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Student Life
THE INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER OF WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS SINCE 1878 VOLUME 130, NO. 1
WWW.STUDLIFE.COM
ORIENTATION 2008
University prepares to host VP debate Kat Zhao News Editor As the nation waits for Senators John McCain and Barack Obama to choose their respective running mates, no one has a better reason to be curious about the choice than the students, faculty and staff of Washington University, which will be hosting the vice presidential debate on October 2nd in anticipation of the 2008 election cycle. “Because we have the only vice presidential debate, I think it is going to be very interesting to the general public,” Assistant to the Chancellor Rob Wild said. “This is the only time that the vice presidential candidates will have a chance to square off.” Wild heads the Vice Presidential Debate Steering Committee, a team of 40 University community members in charge of planning and preparing the campus for the debate. The committee includes representation from public affairs, facilities, the Career Center, the Washington University Police Department, Student Union and the Graduate Professional
Council, among others. “It’s a very experienced committee,” Wild said. “Most of the committee has actually been involved in the planning and facilitation of other debates.” The University, which hosted presidential debates in 1992, 2000 and 2004, has been selected consecutively by the Commission on Presidential Debates to host a debate for every presidential election cycle since 1992. The 1996 debate was canceled after candidates reached a decision to reduce the number of debates from three to two. The University holds the record among all institutions of higher education for hosting the most national debates. “We are viewed by the [CPD] as having set the gold standard for hosting debates,” Wild said. “And because our students, our faculty and our staff are so welcoming, we are viewed as a really great place to host a debate.” The steering committee’s vice chair, Steve Givens, the associate vice chancellor for public affairs, was closely involved with planning for the 2000 and 2004 debates. According
Left: PETE SOUZA | CHICAGO TRIBUNE | MCT; Right: DAVID BRODY | STUDENT LIFE
In 2000 the University played host to a presidential debate between then-Governor George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore, (left) and in 2004 the University was the site of a debate between President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry. In October, the University will host the only vice presidential debate. to Wild, some members of the committee were even involved with the 1992 debate. This year’s vice presidential debate will be held in a debate
hall constructed within the Athletic Complex Field House, the same location as in previous years. According to Wild, ten days before the debate, the
Danforth Center set to open v After 2 years of construction and $34 million, building ready for students Perry Stein News Editor After much anticipation, the Danforth University Center—a $34 million undertaking—will open as scheduled on August 11. The tenants of this threestory 116,000 square foot gothic styled building will begin moving in on July 14, with the move being completed on July 21 and 28 “Everything appears to be on schedule and going as planned. Clayco, the construction company, has been a great company with whom to work. Their folks could not be more accommodating and responsive,” Vice-Chancellor Jill Carnaghi wrote in an email. “As in any project, there’s been a few minor delays and/or a few questions along the way.” The new University center will house a variety of meeting rooms, the Career Center, and offices for event services, the Office of Student Activities, Student Union and media groups like WUTV, Student Life and the Hatchet Yearbook. The Center will also include three dining options, including a sit down bistro offering alcoholic beverages, and the much hyped ‘fun room,’ a room in which
students will be able to relax and recreate. “I got to tour the DUC [during] one of the last couple of weeks of school and it looked great. There was a lot more space for Student Union, and just a lot more space for everyone,” incoming Sophomore Class President Nate Ferguson said. “It’s going to be very nice, very good conditions to work in.” In between the time that the tenants move in during July and the building’s official opening in August, access is limited to only those who have offices within the building, according to Carnaghi. Furniture and equipment will be coming into the building at this time, so tenants will be required to wear an issued lanyard and show identification in order to enter the building. To celebrate the opening of the DUC, there will be many activities occurring in and around the building. “SUp All Night,” hosted by Student Union (SU), is scheduled for the evening of August 24 and will be intended to introduce the building to incoming students. “Our goal is to get all members of the campus community into the building during
See DANFORTH, page 3
area surrounding the Athletic Complex and the space inside will begin to undergo the necessary physical changes for the debate.
Top: SCOTT BRESSLER | STUDENT LIFE; Bottom: SAM GUZIK | STUDENT LIFE
See DEBATE, page 1
For the class of 2012, WU worth waiting for Sam Guzik Editor in Chief
The Danforth Center has been transformed from a giant hole in the ground in 2006 to a fully functional center for University activities. It will open to the public on August 11.
Construction inside the Field House will include the installation of a stage where the debate
With the number of national college applications at an all-time high, schools across the country—including Washington University— are using waiting lists more than ever to prevent incoming classes from growing too large. Though administrators planned to use the wait list for that purpose, its role was compounded by the fact that the most selective colleges and universities also admitted significant numbers of students from their waiting lists. At Harvard, for example, the Harvard Crimson reported that more than 200 students were admitted from the wait list; according to The New York Times, both Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania expect to take approximately 90 students off the wait list. The wait list admissions at the most competitive schools like Harvard and Princeton have trickled down to other institutions as students have backed away from acceptances at those other schools late in the admissions season. Furthermore, the University and its peer institutions
“made fewer offers of admission up-front, and used the wait list to balance their enrollment to the right size,” wrote Nanette Tarbouni, director of admissions at Washington University, in an e-mail. Tarbouni added that by relying more on the wait list, schools have much finer control over the number of students that will make up the incoming class. “Since our freshman enrollment can vary a bit, and because its impossible to have a freshman class be exactly a certain size— we employ the use of the wait list,” wrote Tarbouni. Even though many students were prepared for the prospect of being placed on the wait list, the experience challenged them. “Our college counselors had already told us to expect being put on the wait list,” Linda Donaldson, an incoming freshman from Glendale, Calif. who was admitted to the University from the wait list. “It’s a little difficult because you don’t know whether to start getting excited for one school or whether to wait to hear back,” she said. Though being placed on a wait list draws out the stress
See WAITLIST, page 3
WU efforts take NASA to mars By Puneet Kollipara News Editor Many students begin their workdays at 9 a.m. every morning this summer, but for students like sophomore Kirsten Siebach, every day is unique. Her unorthodox schedule comes because she is one of four Washington University earth and planetary sciences students who traveled to Arizona this summer to assist NASA with the Phoenix spacecraft’s mission to
Mars. Because a Martian day is approximately 40 minutes longer than an earth day, many of the teams working on the mission must live in Mars time, meaning each day’s schedule starts later than the previous day’s. “Sometimes we are working in the middle of the night and sleeping during the day. This makes for an interesting schedule, and it has been an adjustment,” Siebach said. “Sometimes you feel like you’re living on your own planet and it’s hard
Hear ye, hear ye
to keep in touch with family and friends, but the mission goes on, and in a week or two we’re on ‘Earth time’ again.” Ever since NASA landed the Phoenix spacecraft on May 25, the four students as well as two University faculty, Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences Ray Arvidson and computer systems analyst Thomas Stein, have joined other academics from around the world at the University of Arizona to help Phoenix in its mission to learn more about the habitability of
the planet’s polar region and to analyze the Martian soil. Arvidson serves as chair of NASA’s Phoenix landing site working group. He also is co-investigator for the craft’s robotic arm, which will dig up soil and ice samples. Stein works with the Phoenix geology theme group and also archives data for NASA’s Planetary Data System. The four students who traveled to Arizona include Siebach,
The Robotic Arm on NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander carries a scoop of Martian
See MARS, page 4 soil bound for the spacecraft’s microscope.
All about us Get tips from the pros on how to survive the freshman experience. Our writers, and even the Chancellor, tell it like it is. Forum, Page 5
NASA | JPL-CALTECH | UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
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