The Department of Public Safety gives $75 tickets to all AU community members who park on residential streets around campus, The Eagle reported Nov. 16. AU’s parking policy states that students, faculty and guests must park on campus for campus-related business.

A 2001 D.C. Zoning Commission order first instated off-campus parking regulations requiring AU students, faculty and staff to park on campus as conditions for the approval of the university’s campus plan.

According to Carol Mitten, who was D.C. Zoning Commission chair when the commission passed AU’s campus plan, the order does not impose specific requirements as to how the university deals with residential parking.

“There’s no explicit requirement to ticket people who park off campus,” she said. “That’s the manner in which the university chooses to enforce it.”

The parking conditions of AU’s zoning order mirror almost exactly the parking conditions imposed on GW’s Mount Vernon campus, located on Foxhall Road, as part of the school’s 1999 plan, Mitten said.

“Most places, most schools have restrictions just so they can peacefully coexist in the particular neighborhood that they’re in,” Public Safety Chief Michael McNair said. 

However, GW does not ticket off campus, according to Executive Director of Media Relations Candace Smith.

GW’s parking policy, as listed on its Web site, states that students who park on residential streets surrounding the Foggy Bottom campus are subject to “disciplinary action.”

Street parking is also prohibited near the Foggy Bottom campus. According to the GW Parking Services Web site, “students are encouraged to park in the university parking facilities.”

Universities enforce parking rules that the schools think are important for neighborhood relations,

Mitten said.

Mount Vernon may not need to ticket cars off campus because the density of people on the campus is fairly low. She said she thinks AU is taking its responsibility seriously by creating a plan of parking enforcement.

“They’re pretty creative about it, apparently,” Mitten said.

Georgetown has no control over off-campus parking, according to Rettea Getu, traffic controller of the university’s Department of Transportation.

The Georgetown Web site reminds students parking spaces in the area are scarce and requests students not monopolize spaces with multiple cars from one household. It also refers students to the Department of Motor Vehicles Web site in order to obtain a residential parking permit.

While AU students who prove area residency and enrollment in a D.C. university can obtain a Student Reciprocity Parking Permit for the Zone 3 area, this option is not available for Georgetown or GW students.

Student living in Advisory Neighborhood Commission areas 2A (GW Foggy Bottom and Mount Vernon areas), 2E, 3D06 and 3D09 (the areas around Georgetown) must register their cars with the district in order to park legally in the ward, according to the DVM Web site.

A representative from the DMV was not available to comment on these parking permit restrictions.

AU Parking and Sustainability

While AU requires students, faculty and guests to park on campus lots when going to campus, the school is also trying to increase its sustainability by controlling the amount of cars on campus.

According to a transportation study conducted in July 2009 as part of the school’s upcoming 2011 campus plan, the goals of AU’s sustainability transportation initiatives include improving accessibility and mobility, conserving environmental resources and enhancing social equity and economic vitality.

The study suggested several measures to improve AU’s sustainability, including reducing the amount of land used for parking lots, increasing parking fees and implementing incentives that encourage alternatives to driving. 

AU has not raised parking fees specifically to regulate on-campus parking, according to McNair.

“We’ve tried to manage it in a different way,” he said.

One of AU’s other parking-management strategies include encouraging carpooling by allowing students to purchase group parking permits, for which they divide up the cost and share among several cars, McNair said.

In fall 2008, parking lots at AU were on average only 65 percent full during peak hours between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., according to the 2009 transportation survey.

McNair said this could be a reason why students should never have to park off campus.

“We have plenty of parking on campus,” McNair said. “We actually have more space than they need. So I’m really not sure why — other than not wanting to pay for parking — why there’s a need to park off campus.”

However, not wanting to pay is precisely why some students park on the street.

Laura Uttley, a senior in the School of Public Affairs, has not purchased a campus parking permit.

“Oh, they’re ridiculously expensive,” she said. “I couldn’t afford that even if I wanted to.”

Tom Smith, commissioner for ANC 3D02, the AU area, said many residents have expressed the opinion that high parking fees may be the reason campus lots are underutilized.

“What will it take to move those cars from the street to those parking lots that are empty?” he said. “And one has to believe that whatever the regulations and fees are that are imposed by the university must be excessive if it’s discouraging students from using more accessible parking.”

According to McNair, most students do follow the rules and buy campus parking permits instead of parking on the street.

He also said the only area parking cheaper than AU’s is available at city meters.

“I don’t know how you could get much cheaper, though,” McNair said. “We’re about half the cost of the other places.”

You can reach this staff writer at mkendall@theeagleonline.com.

Streetcar tracks are being constructed in Anacostia and on H Street and Benning Road in Northeast D.C., according to the DDOT Web site. The DDOT hopes to have both lines running by 2012 and expects to build a network with 37 miles of streetcar tracks

It has been almost 50 years since streetcars last operated in the District, according to the DDOT Web site.

Though buses could easily get people around new routes, the streetcars offer distinct advantages, according to DDOT spokesperson John Lisle.

“Streetcars provide economic development in communities,” Lisle said. “Unlike bus routes, which serve already-developed areas, streetcar tracks indicate a city’s investment in a developing area and better housing options along the corridors.”

For some D.C. bloggers, the network is a positive direction in improving some neighborhoods.

“There is research from around the world that shows streetcars being big catalysts for development,” said David Alpert, creator of the Greater Greater Washington-area blog. “While Metro is focused on getting people into and out of the core of downtown, streetcar is moving people throughout the city into emerging commercial and retail quarters. This is especially important for the proposed line running along the waterfront in Anacostia.” 

The streetcar lines would offer a broader range of transit options for residents.

“For the people using cars, they can see it as an easier way to get around,” Lisle said. “The system is easier to understand than bus routes. There is a fixed route and clear system map. This will encourage people to use public transit more and leave their cars at home.”

Lisle also said that streetcars would serve as solutions to some other problems with the current Metro system, which include some Metrobus lines operating over 100 percent capacity and congestion on the Metrorail.

“We are predicting a 32 percent increase in the number of transportation riders by 2030,” said Cathy Asato, information specialist at WMATA. “This is the size of what we had during the Obama Inauguration.”

Other proposed branches of the streetcar line, such as the K Street corridor, are in dire need of reduced congestion, according to the DDOT Web site.

“Many bus lines compete with traffic in these dense areas,” Lisle said. “This could be made easier by placing streetcar tracks down the center of the road while cars may pass on either side.”

The new project does not come without some questions from the community, including bloggers like Alpert. Funding has been an issue for the city even in the best of times, he said.

“There have been some budgeting problems within Metro services,” Alpert said. “The cost of the streetcar network is definitely the biggest downside.”

But funding is not necessarily the issue, according to the DDOT. The department will not have to secure funding for the entire network for seven years.

“Yeah, funding is something that needs to be worked out and there are some budget problems,” Lisle said. “Yet, capital investment is several years in the future and the economy is likely to be recovered by then. We are expecting the District to bring in more tax revenue to help out.”

Several AU students said they thought streetcars were a good idea.

“It would help neighborhoods previously inaccessible to students in the Northwest [become] accessible,” said Marc Tomik, a graduate student in the School of Public Affairs. “For me, it makes a journey to Columbia Heights a lot easier. I wouldn’t have to transfer lines downtown.”

Carla Trippe, a graduate student in the School of International Service, said streetcars are the main form of transportation in her hometown of Düsseldorf, Germany.

“It’s an easy and efficient way to get around,” she said. “I just think it will be difficult for the average D.C. driver to adjust. It wouldn’t take too long for people to notice the benefits though.”

Some students, however, do not think streetcars are necessary.

Shane Carley, a junior in SPA, said WMATA should focus on fixing its exis ting systems before starting new, unnecessary ones.

“Also, streets in D.C. are some of the narrowest streets,” he said. “I don’t see streetcars being that much better than buses.”

According to the DDOT Web site, the new streetcars are not as wide as the eight-foot wide Metro buses.

The exact timeline for the system is dependent on funding from the federal government, the D.C. council and private investments.

You can reach this writer at news@theeagleonline.com.

The shipment includes 1,000 doses allocated to AU by the District of Columbia Department of Health that will be administered on a first-come-first-serve basis to priority groups, including people six-months-old to 24-years-old, according to a memorandum distributed campus-wide Wednesday night.

This group is at risk because those who are six months through 18 years old tend to be in close contact with each other at schools, where disease spreads easily, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Also, people who are 19- to 24-years-old are at risk for H1N1 despite being an otherwise healthy population because they are a particularly mobile group of people who live, work and study in close proximity, according to the CDC.

AU is unsure how long the supply of vaccine will last.

“We can’t predict how quickly we’ll go through it,” said AU Spokesperson Camille Lepre. “We’re expecting to receive more shipments, but we don’t have any details on that yet.”

AU had originally hoped to receive the vaccine earlier in the semester, but unforeseen delays pushed back the date of arrival.

“It is later than expected,” Lepre said.

Bruey said D.C. was “in the second shipment from the CDC to state health departments,” The Eagle reported.

At that time, the vaccine for the regular flu had already been administered on campus, and the Student Health Center was prescribing Tamiflu to “people who need it most,” Bruey told The Eagle.

The memo lists priority groups other than young, college-aged people for the vaccine, including pregnant women, caregivers for children younger than six-months-old, health care and emergency medical services providers and people from 25-years to 64-years-old who have health conditions.

The memo also asked “those aged 25-64 years with no underlying health conditions understand our need to service the above priority group first.”

You can reach this staff writer at mfowler@theeagleonline.com.

The bike-lending program currently consists of six bikes located in lockers near the South side shuttle stop under the Anderson bridge, according to Foster. Bike rentals are free for AU students and include a saddlebag, a helmet, a lock and a light. Students can rent a bike by signing up on the AUTO Web site at au.agilefleet.com and filling out a liability waiver. Students can take the bikes anywhere they want as long as the bike is returned in six hours.

Foster said if students break or damage a bike, they will have to pay a fine and will be barred from future use of the bikes until they pay the fine. If the bike breaks in a way that is not directly the fault of the student — if the bike gets a flat tire, for instance — the student would not have to pay a fine and the program would pay for the damages, according to Foster.

Students would, however, have to pay a fine if their bike gets stolen.

“I bought the strongest locks possible for the bikes — it would be highly unlikely for someone to be able to cut the lock in the six-hour time frame given to renters,” Foster said. “So if a bike gets stolen, we would assume that the student never used the lock in the first place.”

The bike-lending program was originally started by former Student Government President Seth Cutter as a project for his School of Public Affairs Leadership Program when he was a freshman. Cutter worked with other students in the program over the course of the 2006-2007 school year. In spring 2007, they had a trial run of the bike-lending program. The bike-lending program got a positive reception from students and the program was adopted into the AUTO division last year.

Over 200 students have participated in the bike-lending program this semester, and 40 students are in the process of signing up for a bike-lending account.

Foster said that it took a while for the bike-lending program to get to where it is today because there was some confusion about who would be in charge of the program.

“It originally started out as a project for a class, so once the students were finished with the class it became a matter of who would take over this great idea,” Foster said. “Someone had to come in and keep it going, and it got picked up by the Student Government last year.”

Foster is working with Comptroller Alan Chang and the rest of the AUTO division to expand the bike-lending program in the near future. Foster is trying to get two more bikes for the program, to bring the total up to eight rentable bikes, by the end of the 2009-2010 school year. Foster is also working to get bikes for the North side of campus, though she does not have specifics yet regarding when this would happen.

Foster said that she thinks the program is a great asset to AU because it helps AU students be environmentally friendly and healthy.

“[The bike-lending program] takes on a bunch of important issues, like the environment, dependence on oil and our health — and makes one big solution for all these problems,” Foster said. “Sustainable initiatives ensure a cleaner, healthier and less oil dependent future for humanity.”

Foster hopes the bike-lending program can expand and become one of the leading green initiatives on campus.

“I hope that the AU program serves as a model for Americans around the country to adopt sustainable habits,” Foster said.

Student Government president Andy MacCracken said that he supports the bike-lending program and is confident in Foster’s efforts for the bike-lending program.

Carol Foster, our current Bike-Lending Director, has done a fantastic job so far,” MacCracken said. “She spends countless hours every week, filling in holes in the program so it can support student demand. I’m looking forward to seeing where it goes.”

You can reach this staff writer at jryan@theeagleonline.com.

A light bulb was discovered shattered in the elevator lobby stairwell in Anderson Hall.

The Department of Public Safety responded to a report of an injured person in The Eagle’s Nest. The individual signed a medical refusal form.

The D.C. Fire Department and Emergency Medical Services transported an injured person from the Butler Pavilion Career Center to a hospital. The injury occurred at the 4400 block of Yuma Street.

As an AU vehicle was turning north onto Nebraska Avenue from Rockwood Parkway, a student who was walking was unintentionally struck and broke the driver’s side mirror with his right arm. No injuries were reported.

Nov. 12

DPS discovered graffiti on a mechanical room door on the exterior of the Terrace Dining Room. Aramark was notified.

Two students were injured at the intersection of Wisconsin Avenue and Massachusetts Avenue. They reported the incident to DPS at the Mary Graydon Center. A cab voucher was provided to take them to a hospital.

DPS responded to a report of a sick person in the Katzen Art Center. A student indicated she would transport the sick person to a hospital.

Nov. 13

DCFD transported a sick/injured student in Letts Hall to a hospital.

A student lost his temper, yelled at and spit on an employee’s face in McCabe Hall. The Metropolitan Police Department was contacted. The student was arrested, transported for processing and later released pending a court appearance.

DCFD transported a sick student in Letts Hall to a hospital.

Smoke from overcooked food in the Kay Spiritual Center activated a fire alarm. Smoke was cleared from the area and the alarm reset.

An employee reported a student acting disorderly and smoking on a shuttle bus. DPS responded and escorted the student to Anderson Hall.

A door to a storage room in Anderson Hall was discovered ajar. The room is used to store mattresses. Approximately eight ceiling tiles inside were damaged. The door would not secure properly without forcing it closed. Aramark, 2FIX, and the Lock Shop were notified. No property was reported missing.

Nov. 14

DPS found a heavily intoxicated student lying on the ground outside the Kogod School of Business. His clothes were soaked. He could not walk under his own control. While being questioned, the student vomited in bushes nearby. DCFD transported him to a hospital.

A resident assistant found a small bag of what was suspected to be marijuana in a Letts Hall elevator. DPS took possession of the property. A field test produced a positive result for marijuana.

An unknown suspect entered an occupied, unlocked residence hall room in Anderson Hall and discharged a fire extinguisher in the room. The two occupants in the room were sleeping when entry was made. A discharged fire extinguisher was located in a lounge nearby. Damaged ceiling tiles were located in a nearby hallway and a nearby men’s restroom. Aramark was notified.

DPS responded to a report of an intoxicated individual in need of assistance in Anderson. Upon arrival, the individual was conscious and alert. DCFD responded. The individual signed medical refusal forms. DPS escorted the individual to the Berkshire Apartments.

Nov. 15

DPS and MPD responded to two noise complaints at a residence reportedly occupied by AU students. No disturbances were found.

DCFD transported an injured student in Congressional Hall to a hospital.

Two individuals were inside Capital Hall selling magazines. They were escorted off campus and advised not to return without authorization.

Nov. 16

An iPhone was taken from a backpack in Mary Graydon Center that was left unattended on a chair.

A bicycle was taken from a bike rack in the Letts/Anderson Quad. The bike had been secured with a cable and combination lock.

DCFD transported a sick employee in MGC to a hospital.

Nov. 17

DCFD transported a sick student in the Sports Center to a hospital.

It hasn’t been all bad news for the LGBT community, however. On Tuesday, Nov. 18, the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics rejected a petition that could have put gay marriage in D.C. on a city-wide referendum. As every single state-wide referendum on gay marriage has been rejected by voters, D.C. citizens can rest easier knowing that if the D.C. Council and Congress allow gay marriage in the District, it will likely stay that way. The board said that such a referendum would have authorized discrimination that is prohibited under the Human Rights Act.

JORDAN COUGHENOUR / THE EAGLE

Over in Georgetown, the storied university could be grappling with a devastating closing of its own. Philly Pizza and Grill, a favorite hang out of drunk students looking for mediocre pizza with Ranch dressing on it, could be closing after the D.C. Board of Zoning revoked their license. According to nearby residents, the “sit-down” restaurant is really a fast food joint, violating zoning rules and keeping neighbors awake late at night. As of now, Georgetown University still has the neighborhood of Georgetown to keep them entertained and fed.

Nearby Fairfax County, Va., has decided to forego the extremely inefficient way of killing deer by waiting for them to leap into the National Zoo’s lion’s den, and is instead letting hunters have a go at them the ole’ fashioned way — with bows and arrows. The county has up to 100 deer per acre, 80 more deer than the ecosystem is meant to support, negatively affecting vegetation and other animals. In an attempt to curb the deer population, the county is letting a non-profit hunting group — because apparently such things exist — hunt deer in two county parks until mid-January. Animal rights activists are protesting what they deem to be an inhumane death by arrow. When The Washington Post asked the president of the non-profit deer hunters if he thought it was inhumane to kill deer with arrows he responded, “It’s not inhumane. It’s not cruel ... when you hit a deer point-blank with a razor-sharp rod head, it’s pretty quick and painless.” Exactly what “painless” means in this case is unclear.

Down in Foggy Bottom, George Washington University hosted the Broken Lizard Comedy Troupe, the comic team behind trendy college-kid classics like “Super Troopers” and “Beerfest.” If you remember back in August, AU’s Student Union Board hosted the same guys earlier on in the year, proving yet again that AU is better than GW. And in some major props to SUB Director Clay Pencek, GW’s show cost nearly $30 a ticket, while ours was free for students! SUB is hosting Grammy-award-winning rap group Three Six Mafia this Saturday starting at 8 p.m. in the Tavern.

Rumor has it that local D.C. rap legend, and Jay-Z anointed savior of hip hop Wale will be making a stop off at AU sometime before the end of the semester.

WHAT HAVE THEY DONE FOR ME LATELY?
A rundown of what clubs, greek and other organizations have been up to at AU

Colleges Against Cancer, the Wellness Center and A Healthy U are celebrating the “Great American Smokeout” where the AU community is invited take some “cold turkey” sandwiches, quit kits, C02 testing and other information to learn how to quit smoking. Tabling will take place in MGC and Constitution Hall from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., in the Ward Lobby from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and in the Washington College of Law lobby from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.

The AU Bhangra dance team snagged a third-place finish last weekend at http://bhangrateamsforum.com/discuss/index.php?topic=6553.0?>Muqabla, an Indian dance competition hosted by the University of Buffalo. This was the Bhangra team’s second competition and first time they have ever placed. For their efforts they took home a trophy and $500, most of which will go to new costumes for next year. Contact bhangra.au@gmail.com for more information.

The AU Rationalists and Atheists had a successful “Flying Spaghetti Dinner” Tuesday night. Over 120 students showed up to feast on free spaghetti from Maggiano’s. As an encore performance, AURA is hosting Blasphemy Day this Friday from 12 a.m. to 6 p.m. The event is a celebration of free speech and the AU community it invited to utilize a public address system AURA has rented for the event to say anything they like about anything.

If you would like to submit something your club has done to The Eagle, send an e-mail to news@theeagleonline.com with “ORGANIZATION BLURB” in the subject line.

—CHARLIE SZOLD

Today, Specter is Democrat. He switched parties this year in anticipation of an impossible Republican primary fight against Pat Toomey, a former U.S. representative and the president of the conservative Club For Growth. Critics call him a political opportunist, but Specter has said he was forced out a party that has no tolerance for centrism or independent thinking. Specter will face Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Pa., a retired U.S. Navy Rear Admiral and genuine liberal, in a primary this spring.

So what’s a Democrat to do? That was the big question Monday night when Specter showed up to speak to the AU College Democrats at the University Club in Mary Graydon Center. Wearing a rainbow-colored tie he called “festive,” Specter stood at the front of the room and made his case on just about every issue imaginable. His core argument was that he has always voted with Democrats much of the time and he now feels more comfortable as one of them.

Specter said he supports increasing funding for student loans, cap and trade legislation and raising the minimum wage. He also reminded the Democrats that he voted for the stimulus package — as a Republican.

“I knew that if I voted for it, I would be severing my ties with the Republican Party,” he said.

Specter said Congress will pass a comprehensive health care reform bill.

“I think we’re going to get a public option,” he said.

Several times during the event, the crowd applauded Specter and laughed at his jokes. Honestly, I laughed at his jokes, too. He’s hilarious. There is something striking and disarming about a 79-year-old United States senator who quips about being a sex symbol and explains his opposition to legalizing marijuana by telling a story about pot smokers in Nepal. Specter had people doubling over when he said Sarah Palin was “running for queen.”

When the talk was over, I got five minutes with Specter outside MGC. I had been thinking about how Sestak is currently courting the Air-America wing of the Democratic Party, so I began by asking, “Is Joe Sestak too liberal for Pennsylvania?”

Specter was silent for about five seconds and then said, “I wouldn’t criticize him for where he is on the political spectrum.”

It was a dodge, and it might have been a lame answer, but true to form, Specter saved it with wit.

“I think these categories of liberal, moderate and conservative are like bikinis - they conceal more than they reveal,” he said with a wink.

Still, Specter must see Sestak as a threat from the left, because he went on to hit him from the left on Afghanistan.

“I think his position on Afghanistan is not a liberal position. I’m not for increasing troops in Afghanistan and he is. He calls it ‘measured.’ I’m not in favor of that,” Specter said.

I asked him about a moment in his talk when he said he switched to the Democratic Party because he “felt comfortable” with President Barack Obama at the helm. I asked him why he had stayed a Republican during the election and voted for McCain.

“I never spoke out against Obama — not one time. I think McCain is a good man and I was trying to bring some moderation back to the Republican Party;” (earlier in the evening, Specter said the greatest failure of his career was failing to bring the GOP a bit more towards the political center).

For my last question, I asked him about conservative groups like the Club For Growth that fund primary challengers to centrist Republicans. I told Specter I was from Rhode Island and asked about Lincoln Chafee, the former GOP senator from my state who lost his seat in 2006 largely because he was weakened by a Club For Growth primary challenger.

“Chafee was beaten by Toomey and the Club For Growth,” Specter said. “They spent all this money in the primary — they primaried him. The Club For Growth has run conservative candidates who have won [primaries] with some frequency and elected Democrats in the fall ... They’re trying to beat [Gov. Charlie Christ] in [the Florida Senate race]. They will not tolerate deviation. [Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C.] said he’d rather have 30 people who are pure than have a majority. Well, that’s not the way you win elections and that’s not the way you govern.”

But none of this is his problem anymore. As his staff was tugging him away, he joked, “Well, I think it’s a good strategy. I think that strategy will enable Democrats to win.”

It was another good line, and he must have been pleased with it, because with that, Arlen Specter slapped my arm, turned on his heel and left.

You can reach this staff writer at gvyse@theeagleonline.com.

Although Specter has worked in Congress since 1980, serves on 13 Senate committees and is running for re-election in 2010, the 79-year-old shows no sign of slowing down as he prepares to fend off a Senate primary challenge from Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Pa.

In fact, Specter rushed from a vote on the Senate floor to the Mary Graydon Center when the AU Democrats brought him to campus Monday night. He met briefly with Pennsylvanian students and spoke to a full University Club about partisan bickering on Capitol Hill, personal legislative accomplishments and the direction of the Democratic Party. A sometimes heated, often humorous question-and-answer session followed the nine-minute address. His switch from Republican to Democratic affiliation was a frequent topic.

“I think partisanship and polarization is at an all-time high,” Specter said. “I tried to bring moderation to the Republican Party, but there is no moderation. No one would talk to the Democrats.”

Specter viewed the $787 billion stimulus package as a necessity on the scale of the Great Depression and said he was “prepared to help President Obama” regardless of the repercussions from the GOP.

“I cast the key vote for the stimulus package,” he said. “I knew that it would be the death knell of my relationship with the Republican Party ... A change of registration is not an unusual thing, especially when the change was caused by the stimulus package ... It’s not an easy decision to make, but I think it was the right decision.”

As the Senate prepares to debate and vote on its version of the House of Representatives’ Affordable Health Care for America Act, Specter counts himself as one of the Senators needed to pass the bill.

“I think we will get the 60 votes to proceed [with the public option],” Specter said.

Elizabeth Rademacher, a freshman in the School of Public Affairs and a resident of Newtown, Pa., believes that despite his age, Specter managed to connect with the college audience.

“I agree with many of Sen. Specter’s political views, but more importantly, I agree with him that we need less polarization and partisanship in politics today,” Rademacher said. “Like Specter, I consider myself a political moderate ... What I think is important is that he ... doesn’t see purely in blue or red.”

Chad Reichard, a freshman in SPA from Franklin County, Pa., referred to the senator as “Specter the Defector” and said he “never aligned with Specter, regardless of his party.” However, he enjoyed the senator’s overall presentation.

“It was good that [Specter] was able to step off his high horse and visit some college students,” Reichard said. “He was a good speaker, and I enjoyed listening to him, and I have the utmost respect for the man himself. I was happy to see him keep his composure.”

During the question-and-answer session, Specter fielded questions from a long line of students on topics including torture, cap-and-trade legislation, the Stupak amendment to the health care bill, LGBT equality, legalization of marijuana and U.S. military policy in the Middle East.

When responding to one student, Specter said he felt his greatest accomplishment in office has been his leadership and success in fundraising for the National Institutes of Health.

Specter also often mentioned his policy points and his 2010 campaign against primary challenger Sestak.

“I know that a lot of people say that they hope he doesn’t get reelected now that he’s switched parties, but I think that the issues that he supports should be more important than the party he identifies with,” Rademacher said.

Reichard said that if Specter does become the Democratic candidate, his chances of winning over Republican candidate Pat Toomey are comparable to “a snowball in the inner depths of the Earth’s core.”

Rademacher is not sure whether or not she will support Specter in 2010.

“I definitely haven’t ruled out the possibility of voting for him just because he changed parties,” she said. “I hope that in the coming elections people don’t just think about the controversy. He’s definitely had the experience to prove that he knows how to do his job.”

Specter, who said he believes he has a better chance against Toomey than Sestak does, remains optimistic about his bid to remain the longest-serving Pennsylvanian senator regardless of Sestak’s growing popularity.

“Sestak has a well-earned reputation for working hard, but no one works as hard as Arlen Specter,” he said.

You can reach this writer at news@theeagleonline.com.

A diverse group of women and men from the AU community filled the seats of Ward 1 Nov. 16 for a presentation called “I Heart Female Orgasm.”

Dorian Solot and Marshall Miller — co-authors of a book named after the presentation — led the evening with a combination of discussion, sharing, laughter and education about a taboo topic: women’s physical pleasure. Solot said she and Miller are a couple, allowing them to have “both professional and also personal experience” with the subject.

Miller and Solot kicked off the event with some humor from the movie, “When Harry Met Sally.” They showed the clip in which actress Meg Ryan demonstrates a fake orgasm in the middle of a diner. The audience responded with applause and laughter.

“This is a really funny subject,” Solot said to follow up the clip. “And tonight we are actually going to have a chance to laugh and to talk about a subject people don’t get to spend very much time talking about: women’s sexuality and female orgasm.”

This was Miller and Solot’s second year presenting at AU. Miller said the pair gives sexuality presentations at about 50-75 colleges and universities per year. This particular event used to be open only to women, but they decided to open it to people of all genders based on persistent attempts by men to sneak in to the event, according to Solot.

Mark Lyubovitsky, a senior in the School of International Science, said he came to the event with his long-term girlfriend last spring and noticed more men were present this year.

“I think there’s a greater awareness of women’s sexuality,” Lyubovitsky said. “It’s not all about the guys.”

He also recommended more men attend in the future.

In addition to the silly side of orgasms, Solot demonstrated the seriousness of women’s sexuality. She told the story of discovering a cancerous lump in her breast at the age of 26. Solot said familiarity with her own body might have saved her life.

“I am so thankful that I wasn’t one of those women who would have internalized all those messages that it’s bad or dirty or shameful to touch your own body,” Solot said. “Because if I hadn’t absent-mindedly run my hand across my breast that day - and obviously I’d absent-mindedly done exactly the same thing enough times before that I noticed this small lump - who knows how many weeks or months or years would have gone by before somebody noticed I had cancer in my breast.”

The duo also led an interactive discussion about what members of the audience had previously heard about female orgasms, which dispelled rumors and illuminated the concept of “thinking off,” in which a woman climaxes merely through mental fantasy.

Solot criticized some current sexual education programs for focusing only on how to abstain from sex.

“That’s important, absolutely, boys and girls need to know how to say ‘no’ to sex, but if that’s the only thing people ever teach you in your life ... a lot of the women are like, ‘I don’t even know how to think about saying yes to sex in a positive, healthy, responsible way,” Solot said.

In the middle of the event, Miller and Solot split the crowd to have a more private discussion about topics relevant to each gender and to those who chose not to identify as male or female.

After returning from the groups, Miller and Solot wrapped up by explaining the “G-spot,” the scientific arousal cycle, Kegel exercises, multiple orgasms for both males and females, tips on having a first orgasm and an unexpected use for Mattel’s Harry Potter Nimbus 2000 vibrating broomstick.

Though Miller and Solot have not made definite plans to appear at AU again, Miller said he enjoyed working with Women’s Initiative and that he would like to see it become an annual event.

The event was co-sponsored by Women’s Initiative, Queers and Allies, AU Students for Choice, the Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Department, the Wellness Center and the GLBTA Resource Center.

You can reach this staff writer at sparnass@theeagleonline.com.

The board voted down the policy, saying it would be difficult to enforce and contradictory to the First Amendment right to free speech.

UMD faculty and students have been debating this topic since April when Sen. Andrew Harris, R-Baltimore and Harford counties, threatened to pull UMD funding when the student union attempted to screen the porn film “Pirates II: Stagnetti’s Revenge” on campus, The Eagle previously reported.

The state legislature had given UMD and Maryland’s 11 other public colleges and universities until Dec. 1 to come up with policies restricting porn screening on campus, The Eagle previously reported.

Students see the Regents’ decision as a victory, according to UMD’s Student Government Association President, Steve Glickman. He told UMD’s student paper The Diamondback that a film regulation policy would affect the larger issue of students’ right to screen films for entertainment without needing the administration’s approval.

No other public university in the country has a policy regulating the screening of pornography or any film on campus, according to Robert O’Neil, the founding director of The Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression and former president of the University of Virginia.

O’Neil said the University System of Maryland asked him to offer guidance for UMD’s response to the Maryland legislative mandate.

While UMD would be the first university to adopt this policy, “a responsive policy could have been framed that would have avoided major First Amendment problems,” O’Neil said in an e-mail. “The Regents seem to have concluded that such action will not be necessary.”

If a policy was approved, it would most likely need a panel to review every film to be shown on campus, which the university deemed infeasible, according to The Washington Post.

AU does not have a policy in place concerning the screening of pornography, which has been shown on campus before — most recently, eight years ago, The Eagle previously reported.

However, should AU create such a policy, it would not necessarily be legally constrained by the First Amendment, according to O’Neil.

“AU’s ... independent status would avoid First Amendment concerns…only government is bound by such constraints,” O’Neil said in the e-mail.

Despite their relative autonomy, “major private universities pride themselves on voluntarily observing standards in regard to speech and press that their public counterparts are compelled to observe,” O’Neil said.

You can reach this staff writer at mfowler@theeagleonline.com.

All individuals affiliated with AU, including students, faculty and staff, are prohibited from leaving their cars on residential streets when coming to campus, according to Public Safety Chief Michael McNair. The punishment for violating this policy is a $75 ticket.

These regulations came about as a result of a 2001 D.C. Zoning Commission order, according to McNair. When the commission approved the university’s 10-year plan, which included proposals to build the Katzen Arts Center and an addition to the Mary Graydon Center, one condition was that AU begin regulating university-affiliated, off-campus parking.

According to Condition 7 of the order dubbed the “Good Neighbor Policy” by Public Safety staff, AU must prohibit students, faculty, staff and vendors from parking on streets surrounding campus. To enforce this practice, AU must have in place a system of administrative actions, penalties and fines.

The Good Neighbor Policy is necessary because of the large concentration of people traveling to and from the university each day, McNair said.

“That’s a lot of people in one place,” he said. “And to have those people infringe upon the neighborhood is a problem for the neighborhood and people who live in the neighborhood.”

Commissioner Thomas Smith of the Advisory Neighborhood Commission 3D02 said he recognizes the necessity of restricting students’ off-campus parking. Most local residents do not have garages or driveways and excessive student parking can prevent them from finding a parking spot near their house, he said.

“Residents have long been unhappy that there is so much parking on the streets by folks who are associated with the university,” he said.

Students who live in these houses and have purchased residential parking permits from the city can be ticketed by AU as well, according to Lt. Dale Booth, Public Safety’s coordinator of parking and records management.

The D.C. Department of Motor Vehicles provides a Reciprocity Permit for Temporary Residents, available to students who can prove D.C. residency and enrollment in a D.C. university, according to the DMV Web site. These permits are $338 per calendar year, compared with $936 per academic year for a campus permit.

Students who live near Main Campus are eligible for a Zone 3 permit, which gives them the right to park legally on residential streets where they would otherwise only be able to park for two or three hours or between specific times.

Jay Klein, a senior in the School of Public Affairs, thought since there was a Zone 3 sticker on his girlfriend’s car, he was allowed to park it in the Zone 3 area. However, a Public Safety staff member gave him a ticket on Rockwood Street.

“I thought, once you get [the sticker] why should you have to pay more money for a ticket?” Klein said.

AU tickets only apply to members of the university community who are using residential streets to park when going to campus. However, Public Safety has no policy for determining whether a student has parked for class or has parked legally in front of his or her home, McNair said.

“We use information from neighbors, personal observations and look at where the vehicle is parked to make those decisions,” he said in an e-mail.

In order to enforce the Good Neighbor Policy, Public Safety staff must also be able to tell which cars parked on residential streets belong to AU community members. If the car in question has an AU sticker on it, the staff member assumes the owner is a student who is violating the policy, McNair said.

“Sometimes you can see inside the car and see that there are books, AU books and stuff like that,” he said. “That’s not as clean.”

Local residents also often call Public Safety when they see a young person parking who looks like a student.

Public Safety has a “do not ticket” list stored in its hand-held computerized ticketing devices designed to prevent staff from ticketing non-AU affiliated residents.

Smith said he wonders why Public Safety does not have a similar list of students registered with AU.

According to McNair, compiling a list of students’ license plate numbers is not only infeasible, it is also an invasion of privacy.

Anyone who is mistakenly given a ticket under Public Safety’s policy can appeal to their office within 30 days and have the ticket voided, McNair said. Everyone’s first neighborhood parking citation may also be voided as a warning, according to the parking policy listed on AU’s Web site.

Public Safety has written 923 tickets to AU community members for parking on off-campus residential streets since November of 2008. Approximately 800 of those tickets were appealed, and 100 appeals were granted, McNair said in an e-mail.

This compares to the 10,686 on-campus parking citations Public Safety wrote during roughly the same period of time. 

Unpaid or “open” tickets will double in cost 30 days after they are first issued, according to the AU Web site. After 30 days, the citations will be referred to a collection agency. A vehicle that accumulates three open tickets can be subjected to a vehicle immobilization device, or a “boot,” if it parks on campus, according to the Web site.

Andrea Vachmann, a senior in the School of International Service, appealed a ticket Public Safety gave her for parking in front of her 44th Street home. She said she was “pretty upset” about it, but Public Safety voided the ticket after comparing the address of her house with the address on her ticket and requiring pay stubs as proof of residency.

“It was kind of annoying, and it was a hassle, but they did take it off,” Vachmann said.

Though Smith said he appreciates and understands AU’s off-campus ticketing policy, there are some aspects he feels Public Safety and the administration could handle better. For instance, it would be beneficial to the community if the university established geographic boundaries for ticketing, he said.

Currently, the definition Public Safety officers use to judge what is within the Good Neighbor Policy’s jurisdiction is “if it’s walk-able” to campus, according to Booth.

McNair said defining exact boundaries is not necessary because the university parking rules state that a student must park on campus when going to campus; they do not state specifically where a student cannot park.

“Under those rules, there is no reason to provide members of the community with boundaries for which they can violate the policy,” he said.

Ben Pessler, a resident of Westover Place, a gated community next to the Nebraska Parking lot, said his community had to ask their security guard to stay extra hours in an attempt to prevent AU students from taking up residents’ parking spaces.

“A lot of neighbors complain about the fact that there’s a lot of student parking in the different neighborhoods,” Pessler said.

The fact that parking is still a problem means the university is not going far enough, he said.

Josh Loigman, a senior in SPA who has received two residential parking tickets from Public Safety, said he feels the off-campus parking policy negates the rights of the AU community.

“The policy is a disheartening way to treat the patrons of the institution, particularly those who proudly display their membership,” he said.

McNair said he does not understand why students would complain about the university parking policy.

“It’s very simple,” he said. “If you’re a student, staff or faculty member, you’ll park on the campus or you’ll take public transportation. There goes your two options you have. Nothing else; nothing else works.”

You can reach this staff writer at mkendall@theeagleonline.com.

An educational resource Web site titled UniversitiesAndColleges.org conducted a study evaluating the colleges listed on the U.S. News and World Report 2010 College Rankings and how they used Twitter. The study reported that the administration only uses six Twitter accounts. An unofficial count by the The Eagle proved this report incorrect. There are at least 18, including the Career Center, the Kogod School of Business, ATV, AU Athletics, AU Admissions, Student Government, the College of Arts and Science Undergraduate Advising and more.

Twitter is a free micro-blogging and social networking service that has recently exploded on the Internet.

The data was collected from Twitter.com in September 2009 in conjunction with TweetStats, taking into account the numbers of accounts and the number of followers, according to UniversitiesAndColleges.org.

“As the data was collected in the past, follower counts and user statistics have since changed. We believe these findings still provide an accurate picture of Twitter usage at top educational facilities,” the Web site reads. It also said its findings lead it to conclude that more prestigious and famous universities use Twitter more frequently than lesser-known schools.

The study — which counted accounts of departments officially affiliated with a university — ranked the University of Florida as the “top” Twitter school, with 24 administrative accounts. George Washington University ranked fourth with 17 Twitter accounts and Georgetown 43rd with nine accounts. State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry and the University of Denver tied for last place with only one account.

AU recently created its official Twitter account last week under the username AmericanU, according to manager of Web Communications Jonathan Hussey. The account’s goal is to share the work of AU students, faculty and alumni to the general public.

“We want to give anybody who follows AU the idea of what we do,” Hussey said.

AU Media Relations, as a department, is working on developing social media strategies, and he believes the trend will continue to expand on campus.

“I think university-wide, everyone is realizing Twitter isn’t just a flash in the pan — that it’s a valuable tool,” Hussey explained.

AU’s Twitter use could be helpful if it provided additional information students wouldn’t normally have access to, said Sydney Schwartz, a senior in the School of International Service. 

“[O]ne of the main reasons I don’t have Twitter [is] because I feel it just duplicates information,” she said. “If AU Today is tweet[ed out], it wouldn’t be that beneficial. I think a lot of students would find it silly.”

However, she said she understands why AU is beginning to immerse itself in social technology.

The AU Career Center began tweeting over the summer, according to Geoff Silverstein, assistant director of marketing for the Career Center. Its purpose is to share information about career development, not only with the AU community, but with other career experts as well.

Silverstein estimated about 50 percent of its over 400 followers are AU students. The Career Center seeks to pass along information on Twitter because its staff members are aware of its growing student body presence, he said.

“I think it’s a convenient way to convey information that students are increasingly comfortable with,” Silverstein said.

AU’s community can expect to see its administrators tweeting more in the future, he said.

“It’s definitely happening — we’re seeing more and more Twitter accounts,” he said. “[AU] is doing a great job embracing these tools.”

You can reach this staff writer at srudnick@theeagleonline.com.

Each executive and SG organization, such as the Kennedy Political Union, update their sections of the site, and some pages have not been updated for months.

SG is working to make the site more user-friendly for students and SG members, Meiselman said.

While the homepage is regularly updated with a slideshow of SG events, there was only one update on the executive pages in November. Meiselman — who is in charge of updating the site — posted the update Nov. 14 about an upcoming Student Health Center town hall. The previous update was a month earlier, Oct. 14, by MacCracken. Vice President Alex Prescott and neither of SG’s 2009-2010 comptrollers, Matt Handverger and Alan Chang, have ever posted on the Web site. MacCracken has updated his page most often, about once a month.

No attendance or legislation records for the Fifth Undergraduate Senate, which began in October, have been posted. The Judiciary’s Web site includes applications for the Judicial Board, fall election results and pros and cons of a referendum that was going to appear on the fall ballot, not student-elected, positions.

The SG Facebook and Twitter pages, on the other hand, were last updated Nov. 10, advertising the Student Veterans Reception.

The social networking pages are not replacing AUSG.org, Meiselman said in an e-mail.

“We are in a transition at the moment and we’ve found that we are able to get a lot of information across via Facebook and Twitter,” he said.

Toward the end of the fall semester and the beginning of the spring semester, an improved site will “go hand in hand” with an SG marketing campaign, Meiselman said.

“Because of the issues we currently have with the site, we’ve been using different forms of communication on the Internet to reach the student body,” Meiselman said.

MacCracken said he personally had difficulty updating his part of the Web site because of the new layout and organization of the site. The executives have had several meetings about the site and how to mesh the previous Web site with the current site, he said.

They want the site to be “as user-friendly as possible for new people coming to the site and a resource for Student Government people to utilize and update,” MacCracken said.

Other areas of the site have gone unused by executives and students as well. All four of the topics on SG’s new “Active Forum” were posted in August by SG IT Director Jake Paul or Meiselman. The forum is an online conversation board where SG members post topics so the AU community can respond. In one topic, Meiselman asks, “What do you want to see from your Student Government?”

One responder replied on Oct. 1 saying “the whole site is out of date” and requested that students be able to track the progress of a bill in the Undergraduate Senate and be able “to find AUSG’s accomplishments, goals, and current projects.”

You can reach this staff writer at landerson@theeagleonline.com.

Prescott, whose office oversees the annual event, said Student Activities numbers showed as many students attended Artemas Ward Week events as in past years. The numbers are based on how much food is eaten, he said. So “either kids were hungrier or there were as many people as in years before,” Prescott said.

Handverger said he never saw advertising for the event, which is the “first way SG gets its name out there,” or any activities on the Main Quad. He expressed concern that Founders’ Week in the spring would end up similarly.

SG Secretary Colin Meiselman said he thought SG “got one Today@AU in” advertising the event.

“I remember this being very put together last second,” he said, when senators asked him about Handverger’s concerns.

Natalie Kirkpatrick from the SG design department and an Eagle Staff Writer, said requests for Artemas Ward Week posters came in two weeks in advance, but the schedule that was to be printed on the poster arrived three or four days in advance.

Prescott said the office was waiting on the University Event Service to approve the schedule and the posters could not be printed without room information.

Prescott said he heard complaints through Eagle Rants and constituents wondering where Artemas Ward Week was.

There was difficulty with two of the week’s events, and one event was canceled, he said.

An event with Caribbean Circle was canceled hours before the event since the event was in a Bon Appetit venue and was going to supply an entire meal, which would compete with Bon Appetit. Thus, the catering proposal was rejected.

Another event, a barbeque before the men’s soccer game against Army, also encountered an obstacle. Prescott and everyone who checked the contract with the company catering the barbeque missed a mistake in the contract. The contract said the barbeque was on a Saturday when it was supposed to be on a Sunday. Prescott said he received a phone call from the caterers on Saturday saying they were here. The event was pushed to its intended date for a fee which the SG paid for with funds leftover from the Artemas Ward Week budget.

Anthony Dunham, former Speaker of the Senate who is representing Sen. Elijah Mercer, requested a Senate committee, the Committee on Campus Life, examine the “alleged malfeasance.”

Sen. for the Class of 2010 Steve Dalton also questioned when Prescott had last presented a written report to the Senate. According to SG bylaws, executives must present bi-weekly reports to the Senate.

Prescott said he thought written reports were an optional addition to the oral report. He found out about a week and a half ago that the reports were required, he said. He did not submit a report to the Senate this week since he was working on his written final report, he said.

Handverger told The Eagle he thought a Senate committee was the appropriate way to address Prescott not completing written reports and to investigate this year’s Artemas Ward Week.

“[Senators] should make a committee to investigate like they didn’t with me,” he said.

Handverger said he has wanted to express concerns to the Senate for awhile, but was waiting for the excitement regarding his impeachment proceedings at the beginning of the year to cease.

You can reach this staff writer at landerson@theeagleonline.com.

The AU Student Health Center has experienced this trend as well, according to SHC Director Dan Bruey, who said more students have visited the health center so far this year than last year. The SHC has seen approximately 300 to 400 more patients than at the same time last year, according to Bruey.

The SHC received a total of 13,702 visits last year, according to Bruey. The fact that it has already seen more patients than it did at the same time last year “is a good indicator of how the end of this year is going to look,” Bruey said.

Reasons for students to choose the SHC over other care providers vary, but Bruey cites the center’s low costs and this year’s concern over the H1N1 virus as reasons for the increase in visits.

“If students are using us because of different economic situations with their parents, I think students see us as a low-cost, quality option,” Bruey said.

A routine visit to the SHC costs $20, and a physical exam and women’s gynecological exam are both $30, according to the SHC Web site. A visit with a psychiatrist costs $75 for the first visit and $35 for a follow-up visit.

Improvements to the health center’s facilities and staff are also reasons that could have contributed to the continual increase in student use that Bruey has noticed over the years that he has been here.

Since 2004, the SHC facility has moved from Nebraska Hall to McCabe Hall and increased and stabilized its staff. In the period of time that followed, student trips to the health center have fluctuated between 12,000 and 15,000 visits per year, Bruey said.

The number of students who enroll in the student health insurance plan at AU has also fluctuated since the 2005-2006 academic year, but there was a marked increase of 217 students around the time when the recession began. The number of students enrolled rose from 3,032 in the 2007-2008 academic year to 3,249 in the 2008-2009 academic year, according to the SHC’s annual report.

This year, there are 3,144 students enrolled in the insurance plan, but this does not include the numbers of students that will enroll in the spring semester, which is usually around 100 to 200 each year, Bruey said.

Compared to other schools in D.C., AU’s health insurance is among the cheapest.

While an annual premium for an unmarried student with no dependents is $1,550 at AU for the 2009-2010 year, at George Washington University, the premium is $1,614, and at Georgetown University, the premium is $1,700, according to each school’s health center Web sites.

On average, less than one-third of the AU population takes the university-provided health insurance, even though AU’s insurance can be less expensive than employment plans that students’ parents may have, according to Bruey.

“People do the cost/benefit analysis ... and our plan is usually less expensive,” he said. “For most of the students who enroll in this plan, it is their only option, cost-wise.”

You can reach this staff writer at mfowler@theeagleonline.com.

In 1982, he became part of the founding team of the weekday newspaper, USA Today. He worked there for 24 years as a political correspondent before retiring in 2006. In addition to teaching, Benedetto now writes for Politico, a political news publication and Web site based in D.C.

Before the beginning of Benedetto’s success, he was first introduced to newspapers during his childhood in Utica, N.Y.

“The newspaper was a staple in my house, in my grandfather’s house. We always had newspapers,” Benedetto said. “It was a ritual — my father would come home from work at 5 p.m. and the first thing he would do was read the paper.”

In high school, Benedetto wrote for his school’s publication and discovered a love of politics.

“I was very fascinated by a debate that was taking place at the city council meeting - whether or not to put a traffic light or a stop sign at a particular corner,” Benedetto said.

Despite his early exposure to print, Benedetto did not always want to be in the newspaper business.

“I didn’t think I was going to be a journalist right off the bat,” he said. “I was basically a liberal arts student.”

He graduated from Syracuse University in 1965 and went to work for the Buffalo Evening News, where he was not a reporter but a public relations writer in the promotion department.

Soon, Benedetto decided to go back to school - this time for journalism.

After finishing his graduate degree at SU, Benedetto returned to Utica in search of a job.

“I went back to my home town,” Benedetto said. “[I] got a job as a city hall reporter there and did that for five years.”

In 1976, Benedetto left city hall for the state capital. He worked for the Gannett News Service, now the largest newspaper publisher in the U.S., according to the company’s Web site.

While working in N.Y., Benedetto said he won a prize for a piece in which he exposed the deplorable conditions of halfway homes housing mental-health patients who had been released from state institutions.

In 1982, Gannett approached him about being a part of a new paper they were working on that would be based in D.C. and have a national focus.

“They asked me to be on the team, so I worked with them — with USA Today — to get it started,” Benedetto said.

At the time, that meant living in D.C. for six months and flying back to Albany on weekends to visit his wife and four daughters, including a set of triplets.

The triplets, who were 3-years-old at the time, would greet their father at the airport every Friday and see him off again every Sunday.

“At one point there, they thought I was living at the airport,” Benedetto said. “All through my career, the challenge was traveling ... You have to have a wife who’s willing to pick up a lot of the slack, which [my wife] was, and at the same time you try to maximize your time with the children as much as you can.”

At USA Today, Benedetto furthered his work as a political correspondent: he covered four U.S. presidents, at times riding with them on Air Force One. He said it was very different from the investigative work he had done in Albany.

“When you get to Washington, and you cover the White House, it’s not that kind of beat,” Benedetto said. “You can’t do the watchdog journalism ... What you do at the White House beat is you try to keep the president honest by being skeptical of everything they say.”

Now in retirement, Benedetto thinks fondly of his career, but he said he is happier now that he has time to teach and to relax.

“I don’t miss the day-to-day rat race anymore,” he said. “It was a long grind.”

Benedetto said the average workday was at least 10 hours long.

During his last days at USA Today, Benedetto wrote a memoir about his career called, “Politicians are People, Too.” University Press of America published it in 2006.

These days, Benedetto said he has one ambition left in life - “to write a novel.”

For those students at AU seeking to go into journalism - and more specifically, into coverage of the politics - during this time of tumult for the field, Benedetto had one piece of advice: “Study history as well as journalism,” he said.

Benedetto said the challenges of teaching were, in fact, very similar to the challenges of journalism.

“To be a good journalist you have to study, to be a good teacher you have to study,” Benedetto said. “Each has its own difficulties. I think that physically reporting is harder. Intellectually, teaching is probably harder. You have to know even more, and you have to be able to defend what you’re saying in class ... But a lot of it is similar ... Basically what you’re doing in reporting and you’re doing in teaching is the same thing. You’re teaching people. You’re giving them information, and they’re learning something from your story or from your teaching.”

You can reach this staff writer at sparnass@theeagleonline.com.

In an e-mail, Brady said his new site will cover subjects that “affect people’s daily lives in the Washington region,” such as crime, transportation, sports, entertainment, schools, development, weather and traffic.

The Web site will feature up-to-the-minute information about a variety of topics and events in D.C., Brady said.

“It’s very much focused on news of the moment and getting it to people who live or work in those areas,” Brady said.

Brady also said he would be willing to collaborate with AU students on many aspects of the Web site.

“We haven’t worked out whether we’ll have an internship program right off the bat, though I’m relatively sure we’ll eventually have one,” Brady said. “We would [also] consider taking stories written by college students, or by anyone else in the [D.C.] area for that matter.”

Brady left his job at The Washington Post in December 2008 to work on the new Web site with Allbritton Communications, which also owns Politico and local television news stations WJLA-TV and Channel 8, according to the Post. Allbritton Communications will be merging the Web sites of these two news stations to give content to the new site.

Larry Kirkman, dean of the School of Communication, praised Brady as a self-starter and said he looks forward to working with Brady in the future.

“As head of washingtonpost.com, Jim was a pioneer and innovator in online journalism, creating new multimedia approaches to news and information production and using interactive technologies to engage, involve and empower users,” he said. “In his new venture, Jim will build on his successes at the Post with a commitment to community information and community building.”

Kirkman also said Brady has kept an active connection to AU since he graduated with a Bachelors’ degree in 1988. Brady is active in SOC’s alumni-student mentoring program and has helped many students get internships and jobs at the Post. Brady will also be teaching a graduate course for SOC in the spring about new models in the journalism field.

Luana Perez, a sophomore in SOC, said she is interested to see Brady’s new Web site and what job opportunities it would offer AU students.

“If this Web site was offering internships, I’d definitely want one,” Perez said.

Perez said she would want this new site to cover the gaps she has found in content in other D.C.-area newspapers.

“I’d like to see them cover arts and culture,” Perez said. “Maybe they could have a style section. I’d like to see the Web site really cover what’s happening in D.C.”

You can reach this staff writer at jryan@theeagleonline.com.

Students will try to form new chapters when they do not find what they seek in other fraternities, according to Coordinator of Greek Life Curtis P. Burrill.

“It’s a vastly different experience starting an organization than it is becoming a part of an existing organization,” he said. “Every organization has their own little identity and people identify with like things — it’s just how we function as human beings. So, if they don’t find one they identify with, why not start their own?”

The AU community’s strong interest in international studies is what prompted the beginning of the professional Foreign Service fraternity Delta Phi Epsilon, according to DPE President William J. Hubbard, a junior in the School of International Service.

“The one thing that always struck me about AU was people would always say, ‘What’s your major?’  Someone would respond, ‘SIS,’ and then the person would respond with, ‘Of course it is, everybody at AU is SIS,’” Hubbard said.  

DPE is currently working with Student Activities to find the best place for it on campus, he said. 

Tau Kappa Epsilon — also known as “Teke” — was started when a small group of AU students did not find exactly what they were looking for during rush, according to Corey Lim, president of TKE and a junior in the Kogod School of Business.

“We had kind of a core group of guys that I was friends with … and we really didn’t feel a great connection to a majority of a chapter here,” he said. “So we decided well, if we don’t feel any commitment to a fraternity here, we can do something else. We can bring something that we like.”

One of the reasons AU is seeing more fraternities instead of sororities is the way they’re organized on a national level, according to Burrill.

“For a sorority to come onto campus there’s a huge process in place,” he said. “They’re very, very structured. They have rules and everything in place for many, many, many things, whereas the men are a little bit looser in terms of how chapters can expand and such.”

However, he said it is still difficult and a lot of work to for a fraternity to become chartered.

“Typically it takes two or three years to become a chapter,” Burrill said.

Zeta Psi became a colony on campus this summer, but may lose its place with amendments to the AU Interfraternity Council’s Constitution, which would ban two colonies from existing simultaneously.

ZP, which became a colony after TKE, is uncertain about its future, according to ZP President Matt Carnovale, a sophomore in the School of Public Affairs and College of Arts and Sciences. It would be strange for the constitution to become effective immediately rather than [in the future], Carnovale said, but he wants to continue working with AU and is willing to “wait in line.”

The IFC is scheduled to vote on this amendment next week. It is unclear if the amendment would de-colonize ZP or whether the new rule would only apply to new colonies in future years.

One of the more difficult aspects of creating the TKE colony was convincing other fraternities they wouldn’t impede upon their own success, according to Lim.

“[Some brothers may feel] threatened — it’s going to decrease membership, it’s already hard enough to get members — but factually, if you add Greek life to a campus, it spurs growth,” he said.

However, totally eliminating greek rivalry is probably an impossible undertaking.

“At some level, there is going to be friendly competition, and that’s just because you believe you’re a part of an organization, and you like to believe that it’s the best,” Lim said.

You can reach this staff writer at srudnick@theeagleonline.com.

The tests, more commonly referred to as CLEP exams, are catered to students who feel they have already mastered the material they would have to cover at their university. Students who take the exams have generally acquired their college-level knowledge from independent studies, advanced high school courses and on-the-job training and cultural pursuits, according to CollegeBoard.com.

The cost per credit hour at AU is $1,148. Therefore, if students pass a CLEP exam — which carries a $72 price tag — in place of a three-hour credit course, they will save $3,372.

The exams cover 32 topics, according to CollegeBoard.com, but AU only accepts five of them as replacements for general education courses, according to Jamie J. Wyatt, assistant director of General Education. These subjects include American government, general chemistry, introduction to macroeconomics, introduction to microeconomics and introduction to sociology. The only CLEP testing center at a D.C. college is the Catholic University of America, according to the College Board Web site.

Students must achieve a score of 75 out of 80 or higher in order to obtain the general education credit, according to the “Exam Equivalencies” undergraduate advising document. Once students have submitted their scores, the exams are forwarded to their corresponding departments for review, Wyatt said. The department faculty members then decide if the test was rigorous enough to prove the students have a firm handle on the material, thus exempting them from taking the course.

“It takes motivation and focus to prepare for a CLEP exam. Many students would prefer not to take an examination without formal instruction,” Executive Director of CLEP Ariel Foster said. “In short, they are ‘not for everyone.’”

CLEP was established in 1967, according to Foster, and despite any financial and logistical benefits the exams may offer students, they are not well known among the AU student body. Questions about CLEP exams almost never reach Wyatt.

“As long as I’ve been in this office, I’ve never gotten any articulation about a CLEP exam,” she said.

In addition to testing students, College Board offers free CLEP exams to Active Duty and Reserve military personnel. Military veterans may also seek reimbursement from exam fees, according to the College Board Web site. The exam also appeals to working adults who want to obtain a degree, international students who wish to demonstrate their knowledge overseas and people changing careers.

Kristianna George, a freshman in the Kogod School of Business, said she is not familiar with the CLEP exams and would have been interested in taking them in order to save money.

“I’ve heard about them, but I don’t really know what they are and I’ve never taken them,” she said.

Kelsey Cadden, a sophomore in the School of International Service and the School of Public Affairs, said she had heard of getting course credits for Advanced Placement and SAT II examinations, but never for CLEP. However, she said if she had known about them, she might have tried taking one for physics, a class she currently enrolled in but also took in high school.

“I think AU students like to take classes for their major instead of [general education courses] which have nothing to do with what they’re studying,” Cadden said.

You can reach this staff writer at srudnick@theeagleonline.com.

The panel, held Nov. 10, focused on the current status and conditions of DCPS and what can be done to change those conditions.

The panel started off with a Time magazine video entitled “Can She Save Our Schools?” about conditions in D.C. public schools and the recent work of D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee. Rhee was appointed chancellor of D.C.’s 144 public schools by Mayor Adrian Fenty in June 2007.

In the two years that Rhee has been chancellor she has worked to institute changes to the DCPS system. She has shut down 23 schools and fired over 100 workers from the DCPS administration. She also fired 270 teachers and 36 principals, a move that sparked controversy and outrage among D.C. teachers.

However, Rhee says in an interview in the video that she thinks she has made positive changes to the D.C. school system. She says that she has continued support from Mayor Fenty and that scores on standardized tests have risen eight to 11 percent in elementary and high schools.

Panelist James Pearlstein, the founder and executive director of the D.C. Youth Power Network, said that on a recent visit to a school in Southeast he was “struck by how joyless the teaching was.” He said standardized testing makes students disinterested and discourages them from being creative.

Sarah Otto, an English teacher at Anacostia High School, argued that standardized testing boxes students into one way of thinking and pushes the notion that school is just about numbers and answers. The moments that students remember most and learn from most are never from when they are being tested, she said.

Otto also said she was frustrated with the fact that teachers have to constantly struggle to communicate with the DCPS administration.

“We’re being told that things are happening, that they are making real changes, but that’s not what I see every day,” Otto said. “As a teacher, I feel like I’m screaming into the wind. There’s no one listening and I’m close to giving up.”

Stephanie Williams, the critical response team leader for Rhee, disagreed with Otto and said standardized testing helps schools understand how students are progressing.

“I don’t think standardized tests are the end-all, be-all of assessing students,” Williams said. “But there needs to be some measure of accountability and some way of proving that the kids are learning.”

Some members of the panel argued that D.C. schools are actually on an upswing and that the D.C. public school administration is doing a lot to help students. Williams praised the chancellor’s establishment of an Office of Youth Engagement. This office has a number of programs such as the Incarceration Program, which helps young adults recently released from prison transition back to school life, Williams said.

Panelist Sean Peterson, a former DCPS teacher who is currently an adjunct professor at AU, supported Williams’ positive outlook for D.C. schools by pointing out the improving conditions in some aspects of D.C. schools. There were over 300 suspensions in D.C. public middle schools last year, but only 75 suspensions this year, Peterson said.

The panel also discussed where blame should lie for the current state of the D.C. public school system. Peterson said the extra work placed on D.C. teachers to compensate for the failing school system is unfair. However, he said teachers should continue to have high expectations for their students and for themselves as teachers.

Williams did say DCPS teachers are not being paid enough for the extra effort they have to make in struggling schools but that having to do extra work is to be expected and is part of any profession.

Pearlstein put blame directly on the DCPS administration. He argued that “the farther away a person gets from the students, the more they get paid.” He also said the D.C. public school administration needs to do more to understand students on a personal level.

Peerry Ferrara, a freshman in the School of Communication, said that while she enjoyed the panel, she felt that more could have been said about the black community.

“There really wasn’t a discussion about black issues, like where we come from, where we are today and how this ties into D.C. public schools,” Ferrara said.

In D.C., 79 percent of students in public school are black.

She also said she felt that Williams and Peterson were not qualified enough to speak about the struggles of DCPS students.

“They seem to come from this big bureaucracy — they wore suits and had facts but they didn’t really seem to have a good grasp of what is going on for D.C. public school students,” Ferrara said.

Black Student Alliance, the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority and the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority hosted the panel.

You can reach this staff writer at jryan@theeagleonline.com.