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september 15, 2010
T H E I N DE PE N DE N T S T U DE N T N E W SPA PE R OF S Y R ACUSE , N E W YOR K
INSIDENEWS
INSIDEOPINION
INSIDEPULP
INSIDESPORTS
What a waste SU dining centers
Look deeper John Sumpter discusses
Puppy love Having a pet off campus has its
Home to the Dome The Carrier Dome has become
compost food wasted by students. Page 3
the need for a greater understanding of Islam. Page 5
rewards and challenges. But it always attracts the ladies. Page 13
the main landmark in Syracuse, but its inception was far from a consensus. Page 24
Primaries fail to lure SU voters By Beckie Strum and Andrew Swab THE DAILY ORANGE
brandon weight | staff photographer SAM DISSTON , a senior psychology and Spanish major, is one of only 17 people to cast their vote in Tuesday’s primaries at the Bird Library polling site. Election volunteers said the low turnout is due to students being uninformed about who to vote for and where to vote.
DPS adds van to late-night escorts By Michael Boren ASST. NEWS EDITOR
Sara Benazzi had just pulled an allnighter during finals week and needed a textbook from her apartment. She didn’t want to walk there alone at 6 a.m. from E.S. Bird Library, so she called the Department of Public Safety and requested an escort. But after waiting 30 minutes, Benazzi called DPS back and told them she was walking. “I felt uncomfortable walking by myself at the crack of dawn — and still nothing,” said Benazzi, a senior history and economics major. Though Benazzi didn’t take the escort, many students did, as combined DPS services provided 22,268 escorts in the previous academic
year. To alleviate demand, the department has made a pilot shuttle van permanent this year. DPS also began advertising its 711 mobile system to students for the first time, getting the word out about the option to call or text DPS in an emergency. The now permanent six-person night shuttle, known as Shuttle 44, has helped DPS pick up the slack on walking escorts, said DPS Capt. John Sardino. Unlike the Shuttle-U-Home van, which only takes students from Watson Hall to off-campus locations, Shuttle 44 picks up students from their calling location if they’re in the immediate campus area, such as the SEE DPS PAGE 9
The primary elections were rolling across New York state Tuesday, but they drew a minimal turnout on the Syracuse University campus. “Students aren’t interested in the local elections,” said Norm Keim, a volunteer election inspector at the E.S. Bird Library poll. “We get about 1,000 voters in a presidential election.” Bird Library, which houses the only on-campus polling site, was open from noon to 9 p.m. and saw a total of 17 voters, six of whom were Republican and 11 of whom were Democrat. In the absence of a presidential candidate or a heated campaign, students and election volunteers agreed there was little knowledge about and interest in the primary election. The biggest race in New York state this election season is for governor. In
SEE
PRIMARIES PAGE 4
Classes use Wikipedia as teaching tool By Laurence Leveille ASST. COPY EDITOR
Wikipedia, usually forbidden from academia as potentially inaccurate, has found a place in a handful of college classrooms. Select universities across the nation, including Syracuse University, and the nonprofit organization that runs Wikipedia are working together to incorporate Wikipedia in the classroom. The project, known as the Public Policy Initiative, is the fi rst attempt to systematically improve articles on Wikipedia, starting with the public policy topic area, according to a news release from May 2010. Wikimedia, the nonprofit, received a $1.2 million grant from
the Stanton Foundation, a long-time partner with the nonprofit, to fund the initiative, which will take place in a two-phase process. Phase one, which began in November, consisted of creating face-to-face relationships and getting feedback on ideas from university professors nationwide. Fall 2010 marked the start of phase two: to improve the quality of the public policy area of Wikipedia. With both phases combined, the project is expected to be a 17-month long process, according to a Wikimedia Outreach article in August. Early in the semester, students will be trained in skills, including writing techniques, understanding how Wikipedia works, learning the
appropriate use of the website as a resource, strengthening the ability to think critically and evaluate cited sources, and experiencing the collaborative and technical aspects of working on a website like Wikipedia. Students will then begin to improve public policy content for Wikipedia in various ways, such as writing new articles, creating visual aids, researching and adding sources to existing articles, and more. Carol Dwyer, research project coordinator at SU, is currently teaching a course titled “Wikipedia and Public Policy.” She could not be reached for comment to elaborate SEE WIKIPEDIA PAGE 7