anything more exciting than [MSNBC’s “Hardball with Chris Matthews”] shooting on campus.”

Charis Fischer, president of the College Republicans, was able to enter the media filing center—or Spin Alley—where national media and political personalities gathered during the debate.

Fischer said that that experience complemented the opportunities afforded to her group members, with news channels canvassing the campus with their cameras and microphones.

“For me personally, [the day’s highlight] was being inside the debate and Spin Alley,” Fischer said. “For the group, it was being in the national spotlight.”

Neither the College Democrats nor the College Republicans have any desire to rest on their laurels now that the debate has passed. According to Guthorn, the Democrats intend to continue their political efforts past Thursday and up through Election Day on Nov. 4, with an emphasis on activism this week.

“Our focus has always been leading up to Oct. 8, the voter registration deadline for every student on campus,” Guthorn said. “We have registered probably most all of the students on the South 40. We need to make a really strong push for the off-campus students and off-campus dorms.”

Past the registration deadline, the Democrats will focus on informing voters and coordinating with Illinois Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign base in Missouri, which Guthorn said is eager to work with Washington University students.

“We’re going to need to have a conversation with [Obama’s] campaign,” he said. “We’ll be canvassing and phone banking, speaking about the time leading up to Election Day. We’re going to use as many volunteers as we can take to help Wash. U. become knowledgeable about [Obama] and help persuade voters between now and Nov. 4.”

For the Republicans, the goal is similar. While Fischer recognizes the group’s smaller presence on campus, she said that the College Republicans’ activity on debate day helped show her what needs to be done between now and the election.

“I think it was clear that we were outnumbered [on Thursday], but it is energizing for the election because we know we have an uphill battle,” Fischer said. “It inspired us to keep plugging along and spread our message.”

In wanting to harness last week’s political energy, both groups will work with Student Union (SU) and will run programs on a campus whose normal level of activism is lower than it was leading up to the debate.

Both group leaders said that they want to see SU’s role limited to funding events, as they do not want the student political body expressing views on national issues.

“[SU] Treasury should be funding election events,” Fischer said. “Since it’s an election year they should focus on that. I think they’re doing a good job.”

Jeff Nelson, SU vice president of administration, agreed with the groups’ assessment of SU’s role and said that SU has been fulfilling its mission of supporting activities while remaining non-partisan.

“SU does not take positions on national political issues,” he said. “We do try to actively fund studs on campus that want to advocate for certain beliefs. We don’t fund these groups to campaign, but we do fund those groups to raise awareness of certain issues.”

Given the funding, Guthorn believes that the campus atmosphere will be more conducive to election activity than in past years due to the race’s importance.

“People realize that this is the deciding election for their lifetime,” he said. “Whoever wins the 2008 election, the policies decided in the next four years will grievously affect the remainder of their lives. I think students understand how monumental the 2008 presidential election is, more than 2000 and more than 2004.”

Although Fischer agrees that the campus is more active than usual, she added that there is still work to be done.

“I was surprised there weren’t more students around Chris Matthews,” Fischer said. “There are a lot of people who could be more informed than they are.”

Although the campus may be pulsating with political energy, both Guthorn and Fischer are skeptical of the possibility of substantial bipartisan programming in the future.

“I imagine if we win they won’t want to [program together], and if they win we won’t want to,” Fischer said. “We’re not going to rule it out, but due to the hostility of their group toward us, it doesn’t look likely.”

Reporting by Ben Sales and John Scott. Written by Ben Sales, David Song and Kat Zhao.