“For a couple years now, EON [the Environmental Organizers’ Network] has been thinking about ways to reduce bottled water use on campus, mostly for environmental reasons,” said EON Co-Coordinator and Representative to the Dining Committee Anne Rosenthal ’10. “This year we’re really looking for ways to work with Bon Appétit to institutionalize the minimization of it.”

The Dining Committee’s first step is to conduct an assessment of the level of student support for the removal of bottled water.

“We care about sustainability, but we’re also looking to keep the best interests of the student body in mind,” said Chair of the Dining Committee Ben Firke ’12. “We’re in the process of determining whether or not the student body would be willing to use something like AquaHealth.”

AquaHealth, Inc. has almost finished developing the filtered water-dispensing machine that would allow students to swipe a meal card in exchange for an amount of purified water, according to Bon Appétit Resident District Manager Michael Strumpf. The installation of such a machine at Weshop would allow students to fill their own reusable water bottles with AquaHealth water purchased from the dispenser.

According to Strumpf, the cost of water from one of these machines would be about half the cost of bottled water. While Bon Appetit would still make money from the machine, there are concerns that it would not recover from the loss of bottled water sales.

“We have hurdles here,” Strumpf said. “Are the customers going to pay for filtered water coming out of the machine that way?”

Even if the student body is found to support removal of bottled water and the AquaHealth machine appears to be a viable option, Strumpf noted that it is unlikely that any major changes will occur until next semester.

In the meantime, EON has made efforts to increase student awareness of the high cost of bottled water by flyering around campus and encouraging academic departments to use pitchers of water at events over individual bottles of water.

“The next logical step is to start taking it away from certain spots on campus,” Rosenthal said. “Other schools, such as Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Winnipeg have already taken such measures.”

Rosenthal cited financial, environmental, and health effects as reasons for avoiding bottled water: it is more expensive than tap water, the energy costs and pollution associated with recycling and transporting bottles tax the environment—even if the bottles are recycled—and regulation of the bottled water industry is fairly limited, so in some cases tap water is in fact safer to drink than bottled water.

“The crux of this campaign is the awareness issue, because when kids get off campus there’s going to be bottled water everywhere,” Rosenthal said. “We just want them to get in the habit of thinking about the impacts of their purchases and getting used to alternatives.”

In order to address the concerns of students who may be uncomfortable with drinking tap water, a group of EON members is currently working on a map of water fountains on campus in order to determine locations that could benefit from additional filtered water stations.

Even if bottled water is removed from Weshop, however, it will most likely still be available at other locations, like Pi and Usdan Café.

“We want to be good stewards of the earth,” Firke said. “But we also want to make sure that if there’s something that Wesleyan students really become reliant on, we’re not going to deprive them of that for what they would interpret as being arbitrary reasons.”

Kara Ingraham ’11 created the Facebook group “The Ride: Something Needs to Change,” so that students would be able to express their concerns over The Ride’s shortcomings to the WSA.

“I know the WSA is working hard on this and it’s an ongoing process, but things don’t seem to be improving so far,” Ingraham wrote in an e-mail to The Argus. “The solutions seem more like a band-aid than actually solving the problem.”

Students are not alone in this view—one Ride driver who asked not to be quoted directly said that a predetermined stop is inconvenient for students and that it was not bothersome to drop students off at the location of their choice.

However, Ben Firke ’12, Chair of the Finance and Facilities Committee of the WSA, said that student representatives are always willing to respond to student feedback.

“Since implementation, not a single student has come to me or the WSA with a suggestion as to how to improve things,” he said.  “We are more than happy to take those suggestions; improving The Ride is a work in progress. We have made significant strides so far, especially after ensuring a full-time third driver was hired to work Wednesday through Saturday.”

Students who did not use The Ride before the changes were implemented said that they still have no desire to use the service this semester.

“I was never really clear on how The Ride worked,” said Gabriela De Golia ’13.  “And I’m still not so sure.”

“I’ve never taken the ride,” added Kassandra Leidemer ’13.  “They never pick up when I call.”

Others said the changes have had a negative impact; the fixed route system is inconvenient and unsafe, they argue, and the only way to improve the service would be to allow vans to stop at whatever location the student is calling from.

“Fixed locations are okay once they are in safe, well-lit locations and students know exactly when The Ride will arrive, ” Ingraham said.

Both sides agree that it is up to students to come forward with suggestions for improving the service in order to meet all campus demands.

“It feels like nothing has changed from last year. And that’s really disheartening,” Ingraham said. “If we want real changes to The Ride, the solutions have to come from the students who have had the issues, not from the WSA.”

Firke believes such communication will lead to a solution that works for everyone.

“I’m confident that all of the kinks will be solved by the end of the year,” he said. “We have utilized many suggestions into our plans for the new, improved Ride, and look forward to continuing this discussion.”

“We [alumni] thought they would keep it up for 20 years before they figured out something else to do with it,” said Ron Medley ’73. “We weren’t aware how imminent the demolition was.”

The process of finding a contractor for the demolition project is already underway and final bids are due on March 8, said Director of University Media Relations David Pesci. According to President Michael Roth, some alumni have indicated that they will be less inclined to donate to the University in the future if the demolition occurs, although none have offered to donate funds to restore the current structure.

“I respect their views,” Roth wrote in an e-mail to The Argus. “But we don’t make decisions that way.”

Several alumni and students posted on The Argus website in response to a Feb. 12 article about the University’s plans to demolish the former dining hall. Many expressed disapproval of the plans while others agreed with Associate Vice President for Physical Plant Facilities Joyce Topshe’s assertion that adaptive reuse is not a financially viable option.

Matthew Weiner ’87, creator of the AMC series Mad Men, posted a comment on Feb. 20, expressing his belief that the University is disregarding MoCon’s value as a piece of art and saying “they obviously forgot that a University’s true financial health is related to its standing in the mind of its graduates.” In a recent conversation with the Argus, Weiner explained his frustration.

“You can’t put a price tag on this sort of thing,” he said. “I think they should spend the money to maintain it until the economy turns around.”

Weiner also suggested that a certain double standard exists at Wesleyan where the University’s athletics receive significant alumni support, while the arts fall on the back burner. Weiner joked about potential future uses for McConaughy that would curry greater financial support.

“If people could play sports in it, things would be a lot different,” he said. “Make it a gym.”

Medley, who also posted on the article, expressed a different sentiment. Instead of maintaining the building until money is available for adaptive reuse, he suggested that the University rebuild McConaughy in a more sustainable fashion after the current, inefficient structure has been torn down.

“There is precedent for demolishing a college building and then rebuilding it the way it was,” Medley said in a conversation with The Argus. “Amherst has done it. I don’t see why that when Wesleyan gets the money, it can’t do the same and call it McConaughy.”

The grandson of MoCon’s namesake President, Jim McConaughy ’68, MA ’74 also commented on the Feb. 12 article, expressing his disappointment with the University’s decision.

“Many people will miss McConaughy Hall,” he wrote in an e-mail to The Argus. “What is different in my case is that McConaughy Hall was named after my grandfather and so there is an added sadness and disappointment to think of its imminent demolition.”

Roth argued that buildings, especially dining halls, should not be expected to last permanently. Roth also said that the University will find another way to memorialize President McConaughy’s name on campus after MoCon’s demolition. He acknowledged the passionate responses of alumni and explained that the University has, in fact, explored many options for MoCon’s future.

“As an alumnus myself, I understand nostalgia, and I, too, have positive feelings for the building,” Roth said. “I respect those people voicing their frustration with the plans for demolition, and I have examined various alternatives. But the building is an eyesore right now and it’s going to be a hazard if we leave it the way it is. I’m not willing to spend a lot of money on something that doesn’t make sense.”

Designed by architect Charles Warner in 1962 and named after President James L. McConaughy, the cylindrical hall was built in a modernist style incorporating many native materials, according to Circuit Rider for the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation (CT Trust) Gregory Farmer, who said that he evaluated the building in summer 2007 after it had closed. Although it was no longer in active use, the building was in stable condition at that time, and Farmer recommended to now-retired professor Dick Buel that the University maintain the building to prevent deterioration. The CT Trust considers the adaptive reuse of existing buildings to be the most cost-effective type of recycling. Any energy that was used to erect the building in the first place, they argue, becomes wasted when the building is demolished and the materials go into a landfill.

“Unfortunately, the college was not responsive to my suggestions for preserving the building, securing it from damage, and exploring creative options for adaptive reuse,” Farmer wrote in an e-mail to The Argus.

According to Pesci, there is no record that a meeting between Farmer and administration or Physical Plant employees occurred or that he submitted recommendations for the preservation of McConaughy.

“As for his contention that we have not explored ‘creative options for adaptive reuse,’ this is patently untrue as evidenced by the extensive list of possible re-use options we have explored and shared with The Argus and the campus community,” Pesci wrote in an e-mail to The Argus. “Virtually all of these were found to be exceptionally cost-exclusive to the point, in some cases, of being significantly more expensive than creating an entirely new structure.”

On campus, student opposition to the demolition plans has been gathering support. Miles Bukiet ’11 started the Facebook group “Save Mocon” several weeks ago in order to find a feasible way to preserve McConaughy Hall and demonstrate the large following of students the building has. While Bukiet never ate a meal in MoCon, he became familiar with it after helping to coordinate the annual Waste Not! student-run tag sale that was hosted there last fall. Although he initially only invited a few friends to join the group, there are now over 1,300 members, including current students and many alumni.

“That reflects that it’s a building a lot of people care about,” he said. “When you have 1,300 people, it becomes very different. It provides some leverage.”

After learning about the University’s decision to demolish the structure, Bukiet began contacting Physical Plant staff and administrators to find out more specific information about the plans. Generally speaking, however, MoCon’s partisans are not optimisitc.

“If there is anything to be done, it has to be done this week,” Bukiet said.

“The hubbub started when it was too late,” Weiner said.

The UOC, located at 190 High St., is a meeting and organizing space for student groups such as    the Emergence Info Collective, the Queer Resource Center, Hermes, ADAPT, Students for a Sensible Drug Policy, and Wesleyan Friends of Africa. Last year, the building was open daily from 12 p.m. until 12 a.m., but students have consistently had difficulties gaining access to the building this year. After the dispute erupted surrounding attempts to create a student-run café in the UOC basement at the beginning of last semester, confusion has ensued over the availability of the space. This disorganization has deterred students from using the building.

“When this semester started up, we found that the building would be closed at crazy hours and that certain rooms would be locked,” said Blasenheim, who regularly uses the space for meetings with Students for a Sensible Drug Policy, a group he started last year. “What it was really doing was hindering activism on this campus.”

The UOC Coordinating Committee is proposing that the UOC fall predominantly, but not completely, under the control of students who use it, by giving a set of keys to the UOC intern. This will allow students who need access to call up one specified student, rather than coordinating between Public Safety, Residential Life, WSA Office Coordinator Lisa Hendrix, and WSA Community Outreach Committee (COCo) Chair Sylvie Stein ’12.

“We had a really great meeting last week with Lisa Hendrix, and Sylvie Stein told them about our plan,” Blasenheim said. “We’re putting all the anger behind us and working toward a better UOC. I think the WSA is on board with what we’re trying to do.”

According to Director of Public Safety Dave Meyer, access to certain campus buildings, including 190 High St., is limited to a specific list of people, and many have strict instructions detailing the hours they can be unlocked.

“I think that once we got the correct information, we have been on line with taking care of things,” Meyer wrote in an e-mail to The Argus. “As far as miscommunication, there probably has been some, but that is not unusual.”

Accessibility has been a significant obstacle for groups such as the Emergence Infoshop Collective and the Queer Resource Center, which set up libraries in the UOC that have rarely been used this year.

“The library is pretty much inaccessible unless you know to call Public Safety and be stubborn about it,” said JM Jaffe ’09, a member of the Emergence Infoshop Collective. “It’s really impeded the use of the space.”

Before the Usdan University Center opened its doors in 2007, the UOC housed the WSA offices. However, the WSA has since moved all of its operations to Usdan and now only uses the building for minor storage.

Confusion about control over the building has been exacerbated by conflicting instructions about who to contact in order to use the space. While ResLife suggests that interested students contact the UOC intern, the WSA website indicates that students contact Stein.

“Under our plan, not only can the students who use this space be the best determinants of how to utilize it, but also, those departments and organizations that don’t have a lot invested in it and have better things to do don’t have to worry about dealing with the specifics,” Blasenheim said.

No department tied to the UOC has made any official commitments yet. The interim committee hopes to hold additional meetings with Director of Public Safety Dave Meyer and finalize a proposal once students return from spring break.

On Feb. 19, the UOC hosted its first open house of the year in order to let students know about the space. About 80 students showed up to take a look at the space.

“A lot of people who came in were just walking along the street and heard music playing,” said Odede. “We just want students to know that this place is open for them to use. My vision is to unite student groups.”

Odede said that the open house was quite successful and that about seven student groups have already come forward and asked to take advantage of the space. Odede and Blasenheim said that they hope to restore the space to full use once the new changes are in order.

“That building has such a long history. The attic has time capsules in it—you can see shirts that students made decades ago,” said Emergence Infoshop Collective member Michele Markowitz ’10. “It was actually never underutilized before this year. There was writing on the chalkboards, and there was always food around. It really was an actively used building.”

The vote marked the culmination of a year of planning, preparation, and debate. Upon returning from the 2009 Power Shift Climate Change Conference in Washington, D.C. last April, Julia Michaels ’12, Julia Jonas-Day ’12, and Josh Levine ’12 formed the Green Fund Committee (GFC) through the Environmental Organizers Network (EON), which advocated for the creation of a fund to support on-campus environmental initiatives.

“I’m thrilled,” Levine said. “I think it’s great that this one idea of a few people has turned into something our whole community can embrace, including the Board of Trustees.”

Last November, the Wesleyan Student Assembly (WSA) approved the Green Fund by a vote of 31-1. After the initial WSA members-only vote, the proposal was placed on the WSA election ballot to gauge student support. It received far above the required approval of two-thirds of the student body and was subsequently forwarded to the Board of Trustees.

The Green Fund is a $15 per student biannual fee, paid with tuition at the beginning of each semester. Students who are unable to or do not wish to pay can opt out of paying the fee.

According to a November 2009 Wespeak by GFC founders Michaels, Jonas-Day, and Levine, over fifty other colleges and universities already have similar funds to support sustainability. Most of these schools experience an opt-out rate of about 10 percent, the Wespeak said, meaning the fund could provide $70,000 annually if Wesleyan students follow suit.

A committee comprised of the WSA Sustainability Coordinator, four additional students, and a University staff member will oversee the dispersal of money raised by the Green Fund. The committee members will be chosen by the WSA Sustainability Coordinator, the WSA Coordinator, and a member of the Organization and External Affairs Committee.

According to the Chair of the WSA’s Student Budget Committee (SBC) Charlie Kurose ’10, the fund is invested in four areas: $50,000 is in a bond fund called PIMCO, $40,000 is invested in the Winslow Green Growth Fund, $70,000 is tied to the University’s endowment, and the remaining funds, approximately $40,000, are invested in stocks in the local federal credit union MiddConn.

While most of the MiddConn stocks have yet to mature, one six-month share certificate worth $10,000 matured on Feb. 13, subsequently boosting the WSA endowment.

“We decided that the best thing to do with it was to tie it to the performance of the University,” Kurose said. “The return for the money is the same return that Wesleyan will make in a given financial quarter.”

The funds invested in the Winslow Green Growth Fund and PIMCO have also been successful—they posted returns of 7.85 and 1.36 percent for the fiscal quarter ending in December.

The successful return includes $43,173 left from last year’s SBC budget that the WSA voted to invest in the Winslow Green Growth Fund.

“We’re not going to pretend that we know the ins and outs of investing,” Kurose said. “We got lucky that our gains in one part of our portfolio made up for the loss in other parts of the portfolio.”

While the endowment continues to grow, the WSA has no immediate plans for using the funds.

“We are not planning to use anything in the short term,” said SBC member Aubrey Hamilton ’12. “Ideally we are going to set it aside for long-term goals. In the past, we have invested in things we believe in, like sustainability issues.”

The WSA endowment has been steadily growing while the University’s endowment has followed a rockier path.

“We posted a 0.1-0.2 percent growth in the WSA Endowment from October 2008 to September 2009,” Kurose said. “Once the endowment reaches a certain size, we can start drawing from it and use that money to reduce the activities fee. The goal is to lessen the financial burden on students in the long run.”

The article, “Early Emerging Nicotine Dependence Symptoms: A signal of propensity for chronic smoking behavior among adolescent smokers,” written by Professor Dierker and University of Illinois at Chicago Professor Robin J. Mermelstein, will be published in The Journal of Pediatrics this month. The data comes from 756 adolescents who participated in a University of Illinois at Chicago study.

According to Dierker, young people often begin smoking believing that they will be able to quit whenever they want to, with little understanding of the real difficulties of ending an addiction.

“The most effective preventative measure is to stop young smokers before they get hooked,” Dierker said.

The article is based on the research of Associate Professor Dierker and her colleague in the psychology department, Professor Jennifer Rose. Of the study’s 756 participants, 594 had not yet smoked 100 cigarettes in their lifetime, while 152 had smoked more than 100 cigarettes but were smoking less than five cigarettes a day. The article examines nicotine addiction symptoms both at the start of the study and two years later.

The findings report that participants who smoked less than 100 cigarettes and who experienced and endorsed addiction-like cravings and withdrawals were more likely to be smoking two years later. The American Cancer Society lists irritability, anxiety, insomnia, headaches, boredom, weight gain, and sleep disturbances as potential withdrawal symptoms.

Dierker emphasized the importance of taking preventative measures before heavy addiction sets in, noting that most universities across the country are placing restrictions on smoking in certain locations.

“I think it’s a good thing for everyone,” she said. “You have to consider second-hand smoke, too. It’s a public health issue, not just an individual issue.”

“We kid around with students that ‘As long as you don’t lick the walls, you’re okay,” she said.

As required by the federal government, the University must function as a “landlord” and inform students who live in houses built before 1978 of the potential hazards of lead paint. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), ingesting lead can cause  “behavioral problems and learning disabilities” and even “seizures and death.”

Before 1978, lead was a common ingredient in paint. According to the EPA, deteriorating lead-based paint is one of the three most common causes of lead poisoning. While the University has in the past geared lead paint warnings towards graduate student housing, where families with younger children—who are more likely to ingest paint—live, it has also included the lead paint notice as part of the Housing Contract that all students must sign.

This year, ResLife decided to make the information about the hazards of lead paint more conspicuous by separating it from the Housing Contract. Koerting emphasized, however, that there have not been any health issues resulting from lead paint in the past.

“This is purely compliant with the law that’s been in effect,” she said. “We’re just trying to do more than we’ve done in the past to really make sure students are aware of it.”

Students must accept the Lead Paint Notice, which can be accessed via their student portfolio, in order to participate in the housing application process.

“Along with being a distinguished alumnus, Mr. Hickenlooper is an inspiring individual who has been hailed nationally as a creative innovator and leader, and, according to Time Magazine, one of ‘the top five ‘big-city’ mayors in America,’” wrote University Director of Media Relations David Pesci in an e-mail to The Argus.

According to the campus--wide e-mail, Hickenlooper is a geologist turned brewpub pioneer who did not run for political office until 2003 when he was elected for his first term as mayor of Denver.

“I have not seen his speech so I cannot speculate as to specifics, but I have no doubt that Mr. Hickenlooper will be an engaging speaker,” Pesci wrote.

A University committee decides the Commencement speaker and honorary degree nominations each year.

At the Commencement, the University will also award honorary degrees to Hickenlooper, Harvard University Professor Emeritus Stanley Cavell, Brown University President Ruth J. Simmons, and Wesleyan Professor of Music, Emeritus Richard K. Winslow ’40.

Tired of your water tasting like animal urine? So is the City’s Planning and Zoning Commission. The commission held a public meeting Wednesday to review changes to an ordinance dealing with animal ownership that would include keeping animals such as poultry, cattle, horses, goats, and sheep at least 75 feet away from wells and other water supplies.

The Hartford Courant

Maybe there is hope in the world: local mechanic Craig Comparone, who was about to be laid off, stopped by a convenience store on his way to work last Friday and bought a lottery ticket on a whim. The ticket, which cost ten bucks, turned out to be worth $1 million. Comparone said he plans to invest most of the money in order to pay for health insurance and give some to family.

The Middletown Press

If you were feeling claustrophobic on bar night, don’t fret: Public is expanding! After a several-month battle with the Planning and Zoning Commission—and a temporary suspension of their liquor license—over a bar and DJ booth that was added without the proper permits, their application to expand was finally approved.

The Middletown Press

Hartford

Thought that bullying people for lunch money ended in fifth grade? Not for Jamison Lynch. The 19-year-old is being charged with criminal attempt to commit second-degree robbery, third-degree assault, and disorderly conduct for beating up an acquaintance in order to steal his alcohol twice in one day. According to police, Lynch punched the victim in the face several times, demanded alcohol and money, found alcohol, and ran. It wasn’t until Lynch showed up a second time asking for more booze, though, that the victim finally decided to call the cops.

The Hartford Courant

If you felt guilty about some of your behavior after taking the Health Center survey, get ready for another guilt trip—apparently, drinking coffee is now something to feel bad about, too. On Monday, Connecticut became the first state to take part in National Caffeine Awareness Month. Governor M. Jodi Rell is one of the few governors to actually respond to the request from the Caffeine Awareness Association that each state acknowledge March as Caffeine Awareness Month in order to call attention to “caffeinism” and “caffeine withdrawal syndrome.”

PR.com

New Haven

New Haven residents are unhealthy, apparently. According to the Community Alliance for Research and Engagement at Yale, over half of the 1,200 residents surveyed do not regularly exercise and drink sugary beverages every day. The Yale School of Public Health hopes to work with community members to begin brainstorming new health policies.

The Yale Daily News

Ever wonder what Yale’s bar nights are like? If the nightclubs on Crown Street are any indication, the answer is belligerent. In addition to stabbings on the dance floor and riots in the street, the owner of Alchemy Nightclub and Club Elevate was recently charged with kicking a patron in the face as several other employees held him down. The recent eruption of violence has led to the proposal of a law that would ban underage patrons from clubs in New Haven.

The Yale Daily News