MONDAY SEPT. 27, 2004 Vol. 126, No. 12
Sunny 79° / 58° w w w. s t u d l i f e . c o m
ELECTION COUNTDOWN
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DAYS UNTIL ELECTION DAY DAYS UNTIL THE DEBATE
STUDENT LIFE T H E I N D E P E N D E N T N E W S PA P E R O F WA S H I N G T O N U N I V E R S I T Y I N S T. L O U I S S I N C E 1 8 7 8
Will they be able to vote? n Students demand confirmation
of their eligibility to cast ballots
INSIDE
By Sarah Ulrey Scene Editor A new nonpartisan coalition has formed amid concerns that student voter registration cards are taking too long to be processed. The student group, WU Voice Your Vote Coalition, hopes to coordinate voter registration efforts on campus in the last ten days before the national Oct. 6 registration deadline. Typically a person receives confirmation of their registration within two weeks, but students like senior Becca Gross have waited much longer. Gross switched her registration from Maryland to Missouri in late August through Rock the Vote. “I don’t believe I’ve received anything by mail,” said Gross. “I’m a little nervous that my name won’t be registered in Missouri come election day.” Senior Yvonne Carillo experienced similar delays. “I registered through that Wash U group [Project Democracy] that was tabling at freshmen move-in,” said Carillo. “I haven’t gotten confirmation yet.” Seniors Ojiugo Uzoma and Danielle Christmas want to know what causes this lag between filling out registration forms and receiving confirmation in the mail. The two co-founded the WU Voice Your Vote EMILY TOBIAS | STUDENT LIFE
See REGISTRATION, page 3
President of College Democrats Nicole Soussan talks to a local TV station about voter registration on campus and the petition to bring the debate to the Washington University campus.
CPD refuses to sign debate pact
What do you crave? Scene shows you how to play with your food. If you’re not hungry, you will be.
n Thursday’s debate in limbo By Rachel Streitfeld News Editor
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of the group was to bring together the “students, faculty and staff responsible for administrating contracts to discuss the formulation of our policies and procedures with respect to contractors.” The task force—which included then-SWA President Sergio Salmeron, then-Student Union Vice President Kenneth Edwards, and faculty and staff “representing those major areas that had major involvement with contractors,” according to Prenatt—delivered its recommendation in May, over a month before it’s July 1 deadline. Wrighton recently gave a statement to senior Danielle Christmas, a member of the SWA steering committee, which stated he has “discussed the report with the University council on two occasions this summer and [is] now ready to formalize the University policies and procedures.” The Chancellor added that he hopes to have them “drafted for distribution” by the end of this month. The Nicaraguans originally entered the United States on ten-month work visas, which were voided when they lost their jobs. When asked recently why the G&G contract was terminated, Manager of Maintenance Operations William Wiley declined
The kid gloves came off this weekend as the formerly tight-lipped Commission on Presidential Debates made its frustration public by pointing a fi nger at the Bush camp for putting the debates in jeopardy. After a meeting last Friday, the Commission officially concluded that only President Bush and Senator Kerry qualified to participate in the presidential debates. Ralph Nader, with only five points in opinion polls, did not meet the 15 percent threshold required by the Commission. But the CPD still has not confi rmed the upcoming debates. The candidates are scheduled to debate foreign policy this Thursday at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, FL, but ongoing negotiations have thrown the plan into confusion. The CPD has refused to sign off on the 32-page ‘memorandum of understanding’ conceived by joint advisers to the Bush and Kerry campaigns. Instead of agreeing to the document, which has been criticized as restricting the open forum the debates should foster, the Commission offered a compromise. In an open letter to the campaigns on Sept. 25, the CPD tried appeasement of what many see as political maneuvering by the Bush team. “We will make every good faith effort to accommodate those terms,” wrote the Commission in reference to the list of stipulations, which range from time limits on rebuttals to restrictions on town-hall participants’ questions. “If departure from the terms becomes necessary, we certainly will confer with the appropriate campaign representatives.” The Commission also danced around the campaigns’ proposal that “soft” Bush and Kerry supporters replace the “undecided” voters originally slotted to question candidates in the Oct. 8 town-hall debate at Washington University. “We are confident that once the campaigns’ representatives have had an opportunity to
See WORKERS, page 2
See DEBATE, page 3
STUDENT LIFE ARCHIVES
Students in support of the SWA protested last year at Brookings to draw the attention of the University administration about the Nicaraguan workers.
Is Nik’s Wine and Hookah Bar something to toast to? Find out in Scene.
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Deported Nicaraguan workers’ fate unclear n Chancellor promises to formalize University’s outsourcing policy By Dan Daranciang Staff Reporter
Jazzy Danziger reveals her sure-fire weight-loss program.
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Want to see something funny? Daniel Milstein says to look at the SU freshman elections.
Nearly a year ago, 36 Nicaraguan grounds maintenance employees were unexpectedly terminated by their Washington University–contracted employer, G&G Building Services, and deported to their home country under the belief that they would be quickly rehired in another capacity. However, they have yet to receive such a call. The Student Worker Alliance rallied extensively last year to bring the Nicaraguans back. In response to an April rally on the steps of Brookings that attracted over 200 protestors and a petition letter signed by four University professors, among other efforts, Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton commissioned a task force to investigate the welfare of campus laborers and, more specifically, review the University’s outsourcing policy. Ann Prenatt, vice chancellor for human resources and the task force’s chair, said the purpose
New satirical newspaper lightens up campus By Austen Faggen Contributing Reporter
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INDEX News Forum Sports Classifieds Scene
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Earlier this month, 300 copies of a new studentrun newspaper, the “WUnderground,” were printed and distributed on main campus. The paper was inspired by the void of “parody and satire papers” on campus, according to Lee Dunfield, editor in chief of the newspaper. Dunfield hopes that WUnderground will bring comedic relief from other more “serious” publications. “Especially after reading the Student Life April Fool’s edition, we just thought we could do better,” joked Commander in Chief Sam Stribling. The fi rst issue, which was paid for “out of pocket,” has helped WUnderground earn funding as a class-
STUDENT LIFE
three group with the Student Group Activities Committee. A new edition will be published every month and distributed at Mallinckrodt Center and the underpass. As of now, in addition to the three “chiefs,” Editor in Chief (Dunfield), Commander in Chief (Stribling) and Savage Indian Chief (Tomer Cohen), the paper has approximately ten contributing writers. However, they are in need of layout editors and photographers. “[We] need as many people as we can get to give us ideas and articles,” said Dunfield. The paper is open to articles that are “good quality and not offensive… well, to a point,” and on “anything that anyone wants to comment on about the University.” Dunfield said articles “just have to be funny, basically.”
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Currently the paper focuses on school related topics. The fi rst issue addressed a variety of subjects from the school’s dropping in the U.S News & World Report’s rankings to the layout of the Loop (in an article entitled, “Freshmen Still Looking for Turnaround in Loop”). Dunfield hopes to eventually expand the newspaper to include different sections, such as one to cover international and another to cover national issues. “People want to write for us because they’re frustrated with things,” said Dunfield, who enjoys editing and writing the paper. “It’s fun to do and I know people like to read it.”
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