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Vol. XC No. 22 See how SLU students spent spring break >>unewsonline.com
Spring Break 2011 in photos
Friday, March 25, 2011
March Madness: who’s in your final four?
Staff writers take on junior Kyle Cassity in annual ‘Battle of the Brackets’ >>SPORTS
Widespread power outage blankets campus Power company credits wind for 3-hour blackout By JONATHAN ERNST Editor-in-Chief
High winds up to 40 miles per hour caused a widespread power outage on Wednesday, March 23, leaving most of Saint Louis University’s Frost Campus without power for approximately three hours and 13 minutes, according to the University’s electrical provider, Ameren UE. According to the Assistant Director of Facilities Management Keith McCune, the substation that provides power
to 21 buildings east of the Clock Tower went down at approximately 4:33 p.m. due to damage to electrical lines that triggered more equipment failure. All of these buildings were evacuated and most of them remained closed for the rest of the evening due to safety concerns. “When we heard about the outage, we immediately started assessing what buildings had power and what backup systems were running,” McCune said. “I was in constant communication with Ameren
UE.” Ameren UE made it a priority to get the substation back up because it also provides power to some buildings in the surrounding area. According to Ameren UE Communication Executive Lisa Manzo, 3,800 customers lost power in the metropolitan St. Louis area, including parts of the Midtown area and the Central West End. “Mother Nature came through, and we really saw the effects it can have,” Manzo said. “We worked imme-
diately to restore the power, and we were able to get power back in a timely manner.” The power outage quickly effected activity on campus, as students and staff were evacuated from the Busch Student Center, and fire alarms were triggered in Dubourg Hall. The St. Louis Fire Department also responded to an elevator entrapment that was reported at Fitzgerald Hall. “Public Safety did a See “Power Outage” on Page 3
Shah (Yuqing Xia) / Associate Photo Editor
Members of the Great Issues Committee prepare the stage for Michelle Rhee’s speech at Chaifetz Arena on Wednesday, March 23. The speech was moved due to the power outage. For more on Rhee’s speech go to unewsonline.com.
Bridge closure: No ‘Grand’ problems
DPSSS urges discussion of assaults By ANDREA ROYALS Managing Editor
Noah Berman / Photo Editor
Crews demolish the center section of the Grand Bridge on March 19. Demolition began the weekend of March 18-20 and will continue the weekend of March 25-27. Special care has to be taken to avoid damaging the railroad tracks below the bridge, so the structure is being taken apart piece by piece, according to Mike Timpe, general superintendent on the project site. The reconstruction is expected to generate roughly 60,000 man hours.
Shuttle detour may beat regular route By ERIKA MILLER Enterprise Editor
Regina Mathew, a freshman in the Doisy College of Health Sciences, was nervous to return to Saint Louis University after spring break and use the shuttle system for the first time since the closure of the Grand Bridge. She arrived at the shuttle stop an hour early, expecting potential delays on her way to class on the Health Sciences campus. She was surprised to arrive on the Health Sciences campus just 20 minutes later. Mathew’s experience reflects the concerns of many in the SLU community following the closure of the Grand Boulevard viaduct. St. Louis traffic crews closed the section of Grand that lies between Chouteau Avenue and Interstate 64 on Monday, March 14 around 3:30 a.m. Demolition began the weekend of March 18-20 and will continue the weekend of March 25-27.
The project is under the direction of the Kozeny-Wagner construction firm, and according to President Patrick Kozeny, the reconstruction will generate roughly 60,000 manhours. Crews expect to partially reopen the bridge to traffic in 14 months. Official closure of the bridge occurred while a majority of the SLU community was on spring break. According to Joe Stumpf, Mail and Transportation Services supervisor, a lack of activity around campus allowed St. Louis motorists to find alternate routes before students returned from break. The city encouraged motorists to use Vandeventer Avenue, Compton Avenue and Jefferson Avenue as alternate routes. Stumpf said, as of Tuesday, March 22, no problems had been reported with the shuttle system, and it seems to be running smoothly. Shuttle drivers credited the planning by Transportation Services with allowing them to take the Compton
detour route and still make all of the stops on time. Paaige Turner, associate vice president of the Frost campus and a member of the Grand Bridge Ad Hoc Committee, said the Grand Bridge closing created less disruption than anticipated, and students have recommended that the shuttles continue the alternate routes in the future. “It seems very well planned out, and I arrived to my class five minutes after leaving the main campus,” Brianne Keller, a junior in the Doisy College of Health Sciences, said. “The alternate route may be quicker because of the lack of streetlights.” Todd Waelterman, director of the St. Louis City Streets Department said the delay on the detour routes is around three minutes and heavier traffic congestion is occurring on Vandeventer. Jefferson Avenue may See “Bridge” on Page 3
Grand Bridge Project Start Date: March 14, 2011
Estimated Reopening: June 2012
New viaduct to include: Four lanes separated by an irrigated landscape medium Transit amenities for METRO Bus and METRO Link Dedicated bicycle lanes 12-foot wide pedestrian sidewalks ON THE WEB>> View more
photos from the Grand Bridge construction site at unewsonline.com.
Missouri legislature weighs voter ID; students concerned By SEAN WORLEY News Editor
The right to vote—a right protected by the United States Constitution, a right that, for some Saint Louis University and other Missouri college students, may be affected by proposed Missouri state government legislation. Missouri State Senate bill three (SB3) and Missouri House of Representatives bill 329 (HB329) are the two pieces of legislation that if passed would propose various changes to the voter registration procedure, specifically to voter identification. According to both SB3 and HB329, as found on the Missouri Senate and House
of Representatives websites Center is the focus of a sturespectively, voters would dent-authored petition. be required to present valid Created by College of Arts forms of identification in order to cast their ballots. Such forms of identification would include a non-expired Missouri driver’s license and In Jefferson City, non-driver’s identification card, photo-identification is- they don’t expect us to sued by the state national speak up. They think guard, by the United States we... will silently watch military or by the Departas they dismantle our ment of Veterans Affairs. Thus, Saint Louis Univer- fundamental right to sity students would be affected by this legislation be- vote. cause no longer would their -Thomas Bloom student IDs or out-of-state driver’s licenses be valid. The prospect of some stu- and Sciences students Patdents losing their privilege rick Grillot, sophomore, and to vote in the Busch Student Thomas Bloom, senior, the
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petition entitled “SLU Students for Voters’ Rights” has been circulating online and garnering support from students. Grillot said the goal of the petition is to organize students around this issue and to bring awareness. He is opposed to the legislation because he feels it will “disenfranchise” voters. Bloom said his goal with the petition is to provide the students with a voice on the issue. “In Jefferson City, they don’t expect us to speak up,” Bloom said. “They think we are disengaged and apathetic and that we will silently watch as they dismantle our fundamental right to vote. I
want to prove them wrong.” Currently, 1,509 students are registered to vote in the BSC. Unless, their permanent address resides in the precinct associated with the BSC polling place, those students would have their voting registration voided under the proposed legislation, unless they took measures to register for an approved form of identification. Grillot stressed that students who currently are not registered to vote at the BSC polling place should still be mindful of this legislation. “If they were ever to be registered to vote here, See “Voter ID” on Page 3
A female student reported to the Department of Public Safety and Security Services on March 7 that she had been the victim of forcible rape near Fusz Hall on Feb. 26. The student chose not to pursue the incident further with law enforcement, according to Roland Corvington, director of DPSSS. The student reported that she was the victim of forcible rape approximately nine days after the incident allegedly occurred. Corvington said that because the incident was delayed when reported to DPSSS and there was no immediate threat to the safety of the student population, the department decided not to send a Campus Emergency Alert email. “Crime is reported, and we try to get information out that is important to the University community,” Corvington said. “It doesn’t always necessarily mean that the crime that was reported ends up being pursued toward investigative activity. It depends on the circumstance.” Corvington said that forcible rape falls under the umbrella of sexual assault, which also includes statutory rape and sodomy. According regulations in the Clery Act, “sexual assaults are considered on a case by case basis, depending on the facts of the case, when and where the incident occurred, when it was reported and the amount of information known by DPSSS” before a Campus Emergency Alert may be distributed. DPSSS publishes all reports to a crime log that can be found on the University website at http://www.slu.edu/ x22927.xml. DPSSS also has a Twitter account @SLUSafety that is updated regularly. Corvington said he encourages that all crimes be reported to DPSSS immediately. “One, help could be provided sooner,” Corvington said. “Two, evidence, if there is any, could be collected immediately. And three, if there is really, really good, descriptive information provided that [a subject] is a stranger versus a known individual, we See “Assault” on Page 3
Spring has sprung
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