Spring Carnival 2012 Preview: ‘As Seen On TV’ Reunions Issue • Section B Passion Pit Preview • C6 Carnival Calendar • C15 thetartan.org @thetartan April 16, 2012 Volume 106, Issue 25 Carnegie Mellon’s student newspaper since 1906 Local nightclub under fire for disability policy CMU JACKSON LANE Senior Staffwriter sued by Amaris Whitaker, a mas- ter’s student in public policy expelled and management at Heinz College, and her attorneys from the Mizner Law firm filed student a complaint against the Static nightclub on Feb. 23, alleging BRENT HEARD the club discriminated against Assistant News Editor Whitaker due to a disability. Specifically, Whitaker as- Expelled junior civil and serts that the club failed to environmental engineering make reasonable accommo- major Stephane Batton is dations and then barred her suing Carnegie Mellon for from entering because she violating his civil rights. needed a chair near the dance Following Batton’s Feb. floor. Such discrimination has 4 off-campus fight with historically been prohibited another student, the uni- under the Americans with Dis- versity held a disciplinary abilities Act (ADA). committee hearing. Batton Whitaker has difficulty claims the hearing violated standing and walking due to his civil rights. He is suing a congenital joint difference to reverse the expulsion. known as arthrogryposis. “At According to the lawsuit, birth, my joints were quite Batton claims the univer- disfigured,” she said. “I was sity violated his rights by able to have surgeries and forcing him to testify while have things restructured so I criminal charges against could at least walk and dress him were pending, censor- myself.” ing the questions he could Despite her disability, ask witnesses, and refusing Whitaker enjoys dancing and to provide a transcript of going out with her friends. the hearing when he ap- Under the ADA, businesses pealed his expulsion. must make reasonable ac- The suit names the uni- commodations to ensure that versity, Jared Cohon, Mi- people with disabilities re- chael Murphy, Gina Casa- ceive equal levels of service as legno, and the University someone without a disability Committee on Discipline as might receive. Jonathan Carreon/Photo Editor defendants. Cathy Bissoon, Amaris Whitaker, a master’s student in the Heinz School of Public Policy and Management, alleges that the manager of the nightclub Static failed to U.S. district court judge, See STATIC, A3 make reasonable accommodations for her disability, as required under the Americans with Disabilities Act. will preside over the case; no trial date has been re- leased at this time. Junior civil and environ- mental engineering major University of Pittsburgh Bomb Threats Elissa Goldner, a friend of Batton, has started a peti- tion to have him reinstated as a student. Goldner de- clined to comment, pend- ing approval from Batton’s lawyer. Teresa Thomas, assistant vice president for media <3 threats relations for the university, said in an email, “Consis- tent with our practice, we will not comment on the substance of this pending lawsuit. We are confident 3 threats that the University fol- lowed appropriate process throughout the proceedings that are the subject of the complaint, and further that the plaintiff’s rights were not violated in any way.” 4 threats Carnegie Mellon’s com- munity standards website does not explicitly address off-campus issues or al- tercations, nor does it list a strict standard for when a violation of community >4 threats standards results in expul- sion as opposed to some other form of disciplinary action. However, assault is listed as an infraction that will result in a disciplinary hearing. Alan Vangpat/Junior Artist Source: @PittTweet According to the web- site, in cases under the Uni- versity Committee on Dis- cipline, “In the disciplinary process, a student who is Students play poker at SIG recruitment event charged with a violation has the right to remain silent.” JUSTIN MCGOWN risk management to work for The website also ad- Staffwriter them. dresses the question of The competition consisted whether transcripts of a Instead of a classroom, a of 12-minute rounds of Texas hearing must be provided poker hall could be found in Hold ’Em, with each contes- for an appeal: “The person room 6115 of the Gates Hill- tant starting with $500 in bringing an appeal may re- man Complex on Thursday chips. SIG employees in vari- quest that the recordings of night. Carnegie Mellon stu- ous departments sat as dealers the hearing be transcribed. dents were treated to a poker at each of the tables. In this case, the student will tournament and free dinner At stake in the competi- be responsible for the cost courtesy of Susquehanna In- tion were several prizes, with of providing a transcription ternational Group (SIG), an the top three players receiv- of the recording of the prior international trading and in- ing the latest iPad, an Xbox proceedings. The transcrip- vestment firm. 360 with Kinect, and a Kindle tion is made solely for the The company, which is Fire. Other players that made use of the person consider- based in Philadelphia, has run it to the later rounds received ing the appeal. The tran- this event before at several signed copies of a book about script will NOT be provided other colleges and universi- poker authored in part by Bill to the students involved.” ties, but this was its first tour- Chen, a quantitative analyst, Batton had a prelimi- nament at Carnegie Mellon. the head of the statistical ar- nary hearing on Thursday SIG runs events such as the bitage group at SIG, and an regarding criminal charges poker tournament in order to accomplished World Series of Jonathan Carreon/Photo Editor of aggravated assault and recruit college students with Susquehanna International Group, an international trading and investment firm, held a poker competition at related crimes. He was not skills in mathematics and See POKER, A3 Carnegie Mellon on Thursday in order to recruit students. Company representatives acted as dealers. available for comment. A2 « thetartan.org/news The Tartan » April 16, 2012 CAMPUS NEWS IN BRIEF Statistically Researchers create energy- Professor develops cheaper efficient game consoles way to synthesize peptides Speaking While video game con- originates in users’ choice not Carnegie Mellon chemis- which humans were once im- soles like the Xbox 360 have to shut down the devices after try professor Danith Ly has mune.” Instagram is a mobile photo sharing application that long been known to con- they finish using them. As a invented an easier, less ex- The synthetic peptide has allows users to upload pictures, apply digital filters to sume excessive amounts of result, consoles consume ap- pensive technique for manu- now proven effective against them, and share them with the world. It is currently electricity, Carnegie Mellon proximately 1 percent of the facturing cyclic peptides. E. coli, listeria, staphylococ- supported on iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, and Android researchers are proposing residential electricity used in Cyclic peptides are ring- cus and salmonella — all of camera phones. Last Monday, Facebook purchased In- strategies for more energy- the United States — although shaped chains of amino ac- which are fought by RTD-1. stagram, in an unprecedented business maneuver cost- efficient entertainment. fewer than half of the house- ids. Some cyclic peptides can The researchers now hope ing roughly one quarter of Facebook’s on-hand money. Engineering and pub- holds in the population have be used to combat serious to test the synthetic peptide Here are some facts about Instagram: lic policy doctoral students the devices. diseases, including HIV and against other pathogens, spe- Eric Hittinger and Kimberley The solution proposed by SARS. cifically ones resistant to an- Mullins and engineering and researchers is to simply cre- Carnegie Mellon chemists tibiotics. Chemists also plan public policy professor Inês ate a firmware update that have specifically focused on to reproduce and synthesize Lima de Azevedo’s recent ar- most users get automatically synthesizing a cyclic peptide other cyclic peptides using ticle “Electricity consumption from the manufacturers. The known as RTD-1. Ly’s method. 17 and energy savings potential update could create a default “RTD-1 is part of the in- The research for this proj- The number of months Instagram has been live of video game consoles in the setting to put the consoles to nate immune system of ma- ect was funded by the Na- United States,” published in sleep after one hour, possi- caques and baboons, and at tional Institutes of Health, Energy Efficiency, offers a bly reducing electricity con- one time it was part of our the National Science Founda- simple and virtually free so- sumption of game consoles immune system,” Ly said in tion, and the DSF Charitable lution to the problem. by 75 percent. This solution is a university press release. “If Foundation. 13 Much of the electricity estimated to save consumers we can reproduce this pep- tide, we possibly could treat Compiled by The number of Instagram employees cost associated with the use $1 billion annually in elec- of these video game systems tricity bills. a wide range of infections to COURTNEY WITTEKIND 30 million FEATURE PHOTO The number of active Instagram accounts as of this month Students rent puppies for an afternoon $1 billion The price at which Facebook purchased Instagram Sources: nytimes.com, instagr.am, and Compiled by blog.instagram.com MATT POWELL-PALM Lecture Preview University Lecture School of Art Lecture Series: David R. Series: Wangechi Mutu Shumway Tuesday at 5 p.m. Monday at 4:30 p.m. Kresge Theater, Giant Eagle Auditorium College of Fine Arts (Baker Hall A51) Wangechi Mutu will pres- The Center for the Arts in ent this week’s School of Art Society will sponsor an event lecture.