Student Life Archives

Maybe it’s because I’m foreign and, though I’ve lived in this country for the vast majority of my life, I still take pride in my heritage. Or maybe it’s because I’m an international studies major and I like learning about different countries and cultures. Whatever the reason, I consider myself very culturally aware. Sometimes I am na‹ve enough to believe that the people around me attending one of the top ten universities in the nation are as sensitive to other cultures as I am. Unfortunately that is not necessarily true.

I came to this rude awakening a couple of days ago while reading an article written by a conservative Washington University student. Although I am not conservative-in fact, I am rather left-leaning-I can respect the point of view of conservatives. Hence the reason I was reading the article in the first place. Now, I don’t have a problem with people speaking their minds or with people being ignorant. The problem lies when both are combined in an atrocious piece of “respectable” argument. Derogatory references to immigrants or anyone should not be acceptable. You would think that after years of controversy on this issue, it would be taken into consideration in campus discourse.

It seems that whenever something goes wrong in this country and a foreigner is involved, Americans tend to blame the incident on the person who has an accent or an unpronounceable name. I don’t know about you, but the vast majority of unpleasant incidents that have occurred in my life have involved people who spoke English as a first language and were born in this country. Many people seem to want to forget the fact that this nation was not founded by people native to this country. Yes, that’s right: George Washington, the University’s namesake, descended from immigrants.

Or maybe people haven’t forgotten. Has anyone else noticed that when people begin complaining about immigration and immigrants in general, the complaints focus around the same topic (lack of ability to speak the English language) and the same people (non-European immigrants)? The fact is that Americans expect the rest of the world to be able to speak English, while not making any effort to learn other languages themselves. I know many people at this school will take offense to what I’ve just said, but the truth is that very few Americans speak more than one language, compared to the amount of people who do in the rest of the world.

That brings me to my second point. I almost never hear people complaining about immigrants from Europe. The bulk of complaints are against what my Japanese friend would call “people of color” (meaning Asians, Africans, Latinos, etc.). I am not saying that people who complain about foreigners are racist, but I am suggesting that maybe it’s easier for them to accept immigrants who look like their societal representation of the norm.

Immigrants are an integral part of this society. Every day people who have found a home in America are helping this nation become greater, whether in the technological arena or in wishing you a pleasant shopping experience at Wal-Mart. Immigrants enrich American society and the University by giving back to these communities in numerous and varied ways. In addition, American and campus culture (yes, such things do exist) are made all the more colorful and unique by all the different cultural influences found in this nation. It’s about time people started being a little more appreciative of immigrants.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not writing this article to get a rise out of people. That is the last thing I want. The ultimate goal of this article is to get people to think. Maybe next time you or someone you know complains about a foreigner that has chosen to make this country their home, you will think back to what you have read here.

So far in his tenure in office, President Bush has waged war on two countries, created a record budget deficit, and scaled back the civil liberties of the American people to an unprecedented level. But instead of writing a diatribe on the Bush administration, I want to focus on his latest disgraceful act. This came on Monday, when President Bush sidestepped the democratic process and appointed Daniel Pipes to the U.S. Institute for Peace. Pipes’ nomination to the post was supposed to have been voted on by a Senate confirmation committee, but instead President Bush used his executive power to appoint Pipes while the Senate was in recess, thus avoiding a Senate vote.

So who is Daniel Pipes? A so-called Middle East scholar, Daniel Pipes promotes racism and bigotry against Arabs and Muslims, and applauds war and violence in the Middle East. This is the man Bush deemed worthy of appointment to the government’s leading peace think-tank.

Dubbed by the Council on American-Islamic Relations as “the nation’s leading Islamaphobe,” Pipes is an enemy of freedom and tolerance. In the past, he has made extremist statements such as, “The presence and increased stature, and affluence, and the enfranchisement of American Muslims…will present true dangers to American Jews” (from an address to the American Jewish Committee, October 21, 2001). Pipes also claims that 10 to 15 percent of Muslims are militant, and that all Muslims are suspects. He advocates close monitoring of all Muslim police officers and government officials as potential terrorists.

In addition to his attack on Muslims, Pipes has waged a one-man war against the Palestinian people, urging Israel to forego diplomacy and use extreme force to break the Palestinians once and for all. He writes, “Israel needs to take more active steps…Bury the suicide bombers in potters’ fields rather than deliver their bodies to relatives…Permit no transportation of people or goods beyond basic necessities…Shut off utilities to the Palestinian Authority” (National Post, July 18, 2001). His statements encouraging inhumane treatment of the Palestinians convey his racist and backward views. He says, “Palestinians need almost as much to be defeated by Israel as Israel needs to defeat them” (Jerusalem Post, April 25, 2001). He opposes any negotiations or peace talks, unlike President Bush, who pledged support for a “road map” to peace.

Lastly, Pipes’ racism hits close to home with his current attack on academic freedom in universities around the nation. About a year ago, Pipes founded a project called Campus Watch, which monitors Middle Eastern Studies departments and professors for what it deems anti-Israel sentiments with accompanying paranoia and political persecution that smacks of McCarthyism. Campus Watch compiles lists of professors who, according to its original mission statement, “fan the flames of disinformation, incitement and ignorance.”

Pipes is a man who advocates racism and discrimination against Arabs and Muslims, a man who opposes peace and justice between Palestinians and Israelis. Instead of being honored with a presidential appointment, this man should be publicly denounced by Americans who value freedom (specifically academic freedom) and democracy (an integral part of which is respect for diversity). Since this presidential administration has proven unwilling to take a principled stand for tolerance and respect, it is up to academic institutions like Washington University to make it clear that they stand up for these values.

In many ways, I am excited to be back on the Washington University campus. While seeing my friends and enjoying the fine cuisine of Bear’s Den (particularly the chicken quesadillas) are two of the many reasons I was eagerly awaiting my arrival in St. Louis, the main one is to return to the simple pleasure of college life joys I have come to recognize and cherish after spending a summer working harder and learning more than I ever have before.

Now, my experience as an intern on Wall Street might be atypical of most summer jobs. While I did become proficient at answering three different phone lines at once, making runs down the street for bagel sandwiches, and printing endless copies of reports, I was also given actual projects to work on that were being used by my managers with their clients on a day-to-day basis. Furthermore, I was thrust into the trading floor at one of the top firms-a place comparable to the monkey house at the zoo, minus the bars.

There I saw grown men throw Nerf footballs around like they were back on the elementary school playground while yelling all kinds of obscenities into the phone and at each other. The energy was intoxicating, and I think I’ve found my calling in life, but I did not think the hours would be quite so long or that people actually worked quite so hard at their jobs.

Most days my alarm was buzzing at 5:45 a.m., and after braving the crowded subway and walking past vendors hawking t-shirts and other bric-a-brac tourists in New York seem to crave, I was sitting at my desk drinking the first of many cups of coffee at 7:00 a.m. No day at my job was ever the same, and each offered me the opportunity to listen, learn, meet some incredibly smart and witty people and do all sorts of interesting things with Microsoft Excel.

Lunch was a quick sprint up to the cafeteria (which I never actually had the opportunity to eat in) and back down to the floor, where I gobbled my food at my desk. Up until the stock market closed, everything moved at a breakneck pace, and even after the bell sounded at 4:00 p.m., things were still busy. Finally, I headed out the door at 7:00 p.m. at the latest, and after stopping for dinner, picking up dry cleaning, and other such errands, I collapsed at home-tired, hot and counting down the hours until I would do it all again.

Basically, work is work-there’s really no play involved while you’re at the office. On the other hand, college is a giant playground of opinions and experiences. At Washington University, I definitely have my fair share of work, projects, and 15-page papers to write, but there’s always a social element to many events. Whether in a study group or an extracurricular activity, there are always people actively engaged in the exchange of ideas. Sometimes a job can lack this form of academic debate and energy, proving that the divide between college and a career is often greater than one would imagine.

For the most part, you move at your own pace in college. No one makes you go to class or study. I suppose you could adopt the same attitude towards a job, but most likely you would quickly become friends with the people at the unemployment office instead of being put on the fast track in your chosen career. If you fail a test, for the most part you are the only one who suffers. If you make a mistake on the job, millions of dollars could be lost and other people could be adversely affected by your decisions.

In essence, college can give you the tools needed to think critically in a fast moving world, but it does not exactly prepare you for a work environment. This past summer proved to be a great learning experience because I’ve realized that in a “real” job, there’s no sleeping until the late afternoon or extended lunch breaks; no deep conversations about war, politics, or religion over coffee; and no watching endless hours of “Blind Date,” ” Elimidate,” or “Dismissed” on cable.

While at the University, I have done and will continue to do many of these things; only now I will appreciate them more and realize that they will not continue indefinitely. Because next time I try this work thing, it won’t just be about the summer-a full time offer will be in order.

I am hopping mad at the network outages this past week. It’s not that I was heavily inconvenienced-it was difficult communicating with my family, getting my work done, staying on top of all my commitments, and fixing my mysteriously not-working computer-it was that the whole outage was entirely preventable.

ResTech wouldn’t comment on the cause of the outage, but my RA posted signs throughout my building saying that the culprit was the abundance of WU computers infected with a worm or virus. A worm is basically a virus that spreads without user action. Viruses piggyback on an existing program and only function when that program is executed; worms have no such need, according to Microsoft’s security glossary (www.microsoft.com/security/glossary).

To even register for network access, ResTech checked for vulnerability to the Blaster worm. If you were vulnerable, or even if you had to patch your computer. This was a laudable step on ResTech’s part. The threat that led to ResTech’s shut down students’ network connections was the Welchia worm. As of this writing, it is the number-two virus threat, according to Symantec’s Security Response (securityresponse.symantec.com). Interestingly, there is no warning about Welchia on ResTech’s home page.

Welchia was discovered on August 18. It spreads by exploiting two security holes in newer Windows operating systems. The worm does have a beneficial side. It attempts to fix one of the holes, also utilized by the Blaster worm, by downloading the appropriate patch from Windows Update. It also attempts to remove Blaster from the computer if present. These facts suggest an anti-Blaster mission. However, it also floods other computers with ping requests (essentially, a computer asking another “Are you there?”), possibly overloading the network.

This is a serious security threat, but the world has seen similar pests before. What blew this worm into a monstrous problem at Washington University was ignorance and irresponsibility. Virus definition files from Symantec, released the same day the worm was identified, could have protected every computer from Welchia. You didn’t even need to download the new definitions file yourself; Norton Anti-Virus has a feature that allows it to automatically update itself. It was students’ complete lack of concern for computer security that caused this worm to spread here.

A similar scenario happened with Blaster. The vulnerability that enabled this worm was fixed almost a month before the worm was born. Had people spent five minutes a week updating their software (in this case, Windows), Blaster would have been a non-issue. Or, for the truly lazy or forgetful, you can have Windows automatically update itself, so you never have to worry about missing a critical patch.

I can see no reason why users shouldn’t take responsibility for securing their computers. First, ignorance is no excuse; these threats are well-publicized in the media, particularly on the Internet. Also, ResTech itself is informative and helpful. They offer Norton Anti-virus as a free download from their website and encourage students to use and update it. Finally, it does not take great effort or time to protect oneself. It can even be done for you!

There is an even better, more foolproof way to immunize yourself from these viruses: don’t use a Windows PC. The vast majority of security exploits and viruses only affect Windows machines. Microsoft has been notorious for releasing buggy and unsafe code in the past. It is usually playing catch-up to keep Windows safe as new threats are identified.

With this in mind, why did the University invest in Windows PC’s? Macintoshes are unaffected by virtually every major security threat. Additionally, Macs are much easier to use and more reliable, key features for the majority of users who (as recently demonstrated) don’t want to be bothered by computer maintenance and just want the computer to work. Given a predominantly Macintosh community, and the University’s support of Macintosh, students would be motivated to buy Macs for themselves. Not only would this have immunized the University network from the recent threats, it would also have lightened Residential Computing Coordinators’ workloads during move-in as students’ machines would need less troubleshooting. Lower maintenance costs would also be realized on University-owned computers.

Given today’s climate of new security threats being reported daily, we all need to be extra-cautious with our computers to ensure that we are not seriously inconvenienced by worms, viruses, etc. Set your security and anti-virus programs in Windows to automatically update or take responsibility for frequent manual updates. Or solve the core problem and stop using Windows altogether.

On the timeline of an average freshman year, move-in day stands out as one of the most frenzied and stressful events. It’s hot, chaotic, and there is never enough space or time for everything that must be bought, built or hung. It is easy, then, to imagine how much harder the day becomes when three people are expected to fit into a room designed for two.

Unfortunately, this was the experience for a number of freshmen this past week. An unusual number of incoming students were placed in dorm rooms that many refer to as “forced triples”-three people living in a room intended to be used as a double. Lien, Danforth and University House are all rooming three freshmen in rooms that would otherwise be considered doubles.

While no one’s freshman year will be less of an experience simply for having had an extra roommate, it is certainly inconvenient that overcrowding is now a serious issue on the South 40. When prospective freshmen visit Washington University, they are told that every room comes equipped with a bed, desk, dresser, closet, bookshelf and Ethernet access for each occupant. For those now crammed into forced triples, such promises have not entirely been kept.

Currently, forced triples have two Ethernet connections, so students are forced to alternate Internet access between individual computers. Residential Technology Services-which was unaware until recently that triple rooms would exist in buildings where they previously had not-estimates that they will have “split” connections by the end of the week, adding the third Ethernet connection to forced triple rooms. This means that occupants of doubles-turned-triples will endure their first week of classes without consistent Internet access.

In addition, double rooms were built with only two closets, so stand-alone closets were brought in. Add an extra piece of furniture into a double room that already contains three beds, desks, dressers and bookshelves, and the result is an incredibly cramped living environment.

In its ongoing efforts to climb the college rankings and attract the best and the brightest, the University must not forget about the needs of those who actually attend school here. For students who can’t check their e-mail or hang all their clothes, a top ten ranking is meaningless. Every freshman who turned in his or her housing on time-that includes the vast majority-is owed what was promised.