WOMAN TO WOMEN River Houston addressed sexuality, body image and other issues faced by college women during humorous and motivational speech. PHOTO COURTESY OF INSIGHTFULWOMENSPEAKERS.COM
MARCH 16, 2012
Indiana’s Oldest College Newspaper
Student petition pushes university to consider conflict-free electronics By ALEX PAUL news@thedepauw.com
In an effort to encourage the university to consider buying the most conflict-free electronics possible, DePauw students filled a petition with more than 250 signatures, which they presented to President Brian Casey on Tuesday. After efforts by panels discussing the morality of the use of conflict electronics were held in conflict studies classes, in the sustainability office and at Prindle Institute for Ethics, the group was able to obtain enough student support in just one week to form a petition. Conflict electronics are electronics that contain materials such as minerals and metals that are harvested from areas of high violence. The petition is authored to pressure companies to provide data on where they obtain parts for their product to prevent them from buying conflict electronics.
Conflict free electronics are not yet available for purchase, nor is keeping track of where each individual part comes from, but efforts are being made to make it possible. Junior Henry Dambanemuya, a computer science and conflict studies double major, along with four other current and former DePauw students authored what was first a white paper in the student government. That is now the petition. “We need the products, but we need them conflict free,” Dambanemuya said. Violence rages in areas such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo because of high concentrations of “the three t’s”: Tin, tungsten and tantalum. These minerals are vital in the production of processors and other parts inside
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ISO PERFORMS IN GREENCASTLE
The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra will perform Sunday at the Green Center for Performing Arts. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE INDIANAPOLIS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
VOL. 160, ISSUE 38
Excise runs college crackdown By MATTHEW CECIL news@thedepauw.com
Kari Polydoris was sitting in a car with friends in the Pi Beta Phi sorority parking lot when an excise police officer approached. The uniformed officer came up to the window and asked the women what they were doing. When he spotted a bottle of liquor in the back seat, he asked whom it belonged to. Polydoris, a sophomore, said it was hers and that she could grab her license from inside the sorority house if he wanted. The officer declined and the girls left the car and went inside. Polydoris’ encounter with the officer, although uneventful, was part of the Indiana State Excise Police Intensified College Enforcement initiative, or ICE. The crackdown, which focuses on enforcing alcohol and tobacco-related state law at Ball State University, Indiana University and DePauw, began on Feb. 6 and runs into June. It is funded by a grant from the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute. Lt. Kevin Akers, who heads the excise district that includes Greencastle, said the state excise police are looking for students who appear to be young or have alcoholic beverages in plain view. “If it’s something they (excise police) see and it raises they’re suspicion, then they can investigate further,” Akers said. “Sometimes folks that we encounter end up being 21 years of age, sometimes they don’t.” And in the same parking lot where Polydoris and her friends avoided charges, another group of women didn’t. A sophomore, who wished to remain anonymous, was in a car with five other women, some of who were drinking, when an excise officer approached them. The friends were “car bar-ing,” a tradition in which sorority women drink in their cars because they are prohibited from doing so in their chapter houses. The anonymous sophomore said the car was idling but couldn’t see how the officer had reasonable suspicion to come onto Pi Beta Phi’s parking lot, which is private property. “We were just wondering the question of probable cause because he went through our property,” she said. “I’m not really sure why he came up to the car.” The officer asked the women to step out of the
car one at a time and blow into a Breathalyzer. Of the six girls in the car, four received citations for underage consumption of alcohol. All were under 21 years of age. “For the most part I think it’s a good safety technique, but I think it’s a little bit unfair,” Polydoris said. “They should give us a little bit of warning that they may be coming this weekend so people can get prepared for it, and if they get in trouble that’s under their own fault.” Akers said excise officers have made about 19 arrests in Putnam County since Feb. 6, over 50 percent of which involved students at DePauw. The rest were local residents. According to Akers, that activity may drop off drastically when the school year ends. Still, the Ball State Daily News recently reported that the ICE initiative could be extended to the 2012 fall semester if found to be effective. The newspaper also reported that more than 100 citations had been issued from the start of the program to March 11. Akers said the difference in student population size at DePauw and Ball State accounts for the disparity of police action. Excise police in Putnam County are intentionally expanding their patrols beyond campus, a limited practice at larger colleges like Ball State and Indiana University. “It’s feasible that students [at DePauw] may elect to go to other towns that aren’t too distant or too far away in order to make alcohol purchases,” Akers said. The lieutenant didn’t know how many tickets had been issued on university property since the ICE initiative began but was aware there had been some. Akers said that all student charges were alcohol related, while non-students in Putnam County had been charged with, among other things, alcohol violations, juvenile tobacco possession and resisting law enforcement. Those citations and arrests have come from a variety of excise patrols, which cover public streets and sidewalks, as well as outside of bars and liquor stores. Officers dress in uniform and plainclothes, and Akers said some even camp out in unexpected
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