THIS YEAR I WILL...| RESOLUTIONS FOR EVERY WU STUDENT | SCENE, PAGE 8
STUDENT LIFE
THE INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER OF WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS SINCE 1878 VOLUME 128, NO. 43
WWW.STUDLIFE.COM
FRIDAY, JANUARY 19, 2007
Undergraduate tuition tops $34K BY DAVID BRODY SENIOR PHOTO EDITOR Undergraduate tuition will cost $34,500 for the 2007-08 academic year, a 5.2 percent increase which amounts to $1,700 over the 2006-07 costs, University officials announced on Thursday. Room-and-board charges will increase by $456 (4.1 percent) to $11,632 for a full meal plan and new student housing. Vice Chancellor for Public Affairs Fredric Volkmann said that these increases are in line with the tuition increases over the past few years. He added that the University’s tuition is in the “middle of the pack” in relation to its peer institutions. Volkmann elaborated that the need to attract and retain high caliber faculty is one of the primary costs fueling the tuition increases. Academic costs across the board, from library periodicals to laboratory equipment upgrades, also contributed. Ever-increasing energy costs are another significant fi nancial hurdle. The cost of powering and running the University has increased across the board according to Volkmann. He explained that the 100-year-old campus needs to be updated to become more energy efficient and that the University is currently paying substantial frontend costs to undertake this
Reduced tuition option eliminated BY ELIZABETH LEWIS NEWS MANAGER
STUDENT LIFE ARCHIVES
process. Dean of Arts & Sciences Edward Macias said in a press release that expenses including expansion of career services and the rising cost of healthcare also tax the University’s fi nances. While the University’s endowment is sizeable, it alone
cannot carry the fi nancial burden. “Washington University is blessed with generous alumni and friends who provide significant annual support and gifts, but…growth in endowment income and gifts and grants cannot rise rapidly enough to offset
additional charges that must be supported through tuition.” Initial student reactions to the tuition announcement was mixed. While some students understand the need for the University to be competitive,
See TUITION INCREASE, page 3
The reduced-tuition plan, an option that allows students to have part-time status, has been eliminated. The decision was announced in spring of 2004 and goes into effect this semester. According to Dirk Killen, the associate dean in the College of Arts & Sciences, the decision was made to allay the trend of rising tuition. The reduced tuition bill option has resulted in a deficit of over one million dollars. Since tuition dollars go towards more than paying the salary of the instructor teaching the course (such as library resources, computer resources, maintenance costs, and staff salaries), there is a significant cost that goes along with each reduced tuition. “The student who comes is not half a student,” said Killen. “The department must process the paperwork, etc., and there is money lost for a part-time student. There is a straight loss to the College of Arts & Sciences.” This cost ultimately leads
to a sharper increase in tuition for each academic year, noted Killen. Killen explained that in an age when all selective private universities are looking for ways to help control the rising cost of tuition, the elimination of the reduced-tuition plan within three years was adopted as a way to help curb the escalating tuition costs. He continued by noting that while seniors who are eligible for the reduced-tuition plan save money in their final semester, all students in the College of Arts & Sciences are charged a higher tuition rate each year as a result of this option. This means that even students who will receive a tuition reduction in their last semester have had a higher tuition in the previous seven semesters than they would have had without the existence of the reduced-tuition plan. While the elimination of this option could prove controversial, Killen said the reaction of students has been mostly positive.
See REDUCED-TUITION, page 3
NEWS ANALYSIS
BOOKING IT TO MALLINCKRODT
SU funding clamps down BY BEN SALES SENIOR STAFF REPORTER
JENNY SHAO | STUDENT LIFE
Students flock to the bookstore on Thursday to pick up their course books. While the campus store is still the primary supplier of class materials, many students have turned to the internet, specifically Amazon.com, to try to obtain their books for a lower price.
In October 2005, the Student Union Treasury found itself in crisis mode. Treasury ran out of appeals funding two months into the school year, leaving a plethora of groups in the lurch while having to limit that semester’s programming due to an empty bank. And though current treasurer Jason Lewis sees vast improvement this year, he still believes that the body has a ways to go. “One of the points I personally recommended to Treasury was better budgeting,” said Lewis, regarding his Treasurer’s Report at the end of last semester. “I do not think that they are doing a poor job, it is just an area of improvement.” Lewis outlined three problems in the report given to Treasury last semester, all of
which are meant to ensure that the fiasco of the fall before last does not repeat itself. The goals do not embody a change in the Treasury’s principles, but rather an effort by the executives to streamline a working system. “Treasury is by no means in a fiscal crisis,” said Lewis. “Even if you are doing it exactly how you should be doing it, there are things to be working on.” Lewis hopes, during this semester, to ensure equitable funding throughout the academic year, to effect greater adherence to the budget guidelines within the body, and to hold groups to tighter standards during the appeals process. “This is in terms of making sure that you have money to sustain yourself throughout the whole year, so there is not a fi nancial crisis in March and April,” said Lewis of his fi rst
initiative, “to grasp yourself around the fact that you have a certain amount of money.” Junior Aaron Robinson, speaker of the treasury, agrees that the budget needs to be sustained, though he added that he thinks no criticism or substantial change is needed. “I would not call it fiscally irresponsible if we give out $30,000 for one month and $30,000 for the next month,” said Robinson. “I value the appeals account having a balance.” Lewis’s second goal, to keep the budget guidelines in mind when allocating funds, also aims to keep the bigger picture of the academic year at the fore of each discussion as opposed to looking at each appeal without a larger context. “It is very easy to get caught
See TREASURY, page 3
New Wash. U. Web site receives mixed student reactions BY PUNEET KOLLIPARA STAFF REPORTER Although Washington University’s new Web site presents some improvements over the original, many feel there is still much work to do. According to Mary Ellen Benson, assistant vice chancellor and the chair of the web advisory group that redesigned the Web site, public feedback has been generally positive, although there have been some complaints. “In general the response is
positive, but there are people who would like to rethink one small thing or another,” she said. Many students, like freshman Jeff Nelson, felt similarly, though somewhat more negatively. “I think that overall, especially in comparison to the old Web site, there is an aesthetic improvement to it,” said Nelson. “However, I feel that there are still some shortcomings with it.” Benson said that most of the positive feedback was di-
Swimming towards success Bears’ swimming has had a busy winter break, taking on meets across the country. Can they swim towards a successful finish? Sports, Page 6
rected at the new “quick links” feature, a drop-down menu that takes visitors to key areas of the Web site. “It’s really a benefit to current students and prospective students who want to go to certain pages and they don’t have to look all over the site for certain links,” said Nelson. According to Benson, viewers’ criticisms have generally concerned locating specific information. “We have been making some changes as people have had comments, like
they couldn’t fi nd something easily, or that something needed to be higher up in the hierarchy,” she said. “The search function at the top of the Web site is really not set up very well. It’s hard to use,” said Alex Hoogland, a freshman. “The other day I needed to get a copy of the campus map to fi nd one of my classes. I typed in ‘campus map,’ and I ended up getting a map of the human genome instead. “All the information you need is there,” Hoogland add-
This relationship is over! Breaking up may not be so hard to do. Cartoonist Rachel Harris takes a look at how technology might make saying “we’re through” a bit different. Forum, Page 4
ed. “It’s just really hard to access.” Aesthetically speaking, a large object of criticism was the main page photo, which features red tulips lining the foreground and Brookings Hall in the background. Many complained that the tulips in the foreground look washed out compared to the background, and some speculate that they may have been doctored into the photo using a program such as Adobe Photoshop. “The enhancements to the
INSIDE: Forum. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Sports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Scene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Sudoku . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
tulips using Photoshop are painstakingly obvious,” said Nelson. “I think that takes away from the overall professionalism of the site.” Benson denied there being any alterations to the tulips. “A large number of people thought that the flowers were Photoshopped on, painted on,” she said. “But they’re part of the photo. They have not been altered in any way.” Students also felt that not enough was done to fi x the
See WEB SITE, page 3
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