Student Life Archives

NASA | JPL-CALTECH | UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA

Many students begin their workdays at 9 a.m. every morning this summer, but for students like sophomore Kirsten Siebach, every day is unique.

Her unorthodox schedule comes because she is one of four Washington University earth and planetary sciences students who traveled to Arizona this summer to assist NASA with the Phoenix spacecraft’s mission to Mars. Because a Martian day is approximately 40 minutes longer than an earth day, many of the teams working on the mission must live in Mars time, meaning each day’s schedule starts later than the previous day’s.

“Sometimes we are working in the middle of the night and sleeping during the day. This makes for an interesting schedule, and it has been an adjustment,” Siebach said. “Sometimes you feel like you’re living on your own planet and it’s hard to keep in touch with family and friends, but the mission goes on, and in a week or two we’re on ‘Earth time’ again.”

Ever since NASA landed the Phoenix spacecraft on May 25, the four students as well as two University faculty, Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences Ray Arvidson and computer systems analyst Thomas Stein, have joined other academics from around the world at the University of Arizona to help Phoenix in its mission to learn more about the habitability of the planet’s polar region and to analyze the Martian soil.

Arvidson serves as chair of NASA’s Phoenix landing site working group. He also is co-investigator for the craft’s robotic arm, which will dig up soil and ice samples.

Stein works with the Phoenix geology theme group and also archives data for NASA’s Planetary Data System.

The four students who traveled to Arizona include Siebach, earth and planetary sciences doctoral candidate Selby Cull, first year graduate student Tabatha Heet and junior Rebecca Greenberger.

Heet has a long history of involvement in the Phoenix mission. In the fall of 2006, as a junior earth and planetary sciences major at Washington University, Heet used HiRISE, a feature of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, in order to view rocks on the Martian surface as small as 1.5 yards across.

Using a software program called ENVI, Heet counted large rocks that could have posed a threat to landing the spacecraft to determine a relatively safe landing site. She also worked with scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to create a an automatic, computerized counting method.

“The rock counting was tedious but overall I enjoyed it because I knew I was doing something important and useful to the mission,” Heet said.

Thanks in part to Heet’s work, the spacecraft endured a shaky but safe landing on May 25, and it also opened its solar panels.

“We knew going in that the biggest threat rocks posed to Phoenix was inhibiting the opening of the solar arrays,” Heet said. “The best moment for me so far was seeing an image a couple hours after Pheonix landed of the solar arrays deployed.”

Heet will be a graduate student at the University in the fall, and she hopes to base some of her graduate research on Phoenix mission data.

The four students currently serve as documentarians for the Phoenix mission. According to Siebach and Greenberger, common duties include taking notes during meetings and compiling reports on the meetings afterward, as well as helping to name geological features using a set of fairy tale themed names.

As a documentarian, Siebach keeps spreadsheets that explain past and future “sol-to-sol plans,” where a sol is a Martian day. She also tracks the completion of mission success objectives, names of features and targets and changes to the Martian surface.

Greenberger says she keeps track of what the Phoenix spacecraft must delete every day. Because the spacecraft has a limited amount of flash memory, it can only store a portion of the data it collects before shutting down for the day.

“A priority list determines what makes it into flash, and when I am the documentarian, I figure out what will be auto-deleted,” Greenberger said.

To prepare for the mission, students participated in training sessions and derived useful knowledge from University classes.

“Planetary science is a very multidisciplinary science, so I have used several of my classes while working here, including, of course, basic science and math classes like chemistry, physics, and calculus, earth and planetary science classes like Earth and the Environment, land dynamics, biogeochemistry and English classes that have taught me presentation skills,” Siebach said.

Greenberger also credited Arvidson with making sense of the mission.

“Ray’s remote sensing class has been particularly useful because everything we do on Mars involves remote sensing,” Greenberger said. “However, the classes I have taken that focus more on earth sciences are also useful because some of the same processes that have occurred on earth have also occurred on Mars.”

For the students, the experience has been unforgettable.

“The opportunity to work on the Phoenix mission has been incredible. I never thought that I would be able to work on a mission like this, and certainly not when I was 20,” Greenberger said. “It is also a great to be able to work with so many scientists and engineers every day and learn from them.”

This year’s incoming freshman class has political opinions which match the rest of the Washington University student body, according to a recent poll conducted by Student Life.

Nearly 80 percent of freshmen plan to vote for Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, in November’s general election while Senator John McCain of Arizona, the presumptive Republican nominee, would win 15 percent of the freshman vote.

These figures mirror the results of a poll taken in March that surveyed the entire campus, in which Obama, who was not yet the presumptive nominee, won 78 percent of student support. Nineteen percent of respondents to that poll supported Senator McCain.

In the wake of the recent housing crisis and the fall of the dollar’s relative value, freshmen, like a plurality of University students, identified the economy and globalization as the most pressing issues in the upcoming presidential election; more than one-third of freshman named that pair as the most pressing facing the nation. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the next most selected issue, received less than half as much attention, with 16 percent of respondents calling the wars the campaign’s top issue.

Despite Senator McCain’s vocal support for the U.S. military campaigns in the Middle East, only six percent of his supporters said that the wars were the election’s top issue, although almost 85 percent of them believed that McCain would handle the wars better than Obama.

Nearly 82 percent of Obama supporters responded that he would handle the wars better.

McCain supporters also responded that he would deal with traditional Republican priorities such as taxes, the economy and managing the federal government better than Obama, though they also felt that Obama would handle social inequality and poverty better than McCain would.

There were no issues that Obama supporters felt McCain would handle better than the Democratic nominee.

Two-thirds of freshmen either identified with the Democratic Party or responded that they lean toward the Democratic Party, while 14 percent of respondents either identify as or lean toward the Republican Party. Almost a quarter of respondents neither aligned with nor leaned toward either party. Sixty percent of unaligned voters supported Obama.

Among Republican respondents, 81 percent considered themselves moderately Republican; 56 percent of Democrats consider themselves moderately Democratic.

This is the first Student Life poll this year and the first following Obama’s clinching of the Democratic nomination at the beginning of June. While the long Democratic nomination contest between Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton of New York seemed to have little effect on freshman candidate preferences-it affected 12 percent of respondents’ choices-56 percent of respondents felt that the six-month string of Democratic primary races hurt the party.

The general preference for Obama among freshmen corresponds with their view of the current U.S. government. Over 60 percent of respondents believe the country is going the wrong direction, and nearly 85 percent disapprove of the job that President George W. Bush is doing. A third of respondents also disapproved of the Democrat-controlled US Congress, with nine percent approving of Congress’s job so far.

Two-thirds of McCain’s supporters were women, while an equal number of men and women supported Obama.

The most recent Student Life poll data was collected through an e-mail sent to the undergraduate student population between June 23 and June 29. There were 342 responses to the poll, allowing for a theoretical margin of error of 4.61 percent.

Sam Guzik

While Washington University ranked 10th for food quality in the 2008 Princeton Review, with new food options coming in the Danforth University Center, the school may receive a higher ranking in the future.

The food options in the Danforth University Center (DUC) will focus on providing healthy and tasty food to students with combination of new dishes and meals that students already find popular.

The food court in the DUC will resemble the former Mallinckrodt Food Court, which had four stations, each serving a different type of cuisine, but expanded options will add another dimension to the DUC stations.

The DUC’s Asian station, for example, will contain a dim sum bar and will also be home to a sushi chef who will prepare pre-packaged sushi boxes throughout the day, rather than all at once in the morning as is currently the case.

“I am excited about having so many new food options in the fall. It is definitely a welcome change because, especially for dinner, I would love to have access to similar stations to those of Mallinckrodt now,” sophomore Taylor Martin said.

The lineup for the DUC’s eateries was decided in part by two student committees, the DUC Dining and Campus Food committees, which are based in the school’s Dining Services office and are headed by junior Colin Towery and junior Ted Simmons, both former Student Union senators.

In addition to the five stations in its food court, the DUC will contain a cafe and bistro. The cafe will be the replacement for the current Hilltop Bakery, which will be closed next due to construction affecting most of Mallinckrodt, and will offer smoothies, coffee, pastries and bagels.

The Bistro-named Ibby’s after one of the building’s namesakes Elizabeth Danforth-marks one of the biggest changes in campus dining. The Bistro will offer sit-down wait service that seeks to appeal to the entire University community with an option that is not provided anywhere else on campus.

“This could provide a novel way for students to interact with their professors outside of the classroom,” Towery said.

Along with the Bistro and Cafe, one of the four main food court stations will remain open into the night to provide students with options for dinner on campus; the menu may include breakfast foods like omelets, eggs any style and pancakes.

Towery added that the DUC’s eating options are still a work in progress.

“The student DUC Dining Committee will be considering registered data over the course of the fall 2008 semester in order to make recommendations to Bon Appetit on both hours changes and quite possibly menu changes as well,” Towery said.

As part of those changes, students had the opportunity to meet last year with Dining Service’s food consultant, Joyce Fasano, and share their ideas with her. Students will get to continue to shape dining in the DUC this fall as they christen the new building. According to Towery, the Senate Campus Services Committee will host a food forum a few weeks into the fall semester.

“Though I am no longer a senator, I will continue to serve on both committees, as well as work closely with the new Executive Board of Student Union, to improve the dining experience on campus,” Towery said.

WUSTL Photo Services

The University has added a number of courses to its curriculum for this coming semester, including classes related to the vice presidential debate which will be held on campus in October.

There are also new freshman Focus seminars and 300- and 400-level Arts & Sciences courses that will investigate a variety of updated subjects.

“We’re excited about the new courses,” Trevor Bilhorn, curriculum coordinator for the College of Arts & Sciences, said. “And we’re glad to have a vibrant curriculum.”

One of the most topical courses being offered is an 80-person class in the Olin Business School titled “The Business of Presidential Elections.” According to Steven Malter, who will be teaching the course, enrolled students will be examining the impact of the 2008 Presidential election on the world of business.

The class will include lessons on marketing and branding of the campaigns, polling and the differences between the candidates in their healthcare, tax and trade policies and how those policies will impact global business.

Although at this point enrolled students will not have a way to participate directly in the activity surrounding the vice presidential debate, Malter says that discussions are underway about ways to engage class members with the event, which will be held on campus on October 2.

“Americans and their Presidents,” a new freshman Focus course, will also study issues relevant to the nation’s highest office. Other new Focus courses to be offered include “Argentina: Past and Present,” an historical survey of Argentina that will culminate in a spring break trip to Buenos Aires, and “Phage Hunters,” a biology course in which students will take part in a national experiment organized by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI).

Freshmen enrolled in “Phage Hunters” will collect bacteriophages in the soil outside of Rebstock Hall, then conduct lab work on the microscopic organisms, including isolation of their DNA. Upon completion of the course, instructors and one student from the class will attend a HHMI-hosted research symposium, and one of the collected phages will be selected for genome sequencing.

“Students will get experience in the field of genomics, an increasingly important area of biology research,” Professor Kathy Hafer, who will be team-teaching the course alongside several other members of the Department of Biology, wrote in an e-mail.

Hafer also notes the value of taking a more hands-on approach to an intro-level Biology course.

“I think the phage hunters course will be a more realistic experience with biology research than the typical introductory biology lab course,” said Hafer.

Several other new science courses have been added to the Arts & Sciences curriculum that deal with current issues, including a 100-level “Introduction To Global Climate Change In the 21st Century” in the Earth and Planetary Sciences department, and 400-level “Topics in the History of Eugenics” in Biology and Biomedical Sciences.

Other upper-level courses to be offered include 300-level “Advanced Hindi I,” a 400-level Anthropology course entitled “Tobacco: History, Anthropology, and Politics of a Global Epidemic,” and the 300-level “Hooking Up: Healthy Exploration or Harmful Exploitation?” which will be offered in the Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies (formerly Women and Gender Studies) program.

According to Professor Susan Stiritz, “Hooking Up” will examine young adult sexual culture through a study of students’ own sexual cultures, as well as through reading the relevant literature in gender theory and sexuality studies.

“We will explore if hooking up differs along axes of gender, sexual orientation, class, religion, and ethnicity-as well as class status,” wrote Stiritz in an e-mail. “I hope students will leave the course understanding better the cultural phenomenon of hooking up and its historical contexts.”

That course, like many of the other new classes being offered this semester, is already a popular one as measured by enrollment, with as many students on its wait list-22-as there are students in the class.

Wait lists aside, however, it seems that the biggest dilemma with all the new courses being offered this semester may be picking between them.

PBS

Gwen Ifill, a senior correspondent for PBS’s “The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer” and moderator and managing editor of that network’s “Washington Week,” will moderate the vice presidential debate at Washington University on October 2, the Commission on Presidential Debates announced on Tuesday, August 5.

Ifill, who moderated the 2004 debate between John Edwards and Dick Cheney, worked at the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Boston Herald, the Baltimore Evening Sun and NBC before coming to PBS. She also serves on the boards of the Harvard Institute for Politics, the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Museum of Television and Radio and the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland. She graduated from Simmons College in Boston.

The vice presidential debate will be 90 minutes long, divided into eight ten-minute segments each devoted to one issue-both domestic and international-with time for closing statements by each candidate. The candidates have yet to be determined. The debate will begin at 8 p.m. Central Time on October 2.

Jim Lehrer of the NewsHour, Tom Brokaw of NBC News and Bob Schieffer of CBS News will host the presidential debates.

Also on August 5, the Obama campaign formally accepted the Commission on Presidential Debates’ proposal for three presidential and one vice presidential debate. The McCain campaign had previously accepted the debate format.

Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC), speaking on behalf of Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign on Wednesday, proposed holding the first presidential debate at Washington University on Oct. 2 if a settlement is not reached on plans to delay the debate at University of Mississippi.

Republican presidential nominee John McCain upended the presidential campaign this week, threatening not to attend the first presidential debate-set to take place tonight-should Congress not reach a deal by that time on the proposed federal bailout plan meant to alleviate the current economic crisis.

Four people mugged a female student at the corner of Washington and Melville Aves. at 9:20 p.m. last night, holding her at gunpoint and stealing her backpack, according to Washington University Police Chief Don Strom.

University City Police, who supervise the area where the mugging took place, have not identified any suspects yet, as the student was unable to provide police with detailed physical descriptions of the muggers, who ran toward Delmar Ave. after robbing the student.

University City Police are, as of now, unavailable for comment.

Strom said that while University City Police will be leading the investigation, WUPD will provide any assistance necessary, in addition to increasing patrols in the area of the mugging.

“We’re providing any assistance that University City Police requests,” Strom said. “Part of the extra patrols is to try and identify any potential suspects in the area.”

Strom sent an email to off-campus residents of Washington University housing today informing them of the incident and suggesting safety precautions.

After nearly an hour of passionate debate Tuesday night, Student Union Treasury voted to approve a $35,000 emergency appeal to bring Republican political strategist Karl Rove to campus.

Rove is set to speak on campus on Nov. 3, the eve of the presidential election, about his experiences as the architect of President Bush’s 2000 and 2004 campaigns. His speech is being sponsored by the College Republicans.

Rove was deputy chief of staff to President Bush until Rove resigned on Aug. 31, 2007; he now works as a political analyst for Fox News and as a columnist at Newsweek magazine. Rove resigned in a storm of controversy, most notably the outing of CIA agent Valarie Plame.

“I think Karl Rove is just going to draw people. He’s a big name, I mean he’s been incredibly influential in bringing our country to where it is now as a strategist,” junior Anna Luft, College Republicans Public Relations Coordinator, said during the debate. “Whether you love him or hate him, this will sell out.”

The appeal was brought before Treasury as an emergency appeal, meaning that it was time sensitive and required a decision by a certain date. The event was added to Treasury’s agenda on Monday night when the College Republicans were able to negotiate a significantly reduced price for Rove’s appearance, bringing the price tag from $50,000 to $30,000.

In addition to Rove’s $30,000 honorarium, $5,000 were allocated for additional costs including security, lodging and other incidentals.

“I hope that we don’t let our political ideologies create a smoke screen in front of us,” sophomore and Treasury representative Manjaap Sidhu said. “Karl Rove was on the forefront of the recount in Florida. That may have been the most controversial election in recent history-to have him here and to talk about it, you might agree or disagree, but to get his perspective live is something that’s priceless.”

The College Republicans plan to seek funding from the election programming fund later this week and, if the funding results in excess money, the group will return the surplus to Treasury.

College Republicans President Charis Fischer defended her decision to bring Rove to campus, citing him as “one of the most brilliant political strategists of our time.”

“I think he is pretty appealing even if you don’t agree with his politics,” Fischer said. “He has a lot to share, so I don’t think there should be controversy over him, I don’t see why people would get mad that he is coming to speak.”

Although some have drawn comparisons between this decision and the controversy caused by the College Republicans’ keynote speaker last year, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Fischer says that she does not think that Rove will incite the same reaction that Gonzales did.

College Democrats President Ben Guthorn says that he does not think that Rove is worth the high price tag and that bringing in another speaker so closely tied to the Bush administration will not benefit students. Guthorn said that simply because Rove has proven himself to be an effective political strategist does not mean that hearing him speak will be a valuable experience.

“He is sadistically brilliant,” Guthorn said. “Someone may be brilliant, but if that person is advocating for the degradation of civil liberties, that makes them a horrible person in my eyes.

Although the College Democrats were active in protesting Gonzales coming to campus, Guthorn, who was present at the Treasury meeting and spoke against the appeal, said that he would be focusing on election related activities the night of the talk.

“Of course [protests are] something of discussion, when you bring such a controversial figure to campus,” Guthorn said. “I can’t promise anything, but I can say personally that I will be helping to elect the next leader of the free world on the eve of the Election Day.”

Guthorn says that Rove coming the night before Election Day is a “political ploy” and that Rove’s speech will likely read much like a campaign speech endorsing John McCain without actually mentioning McCain.

The event is set to take place in Graham Chapel, with the possibility of the speech being telecast into a second viewing location. It has not yet been determined whether a question and answer session will be held after the speech.

Ten members of the Treasury voted in favor of the appeal, five voted against it and there were two abstentions; one Treasurer was absent.

With additional reporting by Sharon Barbour and Johann Qua Hiansen

In an e-mail to the University community on Wednesday morning, Chancellor Wrighton announced that the value of the University’s endowment has declined approximately 25 percent since July and proposed several cost cutting measures.

“With the decline in the value of our endowment, coupled with leveling of research support, constraint on the rate of tuition growth, uncertain prospects for philanthropic support, pressures on healthcare costs, and the prospect of increased needs for financial aid, we must take some actions to assure that our University remains strong into the future, Wrighton wrote. “Whatever the origins and whatever the length of the economic decline, it is important to respond to this new environment. We will constrain the growth of administrative expenses, compensation expenses, and commitments to new building projects.”

Most notably, the Chancellor announced the intention to decrease wages going into the next fiscal year and to “scale back, eliminate, or delay capital projects.”

The e-mail specifically proposed a reduction in the Chancellor’s salary by 10 percent over the next year-a 5 percent cut as of January 1, 2009, and another 5 percent cut effective July 1, 2009-but also stated that school deans and Vice Chancellors have volunteered to have no increase in their compensation in the year ahead.