Yurbuds is a personally customized soft silicone attachment that slips over existing earbuds for a better fit and comfort. Yurbuds was founded by Wash. U. graduate Seth Burgett, who earned his executive MBA in Decemeber 2009. He came up with idea when his earbuds keep slipping out during training for a triathlon in 2007. (Courtesy of Yurbuds)

Students dissatisfied with their current uncomfortable earbuds no longer need to suffer. Washington University is beginning to market Yurbuds, earbuds personally customized for maximum comfort.

Seth Burgett, who earned his Executive MBA from Olin Business School at Washington University in December 2009, started Yurbuds in January 2008. Burgett came up with the idea in September 2007, when he was working out for a half ironman triathlon. After intense workouts, his ears would often hurt as a result of the earbuds he used during the workout. After learning that other friends were having similar problems, he decided to take advantage of this commonality.

“By shaping to the contour of the ear, earbuds rub pain points,” Burgett said. “We create six sizes and size you for the right one for your ear. I worked with designers to avoid those pain points, and we developed soft silicone that adapts your ear to your earbud.”

Users of Yurbuds can take a digital picture of their ears by either downloading an iPhone app called “Size Yur Ear” or uploading a picture to

yurbuds.com. This picture allows the consumer to buy the correct size.

According to Burgett, the response for Yurbuds has been strongly positive. The New York Times picked Yurbuds as one of the Top Four Picks at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show. The company has raised over $2 million in private investments and have started sales at 65 Best Buy stores on the East Coast and West Coast.

“We are getting global press and receiving consistently week over week requests to do interviews and radio shows,” Burgett said. “We will have radio, TV and print features coming out in the next few months, including MacWorld and Ink Magazine.”

Burgett has also received help from Washington University, which is working with Burgett on viral marketing campaigns driven through Web sites and advertising.

“We have a collaboration with the St. Louis affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure, where we plan to donate $10 for every Yurbud sold,” Burgett said. “Our goal is to donate $1 million.”

Jackson Nickerson, a professor in the business school, worked with Burgett to create the University’s affiliate program with Yurbuds. Through the affiliate program, anyone who purchases Yurbuds online can donate $5 to charity.

“Anyone can go to the Web site and become an affiliate,” Nickerson said. “You can register in terms of whether you want to receive a commission or donate the profits.”

Nickerson and Delta Sigma Pi, the co-ed business fraternity, are beginning to market the product not only to other universities but also to students here. According to sophomore Daniel Bernard, vice president of finance for Delta Sigma Pi, the fraternity and Nickerson have been in contact about the viral marketing campaign and efforts to sell it at Washington University and other universities.

“It’s something we can identify with,” Bernard said. “We want to interact with new products and new businesses, so this is a great opportunity for us to do that.”

Members of Delta Sigma Pi received Yurbuds to try out and sell to students at the University to raise interest and awareness of the product. Bernard acknowledged the importance of the “beta run” of their efforts to sell the product at the University.

“If we sell it at Wash. U., we can bring it to other chapters of Delta Sigma Pi across the country, where other chapters can realize the benefits of selling the product,” Bernard said.

Nickerson hopes that by spreading the word of the availability of Yurbuds, the campaign will eventually be able to sustain itself.

“We hope that people will choose to be affiliates and choose to sign up by themselves,” Nickerson said. “By contacting organizations at universities through viral marketing, we hope it can take off on its own.”

Bernard hopes that by selling the product at the University, members of Delta Sigma Pi can help spread word of mouth for Yurbuds.

“The primary market for DSP students is other students on campus, but there’s nothing stopping them from selling them to family or friends,” Bernard said.

Response for the Yurbuds has been highly positive. Yurbuds are sold around the country and at marathons every weekend. People tend to crowd around the Yurbud booth at marathons. In a recent marathon in Dayton, Ohio, the crowd looking to purchase Yurbuds was so big that it created a fire hazard.

As the April 6 election loomed, advocacy commercials for the region’s transit system debuted during the Winter Olympics. The first advertisement, which aired during the opening ceremony of the Olympics on Feb. 12, features testimonials from multiple St. Louis businessmen and personalities, including Chancellor Mark Wrighton. In the commercial, Wrighton cites how public transit such as MetroLink carries 25,000 of his students, faculty and staff.

Proposition M failed on Nov. 4, 2008, by a vote of 52 percent to 48 percent. If it had passed, St. Louis County would have raised the sales tax by half a cent, bringing in $80 million per year for Metro. According to the Greater St. Louis Transit Alliance, an advocacy group working to improve Metro service, Proposition M’s failure has led to “agency-wide layoffs, a transit fare increase on January 1, 2009, and massive service cuts on March 30, 2009.”

Proposition A also aims to increase sales tax by half a cent. This tax, according to the Transit Alliance, will cost the average family $50 per year. The Transit Alliance is basing its campaign on the slogan “Some of us ride it. All of us need it.”

“Great cities have great transit systems,” says the Transit Alliance’s Web site, www.moremetrolink.com. “MetroLink is one of the most successful light rail systems in the country with 70,000 riders per day on a typical weekday and reaches as many as 100,000 on days with special events. Without MetroLink, St. Louis would not be at the level it is today.”

According to the Transit Alliance, although annual ridership for the MetroLink rose from 15.4 million people to 19.7 million people from fiscal 2006 to fiscal 2008, the number dropped by 300,000 for fiscal 2009. Ridership for all forms of the Metro fell from 53.8 million in fiscal 2008 to 52.8 million in fiscal 2009.

There are also many opponents to Proposition A. In response to the new commercials, Citizens for Better Transit, a group which opposes the tax increases in Proposition A, wrote a new blog post on its Web site, stoptheprop.com.

“I’ve now heard radio commercials and seen television commercials for the Metro Tax increase we’re supposed to vote on in April, and can say with a straight face it’s not truthful…No matter how the vote goes, we will still have Metro,” the site reads.

Opponents from this group believe that the tax increases will be used for expansion of the Metro, not for sustaining the services the region already has, which they believe to be problematic.

“If the Vote Yes on Proposition A people won’t even bother to tell you the truth about why they want the money, how can we trust them to take care of the money when they get it,” the site reads. “The loss in Metro services that will occur when the stimulus funds runs out is still going to occur. This tax won’t fix it.”

Students have noticed the drop in MetroLink service after the failure of Proposition M in 2008.

“The trains close earlier and are much less efficient than they were before,” sophomore Aubrey Murray said. “[The failure of Proposition M] has been devastating.”

Murray, who is originally from St. Louis and uses MetroLink regularly, said that she will vote for Proposition A.

Some, including freshman Chris Bell, registered to vote in St. Louis County as a result of the University’s campaign for Proposition A.

“The Metro is adequate,” Bell said. “Nothing’s perfect, but to keep service at the current level, Proposition A has to pass. I would not like to see the service decrease at all.”

Non-St. Louis County voters share similar sentiments about Proposition A. Although sophomore Annie Pinnell is registered to vote in Kansas and has not used Metro this year, she nevertheless believes in the cause of Proposition A, and would vote for it if she were registered in Missouri.

“I think it’s a worthwhile tax increase, because a lot of people need to use the Metro,” Pinnell said.

In addition to the commercials, Wash. U. has sent out e-mails to students with instructions on how to register to vote and encouraging student volunteers to help with voter registration.

The deadline for St. Louis County registration is March 10. Even if students are already registered to vote in St. Louis County, their address must be the same as it was the last time they voted, so students must register even if they have only changed dormitories or moved to a different part of campus—otherwise, they may only vote provisionally.

A comparison of the current course listings in WebSTAC with Joshua Gross' creation at woocourses.com.

Junior Joshua Gross was dissatisfied with Washington University’s online course catalog and decided to create WashUCourses.com. The only problem was the University trademark on “Wash. U.” and other variations of the University’s name.

Gross changed the Web site’s URL to woocourses.com, after Patricia Hart, the associate general counsel of Washington University, sent a cease-and-desist letter on Feb. 18. The letter cited possible confusion that the “Wash. U.” designation might cause.

“Your use of the ‘Wash. U.’ trademark in this context causes confusion as to the sponsorship of your Web site’s services by implying to consumers (students) that the University is somehow affiliated with, or approves of your services,” Hart wrote in her letter to Gross. “Such consumer confusion regarding affiliation or approval constitutes trademark infringement and unfair competition under Missouri state law and federal law.”

A new Web site created by junior Joshua Gross for browsing course listings provides students with an alternative to WebSTAC with additional features and a new user interface. (Matt Lanter | Student Life)

Gross, a student in the art school, created the Web site at the beginning of the semester after past experiences with the University’s course catalog. He was displeased that the University’s course catalog did not allow him to search by basic graduation requirements for the art school.

“I have been using the course Web site for the past two years, and I’ve always been dissatisfied,” Gross said. “You have to fill out certain credits, but you can never search by these requirements, so I wanted to create a way that students can search by requirements that they need.”

Gross’ site allows students to search not only by basic requirements, but also by length of class, frequency, instructor, room, number of credits, course title and course description, and by whether the course has a subsection or whether the course needs prerequisites. Students can also comment on courses.

Gross has received positive feedback from students inside and outside the art school. Students, he said, have complimented him on expanding the information already available on the course catalog.

“I try to make the information as clearly presented as possible and add the ability to search by a wider variety [of criteria],” Gross said.

Sophomore Melissa Cochran is one student who views Gross’ site positively. “I like woocourses.com more than WebSTAC’s course listings because it is more helpful and user friendly,” Cochran said.

Cochran also complimented woocourses.com’s color coding and the ease of searching for classes.

According to Gross, he had received prior warnings about Wash. U. Courses “a solid seven days, possibly more” before he received the cease-and-desist letter. He had not spoken to Hart prior to receiving the letter. Gross did not believe that he was violating any trademark laws.

“From my own research of the law and of trademarks, they did not own a trademark on ‘Wash. U.’ in the context of Web sites and searchable databases, so I thought I was in the clear,” Gross said.

After receiving the letter, Gross decided to change the site’s name to “WooCourses,” because he wanted it to maintain a name that was identifiable to the University but did not infringe on any trademarks. Although he still believes that he did not infringe on any trademarks, he does not want to spend the time or money required to keep the site’s original name.

While Gross willingly changed the Web site’s name to “WooCourses,” he said he believed that the University could have handled the legal matter better than it did.

Gross plans to continue running the Web site independently of the University, but he noted that if the University is willing to have an open dialogue with him, he will think about collaborating with them to improve Wash. U.’s catalog.

“I said that I would be willing to talk to the school about getting official support, since other students have told me that they want more support from the Web site,” Gross said. “I thought the school and I could work together on this.”

Despite the legal disputes he has faced, Gross emphasized that his main goal for WooCourses has remained the same.

“I want people to find classes they want more quickly, instead of browsing through the course catalog for a few hours,” Gross said.

According to the NTHP’s Web site, the Dozen Distinctive Destinations are cities and towns that offer “an authentic visitor experience by combining dynamic downtowns, cultural diversity, attractive architecture, cultural landscapes and a strong commitment to historic preservation, sustainability and revitalization.”

The other Dozen Distinctive Destinations are: Bastrop, Texas; Cedar Falls, Iowa; Chestnut Hill, Penn.; The Crooked Road, Va.; Fort Collins, Colo.; Huntsville, Ala.; Marquette, Mich.; Provincetown, Mass.; Rockland, Maine; Simsbury, Conn. and Sitka, Alaska.

According to the NTHP, St. Louis’ location on the Mississippi River in the United States has led to the eclectic nature of St. Louis’ architecture. The city is exposed to influences from the South, as well as from the Eastern immigrants as a result of 19th century western expansion.

Throughout the late 18th century, St. Louis served as a prosperous French trading outpost on the Mississippi River. Its location upstream from New Orleans led to an influx of French settlers. Many of these settlers remained in the area after the United States acquired St. Louis, while a new group of immigrants came from the East as a result of early Western expansion. This mixture of cultures has led to the diversity that led to the NTHP’s decision to name St. Louis as one of its Dozen Distinctive Destinations.

As examples of St. Louis’ distinctive architecture, the NTHP cites the “red brick buildings, cobblestone streets and terra cotta friezes designed by some of America’s most notable architects,” the Wainwright Building (sometimes considered America’s first skyscraper), and the only building designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in the region.

Specific sites that the NTHP recommended for a visit to St. Louis include An American Place, a restaurant in the former lobby of the Slater Hotel downtown; Soulard Farmers Market, which, having existed since 1779, is the oldest farmer’s market west of the Mississippi; the Old Courthouse; the Missouri Botanical Gardens; and the Chase Park Plaza, a luxury hotel in the Central West End.

For art enthusiasts, the NTHP also recommends visits to the Byzantine and Romanesque Cathedral Basilica, home of the “world’s largest collection of interior mosaics,” and Union Station, where one can discover the “exquisite details of Theodore Link’s stained glass windows.”

Students agreed with the NTHP’s comments on St. Louis’ cultural diversity. “I really like that there are distinct landmarks within each neighborhood,” sophomore Amelia Hetherington said. “There is such a variety of things to do in St. Louis, such as concerts, shows and festivals. St. Louis seems to have a very diverse culture.”

Sophomore Ryan Newberger said, “I think it’s kind of run-down, but they’re still working on bringing it back. There’s still a lot to offer downtown.”

Voting for the 2010 Fan Favorite has been going on since Feb. 3 and will end on Feb. 28. This year’s election is the first time that readers have helped determine the favorite distinctive destinations.

(Matt Lanter | Student Life)

In an effort to improve safety off campus and alleviate students’ fears about walking home at night, Washington University instituted a one-way shuttle service for students and staff who want a safe ride home.

“Over the years we’ve had occasional requests from students for a late-night shuttle home, but we’ve never done it,” Associate Vice Chancellor for Operations Steve Hoffner said. “This year we decided it was time to reconsider the idea and look at all our off-campus services.”

The service, Campus2Home, made its first run on Monday. According to Chief of Police Don Strom, 30 students took advantage of the service on the first night. Huntleigh Shuttleport, which also runs the campus circulation, provides

Campus2Home. Several 10-passenger vans leave Mallinckrodt every 30 minutes from 7 p.m. to 2:30 a.m., seven nights a week. The buses also stop in front of Brookings steps and are available to students, faculty and staff.

People who use the vans give the driver the address to their home, where the driver drops them off and does not leave until the passenger is safely inside. There are no plans to institute a shuttle service from home to campus. If operated year-round, seven nights a week, the service would cost $230,000, but Hoffner does not anticipate that the program will run during the summer months.

“We are doing long-range planning for off-campus areas that we own, and now looked like a time when we should look at not only this but the quality of off-campus housing, and come up with a more comprehensive approach as to what we are doing,” Hoffner said.

Campus2Home is just one program that the University is providing for off-campus housing.

According to Hoffner, the off-campus safety forum on Jan. 27 led to some of the current ideas planned for the long-term development of the off-campus community. The University is already in the process making improvements to the Quadrangle apartments, which include fixing doors, increasing lighting, replacing windows and putting in a more-resilient window screen. Officials are also working on improving the street lighting in areas around the apartments and adding more blue light phones.

Campus2Home is currently an experiment, according to Hoffner, but it could develop if it proves to be successful.

“We will watch it carefully and see how many students use it,” Hoffner said. “We will listen to feedback from students who use the service, and we will re-evaluate if we want to continue it at the end of the semester.”

Strom said that while the University had been planning the implementation of these off-campus improvements before the December assault of a graduate student, the incident added motivation for the University to improve the safety of off-campus apartments and houses.

“Whenever you have an incident such as the one in December, there is a natural reflection process that you engage in and should engage in to review the processes and the programs that are in place and decide whether they continue to best serve the community,” Strom said. “We did some internal review and engaged in outreach meetings with students and staff so that there are ideas on the table for consideration.”

“After the internal reviews were completed, the University decided that this was the best time to implement [the shuttle service],” Strom said.

According to Strom, WUPD has been taking extra precautions to promote off-campus security. A brochure is available with information and advice about living off campus, and WUPD has posted a video to its Web site.

“We continue to try to educate students about campus crime in their neighborhoods and how they can protect themselves,” Strom said. “People need to follow guidelines for off-campus safety to happen.”

Strom believes that the program has potential to increase in ridership throughout the semester.

“The momentum has never been that strong for a shuttle service, but at this moment, the momentum is there for the service,” Strom said.

According to Gary Weil, medical school professor and the principal investigator for the project, lymphatic filariasis is present in 81 countries around the world. It is most common in Africa and Pacific Island nations.

The infection develops in the blood of infected insects, such as mosquitoes and flies, which then transmit lymphatic filariasis or river blindness to humans. Of the 1.3 billion people living in these areas, 120 million are infected.

River blindness occurs through black fly bites when the infection reaches the eyes, blinding the infected party. The life cycle of the parasites must go through the flies before infecting the human.

“We have a treatment that is a one-day treatment that reduces the symptoms but does not cure them,” Weil said.

Although some treatments already exist, Weil stressed the need for stronger cures. The drugs currently available can clear the parasites from the blood and skin, but cannot kill the adult parasites.

The laboratory at Wash. U. has developed a test to detect the infection and reagents for the test, according to Weil. This test has been used to map the locations where the infection exists.

According to Weil, the treatments available are able to cure river blindness. Lymphatic filariasis, however, still remains a problem that the project hopes to cure.

“The Gates Foundation has a big program in global health,” Weil said. “In the past few years, they have gotten more interested in the group in global health beyond tuberculosis, HIV and malaria. They have begun to look at some of the other diseases that are out there.”

All of the mentioned diseases can be controlled with medicine.

“These are diseases where we can make an impact with our existing knowledge,” Weil said. “Right now, we do not have a simple cure for tuberculosis or HIV. The United States government and the Gates Foundation decided to focus more on these neglected tropical diseases, where we can do some real good short term while we wait for people to make the breakthrough discoveries that we need to treat these more fatal diseases,”

Other universities which received the grant include Case Western Reserve University, Michigan State University and McGill University.

According to Weil and the University’s news release, there are three main objectives over the five-year period of the contract.

The first objective, planned through Wash. U., will investigate the possibility of biannual treatments of the infection, instead of the current annual treatments. The project will attempt to figure out whether such treatment will be cost-effective in the long run.

The second objective will, according to the news release, “conduct two clinical trials of different treatments for lymphatic filariasis and one trial of new treatments for [river blindness].” This research will be managed at Case Western Reserve.

“This objective will take existing drugs and give them in different doses and combinations to see if they’re more effective than the current treatments,” Weil said in the news release.

The final objective, to be managed at Michigan State University, will involve trying to use flubendazole, which had been originally developed in the 1970s as a way to curb infections against filarial worm. Unfortunately, this treatment has caused harsh reactions in patients, so the investigators for the project hope to be able possibly to use this drug in treatments.

The project will be an international effort—while much of the planning will take place in North America, the actual execution of the plans and experiments will be done internationally in infected areas. The main goal for the project is to find a cure by 2020.

“We are a sex-ed group that is kink friendly,” said senior Kourtney Imburgia, the group’s president. “We focus on alternative sexualities in our meeting and discussions.”

According to Imburgia, some of these alternative sexual practices include polyamory, which is the practice of consensually having multiple relationships, bondage, spanking and BDSM (bondage & discipline, dominance & submission, and sadism & masochism), which covers most of the group’s interests. ALA also caters to people who have more extreme interests but want to make sure that they are being safe. The group is LGBT friendly, but not LGBT focused, according to Imburgia.

ALA holds weekly meetings every Sunday. The topics covered at the meetings vary based on each semester.

“We are a resource for these people to ask questions to,” Imburgia said. “We are the only organization like this in St. Louis that has weekly meetings for people under 21.”

According to the treasurer, Wash. U. is one of few schools in the country to have such a group funded by the University or, in this case, Student Union. While other universities might have smaller chapters, they are not registered and therefore do not receive such funding.

ALA usually holds two main events throughout the year, one each semester. In the fall semester, ALA hosts a “kink fair,” which, according to Imburgia, is like “a big carnival with games, prizes, places where you can ask questions and vendors that teach you how to do stuff and sell their products.” The other event is Sex Week, the week before Valentine’s Day.

ALA held a wide range of events during Sex Week. ALA and College Democrats sponsored the gay-marriage debate on Monday in the Danforth University Center, featuring history professor Andrea Friedman, Alexis Matza of the University of Iowa, and award-winning sex educator Tristan Taormino, and later held a workshop on sexual pleasure for women. The group held a discussion about “sexploration” on college campuses on Tuesday, as well as “Sex in the DUC,” a question-and-answer session in the Fun Room, during which people could ask questions about sex that they might not be comfortable asking about in other contexts. On Thursday, ALA held a discussion titled “Anal Pleasure 101.” Taormino participated in the “Sexploration,” “Sex in the DUC” and “Anal Pleasure 101.”

The main student reactions to the group have been positive and curious. One new member came to the first meeting of fall semester after the activities fair, having joined the group’s mailing list after asking a member of the Office of Student Activities about the “weirdest” club at the fair. Imburgia mentioned one girl visiting the booth and thanking the them for the group’s existence and ability to provide a forum for people to discuss matters that they would be uncomfortable discussing with their friends.

This semester, ALA plans to host events about abusive relationships, the difference between BDSM and domestic violence, BDSM and the law, and other topics. According to Imburgia, meetings tend to alternate between discussions and having a speaker talk about various alternative lifestyles. ALA recently limited the meetings only to Wash. U. students.

ALA’s mailing list has about 60 people, including people off campus who can only come to larger events. Of these 60 people, about 15-20 come to meetings on a regular basis. The group is evenly split by gender.

According to Imburgia, ALA is planning a third major event later in the semester, which will be a first for the group. The group does not yet know what the event will consist of.

Private colleges averaged a 4.3 percent increase, the smallest in 35 years, for the 2009-2010 academic year, whereas Wash. U.’s tuition increased by 4.4 percent.

According to Barbara Feiner, chief financial officer and vice chancellor for finance, the University usually announces its tuition increase before peer institutions, so no comparisons can yet be made.

“We usually compare our tuition with the rates of the top private research universities with which we have the most overlapping applications,” Feiner wrote in an e-mail to Student Life. “Among this group of 26 schools, our tuition for the current school year is right in the middle. I review this information with students annually at the Student Union Tuition Forum held every fall.”

Although increases in tuition can decrease the affordability of attending the University, Feiner noted that at times of tuition increases, the University increases financial aid for undergraduates.

“Student Financial Services takes the increase in tuition into consideration in the awarding of financial aid so the result of the tuition increase will be an increase in financial aid,” Feiner wrote. “Over the past two years the University has increased financial aid for undergraduate students by about 22 percent, which is far in excess of the tuition increases over that time.”

According to Feiner, financial aid was taken into substantial consideration of the tuition increase.

“Much of the increase in financial aid is a result of eliminating loans in financial aid packages for students whose family income is less than $60,000 as well as meeting the needs of families who have experienced reversals in their financial circumstances,” Feiner wrote.

Feiner cited increasing operating costs as the reason behind the tuition increase, saying that the economic downturn in recent years has affected budgeting more than the actual percentage increase of tuition. While the central administrative areas have focused on budgeting, the tuition has been increased to cover other costs.

“There are some expenses that continue to grow, such as the costs of updating classrooms and laboratories, health care costs for employees and the financial aid mentioned above,” Feiner wrote. “Other sources of income include the spending from the endowment and gifts, both of which are affected by the economic downturn, so there is even more reliance on tuition.”

While some students are worried about the tuition increase, they acknowledge the administration’s rationale for increasing the tuition and stressed the importance of strong financial aid as a way to keep people coming to Wash. U.

“I think it’s reasonable that they increased the tuition based on everything that’s going on economically,” senior Tedward Erker said. “If they didn’t increase financial aid with the tuition, it would be an issue.”

Sophomore Brendan Cook shared similar thoughts about the tuition increase.

“The tuition definitely is a lot higher than I would like it to be,” Cook said. “I don’t think the increase was too bad; it increased over an already high amount in this kind of economy when students are struggling to come up with that type of money.”

Cook, like Erker, also stressed the importance of increasing financial aid.

“As long as the increase in the amount of financial aid the University is willing to give out is at least proportional to the increase in the tuition, then it’s a justified increase,” Cook said. “If they increase it without providing aid at the same time, it will have negative effects and more people would be deterred from coming to Wash. U.”

Despite some concerns with high tuition costs, Feiner stressed the importance of maintaining the high standard of education the University stands by.

“Tuition is the largest source of revenue to support the budgets of the schools on the Danforth Campus,” Feiner wrote. “For the schools with undergraduate programs, tuition is almost two-thirds of the operating revenue.”

“The University has a very unusual cost structure,” business school economics professor Glenn MacDonald said. “Most money goes to faculty and facilities, neither of which is very easy to adjust. When we get a drop in the endowment, that draw drops proportionally.”

MacDonald showed surprise that the University is freezing salary raises, because in the past, the administration has generally not let the stock market affect professors’ salaries. When the economy and the endowment were doing well, he said, the faculty did not receive the benefits of the economic upturn.

“If we were a beer company, feeling the upside and downside of the economy would be normal, but in an academic setting, it’s not,” MacDonald said. “Faculty are paid largely in benefits­—we have a lot of flexibility [and] good job security, and we get raises, so when the University takes away one of those things, we get angry.”

While workers in regular businesses take pay cuts when the economy is down but gain benefits or higher raises when the economy is up, professors do not receive the big gains when the economy is doing well. The tradeoff for not receiving such benefits when the economy is doing well is not being hit as hard when the economy is doing poorly. MacDonald, as well as other professors, did not expect to have their raises frozen as a result of the bad economy, because they did not receive the benefits when the economy was doing better earlier in the decade.

“It’s a very unusual thing to do,” MacDonald said. “It happens more in state schools, where the school is more dependent on the state economy.”

Professors hold the opinion that the University should restructure its budget in response to the current economic situation.

“I think this would be a good time for the University to cut down on unnecessary and luxury expenses and restructure its budget,” said Michele Boldrin, chair of the economics department.

Boldrin noted the importance of prioritizing what the endowment should pay for and what other revenue should cover.

“It is important for the University to learn that the endowment should be used for investment and extraordinary expenses,” Boldrin said. “It is more like a buffer that you want to use to undertake risky investments and cover dramatic situations like this one.”

MacDonald noted the difficulty in reducing budget expenditures.

“In the short run, the University would like to save some money, but it just makes people angry,” MacDonald said. “They’ll end up having to give raises in the future to keep the faculty.”

Boldrin encouraged making the budget debate public. Because faculty salaries are such a delicate issue, he believes that it would be helpful to focus the debate on where the University is making cuts.

“The University is a heterogeneous community with different interests and values that have to be made compatible,” Boldrin said. “Where to spend the money is often the most difficult thing because things that I may consider important, others may consider irrelevant.”

Despite the freezing of faculty raises, the University has done better economically than other universities, in part because of its status as a private university and because of generous donations.

“Public universities have suffered more because they rely heavily on state tax revenues, which have dropped dramatically over past years,” Boldrin said. “We have had some suffering, but I would say that we have not done that badly.”

Although the University has done better than other universities, and despite the recent increase in the endowment, Boldrin does not expect a rapid improvement in the University’s financial situation.

“Improvement is going to be slow,” Boldrin said. “The University will have to plan strategically for an environment with less wealth and will need to be more efficient in use of resources. We will not quickly go back to the abundant cash flow we had three years ago.”

Students in Lambda Sigma make root beer floats for members of the University community on Thursday in the Danforth University Center’s Tisch Commons. The event was held as a part of Random Acts of Kindness Week. (Matt Mitgang | Student Life)

Sophomore honorary Lambda Sigma held its annual Random Acts of Kindness Week, offering free bagels and hot chocolate, as well as compliments and hugs. Members of the group planned the events in an attempt to encourage other acts of kindness around campus.

“I came up with this idea a few years ago, because to me it’s important to do little kindnesses for everybody everyday if we can,” said Lambda Sigma faculty adviser Darla Dale, assistant dean in the College of Arts & Sciences.

According to Dale, this year’s members of Lambda Sigma planned to be more visible than prior years’. The theme for the week was based on Andy Warhol’s quote, “I think everybody should like everybody.” Events included painting the sphere at the underpass with Warhol’s message and Residential College Appreciation Day on Monday. Members handed out free bagels and orange juice at the Underpass and gave free hugs and compliments at the Bunny on Tuesday. Wednesday was Dean Appreciation Day, and members gave out free root beer in the DUC on Thursday.

“The group started doing [the week] on a small scale, but this year’s group has really taken the idea to a new level,” Dale said.

“We planned for this to be more visible than last year,” said co-president Spencer Goodman, a sophomore.

Dale came up with the idea for Random Acts of Kindness Week after finding a Web site dedicated to random acts of kindness. The week has become an annual tradition since then.

According to Dale and Lambda Sigma co-presidents Goodman and Sasha Yan, the main goal for the week is not only to improve the general morale and mood around campus with individual acts of kindness, but also to encourage students to perform small acts of kindness for each other, which Goodman cited as a reason for painting the sphere.

“[Painting the sphere] wasn’t really to advertise Random Acts of Kindness Week, but to get out the random acts of kindness message and reinforce that this is Random Acts of Kindness Week, and it’s not just for us to do stuff for everyone else, but for everyone to take it upon themselves to be nice to other people too,” Goodman said.

Timing also helped influence some of the feedback and activities for the week, due to the highly stressful weeks between Thanksgiving break and winter break.

“The jokes and compliments are just to get people in a better mood, since people are stressed about finals, if people are in a good mood ready to spread the love,” Goodman said.

The week began with Resident Appreciation Day, in which Lambda Sigma members placed colorful gift boxes and balloons in the lobbies of Residential Life buildings urging people to have a great day.

“It’s Monday after Thanksgiving and not everyone’s really happy to be back, so it’s a good way to kick off the week and get people in a better mood,” Yan said.

Goodman and Yan noticed positive feedback when they staffed the breakfast booth at the Underpass on Tuesday.

Dale also emphasized the importance of the message of the week—that anyone can make a small but positive difference around campus by doing something as minor as holding a door or giving out a compliment.

“The idea is to raise awareness about how something very small can impact someone,” Dale said. “Sometimes when you’re having a bad day but someone takes a minute either to open the door or say, ‘Thanks,’ or, ‘You look great’—whatever it is, it can be the smallest thing to make your day, which you can pass on to other people.”