
Andrew ODell
When we say that word travels fast on the Washington University campus, we are not kidding-fast, in fact, is probably an understatement. So, even freshmen, with only limited experience on campus, probably have heard a few rumors (or “WUmors”) about the University. Ever heard the one about why there are no sorority houses on campus? We thought so. . . . With that in mind, we aim to set the record straight once and for all.
Question: Why are there no sorority houses on campus?
Answer: Ask most University students why there are no sorority houses on campus, and they will probably respond by saying that a state law prohibits many girls from living together in one house, because such a situation constitutes a brothel.
While that is the conventional wisdom, it is entirely untrue.
“It’s an urban legend,” said Karin Horstman Johnes, the director of Greek Life.
She went on to explain that when Small Group Housing was in its planning stages, the Women’s Panhellenic Council was even approached about the possibility of creating sorority houses.
“The women had been surveyed, and they had said that there was no interest in pursuing houses,” said Horstman Johnes.
The main reason that the women were opposed to the idea of sorority houses was the fact that they enjoy the freedom to live with women in other sororities and with those who choose not to join any sorority.
“Not having sorority houses on campus is one thing that I love about being in a sorority here. It allows people to have friends within their sorority, but also make outside friendships with people in other sororities and people not involved in Greek Life,” said Meredith Cohen, vice president of the Women’s Panhellenic Council.
Horstman Johnes added that the sorority members “liked that they did not have any obligations of filling a house, having the financial constraints of a house, and that they liked living with members of other sororities as well as with someone who might not be in a sorority.”
Question: Is St. Louis the country’s most dangerous city?
Answer: According to a recently released study by Lawrence, Kan.-based Morgan Quitno Press, St. Louis is the nation’s most dangerous city. Morgan Quitno Press based the rankings on publicly available FBI crime data for all cities of at least 75,000 residents.
The study focuses on six crime categories: murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and motor vehicle theft.
Each category is weighted so as not to skew the numbers based on the particular city’s size.
Overall, University Police Chief Don Strom was fairly skeptical of the study.
“My experience has been that when you see ratings like this you really have to look at them with a jaundice eye, because you don’t know all the factors,” said Strom.
“It just really is very difficult to compare numbers like this and get a good handle as to what they mean,” said Strom.
An Associated Press article mentioned that University of Missouri-St. Louis criminologist Scott Decker called the rankings “misleading, arguing they fail to point out the city’s 60 percent drop and the steady decline of overall crime here over the past decade.”
In addition, Strom noted that, “I think in reality what it comes down to is how safe do people feel overall.”
“[If there are] some neighborhoods in any city that have a higher crime rate than other parts of the city, that doesn’t mean that the entire city is not a safe place to be,” he said.
Question: Are the new dorms supposed to be temporary?
Answer: One residential WUmor that has recently been circulating amid the student body claims that William Greenleaf Eliot and Brookings Residential Colleges were only built to last ten years, and because of that, it is being said that they are to be torn down fairly soon.
“WGE, Brookings and all the new Residential Colleges on the South 40 are intended to be with us for much longer than 10 years,” said Dean Justin Carroll.
Carroll cited other construction plans as a reason for confusion.
“Perhaps someone is confusing our intention to replace nearly all the remaining older facilities on the South 40 over the next several years (could be 10 years, could be shorter or longer). It is highly unlikely that the University would replace one of our newer facilities before all the older halls are replaced or renovated,” said Carroll.
Yet another question that Carroll dispelled with is the rumor that, in time, the South 40 is going to become graduate housing. This story also says that undergraduate housing would move to a school-owned plot of 16 acres near the MetroLink Station.
“I have been at Washington University for over 22 years and we have never, in that time, housed graduate students on campus,” said Carroll.
He doubted that graduate students would want to live in the traditional residence hall setup that is on the South 40 and said that, to his knowledge, there are no current construction plans for the 16 acres near the MetroLink station.
Question: Was nuclear waste ever buried on the South 40?
Answer: The area now known as the South 40 once served as the burial ground for isotope microparticle catching material. This material, however, does not constitute nuclear waste.
During the 1940s, the Federal Government utilized the University’s cyclotron to create approximately 500 micrograms of plutonium in conjunction with the Manhattan Project. The Government then assumed responsibility for disposing of all remnant materials.
The University then used the cyclotron to create short half-life isotopes.
“[The half-life isotopes] were used primarily at the medical school for patient care and treatment,” said Fred Volkmann, the vice chancellor for public affairs.
The isotopes themselves had half-lives ranging from a few minutes to a few days, so there was little effective risk in their creation and handling. Researchers still made efforts to minimize any risks by covering the floor of the room with newspaper to catch any microparticle byproducts of isotope creation. These newspapers were later buried in an unused forest, now known as the South 40.
Special care was taken to document where the newspapers were buried.
When the University made plans to build residence halls on the South 40, that documentation was consulted. Prior to construction, the buried materials were removed and the soil was tested for radioactive levels. Nothing out of the ordinary was found, so the first round of construction began in 1958. In 1960, soil tests were conducted again prior to additional construction. Again, no traces of radioactive residue were found.
Question: Why do ID cards have two magnetic strips, even though we only use one?
Answer: There are two strips on the back of Washington University identification cards. However, one of them serves no purpose. The history of the second strip dates back to the previous generation of green ID cards that the University used. Unlike the current cards, the old generation used “low-coercivity” with the strips.
“Low-coercivity has to do with the strength of the magnetism on the card, and the low, which is the old technology, was easily prone to being erased,” said Wil Fritz, associate director of information systems.
Eventually, the old green cards were reordered with one high-coercivity strip and one low-coercivity strip, in order to make the eventual transition to high-coercivity.
Fritz said the high-coercivity strips “are very robust, and it is hard to wipe them out.”
So when the time came to order the ID cards that are used today, Fritz remembered how convenient it was having the second strip on the old cards to use for transition purposes.
“Having the two stripes came in very handy for changing technologies,” he said.
Even though there is no use for the second stripe on the current cards used, they are there to enable another change in technology. Also, if the school has another use for the second strip, it can be easily programmed into the cards, without having to reorder cards and completely revamp the technology again.
Question: Will St. Louis Bread Co. create an establishment on the Hilltop Campus?
Answer: Though the University did once consider adding a St. Louis Bread Co. to the dining options on campus, it is not doing so at this time.
“It’s not true,” said Steve Hoffner, assistant vice chancellor for students and campus director of operations. “We had preliminary discussions with what was then known as Saint Louis Bread Co., before it was taken over by Panera. They weren’t interested in being on campus because we couldn’t guarantee them a minimum sales amount.”
These discussions took place approximately four or five years ago.
According to Hoffner, bringing in other third party food providers is possible, but the final decision is in the hands of the provider.
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