UR is planning to conduct an online survey in an attempt to receive constructive feedback on the usage of the peer-to-peer and server based music-sharing program, Napster, on campus.”The Napster implementation team is planning to survey all students in the residence halls on the River Campus and Eastman School who were eligible to sign up for Napster about their experience with the online music program,” Associate Vice President for Public Relations Robert Kraus said.”The Web survey will ask those who registered how it worked for them, or, if they chose not to register, about the reasons why they did not do so,” Kraus said.Initial usage of Napster has reflected its popularity among students. “Right now, 1,155 of the approximately 3,700 students eligible to register have done so,” Kraus said. Kraus also revealed details about the number of downloads per day. “Those students have been downloading or streaming songs at the rate of 7,000 to 10,000 per day.” According to Kraus, the Napster server has been functioning well in the first month of practice. “Operationally, things have been very smooth as I understand it,” he said.Meanwhile, some students have still not been able to access the program because of older versions of the Windows Operating System. Senior Gail Musson said “I don’t think I can [use Napster] with my version of Windows. Besides, I haven’t felt the urge to download anything since it came out.”Others still do not deem it necessary to use the program. As freshman Anthony Catenaro explained, “You need to pay, what, 99 cents per song to burn them onto CD? No, thank you, I’m just too cheap for that.”Despite this, Kraus hopes the survey will help students and facilitators. “It’s pretty early into this experiment – only one month – but we’re hoping that this proves out to be a valuable service for students,” he said. “In any case, it’s extremely important to get feedback on Napster from our students.”
Insufficient sexual assault Web site revampedAfter being alerted to problems with the current Sexual Assault Response Team Web site, University Health Services, the University Counseling Center, the University Intercessor, Men Against Sexual Assault and Women’s Caucus have been working to redesign it, as well as the “5-RAPE” stickers in bathrooms, to better serve students.The new Web site, at http://www.rochester.edu/uhs/sa, now includes information about legal rights and options and many resources for students both on and off-campus. The layout has also been modernized, and the information provided is no longer limited to that found in sexual assault pamphlets. The new sticker design can also be found on the Web site.
Same-sex marriage dialogue hosted by CAS courseThe “Conflict Resolution” class hosted a same-sex marriage dialogue, last night. The dialogue was moderated by Office of Minority Student Affairs Counselor Gladys Pedraza-Burgos. Speakers included Town of Brighton Supervisor Sandra Frankel, Rev. Brian Cool and Associate Dean of Students in charge of discipline Matt Burns.The dialogue focused on the legality of same-sex marriages and civil unions in various states, the proposed constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages and the emotional and spiritual issues involved in marriage. Although organizers of the event were generally pleased, they voiced disappointment at the lack of a College Republicans representative, who was scheduled to appear and was hoped to provide a different take on the issue.Reporting by Sandeep Madhur and Jessica Stoll.
