Student Life Archives

In U.S. News & World Report rankings released August 20th at 12:01 a.m., Washington University dropped one place from a tie for ninth with Dartmouth College to a tie for 11th with Northwestern University among the 248 national universities rated. In the “best value” category, however, the University moved up two notches to #12.

The U.S. News undergraduate rankings are derived by taking peer assessments from university chancellors, provosts and admissions deans, along with data gathered from each institution, and breaking it all down into categories. These categories are then weighted to reflect those qualities that the magazine deems most important.

To find out more, visit studlife.com again later, or check out the first issue of Student Life when it hits newsstands next Friday.

Margaret Bauer

Washington University began the 2003-2004 academic year-its 150th year-with the announcement that the University had risen in rank to hold a spot as the ninth best undergraduate program in the country according to U.S. News & World Report. This was the University’s first appearance in the top ten. The School of Engineering & Applied Science rose to No. 38 in the nation, while the Olin School of Business held its spot at No. 14 in the rankings. In other highlights:

* The Sesquicentennial Celebration, commemorating the University’s 150th anniversary, brought approximately 20,000 students, faculty and community members to campus for over 200 festive events. Chancellor “Magic Mark” Wrighton wowed students and younger children alike with his Magic Show, and University alumnus Ted Drewes created a special “SesQuete”-flavored frozen custard to celebrate the event.

* To many students’ dismay, they attended the University’s first keg-free WILD in the fall, watching Busta Rhymes perform. Live was the spring headliner.

* An October strike at local grocery stores, including Schnucks, had some students protesting outside, while others crossed picket lines to get their groceries. Student Union provided new shuttle routes that took students to Straub’s for their shopping needs during the 25-day strike.

* The Student Worker Alliance (SWA) formed in October in response to the deportation of 36 Nicaraguan custodians. While the return of the workers still remains uncertain, the SWA has widened its mission to pursue the implementation of a living wage on campus through events such as the “Boot the Bell” campaign against Taco Bell and a rally on the steps of Brookings Hall that brought in activists from throughout the St. Louis community.

* Student Health and Counseling Services (SHCS) welcomed new Director Alan Glass after former Director Laurie Rietman retired. SHCS is also considering plans for a new home on the South 40 in the future. James McLeod, vice chancellor for students and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, announced the possible move to a yet-to-be-decided location closer to student housing.

* In November, Chancellor Wrighton announced that the University would host one of the presidential debates during the fall of 2004. The administration has already started preparing for the debate on Oct. 8, 2004, recruiting student volunteers and laying out plans for the debate on the basis of the University’s experience hosting debates in 1992 and 2000. The Oct. 8 Coalition, a student group created with the goal of shedding light on issues not being discussed in the debate, formed in reaction to the University’s selection as a debate host.

* In local politics, two University faculty members announced that they would vie for the seat of former Missouri Congressman Dick Gephardt. Jeff Smith, an adjunct professor in University College, and Mark Smith, associate dean of students in the School of Law, are competing for the Democratic nomination in the 3rd District.

* Thomas Friedman drew a crowd that filled the University’s Athletic Complex for his speech about the war against Iraq as part of the Assembly Series. Friedman, a columnist for the New York Times, returned to campus in May to give the commencement address for the graduating class of 2004.

* Students also had a chance to hear a voice from the political right when the Conservative Leadership Association (CLA) brought author Ann Coulter to campus for the Assembly Series. Earlier in the year the CLA also sponsored a lecture about the hypocrisy of society and the pitfalls of liberalism given by WWF wrestler Ultimate Warrior.

* Construction on and off campus has been an inconvenience to many students but yielded many developments. The renovated Olin Library, which has been three years in the making, opened its doors on May 7. Along with more obvious changes to the building’s outer surfaces, changes inside include a new 24-hour caf‚ and the Arc technology center.

* As library construction drew to a close, the building of the $56.8 million-dollar Sam Fox Arts Center commenced. The Arts Center, located in the parking lot east of Brookings Hall, is set to open in the spring of 2006 and will serve as a center for fine arts.

* Residents of the Village and those living on Washington Avenue woke up daily to early morning construction on the MetroLink expansion. The project, with an expected completion date in 2006, will add MetroLink stops at Forsyth Avenue and Skinker Boulevard.

* The University women’s volleyball team captured its eighth national championship this year. The women clinched the title in a 3-0 win over New York University, finishing out their season with a 28-game winning streak.

* Tuition increases announced at the beginning of the spring semester bring the total cost of attending the University to over $40,000 per year. Undergraduate tuition rose $1,400 (4.9 percent) to $29,700 for the 2004-2005 school year. The cost of living in a double room in a new residence hall with a full meal plan rose to $10,292, bringing the total cost of attending the University to $40,838.

* Direct Connect, a hub-based student file-sharing program, was shut down during the spring semester after the administration became aware of it. Students reacted to the administration’s action by forming an impromptu 4:00 a.m rally outside of Umrath Residence Hall. The Hatch, a student band, performed until University police intervened to stop its set. Letters regarding student file-sharing activity on Direct Connect and the possible consequences have yet to be distributed.

* Revisions to the Ervin Scholar Program, which opened the traditionally African-American scholarship to students of all races, brought controversy to the University’s campus. Many current Ervin Scholars saw this change as an end to the community and support system that the program had traditionally provided. While the University decided to revise the program in response to pressure from the U.S. Department of Education, revisions have yet to be made to the Annika Rodriguez Scholarship program for Latin American students or the Chancellor’s Graduate Fellowship program for African-American graduate students.

The year also ended with controversy, with the surfacing of videotapes and photographs displaying questionable behavior at the Sigma Chi fraternity. The materials, which showed fraternity brothers and pledges dunking their heads in freezing water and throwing beer cans at each other during sexually-charged skits, were published in Student Life. In response to the incidents, the University evicted the fraternity from its house for a period of at least two years.

Margaret Bauer

Though I’ve never met you, I feel obligated to tell you something that you might not want to hear: chances are, you were probably lied to on your admissions tour when you visited Washington University. Not about the really big things of course, and nothing was spread with malicious intent. There are some little tidbits that were likely passed along to you as fact, however, when in actuality they are not true.

In case you haven’t had a chance to talk with those in the know, here is the truth behind a few of the current “WUmors” floating around campus.

Chancellor Mark Wrighton and the glow-stick conspiracy theory

For example, you very likely heard that Chancellor Mark Wrighton has a patent for glow-sticks or something involved in their production. This rumor may have been encouraged by the vast quantities of glow-sticks handed out at Convocation every August. (You’ll see-there are thousands of them.)

Our “Magic Mark” is, indeed, a chemist, and he does hold 14 patents. Much of his research has involved photochemistry. However, the research in chemiluminescence that led to the glow-stick’s creation was carried out by other chemists in the early 1960s, when Wrighton was still in high school.

Eliot Hall and the incontestable architectural award

Something else you may have heard is that drab concrete Eliot Hall (not the new dorm of that name, nor the old high-rise dorm, but the home of the political science and economics departments) cannot be torn down because it won an architectural award, sometimes specifically claimed to be an award for “best use of concrete.” (Or even referred to as the Noble Prize of Architecture-which does not even exist.)

While the building has received architectural acclaim, this would not prevent the University from tearing the building down. Eliot was built in the late 1960s and dedicated in 1974, and was designed to have a modern and bare look along with the then-new Law School building nearby, Mudd Hall. Mudd was soon found be too small for the Law School, and the combination of this and its widely panned look resulted in the Law School’s move to a newer building in 1996, and Mudd’s consequent demolition in 1998.

Eliot sticks out dramatically among the many red-granite-adorned buildings that surround it and remains the University’s clear priority for demolition on main campus-but don’t be surprised if the building outlasts your days at the University.

Absent sorority houses and the anti-brothel campaign

One substantial aspect of campus life that was probably brushed over on your tour are the fraternity houses, both on “frat row” and “below the row.” These do indeed exist, and if that was mentioned at all then you may have heard that there is some law prohibiting sorority houses or other arrangements in which many women live together, on the theory that such a location might technically be considered a brothel.

According to Karin Johnes, director of Greek Life at the University, this is an “urban legend,” and a few years ago the campus’ sororities were asked if they wanted to have houses. There was no interest expressed because many sorority members appreciate the flexibility of being able to live with friends outside their own sorority. The substantial bureaucratic hassles that go along with having a house were seen as another drawback.

Each sorority does have a home on campus, though, in suites in the aptly named Women’s Building.

South 40 housing and the nuclear waste reservoir

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, and the University used the cyclotron to create short half-life isotopes.

According to Fred Volkmann, vice chancellor for public affairs, the half-life isotopes “were used primarily at the medical school for patient care and treatment.”

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. Once again, no traces of radioactive residue were found.

Now you know some facts that some upperclassmen don’t know-and apparently things even some tour guides don’t know!

-With additional reporting by Emily Tobias

Margaret Bauer

In the coming months, most attention from presidential campaigns will likely focus on the “battleground states”-states that political pundits do not consider safely held by either major party. Missouri, carrying eleven electoral votes, is fifth largest among the 17 battleground states. Washington University students, who have the option of registering as Missouri voters, may elect to register locally instead of in their home states in order to participate in a closer election.

Sophomore Veshal Malhotra plans to register to vote in Missouri instead of his solidly Republican home state of Oklahoma. He feels that his vote will be more valuable in a swing state.

“I think the fact that local voter registration efforts successfully target students here shows that the campus is looking forward to the election,” Malhotra said.

Junior Hiroki Motokubota sees the attitude on campus differently.

“I don’t know many people that are excited about voting, and we usually don’t talk about the election,” he said.

Motokubota explained that many people he knows feel that this presidential race is particularly distant.

“Many of my friends keep up on politics by television or the Internet, and although they know the general positions of the candidates, I think they have a difficult time grasping how it affects them directly,” he said.

College students as a demographic are characterized by historically low voter turnout.

At the national level, pundits often refer to Missouri as a bellwether for the rest of the country, as Missouri has gone for the eventual winner of every presidential election since 1900 except one. This predictive capacity is matched by no other state in the country.

In fact, Missouri accurately mirrors nationwide politics on several levels.ÿNumerically, there are almost the exact same number of Democratic voters as Republican, just as at the national level.

Missouri went for George W. Bush in the 2000 election by a small margin; Bush received 50 percent of the vote, while Gore received 47 percent.

While current polls show a close race between Bush and Kerry, some political pundits are predicting that Kerry will have a tough time taking the state in November.

Geographically, Missouri breaks down into Democratic-leaning enclaves around St. Louis and Kansas City and Republican-leaning rural areas between. Since the 2000 election, the population of the St. Louis and Kansas City areas has declined in relation to that of the rural areas, and the GOP currently controls both branches of the state legislature.

While many speculated that Missouri Congressman Dick Gephardt was on Kerry’s short list of Vice Presidential hopefuls, the selection of South Carolina Senator John Edwards for that spot could make Kerry’s work in Missouri more difficult. Speculation regarding the vice presidential selection has often focused on the potential of a candidate to lock up a battleground state, as Governor Tom Vilsack of Iowa might have done for his home state, for instance.

Some pundits question if Gephardt would have been of any help to Kerry in Missouri, however, as Gephardt ran from the comfortably Democratic Third Congressional District in St. Louis. Having never faced a statewide election, Gephardt is seen by some Missouri voters as a national, rather than Missouri, Democrat. In contrast to the national party, the Democratic Party in Missouri favors pro-life and pro-gun positions.

Gubernatorial race of importance in presidential race

Of the eleven gubernatorial elections to be held this November, the Missouri race-in which incumbent Democrat Bob Holden faces stiff competition from both within his own party as well as GOP Secretary of State Matt Blunt-could become the most watched nationally.

Political watchers are hoping that the tone of the gubernatorial race could give an indication of the state’s leaning in the presidential race. When Holden won narrowly in 2000, his victory represented the first time in 32 years that Missouri had not elected a governor of the same Party as the presidential candidate that carried the state.

“I would say it’s very important to Kerry’s success that I be successful,” Holden said in a recent ABC News report.

Republican lawmakers have often been in conflict with Holden during his tenure, overriding his veto three times last year. Before then, there had only been a total of three veto overrides in Missouri since the Civil War.

Holden is also facing hardships within his current campaign. The inability to implement his campaign platform has worked against him, and his leadership has also come under attack from within his own party.

State Auditor Claire McCaskill, the leading Democrat running against Holden in the primary, calls Holden’s leadership “disappointing” on her Web site (www.claireonline.com) and has also attacked Holden’s accountability and direction.

A late June poll of likely voters indicates a 51 percent to 39 percent lead for Holden over McCaskill in the primary race, with a margin of error of 4.7 percent.

Margaret Bauer

Though the University’s newest eatery officially opened to students May 10, many never got the chance to explore the new hang-out before taking final exams (which ended May 13) and moving out for the summer.

However, according to Rick Turner, director of operations for Bon App‚tit food services, opening Whispers Caf‚ late in the academic year was an intentional part of the plan to ensure that it will be operating smoothly by this fall.

As Turner explained, the caf‚ is remaining open during the summer months, and this period of slower activity is allowing the staff to become acclimated to operations.

The addition of the cafe was part of the renovation to Olin Library and represents one of the major changes to campus food service in the upcoming year.

Whispers Caf‚ will serve coffee, baked goods, grab-and-go snacks and other coffee-shop style items similar to those already available in the Hilltop Bakery.

According to Steve Hoffner, assistant vice chancellor of students, many major universities have popular coffee shops in their libraries. Hoffner expressed optimism that the cafe would be well received and would provide a new service to students.

“Whispers [Caf‚] will provide another opportunity for students to study, socialize and discuss with the convenience of food service in the same area,” he said.

Turner speculated that students might visit the cafe to relax between classes or use it as an alternative to the often-congested Holmes Lounge. He also expects the caf‚ to go over well with students in University College, who are often on campus during the evening hours when regular dining facilities are closed.

Margaret Bauer

The neon orange fencing and construction machinery that congested the walkways surrounding Olin Library this spring-and turned the quaint building into an eyesore for visiting prospective freshmen-are finally absent, affirming that Olin’s three-year renovation project has come to an end.

Washington University celebrated the completion of this project in style on May 7 with a fitting grand-scale rededication ceremony. Held beneath a pavilion erected in front of the library entrance, the ceremony featured a number of speakers including Chancellor Mark Wrighton, Chancellor Emeritus William Danforth, and Vice Chancellor for Information and Technology Shirley Baker. Before several hundred faculty, staff, students, and financial contributors, each speaker reflected on the grand scope of the renovation project and Olin’s transformation into a state-of-the-art facility.

Olin Library was first opened in 1963 to wide approval, but, as Chancellor Wrighton explained, was in need of an update before the current renovations began in May 2001.

Executive Vice Chancellor Edward Macias, who served as master of ceremonies for the rededication, agreed with the Chancellor’s remarks on the necessity of the renovation.

“Learning and scholarship are what we do here at the University, so it is important to have a strong library to serve our distinguished faculty and students,” he said.

Outside the library entrance, a new statue of George Washington stands as a reminder of the University’s namesake and the principles for which he stood. Macias formally dedicated the statue to former Board of Trustees Chairman William Van Cleve, who provided remarkable leadership for the University during his long tenure. Van Cleve passed away in February of last year.

In his keynote address at the rededication, former Harvard University President Neil Rudenstine described the Olin renovation as “a symbol to all institutions of higher education of what can and should be done.” Rudenstine also explained that modern research libraries comprise a critical element of a university’s academic environment.

“The lines between teaching, studying, and research have been blurred,” he said. “Now we have a much more dynamic vision of learning that would not be possible without the expansion of research libraries.”

Rudenstine lauded the University for its ambition and commitment to this vision, noting the difficulty of attracting donations for unglamorous projects such as building renovations. In good humor, he noted that not many donors’ hearts race at the chance to have their name on the library’s shiny new storage shelves.

English professor Wayne Fields placed the ceremony in perspective by relating the values that George Washington held to the academic goals of the University community.

The University was founded, Fields noted, during a period of great political tension. With Southern states speaking of secession and racial tension threatening to tear the country apart, the University’s founders chose a figure of singular national respect for their namesake. Despite the name’s geographic ambiguity, Washington was chosen for the unity and leadership he embodied, in hopes of “borrowing his ambition to assert his values as a statement of our own.”

Macias said it was fitting that a statue of our University’s namesake should be featured so prominently at the entrance of the literal and figurative heart of the academic campus.

Baker, who led the renovation project, thanked those who had contributed financially to the project and the library staff for their good nature during the sometimes-trying work. She explained that Olin Library houses some 1.2 million books, and each was moved to a new location in the updated organizational scheme. Some books were moved two or even three times, and computer recorders had to be updated following each move so that the library could remain open and functional during the renovation.

The tour following the formal ceremony allowed the general public into the newly created Whispers Caf‚ area. The caf‚ is one of the major additions to the library, giving students a place to socialize, relax or buy food and coffee.