Student Life | January 18, 2008 by Student Life

STAFF EDITORIAL | PROTECT ACADEMIC FREEDOM IN MISSOURI | SEE FORUM, PAGE 4

STUDENT LIFE

THE INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER OF WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS SINCE 1878 VOLUME 129, NO. 44

Obama, McCain lead among student voters Republicans and Republican leaners:

Democrats and Democratic leaners:

Preferred Candidates

Wouldn’t Vote Thompson 1.05% 6.05%

Obama 57.70%

Other 7.89%

McCain 26.58%

Clinton 21.19%

Giuliani 8.95% I Don’t Know 9.74%

Huckabee 17.11% Ron Paul 11.58%

Romney 11.05%

I Don’t Know 8.62% Edwards 7.36%

v Most students support Democrats;

wars seen as most pressing issue BY SAM GUZIK AND DAVID BRODY NEWS STAFF Supporting the theory that Barack Obama’s presidential bid is being fueled by the youth demographic, Washington University Democrats and Democratic leaning independents are signiﬁcantly more likely to support the Illinois senator than Democrats nationwide, according to a recent poll. Senator John McCain, RAriz., is leading among Republicans and Republican leaners, although by a smaller margin than in national polls. Challenging the traditional assumption that college students are not a powerful electoral demographic, 89 percent of the University student population are registered voters and 67 percent of those eligible voted in 2006. In a poll of undergraduate and graduate students

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FRIDAY, JANUARY 18, 2008

conducted on January 15 by Student Life, 58 percent of Democrats and Democratic leaners, compared to 27 percent nationally in the most recent New York Times/CBS poll, said that if the election were held today they would vote for Senator Obama. Senator Hillary Clinton, DN.Y., was the nearest Democratic opponent, receiving the support of 21 percent of Democrats and Democratic leaning independents; nationally, she leads with 42 percent. In both polls, former North Carolina Senator John Edwards placed a distant third. If the election were held today, 27 percent of Washington University Republicans and Republican leaning independents, compared to 33 percent nationally, would vote for Senator McCain. Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee

Wouldn’t Vote 0.89% Other 4.24% JOE RIGODANZO | STUDENT LIFE

Most Pressing Issue 22% 16% 13% 10% 7% 7% 6% 6% 5% 3% 2% 2% 1%

Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan Economy and globalization Climate change and environment Healthcare Civil liberties and privacy rights War on terror and homeland security Other Education Corporate greed and corrupt politics I don’t know Moral issues and family values

Immigration Taxes

See POLL, page 3

University neighbors concerned over potential expansion BY GREGG RE STAFF REPORTER University City residents, the nearest neighbors to the University, are voicing their concerns about Washington University’s increased expansion into the subdivisions surrounding campus. The University recently purchased several single-family homes near the Millbrook Plaza on Westmoreland Place. In September and October 2006, the University bought two homes on Pershing Avenue before they went on the market. The move raised concerns among local residents that their communities would eventually become an extension of the campus. “The neighbors are concerned that Washington University is purchasing single family homes in their neighborhood, which if purchased and demolished for larger projects will irrevocably change the nature of the neighborhood,” said University City Manager Julie Feier. Concerns also center on the way that the homes on Westmoreland Place were purchased. Residents said that local realtor Sean Rosenthal of London Properties made unsolicited offers to buy their homes. Rosenthal claimed to be looking for a home for his parents, but residents noticed he was only interested in properties on the south side of Pershing Avenue, which the West End Word identified as a key area for University expansion. It is unclear whether Rosenthal was acting on behalf of the University, though the incident aroused the suspicions of the community and widened the rift between city officials and University administrators. “[There are] no plans to expand significantly into University City, [though] we consider opportunities on a case by case basis,” said Steve Hoffner, assistant vice chancellor of real estate at the University. In a letter to Feier, Hoffner said that future expansion was likely. “Eventually—I’d say at least five to ten years from now—we would consider a major redevelopment,” he said. “We have no plan per se at this time,” said Hoffner. Hoffner drew criticism at a

meeting between University officials and residents. “The University says it does have a long-term plan for the properties, and then, in the same breath, says it doesn’t have a plan,” said Tim Rice, a resident of Ames Place. Feier said that the University is not interested in purchasing more homes on Pershing Avenue because it would be unable to use them. “[The University] has stated they do not intend to purchase additional homes for larger scale reuse because the Westmoreland Place subdivision indentures are limited to two story single family use only,” she said. A resolution proposed in the city council on Jan. 15 noted the importance of communication between the University and local residents. “Single family, owner occupied homes are a critical ingredient for the overall health of our city,” the resolution stated. “The Council urges Washington University to engage in continuous communication with residential neighbors.” University administrators said they agree with the resolution’s main points. “We value opportunities for dialogue,” said Hoffner. “We have told the City Council members that we will abide by the city’s regulations and that any future redevelopment plans will be submitted to the City for review and comment. We have also offered to meet with a committee of residents in this neighborhood. At this time we have no plans, other than to make the few homes that we have acquired available to faculty and staff who would like to live in University City in close proximity to the campus.” Cheryl Adelstein, director of Community Relations and Local Governmental Affairs at the University, said she understands the concerns of the community. “We value opportunities for constructive dialogue with municipal officials and the residents of surrounding neighborhoods, so that future projects will create significant benefits for and address the needs of the neighborhood, the community, the City and the University,” she said.

Highway construction causes problems for commuters BY TEDDY WHITE NEWS MANAGER Students may find themselves looking for alternative means of transportation as the commencement of Highway 40’s reconstruction project has left them stuck in traffic. In its largest single building project ever, the Missouri Department of Transportation has shut down the major St. Louis highway for reconstruction, causing a significant increase in traffic throughout the city. Drivers now have to find alternative routes to navigate throughout the city. This controversial two-year initiative is forcing St. Louis residents to change their daily schedules to deal with the new driving conditions. The anticipated $535 million dollar project has made commuting to the University a daunting task for students who

live off campus. “There are only so many routes from my house to Wash. U., and with traffic and random construction on all of the possible routes, commuting has become the worst part of my day,” said junior Erin Swaller, a commuter student. “It takes twice the time to get anywhere and makes it so that once I go home for the night, I don’t want to go out again.” The rebuilding of Highway 40 also affects campus clubs and teams, such as the women’s and men’s tennis teams. The new traffic constraints have forced the teams to move to a new indoor practice facility and vary their practice times from day to day in order to avoid the heavy traffic. “It is difficult for us to plan practices around all the different class schedules of everyone on the team due to the limited

Check out our new blogs! Student Life is launching new blogs in conjunction with campus political groups. Check them out for the latest campaign news: blogs.studlife.com

times offered to us by the practice facilities and the need to avoid the bad traffic times,” said Ania Tchergueiko, co-captain of the women’s team. “We still waste a lot of extra time in transit, and we are only able to practice together as a whole team twice a week.” The next two years will be difficult for Missouri drivers, but many believe that this is a necessary sacrifice. Some sections of the highway are as many as 70 years old, with dangerous overpasses and exit ramps that have caused serious car accidents. Sophomore Danny Levy, a native of St. Louis, attests to the hazardous conditions of the old highway. “Even if you were familiar with the abruptness of some of the old off-ramps, if you weren’t extremely careful, you could have been in for a nasty surprise,” said Levy.

DAVID BRODY | STUDENT LIFE

The westbound entrance to Highway 40 at Hanley Rd. is closed due to the highway construction project. The Missouri Department of Transportation has shut down the highway, causing a significant increase in traffic throughout the area.

More polling numbers online Want to see more nitty gritty details of the political poll? Want to see how the demographics pan out? Check out our Web site for more info. www.studlife.com

INSIDE: Forum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Sports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Cadenza . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Scene . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

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Senior News Editor / Sam Guzik / news@studlife.com

STUDENT LIFE | NEWS

STUDENT LIFE One Brookings Drive #1039 #42 Women’s Building Saint Louis, MO 63130-4899 News: (314) 935-5995 Advertising: (314) 935-6713 Fax: (314) 935-5938 e-mail: editor@studlife.com www.studlife.com Copyright 2008 Editor in Chief: Erin Fults Executive Editor: David Brody Managing Editors: Shweta Murthi, Mallory Wilder Senior News Editor: Sam Guzik Senior Forum Editor: Nathan Everly Senior Cadenza Editor: Brian Stitt Senior Scene Editor: Meghan Luecke Senior Sports Editor: Trisha Wolf Senior Photo Editor: David Hartstein Senior Graphics Editor: Rachel Harris News Editors: Perry Stein, Ben Sales, Puneet Kollipara News Manager: Teddy White Forum Editors: Altin Sila, Jill Strominger, Christian Sherden, Dennis Sweeney Cadenza Editors: Elizabeth Ochoa, David Kaminsky, Cecilia Razak, Michelle Stein Scene Editor: Lana Goldsmith Sports Editors: Johann Qua Hiansen, Unaiz Kabani, Josh Goldman Photo Editors: Lucy Moore, Lionel Sobehart, Jenny Shao Online Editor: Scott Bressler Design Chief: Anna Dinndorf Design Editors: Dennis Sweeney, Zoe Scharf, Brittany Meyer Copy Chief: Brian Krigsher Copy Editors: Jonathan Baude, Shamima Hossain, Allison Kong, Bridgette Martinak, Cecilia Razak, Kat Zhao Designers: Jamie Reed, Kate Ehrlich, Kim Yeh, Susan Hall, Liz Klein, Niki Dankner, Alyssa Anzalone-Newman, Sophia Agapova, Evan Freedman, Chris Maury, Courtney LeGates, Mia Feitel, Joe Rigodanzo General Manager: Andrew O’Dell Advertising Manager: Sara Judd Copyright 2007 Washington University Student Media, Inc. (WUSMI). Student Life is the financially and editorially independent, student-run newspaper serving the Washington University community. First copy of each publication is free; all additional copies are 50 cents. Subscriptions may be purchased for $80.00 by calling (314) 935-6713. Student Life is a publication of WUSMI and does not necessarily represent, in whole or in part, the views of the Washington University administration, faculty or students. All Student Life articles, photos and graphics are the property of WUSMI and may not be reproduced or published without the express written consent of the General Manager. Pictures and graphics printed in Student Life are available for purchase; e-mail editor@studlife.com for more information. Student Life reserves the right to edit all submissions for style, grammar, length and accuracy. The intent of submissions will not be altered. Student Life reserves the right not to publish all submissions. If you’d like to place an ad, please contact the Advertising Department at (314) 935-6713. If you wish to report an error or request a clarification, e-mail editor@studlife.com.

Student Life launches new blogs on blogs.studlife.com Here at Student Life we want to help you make the most of the political atmosphere. Our poll in today’s News section is just the start. We are excited to announce that today we are launching a batch of new political blogs. To check them out, go to blogs.studlife.com and see what campus political groups are saying about the issues, the candidates and the upcoming election. We are providing blog space for Student Union, College Democrats, College Republicans and College Libertarians. Additionally, our News staff will be keeping you up to date with its new Political Unit blog. These blogs are

part of a pilot program and if successful, we hope to offer blogs to many other student groups in the future. This is an exciting year for Washington University students. A presidential election is upon us and for most students, this is their ﬁ rst opportunity to cast a ballot for president. Furthermore, the University has been selected to host the Vice Presidential Debates and students will have the opportunity to get involved by volunteering and attending events. We aim to keep you engaged in the entire process from now to November. Stick with us at www. studlife.com.

Pulse

Compiled by Sam Guzik

Friday, January 18 Red Alert Basketball: Wash. U. v Emory Come out and support Washington University’s men’s and women’s basketball teams face off long time rival Emory. The women will start this Red Alert sponsored event at 6 p.m. and the men’s game is scheduled to begin at 8 p.m.

Saturday, January 19 Loop Ice Carnival Head over to the Loop for this year’s Loop Ice Carnival happening all day from 10 a.m to 6 p.m. This event is free and will include snowboard bomb drop demos, a snowboard rail jam session, live ice carving demos, human dog sled races and more.

Monday, January 21 Martin Luther King Memorial The University’s 21st annual Martin Luther King’s day celebration will take place tonight at 7 p.m. in Graham Chapel. The event will feature Chancellor Mark Wrighton, Dean of the College of Arts & Science James McLeod, Vision Gospel Choir and the Black Anthology. The Rosa L. Parks Award for Meritorious Service to the Community will also be presented at the ceremony.

FRIDAY | JANUARY 18, 2008

Busch Hall goes green BY JOHANN QUA HIANSEN STAFF REPORTER Busch Hall, a staple of Brookings Quad, will retain its external body while receiving a ‘green’ interior makeover. The building, which was built over a century ago using a donation from Adolphus Busch, has seen much in its days on the Brookings quadrangle. Architects and engineers who were employed for the 1904 World’s Fair used it as headquarters. But 100 years have brought changes, including the need for buildings to be accessible to disabled individuals and to be environmentally sustainable. “The exterior will remain the same,” said Project Manager Joseph Brinkmann of Trivers Associates, the company designing the project. “The interior will be completely renovated.” According to Brinkmann, the actual construction will take about a year and is slated to start in the summer of 2008. It should be completely operational by fall of 2009. This will be the first renovation by the University aimed at being LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified. The project is designed to achieve the first of four levels of LEED certification. The cost of doing this will not be very different from a renovation of the same scope that is not LEED certified. Trivers Associates has extensive experience modernizing old buildings as it recently handled the design work for the renovation of Wilson Hall which was well received by the Arts & Sciences community. Plans for the renovation of Busch Hall will be similar to that of Wilson Hall. Busch Hall will keep its outer form and have added amenities inside. Plans include adding an elevator, additional modern restrooms, central air conditioning and heat, effective and efficient lighting and more office space. Modern fire safety equipment such as sprinklers and new fire alarms will also be installed. According to Tom Simmons, director of facilities for Arts & Sciences, the cost of the entire renovation is expected to be between seven and eight million

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LIONEL SOBEHART | STUDENT LIFE

Students and faculty pass through the front hallway in Busch Hall Thursday afternoon. The building, over 100 years old, will maintain its exterior while gaining a more-modern, LEED certified interior. dollars. “I ﬁnd [the renovation] exciting, challenging and kind of fun,” said Simmons. Matthew Conlon, project manager of the department of facilities, said there are many challenges associated with ﬁxing one of the oldest building on the Danforth Campus. “You’re trying to take a very old building and bring it up to modern, ADA and LEED codes,” said Conlon. “You have to take care of the old and take care of the new at the same time.” At least 10 meetings were held between the designers and representatives of departments that will be affected by the work to ensure that the needs of the faculty and school are addressed. Busch Hall currently holds the Departments of Asian & Near Eastern Languages and Literatures, Jewish, Islamic and Near Eastern Studies and History. It also is the home of the Religious Studies Program, the Gender Studies Program and the Literature and History Program. “The renovated Busch will have smaller rooms, and so we will have even less space per person than we have now,” said Pro-

fessor Robert Hegel of the Asian and Near Eastern Language and Literature department in an email. “I expect everyone, faculty and staff, will be dissatisﬁed at one or another aspect of the new Busch, even though the space will be more equitably distributed among faculty.” Minutes of meetings held between designers and representatives of the University indicate that the ofﬁces will be temporarily relocated to Eliot Hall before returning to Busch Hall after the project is completed. During construction, classes will be held in alternate spaces. Current departments housed in Eliot Hall will move to the new Social Sciences Building this year. “It’s time for a full-scale renovation, and if it winds up as attractive as Eads and Wilson Halls now are, that will help with the irritations of moving, and then moving again,” said Professor Hegel. “In the long run, it will be great,” said Professor Hillel Kieval, head of the department of history. “For the short term, however, it will be a real inconvenience.”

Senior News Editor / Sam Guzik / news@studlife.com

FRIDAY | JANUARY 18, 2008

POLL v FROM PAGE 1 placed second in both polls, supported by 17 percent of University students and 18 percent nationally. Notably, while Mayor Rudolph Giuliani placed third in national polls, within the University he placed behind both Representative Ron Paul, R-TX, and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. Republicans and Republican leaners who identified as working class broke that trend and supported Governor Huckabee, followed by Ron Paul; other socio-economic identifications did not present significant departures from the general population. Data was collected through an online survey system over six hours; respondents were contacted by an e-mail sent to all University graduate and undergraduate students. The poll received 2,015 responses and had a theoretical margin of error of two percent. The poll provided a glance at the political breakdown of the University, supporting the common assumption that the campus political scene is

Party Breakdown on Campus

dominated by Democrats; 42 percent of respondents affi liated with the Democratic party, while only 12 percent affi liated with the Republican party. Twenty-nine percent of respondents did not affi liate with a party. Nearly 80 percent of Democrats at the University believe that the country is heading in the wrong direction, as compared to 30 percent of Republicans. Highlighting the political divide within the nation, Democrats overwhelmingly expressed disapproval with President Bush. Ninety-seven percent of Democrats disapproved or strongly disapproved of the job President Bush is doing; only 32 percent of Republicans disapproved or strongly disapproved of the president. Further, of students who had voted for President Bush in 2004, over 40 percent disapproved of the way in which he is addressing the nation’s problems. When asked to identify the most pressing issue facing the

Republican 12.73%

Democratic 49.62%

STUDENT LIFE | NEWS

More Party Breakdown Of non-Democrats and non-Republicans: I Don’t Know 3.41%

Lean Democratic 55.40%

Do not lean towards either 21.88%

Independent 29.02%

Libertarian 4.62% Green 1.27% I Don’t Know 1.27%

Lean Republican 19.32% Other 0.79% JOE RIGODANZO | STUDENT LIFE

country, 21 percent selected “the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.” That was followed by “the economy and globalization,” which received 16 percent of responses; “global climate change and the environment” placed a close third

with 13 percent. Black students were more likely to identify education as a pressing issue, selecting it as the third most important issue; in the general population, education ranked seventh.

Breaking from the overall trend, Republicans singled out “the war on terrorism and homeland security” as the most pressing issue facing the nation.

For more detailed data, check out www.studlife.com. Also, visit blogs.studlife.com for on-going, detailed election coverage from the Student Life political unit.

Freshmen reflect on college application process BY KAT ZHAO STAFF REPORTER This past Tuesday marked the regular decision deadline for applicants to Washington University’s next freshman class. “We already have a large and strong applicant pool,” said Chancellor Mark Wrighton. While the data for the entering class of 2007 has not yet been released, Undergraduate Admissions received 22,251 applications for the class entering in the fall of 2006. Current freshmen have noticed the various ways in which the college application process has changed in the past few years due to greater competition. The deadline reminds current University freshmen of their experienc-

es applying to college. Freshman Harry Hartfield, who attended a medium sized high school in a small suburban town in New York, said he remembers an endof-the-year tradition in his high school. Although it was a public school, Hartfield said that college placement mattered greatly. “We used to have a ‘wall of shame’ where you put your rejection letters up,” said Hartfield. “Only the brave people do it. It dwindles every year because a few people chicken out.” Hartfield added that he remembers the results of all of the applications’ results. “Every name and the college the person’s attending are in the school and town newspaper. I can still tell you where every single person in

my class went to college,” he said. Freshman Nicole Salzman also said she remembers the gravity placed by parents and teachers on attending well-known elite schools. “There was an emphasis on going to the Ivy League schools in my neighborhood,” said Salzman. “Our teachers started talking about colleges first thing in freshman year, so it kind of put the pressure on in the beginning.” Salzman cited her high school’s tradition of placing students’ photos under the name of the college they will attend on the wall as another source of pressure. For Isabelle Heye, a freshmen from California who attended an economically diverse public school, college attendance mattered more

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than college choice. “In my town, it was a big deal for some families if the student just got into college, because often it was the first time for someone in that family,” said Heye. Heye recalls how difficult it was for many students to attend elite and expensive colleges. “Our guidance counselors spent a lot of time stressing financial aid,” she said. “It was a big issue. I had many friends who couldn’t go to certain schools because they couldn’t afford it.” Salzman remembers similar financial issues at her high school. “I had a friend who didn’t fall into the category of full financial aid here, so he didn’t end up coming to Wash. U.,” she said.

Salzman noted that her state school, the University of Florida, had once been the backup school for most of its in-state students. “Because there are so many more applicants, you really can’t count on that anymore,” she said. “Now there is stress that you can’t even get into your state school.” Salzman also noted the Common Application as another drawback of the application process because it easily allows students to apply to multiple schools without researching their possible caveats, such as high tuition. “It’s a disadvantage for people who can’t pay for all the schools they applied to,” she said. “I think it is much better to have a specific application for each school.” But Hartfield sees the

Common Application’s advantages. “I think the Common App helps everyone,” he said. “Colleges get more applications that way and can reject more students to boast a lower acceptance rate,” said Hartfield. Despite its high tuition cost, Heye and Salzman agree that the opportunities offered by the University’s close-nit community outweigh its financial drawbacks. “I really enjoy that the classes are small here,” said Salzman. “Your professors really know you well. You get learning opportunities that you wouldn’t get at a huge state school. I’ve had chances where I have been challenged in ways that I wouldn’t have in big lecture settings.”

Senior Forum Editor / Nathan Everly / forum@studlife.com

STUDENT LIFE | FORUM

FORUM

FRIDAY | JANUARY 18, 2008

Our daily Forum editors: Monday: Jillian Strominger Wednesday: Christian Sherden Friday: Tess Croner jlstromi@artsci.wustl.edu ctsherde@artsci.wustl.edu tacroner@wustl.edu To ensure that we have time to fully evaluate your submissions, guest columns should be e-mailed to the next issue’s editor or forwarded to forum@studlife.com by no later than 5 p.m. two days before publication. Late pieces will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. We welcome your submissions and thank you for your consideration.

STAFF EDITORIAL

My take on Obama vs. Clinton

Proposed bill will undermine academic freedom in Missouri

his legislative session, state representative Jane Cunningham is trying to introduce a bill, known as the “Emily Brooker Higher Education Sunshine Act,” that would effectively undermine academic freedom in Missouri public colleges and Universities. Missouri House Bill 1315 purports to promote intellectual diversity by “requiring each public institution to report annually to the general assembly detailing the steps the institution is taking to ensure intellectual diversity and the free exchange of ideas.” This sounds good on the surface, but the bill defines “intellectual diversity” as “the diversity of ideas that provides the foundation of a learning environment that exposes students to a variety of political, ideological, religious and other perspectives, when such perspectives relate to the subject matter being taught or issues being discussed.” “Free exchange of ideas” means “intellectual pluralism and students’ right to learn in an environment that exposes them to new knowledge, different perspectives, compet-

ing ideas and alternative claims of truth.” Essentially, this bill would require professors to teach all alternative perspectives to the material they present. A course on human evolution, for example, would need to legitimately advocate the ideas of creationism and intelligent design, a course on climate change would also need to argue against climate change, and a course in queer theory would need to give a platform to biblical arguments against homosexuality. The bill also stipulates that public universities must establish and publicize procedures that allow students to report violations of policy. Enforcing this bill not only blatantly undermines academic freedom, but it is not hard to imagine a wide range of negative effects beginning with teachers choosing not to teach any controversial subject for fear of violating the policy (which could affect the decision of whether or not they receive tenure) to actually disallowing entire subjects to be taught based on the fact that there are too many

opposing viewpoints to cover equally. Even if it were possible for professors to ensure they would not violate this policy, it would still have an extremely detrimental effect on education based on the fact that some basic truths deserve more weight and study than their opposing viewpoints. As experts in their respective fields, professors and not politicians should be allowed to make that determination and structure their courses in ways that cater to their knowledge about what is important for students to learn in a given area. That is, after all, a large part of what the University hires them to do. Forcing professors to give equal weight to opposing viewpoints forces them to ignore and discount facts and evidence that suggest one viewpoint is more correct than another. Allowing people to have and discuss their own opinions is perfectly reasonable, but forcing professors to give equal weight and legitimacy to all opinions renders logic irrelevant and legitimizes all opinions simply because they exist. The fact that an opinion exists does not

make that opinion valid and we should not force professors to pretend that it is. It makes a mockery of academics and undermines the pursuit of knowledge. While this bill has been filed, it has not yet been assigned a committee hearing, which means now is the best time to act to kill this bill. Though Washington University is not a public university, in the interest of higher education in Missouri, the University should publicly denounce the bill the way the University has taken positions on other issues like stem cell research. Passing this bill would seriously undermine academia in Missouri, a move that would certainly eventually affect overall exchange of ideas in Missouri and eventually be felt by Washington University. We have a significant interest in being a University in a state that respects academics. The motto of our school, “ Per Veritatem Vis ,” tells us we gain “strength through truth.” We cannot stand by while the state legislature threatens to take logic from our state’s professors and truth from our academic community.

BY ALTIN SILA FORUM EDITOR

n Wednesday, columnist Bill Hoffman made the case for Barack Obama in the Democratic primary. I too believe that Barack Obama is the superior choice for primary voters and can better lead this country than other candidates in the race (in either party), and here’s why. As much as the notion of “change” has been overused in this race, Obama is truly the best person to deliver it. It’s often reported that Obama is seen as the change candidate because he’s young and has not become entrenched in Washington politics. While this is certainly true and is a serious beneﬁt to his candidacy, his history of action on issues is rarely spoken of. Before attending Harvard Law, Obama worked as a community organizer in poor, urban areas of Chicago. After law school, he continued to work in these areas, ﬁ ghting for voting rights and working to ensure equal protection under the law for all. As a state senator in Illinois, Obama had numerous accomplishments, many of which took serious political maneuvering, such as requiring law enforcement to tape all interrogations. In achieving his goals, Obama was able to unite and win the respect of many outside the Democratic Party. This characteristic has already shown itself on the campaign trail, with numerous Republicans and Independents rallying behind him. Barack Obama may lack the national political experience of Hillary Clinton, but experience is not a guarantee of success. As Obama has pointed out, Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney had extensive experience before planning the Iraq war. Even Bill Clinton himself spoke of the over-valuing of experience when he ran for president in 1992. In a presidential debate in October of 1992, Clinton said, “I believe experience counts, but it’s not everything…The same old experience is not relevant…And you can have the right kind of experience and the wrong kind of experience.” He was absolutely right. Furthermore, why has Hillary Clinton been given a free pass on her experience claims? While she certainly deserves credit for the good work she’s done in her life, her experience is often perceived as more extensive than it actually is. Over and over again, she cites her “35 years of experience” but no one ever notes that it hasn’t even been a full 35 years since she graduated from law school. Can Obama then claim to have 25 years of experience, because he began his work as a community organizer after graduating from college? Hillary Clinton is not the experienced candidate in this race; Joe Biden, Chris Dodd, and Bill Richardson were the ones with far more experience. While Hillary Clinton did

THE CLASSIC JOHNNY CHANG | EDITORIAL CARTOON

This Johnny Chang cartoon was originally published in Student Life on September 1, 2006.

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR REGARDING OUR POLITICAL POLL Dear Readers: First off, I’d like to thank all of you who helped make our fi rst political poll such a great success. This is the fi rst time we have undertaken a survey on this scale and we believe this is the fi rst defi nitive measure of the campus political atmosphere. One sixth of you participated in this endeavor and the results speak for themselves. This is just the fi rst of many polls we plan to conduct between now and the election and we hope the rest will be even better than this one. I would also like to apolo-

gize for the errors we made in this survey. As with any task attempted for the fi rst time, conducting this survey was a learning process for all of us and consequently mistakes were made along the way. Some of these were minor errors and others were more significant oversights. We are, however, confident that the accuracy of the survey was not jeopardized. In particular, the most glaring error was the lack of a login mechanism. Such a mechanism was needed to enter the drawing for the gift card and to ensure that no one took the survey multiple times. How-

ever, given the large number of respondents (over 2,000), we do not believe that the poll results were compromised. As for entering your name into the drawing, on our next political poll in two to three weeks we will ask whether you participated in this poll and give you an additional entry in the drawing. Additionally, we also forgot to list the Medical School as an option in one of the demographic questions, an oversight on our part. Rest assured that this and other errors will be addressed when we formulate our next survey. Thank you to all of you who responded

to me directly to bring these problems to our attention. We hope that you ﬁ nd these poll results as intriguing as we do. To see the complete data compiled in the survey, please visit our Web site, www. studlife.com. Also be sure to check out our new blogs, including our Political Unit blog, where you can stay up to date on the presidential campaign and how it relates to the University community. Again, thank you to everyone who participated and our apologies for the errors.

have a very active role as fi rst lady, her credentials are not as broad as she leads voters to believe. Last month, The New York Times revealed that as fi rst lady, she never held a security clearance, never attended National Security Council meetings, was not included in President Clinton’s daily intelligence briefi ng and had zero input in the most serious crises of President Clinton’s time in office. And fi nally, as Bill Hoffman pointed out on Wednesday, her supposed experience failed her when it mattered most: the vote for the Iraq war. Why should we believe that her judgment will be any better in the future, especially as she stubbornly refuses to apologize for her vote? Hillary Clinton represents the politics of old in this election. She brings a continuation of the extreme partisanship in this country. A look at her extremely high unfavorable ratings and her constant and relentless

“As much as the notion of ‘change’ has been overused in this race, Obama is truly the person to deliver it.” berating of the Republican Party conﬁ rms this. I also believe that she will, in the Washington political tradition, treat her constituency as the mere means to remaining in power—placating to anyone and saying anything to win. We’ve seen evidence of this already: the constant change in message depending on the political climate, the constant reshaping of her campaign, her Karl Rovelike use of fear as a political tool, and her campaign’s subtle mentions of race and Obama’s admitted past drug use. I won’t try to predict the future of this election or even what will happen in the Nevada caucuses tomorrow. Iowa and New Hampshire proved that polls and pundits are about as reliable as Miss Cleo. I do know, though, that Barack Obama is a serious contender in this race, and I truly believe that he is by far the best choice for president. Perhaps I’m just a naïve college student with an unrealistic idealism about American politics, but regardless, Obama’s candidacy is a serious blow to the cynical political view that many hold. Win or lose, he has done something extremely important. Obama’s candidacy has shown that politics isn’t predetermined and that the true power in this country lies with the people. I can only hope that their choice in this presidential election is a little better than it was the last time around. Altin is a senior in Arts & Sciences and a Forum editor. He can be reached via e-mail at forum@studlife.com.

-Erin Fults Editor in Chief

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Senior Forum Editor / Nathan Everly / forum@studlife.com

FRIDAY | JANUARY 18, 2008

FORUM FLASHBACK

University failed students in 2006 voting

n February 5, 2008, the state of Missouri will hold its presidential primaries. In light of this upcoming event, we would like to remind everyone about the obstacles that many students faced while trying to vote in the 2006 national midterm elections. It is our hope that by re-publishing the following staff editorial, which ran on November 6, 2006, students and administration ofﬁcials will take appropriate steps to ensure that Election Day will go smoothly: “I urge all members of the Washington University community…to vote on Nov. 7,” Chancellor Mark Wrighton wrote in his infamous letter to students and faculty on Oct. 23, 2006. After the myriad of voting problems incurred by many students yesterday, the University again encouraged members of the Wash. U. community to vote, e-mailing solutions to the problems. But the University’s advice came at 4 p.m., too late to make a difference for most of those who suffered from the confusion at the polls. This is a problem that has happened before, and the University should have made a greater effort to prevent the problem before students ran into roadblocks at the polls.

Many juniors and seniors who tried to vote yesterday were living on the South 40 in 2004 and voted at Wydown Middle School. Now, many of these students live offcampus and no longer have the same mailing addresses or polling places. So to vote, they would have had to change their addresses with the St. Louis County Board of Elections. Unfortunately, this came as news to many of them when they showed up to vote. The Board of Elections sent address conﬁ rmation postcards to students’ previously registered addresses on the South 40. Since those students no longer resided on the 40, they never received the information; the postcards were returned to the Board of Elections unseen by students. Consequently, when they went to vote yesterday, as the Chancellor (as well as Student Union President Paul Moinester) urged them to, those who went to Wydown Middle School were offered provisional ballots. This was an unsatisfactory option given that provisional ballots cast at incorrect polling locations are not counted in the election. Since the University had previously impelled students to vote, one would expect that they would have ensured that students knew

of the various complications involved with the voting process. The University failed to do this. This is a common problem in election years on campus. Students who vote at Wydown Middle School as freshmen or sophomores frequently move to different voting districts and are then unable to vote at Wydown Middle School as juniors or seniors. In the past, the University’s failure to provide students with reminders to change their addresses or ﬁ ll out provisional ballots would have been understandable because of its previous silence on voting matters. But this year, the University was not silent. Once Chancellor Wrighton’s letter hit mailboxes, the University committed to helping students vote. While the letter came after the deadline to register, the University still should have anticipated the problems and warned students earlier than 4 p.m. on Election Day, after many students unsuccessfully tried to vote. Student Union should be commended for reminding students to vote, and went above and beyond in providing information to students about where they were supposed to vote, information that the city of St. Louis was delinquent in providing in a

timely fashion. Many campus political groups did extraordinary jobs in registering and getting students to vote, evidenced when one poll worker remarked that she had never seen so many students voting before. These groups could not have anticipated the problems that students faced this Election Day. These groups are also comprised of students, and they, like their peers, had not seen a pattern of this confusion before. The University, on the other hand, should have seen this pattern, and should have known what could happen. If the University does not want to interfere with voting, that is ﬁ ne. But when Chancellor Wrighton tries to encourage students to vote, the University needs to do stay consistent with this message, and do more than send out an e-mail that is rendered useless by its timing. Election Day 2008 is on Nov. 4 of that year. When registration deadlines roll around two years from now, the University must ensure that students know what problems they might face and, optimally, how to avoid them.

All I want for Christmas is a heart attack BY SARA REMEDIOS STAFF COLUMNIST If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard someone complain about holiday weight gain over the past few days, I’d have enough to buy a textbook—an expensively intimidating, twoinch-thick science textbook. No joke. If I had a dollar for every time I’ve seen an advertisement responding to holiday weight gain with the promise of some kind of miracle cure/drug/medical procedure, I’d have enough to buy all of my textbooks for the rest of college and then some. Question: have you actually gained weight, or are they just telling you that you did? Recently it seems that the myth of holiday weight gain has grown to new heights of paranoia in American culture, complimenting perfectly the onslaught of advertisements guaranteeing ways to make a better, happier, more beautiful you. A few years ago we had commercials for Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers, shown now and then and usually only during the day; now we have prime time advertisements for exotic drugs that will help you drop ten pounds “like that.” There’s an entire industry devoted to diet pills; gossip magazines feature articles in every issue about new celebrity diet fads, complete with order information for how you can get in on the dream. Even formerly reputable news sources devote time and energy (at least during the holiday season) to keeping off and/or getting rid of the “extra” weight. Seriously? According to one of those formerly reputable news sources (NBC’s “Today”), the average American gains only one pound over the holiday season, if that. One pound— that’s 3,500 calories, the equivalent of about two-dozen cookies. It seems reasonable enough (there does tend to be a lot more food, and particularly a lot more dessert, over winter break) and also easy enough to avoid (or get rid of) if you’re really worried about it. Cut 100 calories out of your diet every day for a month—100 calories, fewer than there are in a glass of fruit juice or a medium latte—and you’re golden. So why all the worry? It’s a well-established fact

STUDENT LIFE | FORUM

We need a new electoral system BY ZACHARY STEINERT-THRELKELD STAFF COLUMNIST

merica’s primary election system has fatal flaws. If the Election of 2008 has revealed anything, it is that the staggered primary system, where a few states have their primaries before everyone else, needs to be changed. It is morally indefensible that a miniscule segment of the electorate disproportionally influences the race for president because some state legislatures declare it so. The current structure of the American primaries disenfranchises most Americans. Those states which vote before Super Tuesday (the day, February 5 this year, when states representing over half of national delegates will vote) narrow the field of candidates left for which everyone else can vote. After a disappointing showing in Iowa, Senators Chris Dodd, D-Conn. and Joe Biden, D-Del. removed themselves from the race. Governor Bill Richardson did the same after New Hampshire. Dennis Kucinich, still running (and recounting in New Hampshire), has such low poll numbers that networks consistently bar him from debates. What was a field of eight candidates (sorry Tom Vilsack) has narrowed to three, with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton really considered the only viable candidates. For Republicans, the situation remains more fluid since four serious candidates (of an original field of eight, including Alan Keyes) could still secure the nomination. Voters in Iowa, New Hampshire, Michigan, and Florida have cemented Mike Huckabee (Bill Clinton with a Bible), Mitt Romney (the candidate who makes John Kerry look like he has conviction), John McCain (the anti-establishment establishment man who could

“It is morally indefensible that a miniscule segment of the electorate disproportionally inﬂuences the race for president because some state legislatures declare it so.” win it all) and Rudy Giuliani (a dash of Romney with a pound of 9/11) as their party’s leading candidates. Ron Paul, who received more votes in New Hampshire and Michigan than Giuliani and seems to be the only candidate to have actually read the 9/11 commission report, has been the primary victim of this cycle’s frontloading. While all states voting before Super Tuesday have created this problem, Iowa

and New Hampshire, which went first and second, highlight the biased nature of our national primaries. Iowa has three million residents (30th most in America) and is 91% white. New Hampshire has 1.2 million residents (46th in America) and is 97% white. America has 300 million residents and is 74% white. In other words, Iowa and New Hampshire have 1.5% of American’s population and are much more homogenous, but their preferences cut the field of candidates in half. Of course, one cannot forget the role of our hyperbolic media, which takes every small change and proclaims it monumental. For example, everyone talked about Hillary Clinton being out of the race after coming in second in Iowa. She received 14 delegates to Obama’s 15, yet a candidate needs 2,025 delegates to win. One delegate almost cost Clinton, whom

“There is no perfect voting system (except for dictatorship), but we can ﬁnd one better than this one.” the same people exalted as invincible months earlier, the election. A cold white state and a colder, whiter one have enormously limited the options of tens of millions of other voters. There is no perfect voting system (except for dictatorship), but we can find one better than this one. A (probably beguiling) alternative is to have all the primaries on one day. A bad side effect: this would increase the pressure on candidates to run big-money campaigns, probably limiting competition. Alternatively, approximately half of eligible voters could vote on one day, the other half soon after; this would still favor moneyed candidates. Or, voting could be organized around regions; this would still discriminate for voters with interests, like farm subsidies, tied to specific regions. (Whatever happens, the federal government must mandate it so that states cannot game the system to their advantage.) The point is that one can easily envision alternatives to our broken system which do not privilege a miniscule, homogenous group over the rest of America. I, for one, was going to vote for Bill Richardson and will now cast a ballot for Obama. Opinion polls interpret this as support, but it is really frustration at the lack of a better candidate. Zachary is a senior in Arts & Sciences and a staff columnist. He can be reached via email at zsteinert@gmail.com

CHRISTINE GARVEY | STUDENT LIFE

that the media projects a distorted perception of the ideal body type which has led to the distortion of the collective American body image. At mouth we, as a culture, condemn this distortion. At feet, we follow the examples we are given and seek to remedy all problems in our lives by perfecting the way we appear in life. How many resolved to finally drop that last 10 pounds in the New Year? This distortion, this obsession with being thin, is a problem. But how do we solve it? Should we destroy all media outlets and chase down models and actors with pitchforks? Should we burn all magazines, imprison the unhealthily thin and make public sport of forcefeeding them? Fun as that may be, I’d suggest that there’s a better way. Above all else, stop the onslaught of televised and printed advertisements that

tell people they’re not good enough, thin enough or pretty enough. Marketing that targets and exploits insecurities at the risk of many people’s health is downright immoral and should be banned. They can’t advertise cigarettes on TV, so why are diets and diet pills any more acceptable? Diets don’t even work in the long run; “lifestyle change,” meaning eating well and exercising, is the only way weight can actually be kept off according to most of the “experts” anyway (case in point, don’t all the commercials for diet pills concede that they only work with healthy diet and exercise?). Further, dieting as a habitual practice can have some seriously bad consequences on an individual’s health. Constant weight gain/weight loss puts unnecessary strain on the heart; crash dieting is basically starvation and basically aw-

ful for you. If it’s a monitored diet program, a Jenny Craig or a Weight Watchers program that focuses on health and nutrition and lifestyle change, then fine. Great. Go for it. On the other hand, if it doesn’t work, if it’s dangerous, if it’s promising all our hopes and dreams in a bottle but really only perpetuating and exacerbating insecurity and leading us to obsess even more about weight and move even further away from what’s healthy, then get the hell off my TV. We are a culture of eating disorders and extremes. Eat a cookie. Sara is a senior in Arts & Sciences and a staff columnist. She can be reached via e-mail at saremedi@wustl. edu.

CORRECTIONS: In Wednesday’s staff editorial, “Our lists of movers and shakers at Washington University,” Steve Givens was incorrectly described in one portion of the article as a dean. He is in fact the associate vice chancellor for Public Affairs. In Wednesday’s edition an article, “Administration sees little increase in need-based scholarships” stated that the University spends $500 million of its endowment on scholarships. In fact, the University does not spend its endowment on financial aid but rather spends its returns on the endowment’s investments on financial aid. Student Life regrets the errors.

Senior Sports Editor / Trisha Wolf / sports@studlife.com

STUDENT LIFE | SPORTS

FRIDAY | JANUARY 18, 2008

SPORTS

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Bears ﬁnd groove over winter break v Former reserve Kelley helps lead team to two impressive victories

BY ANDREI BERMAN SPORTS REPORTER Prior to the start of the 20072008 Washington University men’s basketball season, sophomore Aaron Thompson was not a point guard. His classmate Ross Kelley, was, but had hardly any collegiate experience playing his native position. When junior and pre-season All-American point guard Sean Wallis went down with a seasonending injury early in the third game of the season, it quickly became clear that Thompson and Kelley would have to help fill the void left by last season’s star floor general. Initially, Thompson, a prototypical two-guard whose sweet shooting and stellar defense earned him UAA Rookie of the Year honors as a freshman, admirably ran the point. The second year from Elida, Ohio proved surprisingly adroit at directing the offense, albeit with less of the silky smooth panache that defined Wallis’ game and electrified Wash. U. fans during last year’s run to the Final Four. But despite strong play from Thompson in the wake of Wallis’ injury, the Bears struggled to find their identity as a basketball team. They barely eeked out wins over Division III lightweights Babson College and Coe College and narrowly defeated a youthful Illinois Wesleyan squad. Though the team showed flashes of its former self in a December 11 win at Fontbonne, the seamlessness that characterized last season’s offense appeared a thing of the past. And then winter break happened. Marked by the unexpectedly solid play of Kelley, Wash. U. rattled off a pair of impressive wins upon its return. Kelley, who prior to the team’s January 7 74-60 victory over Webster University had never played more than 15 minutes in a single game in his career, earned his first career start against the Gorloks, garnering a team high 32 minutes of playing time and finishing with 10 points on four of five shooting. “The last three or four games before winter break, we were really struggling trying to get into an offensive rhythm and

now we’re moving the ball a lot better, scoring the ball a lot better on offense,” said junior and team captain Tyler Nading, the team’s leading scorer. Kelly entered the starting lineup almost by accident, as senior shooting guard Danny O’Boyle came down with the flu just before the Webster contest and was unable to play. Wash. U. coach Mark Edwards was so pleased with Kelley’s performance against Webster that he elected to give the Portland, Ore. native another start, this time in the squad’s league opener against the University of Chicago last Saturday. Kelley, who is known more for his tenacious defense than for his ability to score finished the game with seven points, six assists and just two turnovers in 30 minutes of action, as the Bears cruised to an utterly surprising blowout win, 76-50 over the rival Maroons. It appears Kelley will remain in the starting lineup, at least for the foreseeable future. “I was a little jittery and nervous against Webster, but I’m feeling more relaxed and confident. I’m prepared to do whatever it takes to help the team out,” said Kelley. Kelley’s ability to run the point has enabled senior and All-American center Troy Ruths to get easier scoring opportunities. Since Thompson can now play his normal position, teams can no longer double-team Ruths the way they had just after Wallis went down. Ruths tallied 26 points in Saturday’s win, many of which came off of well-executed assists, the byproduct of the team’s newfound smoothness on offense. Thompson has also greatly benefited from Kelley’s rise. In the Webster game, Thompson scored 18 points and dished out 10 assists, not turning the ball over a single time. “Ross moving to the point allows me to go to the two and do what I do best and Ross is just as good with the ball as I was,” said Thompson. Thompson also lauded Kelly’s prowess on the other end of the court. “He’s one of the best defenders on our team. He allows us to bring a lot more to the table defensively.” O’Boyle’s play on Saturday

was also encouraging. The senior came off the bench and played with remarkable efficiency, scoring ten points on just 3 of 4 shooting, all of which came from beyond the arch. Now 10-2 and ranked 5th in D3hoops.com’s most recent poll, Wash. U. appears poised to again make a run at the UAA title and Final Four. Standing in its way are the team’s 13 remaining league contests. And those contests will be extraordinarily difficult. This year’s UAA—clearly the strongest league in the nation— boasts an unheard-of three top five teams, including the nation’s top two squads, in the University of Rochester and Brandeis University, respectively. Only one other league in the country can claim two top 10 teams, let alone three in the top five. Carnegie Mellon University has also recently checked into the poll, debuting at 24. With Wash. U. looking at one of the nation’s most daunting schedules, the team’s impressive recent play could not have come at a better time. The Bears’ team defense has been especially strong of late and the team will have to continue playing at a high level on the defensive end if it is to compete for a league championship. “It all starts on defense for us. That’s what creates opportunities on offense. Chicago couldn’t handle our defensive intensity and that’s what we have to bring every game,” said Nading. Thompson believes the team’s improved play of late will bode well for the Bears in the forthcoming UAA season. “Early in the season we were just kind of squeaking out victories and kind of thinking that maybe we weren’t as good as advertised, but two wins gave us confidence going into games like Rochester and Brandeis. We can play with these guys and give them everything we’ve got,” he said. The journey back to the tourney begins Friday night with a Red Alert sponsored event against Emory at the Field House. Tip-off is set for 8 p.m.

LIONEL SOBEHART | STUDENT LIFE

Ross Kelley drives to the hoop versus local rivals Fontbonne University, December 11, 2007. The Bears won the game 73-57.

Recent Top Performers

Ross Kelley, Basketball The sophomore entered the starting line-up by accident for the ﬁrst game of 2008 after teammate Danny O’Boyle got the ﬂu. He has since proven his talent at point guard, playing 32 minutes, a team high, and scoring 10 points against Webster and dishing six assists against the University of Chicago.

Priya Srikanth, Diving The senior posted season-high scores in both the 1-meter and 3-meter competitions en route to winning both events in last Friday’s dual meet against Lindenwood University. Srikanth has already qualiﬁed for the NCAA meet in both events.

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Halsey Ward, Basketball The junior netted a career high 26 points in Wash. U.’s UAA opener against the University of Chicago, including four threepointers. She nearly recorded her ﬁrst collegiate double-double, grabbing nine rebounds. She also led the team in its December contest against Fontbonne, scoring 17 points.

Kevin Leckey, Swimming The junior won ﬁve individual races last weekend en route to two duel meet victories for the Bears. Against Lindenwood Friday, he championed in the 200yard individual medley and 200yard backstroke. He followed up that performance by winning all three freestyle sprints against Wabash College Saturday.

Senior Cadenza Editor / Brian Stitt / cadenza@studlife.com

FRIDAY | JANUARY 18, 2008

CADEN Z A

STUDENT LIFE | CADENZA

n. a technically brilliant, sometimes improvised solo passage toward the close of a concerto, an exceptionally brilliant part of an artistic work

arts & entertainment

MOVIE REVIEWS

‘Cloverﬁeld:’ Godzilla rebooted for digital age

BY CECILIA RAZAK MOVIE EDITOR After the third wince of “no human could possibly survive that,” and the twelfth eye roll at “there’s no way he would still be clinging to that camera,” “Cloverﬁeld” starts to grow on you. Perhaps it’s the homey, low-budget feel of a mid-budget monster movie, or perhaps it’s the fond memories of a not-sojolly green giant, towering over a ransacked Japan. Ironically, that small island turns out to be a much safer bet than Manhattan—if only main character Rob (Michael Stahl-David) had left for his fancy new job there one day earlier. We follow Rob and his everdwindling group of attractive twenty-somethings around a monster-beset New York City. The conceit is slightly different here, though, evincing more than a little bit of a “Blair Witch Project” air: the entire thing is caught on a handheld digital

camera, dutifully toted and fortuitously aimed. Our proxy is Hud (the littleseen T.J. Miller), a dimwitted but lovable jock who doubles as the lowest common denominator for exposition purposes. Hud is documenting the farewell party of his best friend Rob, who is in love with leggy beauty Beth (Odette Yustman). The party is interrupted by what appears to be an earthquake but which turns out to be a large creature of indiscriminate phylum, intent on the destruction or at least disruption of Manhattan. Clamor ensues, we lose a few friendly faces here and there, and Rob sets out to the rescue of trapped and frantic Beth. Directed by Matt Reeves, the ﬁlm is the brainchild of producer J.J. Abrams, best known for his work on TV’s “Alias.” He speculated he could make a $25 million dollar ﬁlm by hiring a virtually no-name cast, using a single $1,500 digital camera and throwing the rest of the budget

at special effects. Even with its modest pricetag, and despite the plot-devicey functioning of cell phones that certainly would not be, tricky camera moves unperformable by mere mortals in dire straights, and the slight feeling of sea-sickness provoked by that tricky camera, “Cloverfield” works. The few innovations keep it fresh, while the familiar ground tread is just well-worn enough to make us comfortable in our shoes. Not that any of the women are, though—they’re all trapped in stilettos. “Cloverfield” can’t help but draw comparisons to 9/11, featuring, as it does, New York with tumbling towers, ashfilled air and terror-stricken faces. But the parallels are not mean-spirited, nor does it have anything prescient to say about the terrorist attacks—the monster’s massacre being, of course, unmotivated and ultimately unexplained. Not that we’re left searching for motiva-

tion; the ﬁlm makes clear its purpose is not to clarify cause, only to document incident. On that count it succeeds. Indeed, its sharp focus on documentation—Hud at one point defends his camera-happy hand, arguing that “people will want to know what happened”—lends it an air of reliability, relatability and reality that is refreshing—especially for eyes bored of sweeping crane shots and dull, expensive explosions. Not that it lacks the latter, but somehow, when a camera shakes and shies away from a life-threatening ﬁreball instead of leering unfeelingly at it, it’s easier to become part of the action. Cloverfield Rating: ★★★✩✩ Starring: Michael Stahl-David, T.J. Miller, Lizzy Caplan Directed By: Matt Reeves

‘There Will Be Blood’ is spot-on BY BRIAN STITT SENIOR CADENZA EDITOR Daniel Plainview is of that ever more common breed of men who uses the same silver tongue when charming crowds and threatening to slice a man’s throat while he sleeps. But Plainview is anything but common. When Daniel Plainview says he’s an oilman, you’ll believe it. Daniel Plainview is a true American. We meet him ﬁrst in the bowels of his small silver mine, a few years before the beginning of the twentieth century. He works alone and in silence, save for the steady slam of his pick against stone and the occasional blast of dynamite. He makes a small strike and uses the money to move from silver mining to drilling for black gold. He works with a small team of men, still in silence, but he leads them to success. Plainview shows a connection with the earth and an understanding of the land, but he views it always as an adversary to be defeated, beaten into submission through clever planning and sheer force of will. In the beginning, Daniel Plainview embodies the dubious but proﬁtable ideals of manifest destiny and capitalist fortitude. He will be a great man one day. Plainview ends up in Little Boston, Calif. hoping to make the oil strike of a lifetime.

He has grown bitter and cold toward people, but can show warmth when making a sale, or in his business, buying oil-rich land for peanuts from simple folks who don’t know better. His only competition for the hearts and minds of the Little Bostonians comes in the form of the local evangelist, Eli Sunday, played dutifully by the young Paul Dano. Eli keeps his actual intentions hidden behind a beatific grin, but come sermon time, preaches fire and brimstone with as much fervor as any Elmer Gantry wannabe. As Plainview builds his first oil derrick, Eli uses the money from the sale of his father’s land to expand the Church of the Third Revelation. The virgin landscape does not stay so for long. Paul Thomas Anderson sets these scenes masterfully. Anderson has never been afraid of borrowing from his favorite directors (he’s often used Robert Altman and Martin Scorsese as sources in the past) and “There Will Be Blood” is no exception. Thankfully, for this film, which explores the birth of a new brand of American greed and the exploitation of the land’s natural resources, Anderson looks to that most American of genre’s, the Western. The sparse, derrick-ridden landscapes are right out of George Steven’s “Giant” and the spooky

mood comes directly from John Huston’s “Treasure of the Sierra Madre.” Anderson’s most notable skill is applying a personal touch to his myriad sources, and for some time he has been recognized almost universally to be a sizeable talent. But for me, and for many others if the Internet is to be trusted, his talent has never been fully translated onto ﬁlm. For “There Will Be Blood” Paul Thomas Anderson drops his familiar cast of players with three names (Philip Seymour Hoffman, Philip Baker Hall, John C. Reilly) and goes with a new one in Daniel Day-Lewis. As an actor, Lewis holds fantastic, minute control over his emotions. He utilizes each bodily muscle precisely, has a face that ﬁts in any century and most importantly, looks really cool in high-waisted pants. Lewis certainly doesn’t have the ability to blend into the background of a movie the way many of Anderson’s old favorites do, but Plainview is the dominating character, in a way the only character, in “There Will Be Blood” and no actor working today commands an audience’s attention like Daniel Day-Lewis. In this movie, Anderson gives him a character not usually seen as the lead in a Hollywood feature; a greedy,

endlessly competitive climber whose soul rots to black, oily filth through the course of the movie. “There Will Be Blood” represents the pinnacle for all careers involved, and is sure to be considered one of the best truly American movies. Paul Thomas Anderson has finally made the jump from great potential talent to great writer/director and Daniel DayLewis has cemented his place in film history as one of this era’s greatest actors with one of this era’s finest performances. Perhaps most pleasing is that “There Will Be Blood” can carry such a similar mood to the Coen Brothers’ latest triumph, “No Country for Old Men,” (and such a similarly fantastic title) without ever stepping on that film’s toes. A double feature of these two films may leave the viewer feeling miserable about the American dream, but can only strengthen their resolve that America can still inspire great art. There Will Be Blood Rating: ★★★★★ Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano Directed By: Paul Thomas Anderson

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STUDENT LIFE | SCENE

Stepping BY BROOKE SCHACHNER AND ERIC BIERMAN SCENE REPORTERS

n search of Italian food, we decided to venture south of Forest Park to the Hill. After hearing good things from the Food Network’s Rachel Ray, (“30 Minute Meals,” “$40 a Day”) we decided to go to Cunetto House of Pasta, located on Magnolia Avenue. Cunetto’s serves generally delectable traditional Italian cooking in large portions and at extremely reasonable prices. Though Cunetto’s is known for its pasta dishes, the array of affordable options makes it an excellent choice for any night. After we arrived at Cunetto’s and hung our coats, a hostess led us through a fairly crowded bar area. Upon entering the dining room, we were surprised at how packed the restaurant was. It was a weeknight and almost every table was occupied. Though most of the diners were older, we did notice some businessmen and younger patrons enjoying their dinners. Our waitress was very courteous and attentive. Within seconds, our drinks were served. While we were given bread plates and butter, bread was not served until after our appetizers, which did arrive very expediently. The menu at Cunetto’s is generally what one would expect at a house of pasta: classic Italian appetizers,

Out

several beef, chicken and veal dishes and over twenty kinds of pasta. One of the few notable problems is the lack of seafood dishes. The menu only includes a sole ﬁ let dish and one shrimp dish. For those looking for lighter fare, Cunetto’s also has a section of low-cholesterol pasta plates on the menu. To start, we ordered toasted ravioli and calamari sautéed in butter, lemon and garlic. The toasted ravioli was fair. It was topped with Parmesan cheese and stuffed with beef, but it was a little chewy; we wish it had been crunchier. The calamari was very tasty and cooked well. Next time, we’ll be sure to try the fried version. For larger parties, Cunetto’s offers a “Gourmet Appetizer” platter for $26 that contains most of the items on their appetizer menu. Shortly after we ﬁ nished our appetizers, our salad arrived. We ordered the insalata italiana, which is just lettuce, wine vinegar and virgin olive oil. Though simple, the dressing was delicious and the lettuce was particularly fresh. We regretted not trying another one of their salads. When our main courses arrived, we were immediately impressed by the portions. The pasta plates were huge, and the veal dish came with its own entrée-sized portion of pasta and a glass of wine. The veal scallopini, which consists of meat sautéed in

Marsala sauce and green peppers, was very tender. Additionally, the pasta side dish was cooked perfectly, though it is worth noting that substituting a different kind of pasta for the standard spaghetti costs extra. The cannelloni bianco, rolled pasta stuffed with beef, veal and chicken in a creamy mushroom sauce, was also an interesting and enjoyable dish. The fettuccini carbonara, fettuccini pasta blended with Parmesan cheese, butter, cream, egg and prosciutto, was served with plenty of prosciutto. However, the sauce could have been smoother. For dessert, we would recommend the New York cheesecake. Though the tiramisu was good, the cheesecake was particularly tasty, and we enjoyed the strawberry glaze that came with it. We were upset when we learned that Cunetto’s espresso machine was not working, but the coffee was good nonetheless. Overall, we had a great experience at Cunetto’s. For a relatively low price, we were served great food by a helpful staff and we went home with enough food to last us for days. While there are certainly glitzier, more upscale places on the Hill, Cunetto’s is a great place for groups of all sizes looking for large portions of Italian food and decent prices.

FRIDAY | JANUARY 18, 2008

Cunetto House of Pasta

Rating:

5453 Magnolia Avenue St Louis, MO 63139 Price Range: $10-20

★★★★✩

BROOKE SCHACHNER | STUDENT LIFE

Cunetto’s House of Pasta on the Hill is an excellent choice for an Italian meal. And don’t forget to bring home the doggie bag, as the main courses are big enough to last as delicious leftovers for quite awhile.

presents a guide to places of worship in the WU community

Religious Directory For advertising information, call (314) 935-6713 or email advertising@studlife.com

BLO

GS!

! S

G O L BL B ! S G O BL All Saints Catholic Church Corner of Westgate & Clemens (One block North of the Loop)

Come Feel the Warmth!

Sunday Worship 10:30am Wherever you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here! 6501 Wydown - 314.721.5060 Right next to the South 40! www.firstcongregational.org

INSPIRING ETHICAL LIVING The Ethical Society is a community of people united in the belief that an ethical life creates a more just, loving and sustainable world for all. Join us on Sunday mornings for the 9:45 Forum and 11:00 Platform Address. Children's Sunday School meets 10am-noon Ethical Society of St. Louis (1/4 mile west of the Galleria) 9001 Clayton Rd. (314) 991-0955 www.ethicalstl.org

Your Ad HERE Advertise your place of worship for $16 per week. Contact us to find out how!

314-935-6713

Lutheran Campus Ministry Learning, Loving, Living in the Spirit of Christ

Young Adult Mass Sunday 6pm

Masses at the CSC: Sundays: 11am & 9pm

Tuesdays at 5:15pm & Fridays at 11:15am www.

washucsc.org

6352 Forsyth · 935-9191 Stop by any time to study, relax or pray!

BLOGS!

invites you to

Free Food Fridays Sunday Morning Mass 8am & 10:45am

6pm 7019 Forsyth Blvd.

(314) 721-6403 Wash U Students and Staff Welcome!

BLO

GS!

www.lcmstl.org

LCM

7019 Forsyth Blvd St. Louis, MO 63105 863.8140 lcm@sugroups.wustl.edu

(SBDF 6OJUFE .FUIPEJTU $IVSDI 6199 Waterman (at Skinker)

Sunday Worship Services for Everyone: ∙ Casual Worship in Chapel, 8:30 am ∙ Contemporary Worship, 9:30 am ∙ Classes for All Ages, 9:30 am ∙ Classic Worship in Sanctuary, 11:00 am Van Service from Shepley Drive at the Clock Tower 10:40 am

—We’ve got blog fever.—

(314) 863-1992 • www.graceumc-stl.org 0VS %JWFSTF 'FMMPXTIJQ 8FMDPNFT :PV

Catholic Student Center We’re here for YOU!

OGS

UNION

Looking for a place to get involved?

—Catch it now at—

AVENUE CHRISTIAN CHURCH DISCIPLES OF CHRIST

study – Sunday worship @ 10:45 – lunch 733 Union Blvd. (63108) in the CWE call 314.361.8844 for info. or rides www.union-avenue.org

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MONDAY | JANUARY 18, 2008

STUDENT LIFE | CLASSIFIEDS

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Fax: 314.935.5938 Don’t forget to include a contact number so we can confirm pricing & payment!

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><K

1-3 BEDROOMS, 2 Bathrooms beautiful apartments. Dishwasher, stained glass, hardwood floors. Close to WashU, behind Kayaks. Also available in the Loop. We are filling up NOW for the 2008-2009 school year! $1000-$1995. London Properties. Call (314) 6082692 if interested or for more information. 2 & 3 BEDROOM apartments. 2 bath. Full kitchen/appliances. Internet, see more www.homeandapartm e n t r e n t a l s . c om Please call 314-4092733 if interested or for more information. 6031 WESTMINSTER: 3 BR, 1 BA. 2nd floor apartment in historic building. Completely rehabbed, central air, new kitchen, plumbing, and electric. Walk to Danforth Campus and Metrolink. Call (314) 4066682. SOUTH CITY HOUSE for rent: 3 bedrooms/2 full bathrooms, den, garage. Near bus line and the Hill. Contact Jennifer at 314-504-6390 or jrfinney@gmail.com.

SUBLET AVAILABLE FOR Spring 2008 semester on Kinsbury Ave. One room in a two bedroom apartment. Cheap rent and extremely close to campus. Contact jrw8@cec.wustl.edu.

WANTED

BEAUTIFUL UCITY RANCH. 3 BR/1.5 BA, fenced yard, screened porch, AC/heated basement. $133,000. Faculty/staff eligible: WU $6000 Grant! $10,000 additional cash bonus includes WU students! PESI: 314-567-1234.

WANTED: PET LOVER. 2 rabbits need a good home. One male, one female. 3-4 months old. Provided: cage, water dispenser, food, bedding. Adopted together preferred. Contact Linda at lwyang@wustl.edu.

FOR SALE: TWIN mattress and box spring (2 sets), used 1 year, $40/set. Dining table, leaf, 4 chairs, $25. Dining table, 2 chairs, $50. 314.726.1058. PAY LESS FOR your meal plan: I am looking to sell around 1300 meal points for this semester. Contact rms@wustl.edu for more information.

AUTOS 2002 CHRYSLER PT Cruiser, Woodie, Limited EditionBlack. $8000. Power windows and locks, remote start, heated seats, CD player, sunroof, great condition. 64,000 miles. Please email jkraus@wustl.edu.

$5000 PAID EGG donors. +Expenses. Non-smokers, ages 19-29, SAT > 1100, ACT > 24, GPA > 3.0. Reply to: info@eggdonorcenter.com.

ADVERTISE

DRIVER WANTED TO drive my children Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, 3:154:15 pm. 20 miles round trip. Great pay! Email cadelstein@wustl.edu or call 9355014. GRADUATE STUDENT WANTED to assist physically challenged undergraduate in exchange for free room & board near Danforth Campus. Couple of hours req. to help in morning & evening. Some strength and flexilbility in time required. gabeassist@gmail.com LOCAL REAL ESTATE Company is looking for a Wash U student for part time work showing apartments, managing properties, etc. Most properties near the University’s borders. Must be from St. Louis. Call 314.608.2692 for more information. TUTORING: $20 PER hour. Earn $20 per hour with Varsity Tutors, LLC, tutoring local high school students in calculus, chemistry, physics, etc. Please send resume and AP/SAT/ACT scores to info@VarsityTutors.com or call Michael at 314-422-2007. Visit us online at www.varsitytutors.com. WANTED: WOMAN TO drive student from Ladue high School to home in Webster Grove on Tuesday and Thursday. Pick up time is 2:30. Please call Lynda at 680-8592 if interested or for more information.

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nnn%jkl[c`]\%Zfd X[m\ik`j`e^7jkl[c`]\%Zfd *(+$0*,$-.(*

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10 STUDENT LIFE | SCENE

Senior Scene Editor / Meghan Luecke / scene@studlife.com

FRIDAY | JANUARY 18, 2008

SCENE breaking O the

BY KATE GALLAGHER SCENE REPORTER ver my winter break, I spent some time in New York City on one of Washington University’s Road Shows coordinated by the Career Center. The Career Center offers Road Shows each winter break for sophomores, juniors and seniors to various locations across the country. This year, students had several options. There was an opportunity to travel to Los Angeles to learn about Arts & Entertainment or Pharmaceutical & Biomedical fields. They could also go to Atlanta to learn about companies there or to Washington, D.C. to learn about government, policy and advocacy. I opted to go on the trip to New York City, which focused on careers in writing. In my case, the decision to go was pretty clear-cut. I have a strong interest in writing and I was hoping to visit my older sister who lives and works in the city. As a sophomore, I’m not really looking for jobs yet, but the trip allowed me to explore different careers and learn about internship opportunities. We visited five different companies: Random House, Meredith Corporation, Penguin Publishing, Publicis USA and

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Ruder Finn, Inc. While visiting the companies, we were able to hear directly from Wash. U. alums about their experiences working for the various companies. It was interesting to learn about what people actually do in the “real world” after graduating from Wash. U. We heard from graduates of the College of Arts & Sciences, the Art School and the Business School. While one might think that writing careers are reserved for students in the humanities, I learned that the companies are actually interested in hiring all sorts of majors. In fact, one alum mentioned that her boss was a biology major. I assume most students are familiar with Random House and Penguin Publishing and have probably read some books published by these major companies. The publishing companies offer a variety of job opportunities, including editing, publicity, sales, marketing and more. The editorial position sounded particularly intriguing and the job basically consists of reading manuscripts and giving feedback on them. As an editor, you could potentially be the first person to read the next Harry Potter. Another perk of working for publishing companies is the free books. I don’t know

about you, but at this point in the semester, I think that sounds like an absolutely wonderful thing. The other companies that we visited may sound less familiar, but it’s likely that their products are all around you, and you just don’t realize it. Meredith Corp. publishes 14 magazines, including Ladies’ Home Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, Fitness, More and Parents Magazine. We heard from an alum from the Art School who had a particularly interesting and unique position at Meredith Corp. Her job was to come up with fun craft ideas for parents to do with their children. While this is not my cup of tea, it sounds like a great job for anyone who enjoys making crafts and has a creative spark. Another company we visited, Publicis USA, is one of the top advertising agencies in the country. Their clients include Lancôme, BMW, Heineken, and Coca-Cola. At Publicis, we heard from a Wash. U. alum who is now working as the art director. Her job involves coming up with the ideas for commercials. Although she was an art student at Wash. U., she said that students with other creative skills (such as creative writing) could also be great candidates for the career. A perk about working for

Publicis is that the environment is very casual and that jeans are perfectly acceptable attire. Finally, Ruder Finn is one of the world’s leading public relations and marketing firms. However, I can’t offer as much information on this company because I had to leave the presentation early in order to go to an interview. Yes, another perk of the Road Show is that the Career Center sets up interviews for everyone. The trip didn’t just teach me about the careers themselves; it was also a learning experience in other respects. For one, traveling around New York City is one surefire way to break out of the “Wash. U. Bubble.” The trip forced me to navigate the city by myself, traveling on subways and walking down jam-packed streets. (While this may sound stupid to New Yorkers, it’s pretty daunting for a small town Ohioan like me.) In addition, the city certainly provides more diversity than our campus, with all imaginable varieties of people walking the streets. The Road Show also forced me to meet some new people. I’ve heard it said before —and I agree—that Wash. U. students tend to find a good group of friends during freshman year and then forget to branch out and make new friends later on. I’m guilty of this as well, but when I was thrown into a group of sixteen students who I didn’t know in an unfamiliar city, I realized that it was time to make some new friends. The trip provided a great way to meet students and professionals alike who share my interests and goals. It also reminded me of how much fun it is to meet the interesting students at our school. All in all, I’d recommend the Road Shows. Whether you’re looking for a job or simply exploring your options, it’s a great way to learn about careers and to network. It also provides the opportunity to break out of the Wash. U. bubble and to meet new people. And if you’re worried about the cost, stipends are available, which help to cover airfare and hotel fees. Most of the meals on the trip are paid for as well. However, hotels in major cities (especially New York) can be very expensive, so I’d recommend going on a Road Show where you have a place to stay either with friends or family. You can learn more about the Road Shows from your Career Center advisor or from the Career Center Web site, www.careers.wustl.edu.

apple Wash. U. students at the entrance to Publicis in New York City over winter break as a part of the Career Center Publishing Road Show.

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE CAREER CENTER

§ Staying sane on the Internet BY NICOLLE NEULIST SCENE REPORTER

e spend a lot of time online nowadays. Social networking sites, blogs, instant messages, Internet dating, games...there are a lot of fun virtual places to go on the Internet and a lot of ways to meet people. That’s part of the Internet’s strong allure: it’s a way to meet people who you wouldn’t normally meet in real life, either because of distance or because you just don’t happen to hang out in the same places despite what you may have in common. It’s exciting. And, whether or not you go on the Internet with the speciﬁc intent to eventually meet an online friend in person, it’s likely that you will at least be curious about what

it would be like. For many people, the Internet is a very comfortable place to meet others. Most of the awkwardness of interacting in real life has been stripped away. Any worries about body language or insecurities about how you look become irrelevant when you talk to someone online. To an extent, this is a good thing. If you are shy, awkward, or uncomfortable in social situations, or you are far better at writing to strangers than you are at carrying on traditional conversation with them, meeting online can be a very easy way to break the ice and get to know new people. Even if you are good in face-toface social situations, sometimes it’s just fun to talk to someone new, and the Internet can be great for that. It’s often refreshing to talk to someone

outside of the bubble of the university, or even outside of the city. That feeling of closeness with someone you meet online can come faster than the feeling of closeness with someone you meet in person. There’s a good reason for that: your “closeness” is a different kind and is not fully founded yet. You may have discussed your past, your friends, your sexual desires, any number of things, but there is a lot you don’t know about a person if you have only talked online. You have a fantasy image of them, and you have ﬁ lled in the blanks between whatever words they have provided about themselves. Obviously, the person you are talking to could be lying about anything: their age, their gender, their sexual orienta-

tion, their marital or relationship status or what they look like. These are the potential deceptions that people talk about a lot, but they are easy to forget about when you want to see a person for who you think they are, based on some particularly sweet-sounding conversations. It’s a risk that you have to assess and consider when chatting and ﬂ irting with people on the computer. Even if the person you’re talking to has been completely honest with you, you still can’t know for sure whether this person is someone you will actually get along with in real life. This person on the other end of the computer is human. Just like you, he has mannerisms, habits, attitudes and quirks you can’t pick up on in typed conversation. Interacting face to face is far more

complex, and no amount of talking will let you know for sure whether you can ever be friends, much less romantic partners, in real life. You also need to be honest with yourself, and whomever you’re talking to on the Internet, about what your intentions are. It is hard to set boundaries for chatting on the Internet, but it is important to do so—especially if your conversations are becoming more than platonic. It lowers the risk for false hope and lessens the ambiguity that so easily comes online. Do you plan to keep your interactions with whoever you met strictly on the Internet? If so, it’s less important that you learn whether your fantasy image matches what they are in real life. But it is probably good to make sure they plan

to keep it an Internet-only ﬂ irtation as well, in order to make sure they are not spending their time talking to you in some vain hope of meeting you in person. Allowing them to cling to that without telling them any differently would be rude. On the other hand, if you want to bring an Internet interaction into real life, you need to make that clear as well. It will keep the person you are talking to aware of what your intentions are, and give him the chance to let you know early if he does not wish to take that step. It will also give you the opportunity to plan to meet in real life (in a neutral, public place of course) and decide whether your reallife compatibility is nearly as strong as your attraction to each other’s Internet selves.