The Chancellor released an email to the community announcing that some students and faculty who were in Japan during the earthquake, tsunami and ensuing nuclear disaster have decided to return to the US while others have chosen to remain in Japan. Wrighton urged any affected students to seek help from the University.

Nearly 60 Japanese students are enrolled in graduate and undergraduate programs at the University. The University is recommending that they check the Google crisis response website to try to find their families.

“A lot of students of course had trouble reaching family members, but most of the students we’ve heard from have been able to reach their family members,” Kathy Steiner-Lang, an Assistant Vice Chancellor and Director of the Office of International Students and Scholars said. “Many people know somebody who’s had buildings destroyed or homes destroyed, friends and relatives that had damage or couldn’t be reached.”

A magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck the northeast coast of Japan last Friday that caused a tsunami also to hit the nation. Thousands perished in the disaster, and the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station has suffered a likely partial meltdown.

Students in the Heisei Japan Club are planning a week of events after spring break to make sure that fundraisers and relief efforts are coordinated.

“Today, nearly 500 Washington University alumni live in Japan. We also have many faculty and staff who were born in Japan, some whom still have close family living there. Over the past few days we have heard from many of those individuals, and we know that this disaster has been understandably devastating for them,” Wrighton wrote.

The students studying in Japan were for the most part in the southern part of the country.

Three undergraduate students were studying at Doshisha University in Kyoto. The distance between Kyoto and Sendai, where most of the damage was, is about 450 miles, or the distance between Boston and D.C.

“We are monitoring the situation,” Mark Beirn, the Associate Director of the Overseas Program said. “One student indicated they didn’t actually feel anything [from the earthquake].

Currently, the students are staying in Japan.

“It’s unlikely the impact [of a nuclear meltdown] would extend to the Kyoto area, is what I’m being told from our resident director in Kyoto,” Beirn said.

Michelle Nahmad | Student Life

Here’s a sample conversation between two Wash. U. freshmen, commiserating.

A: “None of my friends know where I’m going to school. They all think I’m going to GW/Washington State/community college.”

B: “DUDE, ME TOO!”

In my case, when I told my friends, most reacted with the blank-faced classic smile and nod. A few wanted to know how I liked D.C., or Seattle. Classically, one of my more geographically challenged friends asked me why I was going so far. “Louisiana’s like, 2,000 miles away!” We may all mock former Ms. South Carolina for her stumbling map advocacy, but honestly, homegirl had a point. Some people out there in our nation clearly don’t have maps. Though Washington University “helpfully” added “in St. Louis” to its name years ago, this addendum has apparently done nothing to clarify anything. People just think we all attend community college.

Given all the confusion that our illustrious school’s name creates, I propose that we come up with a different name. Not to diss the Father of Our Country, but there are so many institutions of higher learning named after him, not to mention a state, our nation’s capital and approximately fifty billion streets. The University’s founders should have taken the hipster approach and found an obscure, less popular president to venerate, like Franklin Pierce or Millard Fillmore. It’s not like we gain anything from being named after George Washington; we don’t even get a day off on his birthday.

Perhaps we could evoke a sense of nostalgia for the early days of the school and use Eliot University (Eliot Seminary, if we wanted to be ironic). Danforth University has a nice ring to it. I’m not sure what shape the school’s endowment is in, but we could be “Generic U” until we get corporate sponsorship. At least everyone’s heard of Coca-Cola. Finally, we could go with the same unpronounceable symbol that Prince used. Then we could be “The School Formerly Known as Washington University in St. Louis” or TSFKWUSTL, which is also, coincidentally, unpronounceable.

There are, of course, other ways to fix this problem that don’t involve redesigning the school’s logo. Newly admitted freshman could be sent a helpful kit with a map of the United States and a copy of U.S. News and World Report (We’re number 13! Suck it, Brown!). Alternatively, we could nuke every other college named after George Washington.

Obviously, none of this is particularly plausible, especially the nukes suggestion. I’m just here to articulate a common frustration, subversively timed to occur during George Washington Week. At the same time, I’m not entirely joking about changing the name. I, for one, want actual name recognition, rather than an automatic association with various state schools. There would be confusion for a few years, but honestly, how much different would that be from the status quo?

Matt Mitgang | Student Life

A bike sits covered in ice outside of South 40 House on Monday night after the first part of a large storm system passed through the St. Louis area. The University has closed on Feb. 1 in response to the weather.

All non-essential services on the Danforth, North, South, West and Tyson campuses will be suspended, including classes. Essential services, which include the Washington University Police Department, Dining Services and certain personnel in Facilities Planning and Management, will remain operational.

The dining facilities on the South 40 and in the Village will continue to operate on normal business hours. Eateries on the South 40 are open from 7:30 a.m to 2 a.m., and eateries in the Village are open from 8 a.m. until midnight.

All non-emergency appointments at Student Health Services have been canceled through Wednesday.

A scheduled interfaith discussion on Tuesday featuring Rabbi Steve Gutow and the Rev. Michael Kinnamon also has been canceled. No reschedule date has been announced for the event.

The Career Fair scheduled for Wednesday is also canceled. The Career Center is working on rescheduling options for employers.

As of 11 p.m. Monday forecasters are predicting up to one-tenth of an inch of ice accumulation in addition to 11 to 15 inches of snowfall for the St. Louis metro area through Tuesday night.

According to Leslie Heusted, director of the Danforth University Center, the DUC and Athletic Complex are prepared to house students living both on and off campus in the event of a power outage in a residential area. Both buildings are equipped with their own generators and would continue to have electrical power.

Heusted and a few employees from Facilities will spend the night in the DUC in case the building must be opened.

“We are here to make sure that the campus is safe for the folks that are living here,” Heusted said.

This is the first time that the University has closed for a full day because of weather since 1982 when a storm system blanketed St. Louis with 13 inches of snow.

The medical school remains open. Per University policy, individual employees must decide for themselves whether it’s safe to travel to and from work.

Departments that require a minimal level of staffing 24 hours a day will remain open or will close on a departmental basis.

A winter storm warning issued by the National Weather Service remains in effect for St. Louis city and St. Louis County until noon on Wednesday.

Gov. Jay Nixon has issued a state of emergency in Missouri and mobilized the Missouri National Guard, his office announced Monday afternoon.

Check studlife.com for regular updates as this story develops.

All non-essential services on the Danforth, North, South, West and Tyson campuses will be suspended, including classes. Essential services, which include the Washington University Police Department, Dining Services and certain personnel in Facilities Planning and Management, will remain operational.

All classes will be canceled starting at 4 p.m. The Activities Fair is also canceled and will be rescheduled at a later date.

This is the first time that the University has closed because of weather since 1982 when a storm system blanked St. Louis with 13 inches of snow.

The University also announced the cancellation of key events on campus. Monday’s scheduled lecture on religion and politics in America by Ray Suarez, correspondent for “The NewsHour” on PBS, was canceled. A scheduled interfaith discussion for Tuesday featuring Rabbi Steve Gutow and the Rev. Michael Kinnamon was also canceled. No reschedule dates have been announced for either event.

The medical school remains open. Per University policy, individual employees must decide for themselves whether it’s safe to travel to and from work.

Departments that require a minimal level of staffing 24 hours a day will remain open or will close on a departmental basis.

The closure is in response to the severe weather predicted for the St. Louis metro area. The latest forecasts predict anywhere from one-tenth of an inch to one half of an inch of ice through Tuesday morning and 3 to 12 inches of snow Monday night to Wednesday morning. High winds gusting up to 40 mph are also possible.

It is unclear whether the University will close any or all services on Tuesday. Closures will be announced on a daily basis on the University website and through the usual communication channels.

A winter storm warning issued by the National Weather Service remains in effect for St. Louis city and St. Louis County until noon on Wednesday.

Gov. Jay Nixon has issued a state of emergency in Missouri and mobilized the state National Guard, his office announced Monday afternoon.

Check studlife.com for regular updates as this story develops. Puneet Kollipara and Matt Mitgang contributed to this report.

Matt Mitgang | Student Life

Students pack Wednesday night's Student Union Senate meeting to speak out against Bristol Palin's selection as the keynote speaker for Sexual Responsibility Week. Following student dissent, Palin and SU mutually decided that Palin would not speak on campus.

The proposed speaker that had Washington University students in an uproar for nearly two days is no longer scheduled to appear on campus.

Bristol Palin, 20, was expected to be the keynote speaker at this year’s Sexual Responsibility Week. But her $20,000 price tag led students to contest Student Union Treasury’s funding decision, arguing that she is unqualified to speak about the subject of abstinence on a college campus.

Palin, the daughter of 2008 Republican Vice-Presidential nominee Sarah Palin, had a child when she was 18 and is now an ambassador to The Candie’s Foundation—a foundation that encourages abstinence as a way to prevent pregnancy among teenage girls.

Kathryn Plax, a pediatrician and the director of the Adolescent Center at the medical school is slated to take Palin’s place in the panel discussion on sexual abstinence. Hosted by the Student Health Advisory Committee, the panel discussion will still be in Graham Chapel on Feb. 7.

The four-person panel also includes representatives from the Catholic Student Center, Planned Parenthood and Student Health Services.

Scott Elman, president of SHAC, said that both SHAC and Palin agreed that the controversy surrounding her appearance would overshadow the event’s intended message of sexual responsibility. Palin had never signed a contract committing to her appearance.

“The decision was 100 percent mutual,” Elman said. “SHAC stands by our decision to extend an invitation to Bristol, but we understand that a lot of our original intentions for discussing abstinence on campus, as well as sexual responsibility, were going to be lost.”

Elman originally said that SHAC invited Palin because they thought a big name would spark discussion on campus. The group also wanted to address abstinence, a position that has scarcely been addressed in past Sex Weeks.

On Tuesday evening, Treasury voted to approve SHAC’s $20,000 appeal to bring in Palin and the three other members of the panel.

According to SU VP of Finance Eliot Walker, SHAC will now have to return the $20,000 and resubmit an appeal to fund the new panel. If the group’s new appeal is less than $1000, as Walker said is expected, SHAC can take its request straight to Walker for approval, as opposed to going through another round of a Treasury vote.

Junior Ryan McCombe said that the announcement that Palin would not be coming to campus was a victory for the student body. McCombe was one of many students who protested Treasury’s funding of Palin’s appearance at Wednesday’s Senate meeting.

“I am glad that in the aftermath of [Wednesday] night’s Senate meeting, SHAC was able to take a moment to listen to what all the students had to say, and to think about it critically,” McCombe said.

At the Senate meeting, two students held signs that read, “Can I get paid for an accident too?” The College Democrats and Republicans created a bipartisan petition in the hopes of securing enough signatures to get a referendum on Treasury’s initial approval.

“We are happy that SHAC, and Bristol Palin herself, responded to the student body’s concerns,” said sophomore Sherveen Mashayekhi, president of the College Democrats. “It’s a sad state of politics at Wash. U. when Bristol Palin is what required us to get politically active.”

The overwhelming disaproval of Palin as a speaker caused students to question the efficacy of Student Union and whether the student government actually represents students’ interests.

SU President Morgan DeBaun issued a statement in response to the criticism and said that SU is examining its procedures to allow for increased student input in SU decisions.

“We are receptive to student concerns and feedback and look forward to working closely with their constituency for the rest of the term,” DeBaun wrote in the release.

While Elman said he thinks that the main message of Palin and Sex Week got lost amid the protests, he hopes that students still show up in high numbers to the panel.

related articles

• Bristol Palin will not speak at WU
• Students voice anger over panel featuring Bristol Palin

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CORRECTION APPENDED BELOW

Bristol Palin has been selected as keynote speaker for this year’s Sexual Responsibility Week at Washington University.

Student Union Treasury on Tuesday approved a $20,000 appeal by the Student Health Advisory Committee (SHAC) to sponsor a four-person panel featuring Palin. The appeal was initially set at $25,000 and renegotiated.

The $20,000 comes from the Student Activity Fee collected from each undergraduate student at the beginning of the year. The Student Activity Fee is fixed at one percent of tuition.

While Palin has not formally agreed to the appearance yet, she is expected to do so shortly.

Students have already organized against the potential speech by Palin, organizing protests via Facebook and voicing complaints at the weekly SU Senate meeting on Jan. 26.

SHAC would not release the exact amount charged for Palin’s appearance. According to ABC News, Palin charges $15,000 to $30,000 for each appearance on the speakers’ circuit.

The originally scheduled panel included representatives from the Catholic Student Center, Missouri Right to Life, and Planned Parenthood. In order to address student concern that the panel leaned too far to the right of the political spectrum, SHAC selected Dr. Lisa Ross of Student Health Services as a replacement for the Missouri Right to Life representative.

Chuck Kennedy | MCT

The daughter of former Republican vice-presidential hopeful Sarah Palin, Bristol, now 20-years-old, has been a champion for abstinence since giving birth to her son Tripp shortly after the 2008 presidential election.

The younger Palin has appeared in a variety of pregnancy-prevention campaigns for The Candie’s Foundation.

Palin was also a finalist on “Dancing with the Stars” in 2010.

The event will be held in Graham Chapel at 7 p.m. on Feb. 7. to end the first day of Sex Week. The week, which seeks to start an open sexual dialogue, encourage students to experiment with sexual viewpoints that differ from their own and to provide wide-reaching sexual education, will continue through Feb. 12.

The event will begin with a 25-minute speech by Palin on her life story to be followed by an hour-long panel discussion and a half hour question-and-answer session. A reception will be held after the question and answer to allow students to interact with Palin one-on-one.

The final vote the approved funding went seven votes for bringing in Palin, four votes against and one abstention.

By hosting Palin as the keynote speaker, SHAC hoped to appease concerns with previous Sex Weeks while also highlighting this year’s series.

“We thought a big name like Bristol’s would help to start a dialogue,” SHAC President Scott Elman said. “We also wanted to target abstinence because SHAC and Sex Week have been criticized for being too liberal and too one-dimensional, and that the abstinence conversation hasn’t been brought up.”

Elman added SHAC’s decision has effectively ostracized a sizable portion of the University community.

“3,000, maybe 4,000 people haven’t engaged in sex. There’s a population on our campus that does practice abstinence and gets forgotten about,” Elman said. “It’s not that SHAC is bringing Bristol Palin and saying ‘this is it.’”

Some Treasury members felt that Palin’s speech would spark student interest.

“I know it will fill Graham Chapel, so to me, that’s value in itself,” said Treasury representative Daniel Bernard, a junior. “It brings the student body together in a way that we usually don’t have on this campus.”

Not all Treasury members, however, supported the decision to fund Palin to speak on campus.

“One concern I do have when we fund someone like Bristol Palin is, what really are we supporting? And to me it’s someone who is famous because they got pregnant at 18,” said freshman Jacob Trunsky, chair of the Budget Committee.

Students have mixed views on the keynote address.

“I just don’t see what she could possibly contribute to an intelligent, reasonable discussion about sex,” senior Toby Shepard said.

Sophomore Sherveen Mashayekhi, president of the College Democrats, had similar sentiments.

“While she is obviously an experienced person on the matter of teen pregnancy, she is an extremely polarizing presence in social and political terms and does not provide the right type of balancing, sensitive, well-rounded force to an issue as hot as sex on campus,” Mashayekhi said.

While SHAC recognizes that the choice may be controversial, its members believe that having the high-profile speaker will ultimately benefit the series.

“I understand that people are not going to be happy—this will probably be protested. We really just want to start dialogue and the fact that we’re bringing in a balanced panel should be taken into account,” Elman said. “We’re not just bringing in Bristol Palin, we’re bringing her in with three or four other educated people.”

With additional reporting by Kate Gaertner and Shayna Makaron.

Editor’s note: This is an updated version of a breaking news post, originally published at 10:50 p.m. on January 25.

The 25 or so students who attended the roundtable split into committees devoted to specific areas of campus life, including Washington University Police Department (WUPD) affairs, on-campus student awareness, Residential Life, student group interaction and off-campus affairs.

Students in the taskforce on WUPD affairs debated whether some students’ allegations that WUPD officers approach black students more than white ones means the officers are guilty of racial profiling.

While the group did not reach a conclusion, group members agreed that reports of suspicious activity filed by students against other students are a major contributor to WUPD stopping black students more often.

Members of the group said they would like to initiate dialogue between WUPD and students regarding methods of identifying suspicious persons, and also explored the idea of a “walk in your shoes” orientation program in which students would learn about the differences that race makes in daily life.

The “on-campus awareness” taskforce was primarily concerned with the issue of self-segregation in the student body. Group members said they hoped to break down what they termed the “fishbowl” phenomenon: a tendency for important conversations about race issues to remain confined to racially or ethnically homogenous groups.

“I know that as an African American male I have particular conversations with other African American males on campus that pretty much we keep amongst ourselves,” said senior Regis Murayi, one of the six black students rejected from Mothers bar.

The task force proposed mediating conversations about self-segregation on freshman floors. Members of the group also plan to develop initiatives to draw a greater and more diverse body of students to events like Monday night’s roundtable to engage students who might otherwise be uninvolved in the dialogue about diversity issues.

Like the on-campus awareness task force, the ResLife committee offered a plan to spur more diversity dialogue on freshman floors by designing special programming to be led by residential advisors. Group members also planned a conference with Residential Life about making ethnic and racial diversity a priority when forming freshman floors.

The student group interaction taskforce envisioned working with Student Union to create an incentive program that rewards collaboration between student groups. It also proposed the development of a multicultural retreat in which students from diverse backgrounds would bond over a variety of recreational and discussion-based activities.

Members of the off-campus taskforce expressed a desire to raise awareness of racial and class implications of policy decisions behind recent MetroLink service cuts. The taskforce hopes to launch a visual campaign to make the faces of St. Louis residents affected by the service cuts more visible to students.

Senior De Nichols, co-president of Connect 4, said her group would facilitate further meetings of the taskforces created at Monday night’s roundtable to lay out more concrete action steps. The organization hopes that this event will be a first step in empowering passionate students to turn thoughts into action.

Said junior Wanda Savala, Connect 4’s other co-president, “[Students] will start something but they don’t really feel supported. We need to rally those students who are doing something, who have ideas.”

The turnout for the roundtable was short of Connect 4’s expectations, paling in comparison to the more than 300 students who filled Lab Sciences 300 for the town hall meeting.

The large gap in the turnout between the town hall meeting and Monday’s roundtable elicited concerns from some that the enthusiasm exhibited by the general student body in recent weeks will not last as the Mothers bar incident fades into the past.

“[The turnout] kind of made me question how passionate, how committed students are to affecting change in this area,” Nichols said.

Nonetheless, she said she was confident that a smaller group of students would continue to converse and act on race and diversity issues.

“Quite honestly, I am a very optimistic, faithful person,” she said. “The rational side of me says that people are gonna let this die, but I think we have a committed body of students who won’t let this die out.”

Partisanship is common in national politics and is also alive at Washington University. Members of political student groups on campus say they use the partisan divide to foster debate.

Senior Ryan Winograd, president of the College Republicans, said political disputes do occur between students at the University, but usually they are purely intellectual.

“I’ve had debates and I’ve had arguments with students. It’s never gotten violent. Ever,” Winograd said. “I guess that might be an issue at some schools, but I don’t think that’s an issue at Wash. U. I’ve definitely seen yelling, heated, maybe some name-calling.”

One upcoming debate between the College Republicans and College Democrats is Campus Crossfire on Monday night. Each group will have a representative debating the issue of health care.

The debate will consist of 45 minutes of formal debate, followed by 15 minutes of questions from the audience.

“It’s always fun,” said junior Katherine Berger, president of the College Democrats. “We always end up having the Democrats on one side of the room and the Republicans on the other, and there’s cheering.”

Winograd said he values the debate created by disputes among those with differing viewpoints. Although he said some political discussions on campus are unproductive, he believes it is important for the College Democrats and the College Republicans to play a leading role in promoting productive discourse.

“We definitely have students with differing opinions, and you do see them arguing about it sometimes. Sometimes it happens in a manner that I think fosters good discourse and enlightenment, perhaps on both sides of the issues, and other times it occurs in a way that is completely unproductive,” Winograd said. “I think the goal of the College Republicans and College Democrats should be to make sure that those sorts of debates and discussions happen in a way that is educational and not confrontational.”

Berger said she considers the partisan divide on campus to be a source of debate rather than a conflict.

“I think that people who are really interested in politics and particularly interested in partisan politics know that your political beliefs do not necessarily define who you are as a person, although it’s certainly an important part of it,” Berger said. “At least in my own experience, as much as we might argue over health care or the economy or the war, [or] whatever the subject may be, we’re all students. We’re all on that same sort of level.”

Winograd argued that debates and discussions between people with differing opinions are vital to the development of knowledge about an issue.

“[Dialogue is] the only way you can truly question your beliefs, grow your beliefs [or] change your beliefs,” Winograd said. “Maybe you actually know everything and that dialogue, the discourse strengthens your beliefs. But when it gets to the point of yelling or name-calling, you’re not really debating anything. You’re just staying with what you believe; you’re not questioning what you believe in any way.”

Another collaboration effort between political student groups is in the works. The College Democrats, College Republicans and the Association of Black Students (ABS) are coordinating another health care debate. The debate will involve politicians and policy experts from both ends of the political spectrum.

“That’s an example of more than just our two groups working together, but, more broadly, [we will work] with other groups in the school to bring what will hopefully be an enlightening discussion to campus,” Winograd said.

Winograd hopes these events will help to inform the public of important political issues.

“What’s important for me is …that when people make decisions, they are as well-informed as possible so that they can then apply their ideology and decide what their preferred outcome is,” Winograd said. “I may not agree with it—that’s fine. I actually really enjoy debating with students whom I disagree with to see why I disagree with them. What’s frustrating is when I’m debating with someone who doesn’t really have good reasons for their beliefs. For me, it’s more fun when they’re very well educated about [the issues].”

Election Co-Commisioner Colin Towery speaks on Student Union election reforms at the Oct. 7 Senate meeting. (Matt Mitgang| Student Life)

Student Union Senate and Treasury voted on several SU election reforms, which were proposed by the election commissioners. The reforms aim to make elections more competitive, open and fair. Proposals ranged from new systems of voting to more minute details about qualifications and definitions of positions.

Turnout in the past few elections has increased, but SU wants to increase participation even further. Two years ago, 479 members of the student body voted in the fall election, while last fall there were 1,368 voters.

There have been no major reforms to the SU elections process since 2003, when the SU Constitution was last approved.
Not all of the proposed legislation was passed, but there were a few constitutional changes that, having been passed by both Senate and Treasury, will appear on the ballot this fall. These changes must be ratified by two-thirds of voters. The student body votes only on constitutional changes, not on SU statute changes.

Proposed constitutional changes on fall ballot:

Block funding: Currently, there is no constitutional definition for block funding, a process that allows student groups or initiatives to apply for a block allocation on the annual budget in order to bypass the SU student group budgeting process. The proposed definition stipulates that students can apply for block funding during spring elections by presenting a petition signed by 15 percent of constituents to the election commissioner. The student body will need to approve the petition with a two-thirds vote.

School councils’ executives will not be defined as SU officers. The reasoning behind this change is to allow students from smaller schools, such as art and architecture, which have a harder time filling seats in SU, to fill seats in both SU and their school councils. Members of Treasury committees who are not Treasury representatives will also be defined as SU officers.

Senate and Treasury members do not need to complete a full term. The proposed constitutional change removes the requirement for senators to be eligible to complete a full term (one year). The proposed statute changes require candidates for legislative office to be available to complete at least one academic semester. This allows students to run in an election even if they intend to go abroad or if they are graduating after the first semester of their term.

Approved changes that will not appear on fall ballot:

The Election Commission will be approved no later than eight weeks after the first day of classes. This was changed from four weeks to allow more time for recruitment. The Election Commission will also host a forum and serve on the Public Relations and Recruitment and Retention Committees.
Write-in candidates must obtain at least 5 percent of the votes of the top vote-getter. Candidates for single-seat positions, such as executive officers, must get 10 percent.

Not approved:

Instant-runoff voting for executive offices and single-transferable voting for legislative offices would require voters to rank the candidates in order of preference. In instant-runoff voting, those whose first-choice candidate received the fewest votes would have their votes transferred to their next choice candidate. In this way, each person would get one vote, and preferences could be more closely followed. Senior Colin Towery, election co-commissioner, came up with the idea after this fall’s Freshman Class Council elections. The winning slate received just 32 percent of the vote, meaning 68 percent of the freshmen did not support the slate.
Senate and Treasury also discussed whether students should be allowed to run for office from abroad, whether candidates could run for multiple offices, and whether Treasury representatives should be elected in the fall.