Grace Fung | Student Life

The Underpass connecting main campus to the South 40. A recent report published by the Federal Highway Administration rated the bridge as structurally deficient.

The iconic South 40 underpass is structurally unstable, according to a recent report released by the Federal Highway Administration.

A structurally deficient bridge is not necessarily at high risk of collapsing, but does require consistent monitoring and inspections at least once a year.

The Federal Highway Administration’s National Bridge Inventory Database says that the bridge “meets minimum tolerable limits to be left in place as is.” While its substructure (base supports) and deck are both in good condition, its superstructure (the section between the supports and the roadway) is not up to current standards, receiving a rating of four out of 10.

The Department of Facilities and Planning is not concerned about the state of the bridge, which it hopes to replace next summer, Project Manager Sarah Stanton said.

“We’re not going to put people in danger when they’re walking from the South 40 to the main campus,” she said. “It is not in any way dangerous, to my knowledge.”

She noted that the need for improvements is not a surprise.

“That bridge was identified as one that had reached toward the end of its lifespan, which happens; it’s sort of the wear and tear of bridges,” Stanton said. “It’s consistent with what we’ve been planning for.”

The underpass was built in 1962, and Facilities added additional supports beneath the roadway in the summer of 2008. Last semester, they began soliciting opinions from students about the current condition of the underpass in order to better prepare for a replacement.

“A four isn’t critical; we have things at the three and they’re not closed—but a three means you need to do work,” said Mark Croarkin, bridge maintenance engineer for the Missouri Department of Transportation. “You can be deficient…but [still] function fine.”

One source of structural deficiency can involve structures that are structurally obsolete—or do not meet the most up-to-date standards. For example, current standards would require that the underpass have guardrails.

Croarkin said he is responsible for inspecting the bridge before Christmas to ensure it is still adequate. The bridge was last inspected in November 2009, according to Transportation for America, a coalition of public and private entities that advocates for an improved national transportation system.

The bridge currently has a sufficiency rating of 39.7 out of 100. Croarkin said that any bridge rated below 50 is entitled to federal funding toward construction of a full replacement.

Students did not voice particular unease with the underpass’ present condition, other than annoyance with the fact that it leaks.

“I don’t really feel unsafe,” freshman Linn Wang said. “I think [they should] fix the problem with leaking water, but I feel generally it’s pretty good.”

“I hope it doesn’t collapse and I don’t like the water drip,” freshman Jon Luskin said.

Sophomore Nicole Applebaum thought that Facilities could definitely improve the current structure by eliminating the leakage problem and reworking the walkway to make the turn safer for bicyclists. But she stressed her hope that the new underpass maintain the feel of the current structure, and for improvements not be taken to extremes.

“If they want to improve the structural quality of it so that they can prevent accidents from occurring in the future, they should go ahead and do it,” Applebaum said. “[But] they shouldn’t change it in a way that would change the feeling of the South 40 or of campus…modernizing and making it cool won’t necessarily make it better.”

Stanton said that the planning process, which involves both the Missouri Department of Transportation and the City of Clayton, is taking many of these student concerns into account.

“I know a lot of people have expressed concerns with the drainage, line of sight, circulation…so all those things we’re trying to incorporate into the design,” she said. “Being able to paint the wall spaces is going to be maintained.”

The construction is slated for this summer to minimize conflicts with campus life.

As a part of a plan designed to reduce the Washington University maintenance and landscaping budget by at least 5 percent, the number of tulips on campus will be cut in half.

The new plan will also reduce the number of on-call maintenance employees around the Danforth Campus, thereby producing a delay in response time. In addition, the University will employ the minimal number of custodial employees needed to keep campus clean, and the cleaning of offices and cubicles will now occur bimonthly instead of weekly.

“The University requested administrative support departments to begin the planning for a series of budget reductions almost a year ago,” Bill Wiley, the director of maintenance operations, wrote in an e-mail to Student Life. “Like a number of other administrative support departments, we are starting elements of the plan immediately to maximize the savings potential.”

All public spaces will continue to receive daily cleaning and trash removal.

“We have had numerous meetings to discuss this maintenance challenge among ourselves and hope that we can increase our productivity to avoid noticeable maintenance problems,” Wiley added in the e-mail. “We do not intend to tolerate lower campus cleanliness standards, but it will again be a challenge. For instance, we are discussing whether we should move a cleaning worker on a temporary basis from the Athletic Complex to Olin Library during the busy study period just before finals.”

Despite a 10 percent rise in the endowment since July 1, 2009, the University will lose $10 million in spending power from the endowment this year, according to a letter that Chancellor Mark Wrighton wrote to the University community on Monday. The restructuring of maintenance operations is just one of many departments that have had to make spending cuts.

Wiley emphasized that at this phase of the restructuring process, it is unclear how many employees will lose jobs, if any. Through retirement, redistribution of previously contracted work to maintenance staff and restricting overtime, the University hopes to keep as many current workers employed as possible.

All residential areas of campus will remain unaffected by these changes, but new maintenance staff will not be hired as more buildings open. Instead, the responsibility of current workers will be increased to these new areas.

“I can state for now however, the housekeeping for the residential side of campus will not be affected at all with these cutbacks as well as cleaning schedules will not be reduced,” Curt Harres, housekeeping manager for the Office of Residential Life, wrote in an e-mail.

In order for this program to become a permanent success, students and faculty will also need to contribute. By throwing away all trash left on tables and in common areas, keeping doors closed to maintain building temperature, not damaging walls with improperly posted signs, and possibly bringing full trash cans to central collection areas, the Wash. U. community can help ensure that current cleanliness standards are maintained.

Even with the full support of the University community, Wiley said that the plan will experience some setbacks.

“Our Facilities group has benchmarked well in recent years when measured against our counterparts at peer institutions, but we will be tested, miscalculate and make mistakes at times as we work through the future with reduced resources, but not significantly reduced goals,” Wiley wrote. “We need helpful feedback, understanding, cooperation and perhaps patience from our fellow members of the campus community.”

~ The student body that has stepped up its activism this year, and constantly challenges the way I think
~ Pandora
~ The incredible Student Life staff which impresses me everyday and makes every hour spent in the office worthwhile
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~ Sunny, carefree afternoons on Art Hill
~ The library on the top floor of Brown
~ Professors who make connecting with undergraduates a priority
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~ Shaunda and Shawnique in the Business School café for their friendliness
~ Free backrubs from Stressbusters and friends
~ Student athletes for their hard work and amazing stories
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~ The team that keeps Whispers open late and ensures there is always some place to work on campus
~ The facilities staff that works at all hours of the night to keep campus running, and, despite seeing all of our quirks and foibles doesn’t laugh at us
~ The students who make this University stand out, and especially those friends who have gotten to know me and decided it’s still worth hanging out with me
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~ Friendly professors who help you no matter what time of day (or night)
~ The fantastic staff of Engineering Student Services
~ Incredible living facilities
~ Working on a paper filled with such an amazing and fun staff
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~ All of the Aramark employees who work late at night to keep campus clean
~ Wash. U. housekeeping (The only good thing about ResLife)
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~ Ducks in the DUC, and other DUC programming
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~ Wash. U. police who patrol off campus so I’m safe walking home
~ Amazing advisors who devote so of their much time to students
~ The fact that Einstein’s bagels are back in Whispers
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~ Flank steak at Holmes lounge
~ Forest Park and everything is has to offer—the Art Museum, Zoo, Science Center—being barely 10 minutes away from campus
~ Betty White surviving the Great Celebrity Massacre of ’09
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~ The collected papers of James Merrill, available from the Special Collections Library
~ Booze at Ibby’s, available before noon
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~ Cashiers and sandwich makers who smile and talk with you when they make and serve your food
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~ $1 “Milk and Cookies” on Wednesdays
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~ The field in Forest Park, where you can wander around and appreciate wilderness
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~ Free printing in the Career Center (although maybe I should have kept it a secret)
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Matt Mitgang | Student Life

Sophomore Emily Piontek stands inside of a gulag created by Wash. U. Young Americans For Liberty. (Matt Mitgang | Student Life)

Members of the Washington University chapter of Young Americans for Liberty erected a mock Soviet prison camp, or gulag, in front of the Women’s Building Monday morning, but were later told by a representative from Event Services to disassemble the display.

The University said in a statement Tuesday that the students had not mentioned the display when requesting the space and built the display using power tools without permission and without oversight from the facilities office. YAL members said the display was not in violation of Event Services’ policies and that while the students did use an automatic drill, Event Services did not specify in its policies that students could not use power tools.

“We feel that this was more of the administration and faculty getting upset about the display than it was about safety issues,” said junior Dirk Doebler, president of the University chapter of YAL.

YAL members built the mock gulag to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and to condemn Soviet communism and socialist regimes. The display was a four-sided wooden structure with fake barbed wire on top and Soviet Communist propaganda posters on its sides. A large sign on the structure read “Peaceful Justice Social Reeducation Clinic.”

Several students who were dressed as prisoners stood inside the mock gulag, some of them with fake blood on their clothing. Other YAL members who were dressed as Soviet soldiers patrolled around the structure. Students played Russian opera music at the display.

YAL members at the display also handed out fliers to students that detailed the history of gulags and included a passage on resisting tyranny.

After the students had finished building the display, a representative from Event Services told them they had to disassemble it.

The University statement said the display was shut down because it had not been approved and was unsafe, not because it was controversial.

“The University has a long history of accommodating disparate and often unpopular points of view and continues to support the rights of its students and faculty to express their differences and opinions, as long as the venue has been reserved, described accurately and deemed safe and free of physical risk to themselves and others,” the statement said.

Sophomore Emily Piontek, a member of the YAL who posed as a prisoner in the mock gulag, said the main purpose of the display was to raise awareness about problems with Soviet communism that are connected with the Berlin Wall. Piontek said another reason for the display was to raise concerns held by some members of the YAL that U.S. government health care reform is bringing America closer to socialism.

“I think it was mostly about the Berlin Wall, but I think certain policies that are going on today and certain things in the government, and mostly the health care plan, were reasons that we wanted to host the event,” Piontek said.

But James Wertsch, the Marshall S. Snow Professor and director of International & Area Studies, said that the emergence of communism and socialism are not big issues today and that new forms of nationalism are currently greater issues for America.

However, he said that it was appropriate for YAL to commemorate the gulag since huge numbers of people suffered in these prison camps.

“If I would have stopped and talked to them and seen that it was a gulag exhibit I would have been interested, but for the reason of commemorating it, not because I’m afraid that communism is coming back,” Wertsch said.

John Burns, an area resident who is not a student but who is involved with the Washington University YAL and participated in the display, said he felt the University censored students in a manner similar to Soviet communists.

“I guess the students at Washington University were in a gulag all along, and the administration proved it through their stifling of free speech,” Burns said.

With additional reporting by John Scott

Chancellor Mark Wrighton speaks on the issues and challenges currently facing Washington University and those the school will face in the short-term future. The University’s endowment is estimated to have fallen 25 percent since the end of fiscal 2008 and is expected to continue declining. (Matt Mitgang | Student Life)

More than 100 Washington University students, faculty and staff gathered in Edison Theatre yesterday morning to hear Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton’s “State of the University Address” on the fiscal circumstance of the University.

Wrighton covered topics such as construction and budget breakdowns and offered cost-saving initiatives that will be implemented to help cushion the University from the economic crisis.

Wrighton announced the place and time of the address at the end of his e-mail to the University community two weeks ago acknowledging the University’s ongoing difficulties in the midst of the national economic crisis.

In addition, he outlined the financial challenges that the University now faces, including the decline in the endowment value, a lower increase in tuition this year, greater student financial aid needs, a poor fundraising environment, risky clinical revenue and the brevity of the stimulus package.

Wrighton chose to focus mainly on the loss of endowment revenue, which has been a highly debated topic in current weeks. At present, the University’s endowment has declined by more than 25 percent, producing a fiscal situation that the Chancellor acknowledged is “very fragile.” The total endowment loss by the 2010 fiscal year will be approximately $20 million.

Wrighton remarked that the University’s current financial state is also unprecedented.

“When I think back to my entire academic career, which began in 1972, this is the first time that there has been such a decline,” he said.

The administration, however, has plans to implement cost-reducing initiatives to alleviate the institution’s financial pressures. These measures will include energy conservation, improvements in efficiency level and a reduction in printed materials and labeling.

Executive Vice Chancellor for Administration Henry Webber will head a new organization called the “Tiger Team,” which will assist with improving the University’s efficiency and reducing its operating expenses.

The administration also proposed the expansion of summer school programs to help bring in greater revenue and the expansion of the University’s fundraising staff.

Master’s programs also will be reevaluated and expanded. The Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts will soon be introducing a new master’s degree in landscape architecture, which will be the first of its kind in the region.

After his address, Wrighton responded to questions from the audience and those submitted online.

One major concern put forward by the audience was the possibility of buying out employees close to retirement. Vice Chancellor for Finance Barbara Feiner explained that compensation benefits comprise 62 percent of total operating expenses throughout the University.

Although Feiner acknowledged that the idea would be up for consideration, she said, “Many of the decisions we’re making now are directed at reducing the risk of loss of employment.”

Wrighton stressed that the administration is open to suggestions from the community, which can be submitted at the Web site http://suggestion.wustl.edu.

“We pledge to consider every suggestion seriously and try to take advantage of the creativity and dedication of those in our community,” he said.

Of the 100 or so present at the address, the majority were faculty members. Only a few were students.

“What I don’t really understand is the timing [of the address] at 8:30 a.m. in the morning,” said junior Lauren Weiss, who attended the address. “I thought it was a little bit disingenuous on his part. It’s silly to say that you value your students’ input when you put it at a time when you know most students would not come.”

Although Weiss believes that Wrighton gave the audience a good sense of the University’s financial state, she thinks he deflected some questions posed by the audience in his responses.

Weiss asked a specific question about the chancellor’s goal to enhance diversity on campus in the economic downturn—a point discussed in his e-mail earlier this month.

“I asked him, ‘What do you mean by diversity? How exactly do you plan to implement the policies on campus?’ He answered the first part well, but he just didn’t really answer the second part,” Weiss said. “I am thrilled that the chancellor thinks diversity is important. I just think there should be a greater focus on honesty.”

This story has been updated to reflect the following correction:
An earlier version of this story misquoted junior Lauren Weiss as stating that the Chancellor’s decision to schedule the forum early in the morning was an intentional choice to exclude students. In fact, Weiss stated that the choice was unintentional; the rest of the quote was accurate.

To complete the task, Robison will work with the Facilities and Planning Department, where he has been principally responsible for handing electrical operations.

Preparing for and hosting the vice presidential debate has been a large, multifaceted operation for the University, and one large portion of the event’s success depends on the reliability of the power and electrical system at the University.

“We have to power the Media Center, which is basically rows and rows of tables with power going to them and other tables with telephone lines going to them,” Robison said.

The Facilities Department’s job on the night of the vice presidential debate is to make sure that the journalists and media personnel occupying those tables receive the power they need to send out live feeds of the news online from inside the debate.

According to Robison, the department has been in contact with major national news stations, including NBC and CBS.

“We just need to make sure we know who is all coming that night,” he said.

For Robison, the day of Oct 2 will be a busy one.

“We’ll probably get [to campus] around 5 to 6 in the morning,” Robison said. “We’ll be running around, doing some very last minute things, making sure things are going smoothly.”

Although much of the planning has already been completed, Robison says that “last minute things” will certainly come up on the day of the debate.

“I’m not sure what those things are at the moment, but trust me, they always come up,” he said.

According to Robison, the hectic day will wind down for the facilities department an hour or two before the debate commences. By then, everything should be running smoothly and quickly in its course.

“I’ll be assigned to a particular position and basically I’m ordered to stay in that area,” Robison said. “There will be backup generators outside.”

Robison speaks of the procedures for debate night as if he were an old-timer, and in some ways, he is.

“I was here at the last presidential debate four years ago, when I was assigned to a generator,” Robison said. “Things went smoothly then, and I expect it to go smoothly this time.”

Because the University has been hosting presidential debates since 1992, all the arrangements with the equipment, as well as with hired contractors are set to go.

This is not to say, however, that the entire operation will go effortlessly, Robison points out.

“It is a huge amount of work to put this together,” he said. “When it’s your first time going through this, it’s pretty exciting. But about your second time around, once you’ve realized how much work it takes, it is a little less exciting.”

When asked what he is looking forward to the most this week, Robison jokes that he is waiting for Saturday to come, “when this is all over.”

Nevertheless, Robison, a keen follower of national politics, still feels energized for the vice presidential debate today.

“It’s pretty exciting stuff, and especially this year with the candidates we have. It’s exciting to be a part of that history too.”