SPORE RELEASED FASHION ADVICE FOR ROCKING THE VOTE Cadenza covers what’s intel- CLUELESS MALES Student Life presents a ligent, and what isn’t, about multimedia slide show on the game’s design. Scene gives guys pointers on how to look student voter registration. sharp and snazz for the fall semester. ONLINE INSIDE PAGE 6 PAGE 9 STUDLIFE.COM Sthe independentTUDENT newspaper of Washington University in St. Louis LIFE since eighteen seventy-eight Vol. 130 No. 13 www.studlife.com Friday, September 19, 2008 WU to hire sexual assault After fl ooding, residents look to ResLife for support prevention coordinator Loop Lofts, Village Bryan Beth asking for an overarching position the Committee on Sexual Assault East deal with Contributing Reporter to deal with the community as a (COSA) to hire the candidate. Ac- whole,” senior Michael Perich, cording to McLeod, Glass’s ex- water damage co-leader of Men Organized for pertise in student health gives him The Washington University ad- Rape Education (MORE), said. a great advantage in finding an ap- ministration has begun the search Administrators have not yet plicant who will optimize the Uni- Ben Sales for a sexual assault prevention co- determined the specifics of the ap- versity’s sexual assault prevention Senior News Editor ordinator, a new position that will plication process, but they say that program. serve to unite the various groups it will be in-depth and without er- “Dr. Glass has many resources, and activities on campus that deal ror so that the University commu- including hospital access and con- After fl ash fl oods permeated with sexual assault issues. nity can fully realize its potential nections within the medical com- several campus-owned apartments Vice Chancellor for Students to prevent any such crimes in the munity, to deal with the topic of and damaged many of the cars in and Dean of the College of Arts & future. sexual assault,” McLeod said. the Loop Lofts parking lot Sunday, Sciences James McLeod has given As of this fall, the administra- The coordinator will, accord- students are fi nding it hard to deal permission to start the search for a tion believed that it was in the ing to McLeod, focus on sexual with the storm’s effects. candidate after nearly a year and University’s interests to create assault issues concerning the gen- The water, which entered the a half of active lobbying for the the position. Alan Glass, director eral University community. He Loop Lofts and the adjacent park- creation of the position. of Student Health Services, will said that the position will oversee ing lot, has since been cleared out “For a while now we have been lead the search and work with “the issues of prevention, educa- of the buildings, but left lasting tion [and] continuing response to damage to most of the cars parked victims and communicating with outside the building, some of which the campus about incidents.” have been totaled. “What we really need is ongo- Senior Alex Chinn, whose car ing focused attention across the was parked in the Loop Lofts lot, campus,” he said. said that the fl oods, caused by the In that vein, the new position remnants of Hurricane Ike, sub- will focus on facilitating com- merged it under four or fi ve feet of munication between groups like water, coating the fl oors with mud MORE and the Sexual Assault and and soaking through the interior. Rape Action Hotline (SARAH), as The Offi ce of Residential Life well as with the student communi- (ResLife) has pledged to reimburse ty. This collaboration is intended students for the damage incurred MEGAN CHAN | STUDENT LIFE to provide more efficient services within the residences when students for both the students and the ad- present documentation of their pur- Junior Kayla Joyce Brinkley calls her parents on Sunday morning while ministrators. chases, though it has advised stu- standing in the fl ooded halls of Loop Lofts building B. Residential Life is Prior to this decision the groups dents to seek compensation for the working with students to reimburse them for the damage. LUCY MOORE | STUDENT LIFE worked as individual entities, damage to the cars through their in- Students perform “The Date” during freshman orientation. “The Date” is each forming their own indepen- surance companies. damage, Chinn says that ResLife is “I know it’s stressful to a lot of one of the many sexual assault awareness programs that would communicate Although ResLife is not provid- making an adequate effort to help with the new coordinator. See HIRING, page 3 ing direct assistance for the auto affected students. See FLOOD, page 3 Despite varying lab regs, students feel safe BIBLES, GETCHA BIBLES! tween faculties from different areas been tried over many years,” Karen the time because the chemicals we John Scott of the University. The regulations Wooley, chair of the chemistry de- use are not toxic. Only with chemi- Staff Reporter are reviewed twice per year. partment’s safety committee, said. cals with high toxicity are students “We decide the curriculum, but According to Wooley, upper- asked to wear gloves,” Kit Mao, the we also have Environmental Health level classes have more strict safety instructor for General Chemistry Students who spend their sum- and Safety, which governs the cam- guidelines and use different protec- Lab, said. mers in research labs may notice pus, and they review everything tive equipment, while such guide- According to Kinsley, training some differences between the safety we do,” Kinsley said. “It’s a com- lines are unnecessary for basic students to follow identical safety regulations in those labs and in the bination of people who are trained chemistry labs, where there is more procedures for all experiments teaching labs at Washington Uni- specifi cally in health and safety and supervision. would prevent students from learn- versity. people who are specifi cally trained “In Chemistry 358 [or Thermo- ing how to assess the hazards asso- In addition to the safety stan- in chemistry.” dynamics Applications in Chemical ciated with their work. dards at the University being unique, Kinsley added that standards Systems], the students are work- “It’s also an effort to get anyone standards also differ between intro- differ between labs at the Univer- ing much more independently and working in a lab to understand that ductory and advanced labs. The sity because the safety equipment designing syntheses on their own. for every situation, you need to ex- introductory lab requirements are used depends on the nature of the They all wear lab coats,” Wooley amine specifi cally what would be more lax. experiment, the materials used and said. the proper equipment to wear,” Kin- According to Steven Kinsley, the lab’s history. Wooley added that while lower- sley said. the undergraduate organic labo- “In Chemistry 257 [Organic level classes have fewer safety mea- Teaching assistants also go ratory supervisor and lecturer in Chemistry Lab], everything is very sures, there are guidelines that all through training so they can under- LUCY MOORE | STUDENT LIFE chemistry, safety regulations for well controlled. All the chemicals labs follow, such as wearing goggles stand the experiments and respond the University’s labs are determined that are being used and the experi- while in the lab. to problems. Gideons International, an organization dedicated to Bible distribution and independently from those of other ments that are being done are set into “In [General Chemistry], we evangelism, spent time on campus on Thursday, distributing the New campuses, through collaboration be- place well in advance, so they’ve don’t ask students to wear gloves all See SAFETY, page 8 Testament to students as they walked to class. NEWS ANALYSIS Financial crises leave students uncertain Perry Stein News Editor Major events in the current financial crisis that began Tracking the crisis on Wall Street in 2007 with turmoil in the subprime mortgage market: 2007 2008 After the stock market’s worst drop since 2001, and with former Wall Street powerhouses tottering and col- February April August September October November January July September lapsing, Americans have been left to wonder about the HSBC New Century Two funds Bank of China UBS, Merrill Morgan Bank of FDIC U.S. government reveals Lynch and Stanley, America buys takes takes over mortgage extent of the damage caused by this historic week of warns Financial, the managed by Bear of losses Stearns that were subprime Citigroup state Wachovia, subprime over giants Fannie Mae crises on Wall Street. second from U.S. exposed to the losses; HSBC subprime Bank pioneer subprime and Freddie Mac, Throughout the course of the week, brokerage fi rm largest U.S. subprime subprime subprime market says it will close losses; ratings of America, Countrywide lender bails out giant insurer Lehman Brothers collapsed, Bank of America bought mortgage lender, and file for its U.S. on securities Barclays, Financial IndyMac AIG; Bank of America Merrill Lynch, insurance company AIG announced that defaults People’s bankruptcy, as subprime unit; backed by HSBC, buys Merrill Lynch; it was on the brink of bankruptcy, Washington Mutual March Choice file does American Fed starts home loans Freddie Mac Lehman Brothers, put itself up for sale and Wachovia and Morgan Stanley JPMorgan for bankruptcy Home Mortgage cutting rates downgraded cite losses another top announced discussions of a merge. These developments Chase buys 14,000 Dow Jones Bear Stearns brokerage, files come days after the federal government took over mort- for bankruptcy gage-fi nance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Industrial Average 13,125 As a result, the Dow Jones Industrial average Oct. 9 Sept. 17 dropped a record 4.4 percent on Monday.