Alex Kiles, current Junior class president, is abroad and could not get the required signatures to run for Senior class president, so he started a write-in campaign. (Rachel Metter | Student Life)

The senior class has spoken. The 2011 Senior Class Council will consist of Alex Kiles as president, Megan De Villiers as internal vice president, Stephan Bailey as external vice president, Jordan Aibel as treasurer and Christina Mosher as secretary.

De Villiers, Bailey, Aibel and Mosher all ran on the CROSSROADS slate, but there were no candidates for the office of the president.

Just a few hours before the election began, Alex Kiles, who is studying abroad in Madrid, Spain, managed to rally his friends on campus to campaign for his victory at president.

Tyler Bertroche also ran for President as a write-in candidate. Ultimately, Kiles managed to garner 73.8 percent of the vote (or 355 votes), beating Bertroche’s 24.1 percent (116 votes).

Members of the CROSSROADS slate said they are really looking forward to working with Kiles, but they stayed neutral during the election as they believed both candidates were qualified for the position. Prior to Bertroche’s announcement that he was running for President, CROSSROADS had already collected signatures for Kiles.

Kiles, who has served on class councils since his freshman year, said he was going to run on a different slate that ended up falling through.

“We missed the deadline, and then I decided to run,” he said. “I was able to get friends back at school to work with me, and that was really great. We met for the first time last week, and we’ve got some great events planned for senior week already.” Kiles has been communicating with the rest of the council through Skype.

The remaining members of the CROSSROADS slate are excited to work with Kiles.

“I personally am excited to work with Alex because I have seen his ability to both get people motivated and get projects done during our leading Wash. U. Pre-Orientation freshman year, as well as LeaderShape,” De Villiers said. “I am confident that Alex’s leadership will be integral to our success next year.”

Kiles is looking forward to next year.

“I want this year to but incredible, but incredible is an understatement. I want it to be mind-blowing,” he said. “I want it to be like when you look back at your senior year, you remember it. I want it to be the highlight of everyone’s life.”

U/FUSED will be a coalition that has organizations at different undergraduate schools. Any school looking to increase socioeconomic diversity on its campus can easily contact other schools and see what they have been doing to further the issue on their own campus. U/FUSED will have a Web site where all of this information is available and, most importantly, will spread information about effective strategies and ideas for increasing socioeconomic diversity.

The two main goals of U/FUSED are knowledge-sharing and forming a “critical mass” with regard to the issue of socioeconomic diversity to bring greater national attention to the issue, according to senior Chase Sackett, who initially co-founded the group with Fernando Cutz as Wash. U. for Undergraduate Socio-Economic Diversity (WU/FUSED). The group was founded a year ago and has made several steps toward increasing socioeconomic diversity. The group has met with the admissions office to increase the number of admissions officers so that the officers would be able to visit a greater variety of schools.

“Obviously we have limited resources in admissions, so what tends to happen is they go to schools with higher yield, and those schools tend to be of higher socioeconomic diversity,” Cutz said. “Adding a few people [will enable them] to visit less-high-yield schools.”

The group has also pushed for more loan workshops, raising awareness about what loans are available to students and making the process more comprehensive.

Both of these are processes that groups who are a part of U/FUSED can imitate at their own schools.

In addition to making these adjustments, WU/FUSED has been working with University faculty and staff to raise awareness about the issue. The reason for this is twofold: It helps make professors conscious of the cost of books and encourages them to consider putting the chapters on ARES, for example, and it puts pressure on the administration. Because of the wide variety of people who have become involved in increasing socioeconomic diversity on campus, the administration has a lot of people looking at its activities. Cutz and Sackett hope that this will lead to their ultimate goal: need-blind admissions.

WU/FUSED would also be sharing its survey and strategies. WU/FUSED took and published a survey in December asking students about their socioeconomic status. This information would be published on the U/FUSED site as well, and provide people with the hard-to-find information about students’ family income.

As a part of the campaign to raise awareness, WU/FUSED also distributed surveys on freshman floors so that each student could see how the people they lived with tended to skew towards the wealthy. This really brings the message home, Cutz said.

U/FUSED has already been approved by Duke University’s student government and is expected to be approved by Saint Louis University within next week. These three schools will be the founders of the coalition.

The resolution that passed on Wednesday will help to validate U/FUSED’s needs, Sackett said.

“We’re at this point where U/FUSED is ready to get founded but that can’t happen unless student government expresses its support,” Sackett said.

WU/FUSED is expected to dissolve into the Diversity Affairs Council, which will be a part of U/FUSED.

Students from the University of Missouri - St. Louis stand near as Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon announces a new agreement with Missouri’s public, four-year colleges and universities to freeze tuition for in-state, undergraduate students for the 2010-2011 school year. Governor Jay Nixon is pushing to exclude private school students from both the Access Missouri and Bright flight scholarship programs. (Courtesy Of Governor Nixon’s Office)

In order to settle the current battle regarding the distribution of scholarship money in the Access Missouri program, officials from 10 universities have gathered to try to reach a consensus on the issue.

“The public universities decided that the current distribution of scholarship money is unfair to their students involved in the program,” said Rose Windmiller, director of state relations and local government affairs and Washington University’s representative in the 10-person group.

Currently, the scholarship awards a maximum of $1,000 and a minimum of $300 to students enrolled in two-year Missouri public schools. It is giving a maximum of $2,150 and a minimum of $1,000 to students at four-year Missouri public schools and Linn State Technical College. Additionally, students enrolling at Missouri private schools can obtain a maximum of $4,600 and a minimum of $2,000.

“There is a formula approved by approximately 20 financial aid officials from different schools to calculate the amount given to students at different types of schools,” Windmiller said. “All the participating schools are subdivided into the three categories, and the average cost for each type of school is determined and applied to the formula. The scholarship money comes down to covering roughly 20 to 25 percent of the average tuition for each type of school. The formula made sure that the percentage covered is uniform despite the discrepancy in the cost of each type of school.”

According to Windmiller, there are two bills currently being reviewed in the Missouri Senate and House of Representatives that would equalize the scholarship money to $2,850 for all schools participating in the program. In addition, Gov. Jay Nixon is pushing to exclude private school students from both the Access Missouri and Bright Flight programs.

There are currently 159 students from Washington University in the program. In addition, 403 students are part of the Bright Flight program, a merit-based award given to Missouri high school graduates attending a Missouri university.

“I am part of the Bright Flight program and I do not agree with Governor Nixon’s proposal,” sophomore Helen Clawitter said. “I understand where he is coming from with the current economic crisis and tight budget, but I feel that it is unfair for the governor to direct students to go to a certain type of school, and it is unfair for students who prefer to go to private schools versus public ones.”

Wash. U. is opposed to the governor’s plans.

“Washington University’s position on Governor Nixon’s proposal is the same with all the other participating private schools in Missouri in that we oppose this proposal and hope that the scholarship money distribution will stay the same at their current numbers,” Windmiller said.

In a statement regarding Nixon’s proposal, the University said: “State student aid programs, whether need- or merit-based, are designed to encourage Missouri students to attend a Missouri institution. Over 15,000 Missouri students who are eligible for the Bright Flight or Access Program have chosen to attend an independent institution.  Governor Nixon’s proposal would force these students to attend a public institution—if a seat is available, or leave the state of Missouri for an education, or perhaps forgo the dream of going to college altogether. Many of Missouri’s public institutions are already at capacity, and it is doubtful that the state’s public colleges and universities could absorb all 15,000 students currently attending a Missouri independent college.”

Access Missouri is a need-based scholarship awarded to Missouri residents who are pursuing an undergraduate degree at a participating Missouri school. In particular, recipients cannot pursue a degree or certificate in theology or divinity. The scholarship requires recipients to maintain at least a 2.5 grade-point average to renew the reward each subsequent year until graduation.

After months without tomatoes from Dining Services, tomatoes will be sold again by the end of next week.

During the winter growing season, the only source of available tomatoes was in Florida, where many companies were not paying their tomato pickers sufficient salaries in the view of Dining Services. Therefore, Dining Services stopped purchasing tomatoes from these farms.

Now, with the change of season, tomatoes are available from California and Mexico. According to Siddiqui, Dining Services has found tomato farms in these areas that pay their tomato pickers sufficient wages and follow standards deemed appropriate.

Siddiqui was hoping that Dining Services would be able to bring tomatoes back to campus sooner, after negotiating with the companies; but he is still glad they are coming back now.

Siddiqui expects students to be very excited to be able to purchase tomatoes again. “I hope nobody has a tomato fight,” Siddiqui said.

In the past month, he said he has received more e-mails asking questions about tomatoes than any other topic since he has been at Wash. U.

Siddiqui commended students on the stand they have taken, which has made a difference not only at the University, but also nationwide.

“It’s bigger than a sandwich,” Siddiqui said. “It was a stand that this community and University took in believing in taking care of social issues, which I think is extremely important, and I think Wash. U. has influenced the national market to help promote sensible and responsible farming.”

Other universities have looked into the standards of their tomato suppliers as well, since Dining Services made this decision to stop purchasing tomatoes.

In addition, several farms have evaluated their standards for the future, according to Siddiqui. Therefore, he is hopeful that this will not be an issue again.

While missing tomatoes from their daily diets, many students still were glad that Dining Services had not been purchasing tomatoes from the farms in Florida.

“I like tomatoes, and I’m glad to hear that they found a way to supply them to the student body without being a party to human rights violations,” senior Elena Losey said.

Another student, freshman Sarah Garay, did not even miss her tomatoes because she said she understood the reasons that the University did not have them.

“Don’t get me wrong, I like tomatoes, but it just wasn’t a priority and I understand the context [of why we didn’t have them],” Garay said.

Other students mentioned that they were relieved that there is now a better selection of vegetables on campus so students have more healthy eating options to choose from.

“We should have a whole supply of vegetables,” junior Roshni Shah said. “I’m a tomato lover.”

Further, students and others on campus have been able to purchase food items with tomatoes from Subway or Aramark throughout this period of time, as those companies are not under Dining Services’ umbrella.

“If people really wanted [tomatoes], then people were going [to Subway] for them,” Garay said.

(Matt Mittgang | Student Life)

(Matt Mittgang | Student Life)

With his hands resting on his legs while sitting onstage in a high-set chair, Matisyahu commanded his quietly captivated listeners Thursday with the performance of three serenely delivered acoustic songs in a blend of words, hums, beatboxing and other sounds.

At times his legs were slightly crossed, rocking to the rhythm; his hands may have moved to grasp the edge of his seat. But one thing remained constant: He kept his eyes closed throughout the performance.

He was accompanied on guitar by Adam Weinberg, the Washington University graduate who first introduced the campus to the Jewish artist more than six years ago.

The first song he performed on Thursday does not appear on any album and is inspired by the Jewish day of observance called Tisha B’Av, commemorating the fall of the First and Second Temples of Jerusalem.

That the song’s religious context likely escaped most of the listeners who filled Graham Chapel did not prevent them from appreciating Matisyahu’s music.

“Matisyahu is an artist I respect for his integration of his personal values and talent in the mainstream industry,” sophomore Anthonia Ojo said. “His songs have great lyrics, and even though they come from his religion, they can be applied to everybody.”

Ojo’s comment points to a universal quality that many have come to attach to Matisyahu’s music.

“Some of the music is clearly based on biblical or Hasidic liturgy or values, but he has the unique ability to translate that into substantive messages that resonate with a large population of areligious people,” said Hershey Novack, rabbi for Chabad on Campus. “Even as a cultural interpreter, he is unique and successful.”

Assaf Shelleg, a visiting Israeli scholar in the Jewish, Islamic and Near Eastern Studies program, also finds Matisyahu’s image unique. Shelleg provided the program’s introduction.

“Seeing him creates some sort of cognitive dissonance, because you don’t expect such an image performing this type of music,” he said.

According to Shelleg, Matisyahu is well received among religious communities in Israel—especially younger generations.

“It gives them the legitimacy of listening to something very modern and is not limited by something that they know is Jewish from the music their parents heard,” he said. “It breaches something in Judaism and kosherizes the fact that we can listen to Jamaican music or hip-hop music with kosher texts.”

Though Matisyahu is an artist with widespread international appeal, students in the audience still found him personable and took the opportunity to ask him questions during the question-and-answer part of the program.

When asked if he has ever struggled with his beliefs, Matisyahu replied, “I struggle with believing in God, because God, honestly, is invisible. It’s kind of like having a relationship with an invisible friend.”

One student also asked about his past experiences with using acid, amid much laughter from the rest of the audience. Matisyahu seemed to share their humor and told stories of his high school days and experimentation with psychedelic drugs.

“The first time I did mushrooms with my friends was 16,” he said. “I remember one experience when we were lying on this field and looking up at the sky, and I remember all of a sudden everything feeling really clear, lucid. I think it depends on the person. For me, it changed a lot of things.”

But he also pointed out the less-pleasant experiences that can come with drug experimentation, to which the student responded with a “yeah.”

“You know, obviously,” Matisyahu joked.

The atmosphere ranged from the more serious to the jovial, which surprised some students like Ojo.

“I did not expect him to have such a great sense of humor and great stories,” she said. “During his question and answer session, he was very open and honest, which I really respected and loved.”

Sophomore Josh Yudkin echoed Ojo’s impression of Matisyahu’s honesty.

“I thought it was really good,” he said. “I found it to be a very candid but…provoking performance and talk,” he said.

For Novack, Matisyahu is an example of an individual who is able to bridge religious and cultural barriers and bring people together.

“Some of his songs resonate deeply with me,” Novack said. “I think his music is incredibly potent and has a very positive effect on many, many people. That is something that can never be taken away from him.”

Check out video of his appearance here.

(Matt Mitgang | Student Life)

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.

Any full-time current Washington University student is eligible to enter the competition. The deadline is Wednesday, March 31, 2010. The event is composed of two contests: one for undergraduate students and one for graduate students.

Entrants must complete an entry form, a two- to four-page essay about their collection, a bibliography listing the books in their collection, and a sampling of three to five books from their collection, and deliver them to the Department of Special Collections on the main level of Olin Library by 5 p.m. on March 31.

The winners of the competition will be notified at the end of April and invited to attend a lunch with the judges and Shirley Baker, dean of University Libraries. Portions of the winning collections will be displayed in Olin Library for a brief period and the winning essays will be posted on the Library’s Web site.

The panel of judges varies each year and consists of volunteers drawn from faculty members of the University, graduate level winners from the previous years or other figures from the St. Louis community.

According to library staff, the essays will be judged based on the theme and scope of the collection, approach to collecting, personal value to the collector and quality of the writing; rarity, monetary value and size of the collection will not be taken into consideration.

“We want to see book collections that are original and intelligent,” said Aaron Welborn, managing editor of Washington University Libraries. “We are concerned about how valuable and meaningful is the collection to the person. The essay should show that the person has real knowledge of the subjects and appreciates the items of the collection.”

The subject and theme the book collectors have to choose from is not restricted. Former winners have shown off collections on military history, science fiction, 19th-century French opera, and Catalan drama.

Welborn noted that a significant difference exists between those who collect books and those who read casually.

“Book collecting is choosing a topic or a theme and thoughtfully gathering books on that subject,” he said. “It is quite different from having an overflowing bookshelf. We are looking for people who can demonstrate thoughtful messages from the books they have collected over time with a purpose.”

Welborn also mentioned that a book collection on a very specific topic, reflecting academic or personal interest, is usually more appealing and has a greater chance of winning.

For example, last year’s winner Christina Pulles wrote on her collection of “Harry Potter” books in many different languages. The essay on the collection not only expressed her delight in reading the literature, but also a strong interest in learning foreign languages.

Among other reasons, Welborn noted that the competition is designed to send a message about the continued importance of books and reading in everyone’s lives.

“The reason we sponsor the contest every year is that books still matter,” he said. “When all of us are very excited about the future of reading, being able to read everything on an iPhone, there is still something wonderful about reading and collecting books. The purpose of the contest is to encourage students to stay interested in reading and collecting books.”

People are always talking about bridging the gap that exists between students in different geographical areas. And while some groups like Teach For America are well known and attract many applicants, one lesser-known organization is Reasoning Mind (RM).

Junior Jordan Jacobs serves as a campus recruiter for Reasoning Mind (RM), a nonprofit organization that aims to change the instructional paradigm in early math education in schools across the US.

Last year, Jacobs learned from a relative that Reasoning Mind was looking for a campus recruiter at Washington University, and he volunteered for the job immediately. In the past year, he has been actively promoting the Reasoning Mind program among students and professors on campus. Now, the company is registered in the Career Center for interested students and professors.

“What I am trying to do on campus is to attract the best teachers at the University to work for the organization, and thus enhance the learning process for those students,” Jacobs said.

The RM service is a computer-based educational program used by middle schools across the nation. The teacher controls the learning process and works with students one-on-one. The program attempts to reform the mathematics curriculum by introducing a rigorous and effective curriculum that prepares kids for success in higher-level math. Evaluations of students have shown that theu have improved significantly after the implementation of RM.

“The RM movement has made a significant impact in promoting the early math education,” Jacobs said. “The schools that have signed up for the service all continued their enrollment in the subsequent year. The number of schools enrolled has doubled in the past year.”

Indeed, increased attention has been devoted to the importance of early math education in recent years.

As noted in RM’s mission statement, “First-rate math and science skills are essential for success in the 21st century workforce…Reasoning Mind’s mission is to provide a first-rate math education for every child. To achieve this, we offer an engaging online community that develops students’ math knowledge and thinking skills, and we help schools and parents bring this to their children.”

As a math major, Jacobs also said, “Reasoning Mind [in]spires me to teach mathematics. I have applied to a summer internship with a similar company, teaching middle school kids.”

Morgan DeBaun

•   •   •   •   •   •

Position: President
Year: Sophomore
Majors: Education, political science
Hometown: St. Louis

John Harrison York

•   •   •   •   •   •

Position: VP of programming
Year: Sophomore
Major: Political dcience
Hometown: Jackson, Miss.

Eliot Walker

•   •   •   •   •   •

Position: VP of finance
Year: Junior
Major: Computer science
Hometown: Falls Church, Va.

Cody Katz

•   •   •   •   •   •

Position: VP of public relations
Year: Sophomore
Major: Biomedical engineering
Hometown: Weston, Conn.

Kirsten Miller

•   •   •   •   •   •

Position: VP of administration
Year: Sophomore
Majors: Economics and strategy
Hometown: Omaha, Neb.

The Spring 2010 Student Union election was the biggest in modern SU history, with a total of 2,392 ballots cast.

Morgan DeBaun led her entire [open] slate to victory, winning by a vote of 53.4 percent to Bold slate’s Nate Ferguson’s 42.3 percent. The closest race was for vice president of programming, with John Harrison York (50.2 percent) beating Tricia Bailey (47.8 percent) by 48 votes. The most lopsided race was the contest for vice president of finance, with current Treasury Speaker Eliot Walker (59.1 percent) beating Olivia Hassan (38.8 percent) by 401 votes.

With the win, [open] laid out its plans for the rest of the semester.

Empowering students

DeBaun said that the slate is currently working on a plan to take advantage of one of Trevor Mattea’s constitutional amendments that allows any student to appeal to Treasury. This amendment was passed in the election with 80 percent of the votes.

“Too often students on our campus have an idea or vision on our campus, but don’t know where to turn to for resources. Our plan takes a new and creative approach to receiving SU funds and will help alleviate this problem,” DeBaun said.

DeBaun said that members of her slate are discussing the plan with members of SU and administrators, and hope to release it for feedback in the coming week.

Appointing the chair of the Diversity Affairs Council

Voters also approved an amendment creating the Diversity Affairs Council. The executive branch must now appoint a chair for this council, and publicity to apply for this chairmanship will begin on Monday.

“Our administration is committed to increasing dialogue and collaboration between different groups on campus,” DeBaun said. “This is a formidable task since the campus is made up of multiple communities with great degrees of heterogeneity within communities.”

DeBaun said that chair of the Diversity Affairs Council will be crucial to help further realize this goal.

Reducing over-programming and increasing large-scale events

DeBaun said that Vice President of Programming-elect York would be meeting with student groups that plan large-scale events on campus such as Ashoka, Dance Marathon and Team 31. To decrease the amount of over-programming, an outline of an events calendar for next semester would be created and distributed to all student group presidents and University administrators. This would be meant to prevent programming issues such as the scheduling conflict that occurred when Ashoka’s Diwali show was the same date as Dance Marathon, causing scheduling issues for organizers and participants alike.

Furthermore, DeBaun hopes to solve the problem at its root by meeting with both newly elected and re-elected Treasury members in order to prevent the issue of funding several large events on the same day, which has happened several times this past year.

Finally, the slate hopes to reorganized the Social Programming Board in order to improve the variety of entertainment options for next year. The Social Programming Board currently consists of Campus Programming Council, Gargoyle Committee and Team 31.

Kaldi’s Coffee recently purchased Kayak’s Coffee just northeast of campus. Kaldi’s will replace Kayak’s coffee with Kaldi’s own coffee, but will keep the rest of the menu the same. (Josh Goldman | Student Life)

A change in ownership looks to alter the way Washington University students and Skinker-DeBaliviere residents think about coffee.

Earlier this month, Kaldi’s Coffee Roasting Co. assumed control of Kayak’s Coffee. The name, alpine ambiance, food and employees will stay the same, but Kaldi’s is dedicated to introducing its locally roasted, Fair Trade Certified coffee to the menu and training full-fledged baristas to serve the java.

“It was a great opportunity to pursue,” Kaldi’s owner Josh Ferguson said. “It’s a phenomenal location. It’s a great location for us to connect with the local residents and to continue our relationship with Wash. U.”

While Kayak’s already served Fair Trade Certified coffee, the change from Milwaukee, Wis.-based Alterra Coffee to locally roasted coffee aims to enhance flavor and further social responsibility.

“Kaldi’s has been a part of fair trade for many years,” Ferguson said. “We recently started a program called Kaldi’s Relationship Coffees. With our relationship coffees, we are working directly with farmers to make sure that they receive 15 to 25 percent more for their coffee than even with the fair-trade organizations.”

In addition, Kaldi’s uses a micro-roasting technique. All beans are roasted by a single roastmaster in batches lighter than 150 pounds. The small batches assure that a single roastmaster can produce premium coffee by feel, without the aid of monitoring machines.

With the coffee change, Kaldi’s brand coffee becomes the only option from campus to the Loop, except during breakfast at Subway. Students are grateful that the Kayak’s environment will not change, but the new coffee will be compared to the Alterra blends.

“I go to Kayak’s more for the ambiance and people who are there,” freshman Sarah Garay said.

Some students are concerned about the change in coffee brands.

“I go to Kayak’s for the coffee after I pull an all-nighter,” sophomore Preethi Kembaiyan said. “Kayak’s coffee [was] much better than the Kaldi’s they serve on campus,” Kembaiyan mentioned the belief that Kaldi’s coffee around St. Louis is superior to the coffee on campus.

Mike Frazoni, a Kayak’s employee, thinks that it is too early to tell how the change in coffee beans will impact the café, but he has seen some quick improvements. Kayak’s now offers two special blends a day instead of one blend a month, and customers seem receptive to the change.

“They’re [the customers] exploring with different types of coffee,” said Frazoni, who noted the popularity of a special Ethiopian blend.

In addition to functioning as a coffeehouse, Ferguson stressed that each Kaldi’s café also provides community engagement and educational events about coffee, programs that should expand to Kayak’s.

“We have cupping, which is kind of like a wine tasting [for coffee] that we do weekly in the Kaldi’s cafés, and we would like to introduce them to Kayak’s so that people can come in, be a part of that and learn more about the specialty side of the coffee industry,” Ferguson said.

With these subtle yet important changes to Kayak’s, Kaldi’s hopes to continue its mission of serving premium, hand-roasted coffee so that its customers enjoy the best coffee and espresso possible.

With additional reporting by Jack Marshall