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Monday, April 2, 2012 Issue 52

T H E

E D I T O R I A L L Y

Vol. 119

I N D E P E N D E N T

S T U D E N T

PUBLISHED SINCE 1906 http://utdailybeacon.com N E W S P A P E R

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T H E

Skydrive backs up students Emily DeLanzo Design Editor War constantly rages on with faculty, students and the Office of Information Technology (OIT) over issues like unreliable Internet and file storage issues. To shed some light and offer solutions, Microsoft set up a large informational booth from March 27 to March 30 in Presidential Court. The Technology Services Committee of the Student Government Association invited Microsoft to come to campus to educate students on the finer points of the Windows 7 operating system and the joys of mass storage through Skydrive. Skydrive can be accessed through non-Microsoft prod-

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ucts, too. Apple users can still use Outlook capabilities and programs. Skydrive is online cloud storage available to all UT students that can hold up to 25 gigabytes of data. Students and faculty alike have complete access and may share files with fellow students, making it a great, free program available for group projects or other file sharing needs. Skydrive can solve problems and help avoid students losing work in progress, and it saves previous versions of documents. “I was really impressed by Microsoft’s Skydrive,” Josh Campbell, junior in mathematics, said. “The ability to share and save your documents online can be really handy as a college student since you won’t have to lug around numerous thumb-drives and worry about losing them.”

U N I V E R S I T Y

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Prices, social norms effect conservation Blair Kuykendall Editor-in-Chief

Michael Price believes economic decisions turn on factors beyond price. As an energy and environmental policy fellow at the Baker Center, he delivered his thoughts on “Promoting Conservation Without Prices: Evidence from Field Experiments” last Thursday. Price’s study partnered See MICROSOFT on Page 3 with the Cobb County Water System (CCWS) to test his theories on creating incentive systems based on societal norms instead of prices. Since higher pricing schemes are ineffective in reducing water consumption for high-use populations, Price focused on the northern Atlanta community to find a better approach to meet policy goals. “How you frame a problem can motivate people as to how they respond to situations,” Price said. “The idea today is to create a norm around conservation. If you think about the objectives of these programs, they are designed to achieve George Richardson • The Daily Beacon long-run outcomes, like Students and staff interact in the Windows Campus Tour tent set up in the Presidential Plaza on Friday. rebuilding depleted water Microsoft representatives were invited to UT to inform students about Skydrive, an online cloud storage system resources.” Policymakers seeking to that offers all UT students up to 25 gigabytes of data. meet environmental goals sought to move beyond monetary incentive schemes. “Unfortunately, you find that people are highly Students presented interdisciplinary research on topics ranging inelastic with regards to Joseph Beard from “Shakespeare” to “The Intersection of Science and energy,” Price said. “So Staff Writer Literature.” The event included undergraduate presentations, (we) started thinking about question-and-answer sessions, round table discussions, and was Sex, science, Shakespeare and state security were all topics disother strategies. I randomcapped off by a keynote titled “Medieval Alexanders, Unstable cussed at the Second Annual Marco Undergraduate Conference. Cities, Unstable Selves” given by Christopher Baswell, professor ized the message so we The conference was held by the Marco Institute for Medieval could get information on of English and comparative literature at Columbia University. and Renaissance Studies. The institute was founded in 2001 as an Presenter Meredith Whitfield, senior in history, gave a presen- subsequent changes in interdisciplinary institute that allows students with different backtation on the monastic revocation of sex, titled “Gold Amongst the behavior.” grounds and interests to engage in research of medieval and Price did a comparison of Stones: Gender and Sexuality in the Desert Fathers’ Canon.” Renaissance cultures. different incentive techAlthough not a member of Marco, she said Jay Rubenstein in the The conference presented undergraduate students from severDepartment of History and Anthony Welch in the Department of niques by dividing CCWS al universities and across many majors the opportunity to meet at users into four groups. Each English persuaded her to present. the UC on Friday, March 30, to share research on how Roman of the four groups received Classics were received by Middle Age and Renaissance cultures. See MACRO ARTICLE on Page 3 different forms of corre-

Lecture focuses on medieval studies

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spondence, containing different messages. One group functioned as a control group and received only the usual billing. Another group received technical advice. One group received weak social incentives, and one received stronger social incentives. “We did social comparison, winding up with a conservative approximation of the effectiveness of these measures,” Price said. “If I’m going tell people this is a good idea, I’d rather have a conservative estimate of the effectiveness.” The messages sent out by CCWS were formatted to achieve this conservative estimate. “The technical advice letter had a two-sided tip sheet listing effective ways to reduce water use,” Price said. “The weak social norm letter included arguments personally addressed with a norm-based appeal. The strong social comparisons letter included a comparison of households use with others in the county.” Price needed to gage the comparative utility derived from concrete and abstract sources. “We get benefit from the water we consume,” Price said. “We also get value from morality, which captures the non-pecuniary effects of consumption decisions. Both of these terms were defined over an action, the consumption of water. This morality term is influenced by several factors. These factors are going to affect the saliency of this moral component, like the costs and benefits that action imposes on others, the extent to which actions are scrutinized, and the set of social norms that dictate acceptable actions.” See ENVIRONMENTAL on Page 3

TN federal court escapes closure The Associated Press JACKSON, Tenn. — Federal court facilities in Jackson are high on the list of facilities under consideration for closure, but a federal judge says the local offices might be spared. The Jackson Sun reports the newer federal courthouse in Jackson would not be affected. The only building that has space that might be closed is the Ed Jones Federal Building, but only certain areas. U.S. District Judge J. Daniel Breen says the potential closures would be restricted to the second-floor courtroom, a judge’s chamber, a jury room, the probation office and pretrial services. Breen, whose office is not in that building, said the closing of those facilities would affect about 15 people but not cause any job loss. Jackson is 16th on the list of 60 sites that could close based on categories including

cost, usage and location. A committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States, a policy-making body for the federal courts, sent the latest list to the 13 circuit judicial councils for review in February, said David Sellers, a federal courts spokesman. They’re supposed to get back to the committee by midApril. Breen says the government may not close the local offices after studying the building ’s use because the offices and courtroom don’t meet the requirements. He said the courtroom is still used for pretrial hearings and also some trials. He also said the courthouse is home to a Memphis judge who conducts work and at times holds court in Jackson. Breen said the local court has submitted a response to the Sixth Circuit Judicial Council to remove the local offices from the list of possible closures.

George Richardson • The Daily Beacon

Fans sitting on The Porch in left field celebrate after a home run by Ethan Bennett during a game against Alabama on Friday. Students sitting on The Porch use the proximity as an opportunity to socialize with the opposing team’s left fielder, often at his expense.


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