Friday, April 27

Senior Sculpture Show

Come support your seniors at the annual sculpture show, hosted by the Washington University sculpture department, at the Des Lee Gallery. It is open from 6-8 p.m. today and from 6-9 p.m. Saturday. The show will feature performance, installation, video, drawing, and of course, sculpture. The Gallery is located on 1627 Washington Avenue.

Saturday, April 28

3-on-3 Basketball Tournament

Shoot some hoops on the Swamp in a charity tournament hosted by Lambda Sigma sophomore honor society. All proceeds go to the Ronald McDonald House. The event will have enough McDonald’s food to feed 150 people. For teams of 3-4 girls/guys, the entry fee is $2 per person. Prizes include one free month of tanning, 2 yoga classes, a $25 gift certificate to Fitz’s and two tickets to Six Flags. The action starts at 2 p.m. and ends at 4 p.m.

Aspen Santa Fe Ballet

This dance troupe, described as a contemporary American ballet company with a European flavor, will perform at Edison Theater Saturday at 8 p.m. and at 2 p.m. on Sunday. The event is co-presented with Dance St. Louis. Tickets are $18 for students, $25 for faculty and staff and can be purchased at Edison Box Office.

Sam Jam benefit concert

Local blues guitarist Rich McDonough is performing at this benefit concert hosted by Sigma Alpha Mu (Sammy) fraternity. The live music takes place from 1-4 p.m. on the Sammy porch, located at House #1. All proceeds will benefit the Alzheimers Association.

Sunday, April 29

“Strings for the Stringless” benefit concert

Sponsored by the Alliance of Students Against Poverty, the sweet sounds of classical music will fill Brown Hall from 6:30-9:00 p.m. The event will feature the music of Dmitri Shostakovich, Edvard Grieg, Franz Schubert, Antonin Dvorak and Bela Bartok. A reception will follow. All money donated will go to Feed St. Louis, St. Patrick’s Center, Gateway Homeless services and Helping Hands. $3 is the suggested donation.

Representatives from 20 premier universities in Asia and the Middle East are coming to Washington University as part of the International Symposium on Energy and Environment May 4-7. The goals of the symposium are to develop a global network and to focus on challenging issues in the 21st century.

Sponsored by the McDonnell International Scholars Academy, which attracts talented international students to graduate school, the event also hopes to establish long-term bonds for the sake of research.

Fifty faculty members will be coming in all, including 12 university presidents.

“This is the first time a group of premier universities are together in one place anywhere in the world to talk about energy and the environment,” said James Wertsch, director of the McDonnell International Scholars Academy. “There are many different research programs that often times don’t know about each other. Part of the issue is getting a world-class group of researchers together and saying, ‘Oh, I never knew you were working on that.'”

In an increasingly globalized world, the University has put emphasis on cementing bonds between international universities.

“Every university president is talking about how to become an international university, but nobody knows exactly what this means or how to do it,” he said. “Sending students abroad is one good thing, and so is opening up campuses in other countries. That’s a way of building ties with other institutions.”

Pratim Biswas, a professor of environmental engineering science, is head of the scientific side of the symposium. Biswas is also working on implementing many ideas to foster these global relationships.

“We will collectively address what are important environmental and energy issues universities face today,” he said. “We will identify what they need to do with regard to education, research, policy and sustainable campuses.”

Biswas identified four central topics to be discussed-aerosol and air quality, water resources, energy and environmental education. He stressed three questions that accompany each topic, including identifying important issues, finding the strengths of each university and figuring out how the universities can form a multilateral team to address these issues.

Key speakers addressing these issues will include former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Thomas R. Pickering, Monsanto Company Chairman Hugh Grant and National Academy of Sciences President Ralph J. Cicerone.

Biswas also discussed his plan to expand an existing environmental and energy education Web site created for the symposium, www.eeed.wustl.edu. The site contains a listing of classes offered by the 20 partner schools of the Academy and groups them by topic. He ultimately wants the courses’ content and professors’ research to be made available to everyone.

“We can then start a discussion group and promote interaction,” he said. “I’m most excited about the educational aspects. Also, what do we do in the future? How do we reach students at other schools? Technology has a big role to play.”

In conjunction with this theme, Biswas hopes to have classrooms with the ability to connect with partner universities via satellite in the new buildings for energy, environment and chemical engineering set to be built.

The McDonnell Academy, founded in 2005, currently has 16 partner universities in Asia and four in the Middle East, including Turkey and Israel. The Academy formed these partnerships based on what made the most sense for the University, according to Wertsch.

However, Wertsch anticipates having 30-35 partnership institutions by next year and moving into other regions like Latin America and Eastern Europe. He also plans on having 30 Academy scholars for next year, increased from the 18 that participated this year.

The sessions and speeches will open for everyone to attend. The full program schedule can found by navigating through www.mcdonnell.wustl.edu.

Scott Bressler

Dean Mary Sansalone presented a detailed version of her plan to modernize the engineering school on Wednesday evening at a forum sponsored by the Engineering Council.

Sansalone’s “Plan for Excellence” was unveiled during the fall semester, causing some controversy within the engineering community.

During her presentation, Sansalone outlined the elements of and motivations for several major changes set to occur over the next several years.

“Dean Sansalone is developing plans for the future that will guide our investments, guide our programs, guide our recruiting activities and will position us to meet the many challenges that will face us throughout this century,” said Chancellor Mark Wrighton, who spoke at the start of the forum.

The changes include efforts to decrease the student-to-faculty ratio, reorganize the academic departments and add Writing I as a requirement for all engineering students.

Sansalone explained that, in comparison with other peer institutions, the School of Engineering has a relatively high undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio.

Sansalone announced that this ratio would be reduced to 10 to 1 by 2010, from its current level of 13 to 1, through the hiring of several new faculty members and the reduction of the undergraduate engineering class size from 285 to 235.

“The advantage of this is that each student then gets more personal attention. There are more opportunities for many of [them] to work in research labs or to work in projects with faculty,” said Sansalone.

Although 60 percent of University undergraduate engineers engage in some type of research, Sansalone said that there are currently not enough available opportunities to accommodate all requests.

Also, beginning next semester, Writing 1 will be required for engineers.

In an interview following the presentation, Sansalone noted the importance of writing skills for engineers.

“Engineering graduates lag behind in terms of writing ability, so we would obviously like to address that in the undergraduate curriculum,” she said.

Another change involves the elimination of many adjunct faculty positions; some of the eliminated positions will be changed to full-time lecturers. Accreditation teams that visited the University this past fall suggested that, due to the small size of the school, there was too broad of a focus and that there were too many part-time faculty members.

Sansalone justified the move, saying, “One of the issues with adjuncts is when they’re part-time and they come on the campus and they leave, they’re not here to advise you, to have you in their lab doing undergrad research, and to do all the things full-time faculty do.”

The school will also be focusing on several new research ventures that will be part of the school’s increased emphasis on serving society and assisting national and international needs in health care, poverty, energy and the environment. Some new research areas include more efficient sources of energy and neural engineering.

“Energy is one of the most important challenges that our country faces,” said Wrighton. “And arguably, in as much as energy and the environment are inextricably linked, this set of issues will be confronting us for a good long while.”

The presentation culminated in plans for a new engineering complex on the northeastern side of campus. The new buildings would be constructed around Whitaker Hall and in the surrounding parking lot. The school has not finalized plans for these buildings yet.

According to Sansalone, many of the changes to the school came about due to student interest, especially through speaking with student groups like EnCouncil.

Despite concerns over the availability of some upper-level electives and over the growing trend towards more specific areas of research, many students left the meeting feeling more optimistic about her plans.

“I think that it’s rough because everyone is not used to this big change, but I think that overall her goals are well intentioned and that I think she’s moving in the right direction,” said Liz Campbell, a junior chemical engineer. “I think that juniors and seniors and sophomores are worried because they’re not necessarily getting the benefits that she’s projecting, but I think overall it’s the best thing for Wash. U.”

Even as many students report being unaware of the student health insurance plan, the Student Health Fee, a mandatory fee that covers the insurance plan, will experience a three percent rise in cost next year.

For the 2007-2008 academic school year, the Student Health Fee will rise to $697 from this year’s cost of $660.

According to Debra Harp, this rise is moderate. Nationally, the cost of health insurance has been rising 14% each year. The cost of student health insurance at the University has not greatly changed since the inception of the program plan in 2001.

“We constantly monitor the cost of insurance. We want to make sure it doesn’t go up,” said Harp.

All undergraduate students and full-time graduates students are automatically enrolled in the student health insurance plan upon academic enrollment. The plan is operated by the Lewer Agency and allows students to use providers within the Great West healthcare network.

“Some students were sick but didn’t want to seek healthcare because they couldn’t afford it. This put other students at risk,” said Harp.

In comparison to other colleges, the University offers a cheaper insurance plan. Among the reasons for the University plan’s affordability is that students are not required to pay a deductible. The University plan automatically covers 80 percent of medical bills.

“Our premiums are extremely low. Premiums at most other comparable universities would run at anywhere to $1100-1500. This year ours was at $660,” said Harp.

Student Health Services also allows students to receive many services at a cheaper rate. For example, it would typically be more expensive for a student to get blood drawn from an outside hospital instead of at Student Health Services because students would most likely have to pay a deductible.

Participation in the student health insurance plan has not always been mandatory. It was not until 2001 when the state of Missouri enacted a law requiring that students receive primary healthcare coverage through the University’s plan.

Prior to the establishment of a requirement for University health insurance, student bodies were generally underinsured. According to a recent study from the University of Arkansas, between 20 and 30 percent of students are uninsured.

Many students report they have no idea that they are participating in a University plan. Junior Hillary Moffat said she was surprised to find that a University plan existed.

Lack of student awareness can be problematic; if a student goes to the hospital, he or she is required to provide information about his or her insurance plan. Theoretically, students who visit the hospital should present their Washington University insurance card.

Sophomore Marguerite Burkham was also unaware that she was participating in the University’s insurance plan. She said that she carries her insurance card from her parent’s provider with her but that she does not have a University card.

“I think it is kind of silly that we have to get insurance from our school. It does seem a little unnecessary when most people have insurance with their family,” said Burkham.

The University does not maintain statistics on the number of students who receive insurance through their parents.

Student Health Services educates residential advisors about the student health insurance and sends e-mails to all students each summer.

But students, such as Burkham, said they do not remember receiving any information about the plan.

“I just assume that my parents are handling it,” she said.

Student Union finalized and approved the 2007-2008 budget this week, resulting in substantial cuts for executive committees such as the Gargoyle committee, Team 31, WUTV, KWUR, Filmboard and the campus contribution groups such as the Assembly Series.

According to junior Neil Patel, SU president, and sophomore Marius Johnson, SU treasurer, the executive committee cuts were designed to fund these groups for bare operating costs. The executive groups will then have the option of appealing to a new Executive Appeals Account, consisting of $75,000, for costs that the preliminary budget allocation does not cover.

Non-executive groups will continue appeal to the general Treasury account.

WUTV, the campus television station, faced one of the biggest allocation cuts, from $42,500 to $26,440. According to freshman Jeff Nelson, treasurer of WUTV, the allocation covers the group’s minimum costs, but if equipment breaks down, the group would not have the funds to replace it.

In that event, WUTV would have to appeal to the Executive Committee Appeals Account. Nelson noted that if a substantial number of the executive committees appeal, the account could potentially run dry.

Nelson reasoned that 20 executive groups must appeal to this same account, that is roughly equal to the executive committees’ budget cuts.

“My intuition is that there is not enough money in this account for groups like KWUR and WUTV to operate at the same level as last year,” said Nelson.

Johnson does not anticipate that the amount of the account will prove insufficient to fund executive committees who need it because not all 20 groups will need to appeal. In addition, Johnson believes that SU will see more revenues next year, a portion of which can be allocated towards the executive appeals account.

Senior John Klacsmann, KWUR general manager, voiced a concern that the account will provide executives with undue power over KWUR operations.

“I do not support the creation of an Executive Committee Appeals Fund because it gives the Student Union Executive Officers too much influence over student media output. By allocating media groups only the minimum necessary to operate, the new appeals process allows the Student Union executives . [to] potentially influence the stations’ programming content,” said Klacsmann.

In the newly passed budget, KWUR will receive $30,000 as opposed to this year’s $50,000. Klacsmann said that KWUR has planned many special projects for next year and now funding for these projects is uncertain. In addition, the rise in Internet royalties has increased the station’s costs.

“We are going to have to appeal for these funds and we may or may not get it,” said Klacsmann.

Freshman Alex Esche, Gargoyle treasurer, said that their allocation is not sufficient to fund eight shows as planned. Given an allocation of $30,000, down from $54,000 last year, Esche estimates the budget alone will allow for four shows.

One show for the fall 2007 semester is already booked and will cost $10,000 and the cost of replacing equipment is approximately $5,500. The Gargoyle, however, has scheduled future meetings with executives to further discuss the budget.

“It doesn’t cover costs of performers, overhead charges and security,” said Esche.

When asked about the possibility of appealing to the Executive Committee Appeals Account, Esche said, “It doesn’t really matter how much money is in the account. We can’t book shows unless we know we have enough money to book it, and we can’t appeal unless we have shows booked. It’s a catch-22.”

Johnson stated during Tuesday’s Treasury meeting that the intention behind the cut was to encourage the Gargoyle to aim towards higher quality shows.

“Our goal was to fund the Gargoyle so they could focus their efforts on those fewer shows and work on making them higher-caliber shows. Our goal was eight shows, but we understand there may be difficulty in attaining this number,” said Johnson.

The budget allocation towards the Assembly Series will also see some changes for the following year. The Assembly Series is set to receive $40,000, with a newly instituted speaker series fund set up with a budget of $40,000 as well. The Assembly Series received $100,000 this year, so the new budget cuts funding towards speakers by $20,000 and allocates it towards two separate accounts.

“We’ll move on from the certain bureaucratic elements of the Assembly Series. It has to be at 11 a.m., you have to submit all the speakers at once and it has to go through a certain process. If a different committee can approve the speakers, I think the positives of that can far outweigh the negatives,” said Patel.

Furthermore, Patel notes that the new speaker series fund will allow SU to bring more nationally recognized speakers to campus. Currently, the Assembly Series Committee must allocate money towards specific groups, not taking into account the speakers that the groups will sponsor.

“It’s a greater focus on the name of the speaker. It’s hard to say we want to bring in this speaker for this amount of money without knowing the name because that’s a huge factor in how many people come to the assembly series,” said Patel.

Scott Bressler

Late into the night on Tuesday members of Student Union (SU) Treasury discussed the 2007-2008 budget proposed by the SU Executives, which totals almost 2.1 million dollars.

The budget passed Treasury with minor changes and was confirmed by the Senate on Wednesday night with no further amendments.

The proposed budget generated especially heated debate as Executive Committees, including WUTV, KWUR and Filmboard, took major cuts in their annual operating budgets.

The cuts came as part of an initiative by the SU executives to be more forward-thinking with regard to the budget.

“The Student Union budget needs to be looked at from a historical point of view, but also from a future point of view,” said junior Neil Patel, president of SU. “Things might change as things change on campus – for example, the creation of a new University Center or bringing the debates to campus. Student Union needs to be more flexible to reflect the changing desires of students.”

Patel and Treasurer Marius Johnson explained that this year’s budget required more changes than it had in years past.

“We wanted to be able to provide more flexibility for Treasury and Senate,” said Johnson. “For Treasury, this means strengthening the appeals account for Category 1 and 2 student groups, and for Senate, it means giving them a greater ability to show financial support for its resolutions.”

By funding events like Bauhaus and Senior Week during the initial budget phase, the appeals fund will have more money left over for other student groups.

Additionally, the Sports Club Federation, the umbrella organization for all club sports on campus, was changed to an executive committee instead of a Category 1 group. As a result, the amount of money available for Category 1 groups next year will increase substantially.

The budget proposed by the SU Executives worked to cover each group’s minimum operating cost, especially those of the executive committees who receive the largest proportion of funding.

“The interviews worked to find what the minimum amount that would suffice for their needs and let them operate,” stated Johnson. “Things like equipment breakdown and repair would be controlled by the executive appeals account.”

Johnson explained his hope that this new system, in which groups are required to communicate more with SU executives, will result in more mutual accountability by cutting down on the number of large allocations that can be spent without SU supervision.

Specifically, the new system allows executive committees to appeal to a separate executive appeals account controlled by the SU Executives, sized at $75,000 in the final budget. The creation of the new appeals account is, in part, a reaction to a constitutional council decision earlier this year, which states that executive committees cannot appeal to Treasury.

“Student Union is not saying these executive committees aren’t going to get [more] money, we’re just saying we are hesitant to give them such large sums of money up front with no ability to do anything about it later,” said Johnson.

-With additional reporting by Sam Guzik and Sara Rajaram