STAFF EDITORIAL | PROFESSOR SMITH’S LAST LECTURE TODAY | SEE FORUM, PAGE 4
STUDENT LIFE
THE INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER OF WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS SINCE 1878 VOLUME 129, NO. 41
Fewer appeals leave SU with money to burn BY TEDDY WHITE CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Student Union (SU) is encouraging student groups on campus to appeal for more funding after spending from the appeals fund lagged considerably in comparison to previous years. As of Thursday afternoon, there was about $115,000 available in the appeals fund for Washington University student organizations. This amount is significantly greater than it has been in past years, which is typically around $30,000, said SU President Neil Patel. The appeals fund is used to supplement student group’s allocation for the purpose of funding programs that are not originally budgeted for. The surplus this year comes on the heels of a year in which the treasury ran out of money more than a month before the end of classes. Last March, the treasury emptied its appeals fund prematurely, preventing student groups from appealing for funds for any end of semester programs. At the time, many students criticized the process by which treasury spent money from the appeals fund saying that they were too lax in their allocations; this year they have reallocated
part of the money set aside for appeals because there has been such low demand. “The treasurers wanted to see the funding percentage [for category I groups] higher,” said Marius Johnson, SU treasurer. “Because they could safely do it, they moved $15,000 so the funding percentage would be higher.” The student activities fee, which is set at one percent of the annual tuition paid by each student, determines the SU budget; because tuition rates are rising faster than inflation, the budget is larger this year. Also, a new rule restricts the groups that can receive money from the SU Treasury. Funding for class councils, school councils and executive committees— and specifically the appeals for those big ticket items—is now the responsibility of the executive branch. “You can see the effect,” said SU Speaker of the Treasury John Ablan. “More money overall and a decrease in the number of entities able to make funding requests is bound to lead to the remaining groups having greater access to those funds.” This change comes as a result of a decision handed down last year by the judiciary branch. Based on this year’s sur-
See APPEALS, page 2
Student Union use of appeals fund Fall 2007
Fall 2006
Money originally in fund: Money left over at the end of the semester:
WWW.STUDLIFE.COM
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2007
$254,000 $240 000* $26,351 $115,411 *Last week the treasury voted to transfer $15,000 out of the appeals fund to the Category I appeals fund. DENNIS SWEENEY | STUDENT LIFE
Administration discusses tuition at annual forum BY PERRY STEIN CONTRIBUTING REPORTER After meeting with students at the annual Tuition Forum on Tuesday to explain, and receive feedback on, the breakdown of tuition, the Washington University administration will meet with the Board of Trustees tonight to set the official tuition for the 2008-09 academic year. The Executive Board will officially announce the tuition price to the student body on January 7, 2008. To determine the tuition price, according to Chancellor Mark Wrighton, the Board considers a variety of internal and external factors such as faculty wages and the global economy. “We try to garner information about what family income is doing and how a family can support the tuition that we set,” said Wrighton. “We take a look at inflation and other indicators that may be relevant to what’s going to happen July 1, which is the next fiscal year.” Although the current rate of inflation stands at about 3.5 percent, vice chancellor of Finance Barb Feiner said that costs in academia rise faster than the rate of inflation. “A rationale that I read about for college and university expenses rising faster than the cost of inflation is that a lot of the things that have become cheaper over the years because of imports and immigrants are not included here in our budgets,” said Feiner. “Our budgets are primarily driven by highly educated labor force that goes up much faster than the rate of inflation.” On a list of 26 universities, Washington University ranks 17th for highest tuition price among comparable Universities, 12th when mandatory fees are included and seventh when room and board costs are included. The University ranks third for room and board and
SCOTT BRESSLER | STUDENT LIFE
From left to right: Justin Carroll, James McLeod, Ed Macias, Mark Wrighton, Bill Witbrodt and Barbara Feiner at the annual Tuition Forum on Tuesday night in Mudd Multipurpose. The Wash. U. administration will meet with the Board of Trustees tonight to set the official tuition for the next academic year. 15th for food costs. While the administration said the University tries to remain competitive with the prices of our peer institutions, Washington University is typically the fi rst to set its tuition price for the next fiscal year. “In comparison to other universities, in terms of timing, we can’t look back over this year and see what other institutions have been doing, because generally speaking, we’re the fi rst major research university to announce next year’s tuition,” said Wrighton. “So in some sense, we are a pacesetter.” Financial aid is also affected by tuition prices. According to Bill Witbrodt, director of student fi nancial services, because of the simple formula used to determine fi nancial need, fi nancial aid packages generally rise with the cost of tuition. “We use a simple equation,”
said Wrighton. “We look at how much it costs a student to attend Washington University in a year and then we look at how much the family can afford to pay and the result is the amount that the student still needs to cover all the costs.” Despite endowment increasing 20 percent this year, Wrighton said that endowments will not affect tuition price or financial aid. While Wrighton conceded that the University is in constant need of more fi nancial aid, he added endowment funds are categorized as restricted funds and must be used for specific, predetermined projects. “We don’t have the latitude that some people think to take our endowment gain and redeploy it for a purpose that today we think is important,” noted Wrighton. “Our endowment performance was really great; we did increase about 20
plus percent. Our endowment, which at the end of the fiscal year on June 30 totaled about $5.7 billion, is not all dedicated to purposes where we can move the money around to do things that we might like to do.” The endowment, however, does contribute significantly to fi nancial aid. $250 million of endowment goes to fi nancial aid which results in a payout of about $10 million a year. This represents about 14 percent of the total fi nancial aid. The University’s fi nancial aid has had success with the approximately 600 students from the class of 2007 graduating with debt, who have an average debt of $22,000—well below the national average. “We know that students who are worrying about fi nances can’t flourish and students who are worrying about their parents’ fi nances can’t flourish,” said Witbrodt.
Chinese ranked among top language courses
CHI-TOWN
v With an eye towards further improvement, some changes will be implemented BY DAVID SONG NEWS EDITOR
LILY SCHORR | STUDENT LIFE
Dean Dirk Killen, associate dean in Arts & Sciences, teaches Tai Chi to students from the East Asian Persuasion BLOC in the Village on Wednesday night. Dean Killen also teaches a Tai Chi class for beginners class in University College.
Basketball and more... Come to the Field House on Saturday for the men’s basketball game as well a tribute to our national champions volleyball team and cancer survivors. Sports, Page 3
It’s who you know... What’s the difference between applying for college and applying for a job? Check out what the Career Center says is the key tool towards successful job searching in Scene, Page 8
A recent study conducted by the College Board recognized one of Washington University’s Chinese courses as among the best in foreign language and literature. The class, third-level Modern Chinese I, is divided into multiple sections, taught by Fengtao Wu, senior lecturer in Chinese, and Ke Nie, visiting lecturer in Chinese. The Educational Policy Improvement Center (EPIC), the institution that conducted the study, examined university practice courses across the U.S. to select 10 that best fit the study’s criteria. Those 10 courses will be
INSIDE: Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Forum. . . . . . . . . . . . . ..4 Scene. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Sudoku . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
used as models to redesign equivalent Advanced Placement (AP) courses in high school. Therefore, a future student who has received credit from the redesigned Chinese AP test could skip third-level modern Chinese. “It was an extensive nomination process across the country,” explained Terri Ward, senior lead research at EPIC. “The courses were nominated by people in their field, as courses equivalent of their AP course. So when a student comes to an institution with AP credit, the question is, ‘which course do they not have to take?’” The eight AP courses examined by the EPIC study were the
See CHINESE, page 2
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