San Francisco Foghorn

              FREEDOM & FAIRNESS
Stmmata
VOL. 102 ISSUE 14
WWW.USFCA.EDU/FOGHORN
FEBRUARY 23,2006
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HUNTER PATTERSON/FOGHORN
As the fifth week of school comes to an end, the infamous trailers of Welch field have practically blended
into the background of USF Professors now call the temporary trailers home to their offices, after a *
celebratory party on Tuesday February 7, marked the complete move.
USF Faculty Celebrate a
Different Kind of Office
THERESIAOTA
StaffWriter
The brown on brown
trailers that recendy took over
Welch Field may not be the obvious
location for a celebration, but
for the christening of these new,
temporary offices, the psychology,
theology and philosophy professors
are optimistic about the transition
and transformation that has already
begun.
The professors, displaced
by the construction on Campion
Hall, celebrated the completion of
their move into their temporary
trailer offices on Tuesday, Feb. 7.
The pressure to move did not set
in until after Thanksgiving, even
though  notice was given  before
Fall 2005.
Professor Daniel Kendall
of theology since 1979 described
the move as very easy because USF
did the actual moving after packing
their belongings into boxes from
Campion to the trailers. Kendall,
who lives in the Loyola House,
gave up his office space in a trailer
to accommodate more professors
who do not hve on campus.
The four trailers that now
sit on the once spacious and green
lawn, did not come equipped with
restrooms, forcing faculty to walk
over to Gleeson Library, Cowell
Hall or Harney for the last month.
The installation of restrooms in the
trailers is under way.
Faculty  estimate  it will
take two years for the completion
of Kalmanovitz Hall, the building
replacing Campion. "Nothing ever
finishes on time, [but] we have
high hopes," said Lois Lorentzen, a
professor who has moved into the.
trailers.
Vijaya Nagarajan,
professor of theology said, "We
expect it will be exquisite based
on how well the library turned
out." Faculty members are looking
forward to -the completion of
construction and are relieved that a
once frustrating process of moving
and re-settling is done. The trailer
party captured the sentiment of
happy relief with crab cakes, shrimp
cocktail and red and white wine
being sipped out of plastic cups.
Raise Your Antenna: USF-TV Airs
Tune In of Get Tuned Out This Week
CORINNA HALLORAN/FOGHORN
USF-TV has kicked off its regular programming, and what a show they have. You can catch their two-hour
block in steady rotation on Channel 35 through Sunday night, Feb. 25. Check the schedule: 1.) Intro/Logo 2.)
"How to Make an Experimental Film" a short film by Whit Scott 3.) "USF Talks" 4.) "Slow Children at Play"
Intro 5.) "USF Idol" commercial 6.) "SF Big Air" snowboarding video 7.) "USF Talks" 8.) "Flowers..." a short
film by Whit Scott 9.) Crossroads commercial 10.) "USFTalks" 11.) "Behind the Bench" 12.) Senate commercial 13.) "Lady..." a short film by Whit Scott 14.) "USFTalks" 15.) "Lulu's User-Friendly Guide to..." a cooking
show with Lulu McAllister 16.) Board Credits 17.) End logo
BOBBY LEE
StaffWriter
The Fifth Annual Global Women's Rights Forum will take place
next week, March 2 - 9. in celebration of International Women's Day.
The forum aims to build "networks of multicultural and non-colonial
feminist solidarities within and across national borders/' according to its
website. Sponsored by the Global Women's Rights Forum Organizing
Committee and the Gender and Sexualities Studies Program, the forum
will hold five discussions addressing a diverse selection of topics
involving women's rights. The discussions will cover topics such as the
plight of Migrant Transgendered Sex Workers and the 'Politics of Youth
Empowerment in Bay Area African American Communities.' Over 100
people are expected to attend through out the event. The forum is free
and open to the public. For more information, visit usfca.edu/programs/
gssm/gwrforum/index.htm
Gauging Traffic in a Flash
A Consumer Report on a Device
That May Help USF Commuters
BOBBY LEE
StaffWriter
With more than half of USF
students commuting up to 30 miles
to campus daily, many waste hours of
study time sitting in traffic listening to
reports on the radio. But it is hard to
avoid traffic if you don't know which
routes are clear.
Seattle, Wa. based
TrafficGauge has developed a
handheld device showing freeway
traffic flows overlaid on a Bay Area
freeway map. About the size of
a handheld PC, the TrafficGauge
displays traffic flow data for the entire
Bay region, from Novato and Vallejo
in the north to Santa Cruz to the
south, and Brentwood and Livermore
to the east.
A series of dots along a
modified map of Bay Area freeways
alert drivers to potential slowdowns.
Solid dots mean slow traffic; blinking
dots mean stop and go traffic.Traffic is
updated every four minutes, courtesy
of Caltrans and Speedlnfo. Although
traffic incidents, such as accidents, are
not displayed, sports events are; a very
useful feature when deciding alternate
routes to avoid game-day traffic.
Simplicity is key with the
TrafficGauge. The device sports only
one button, which when pressed, turns
on the backlight and also shows traffic
sensor outages. Also, understanding
the map was quite simple and using
the device had no learning curve. The
TrafficGauge is ready right out ofthe
box, and only takes two AA batteries,
which last for about a month.
TrafficGauge was originally
invented by Washington resident
Ryan Peterson. "I had a commute of
a half-hour with a few ways to travel.
But with traffic, you never knew
which way to go," said Peterson. Out
of frustration, Peterson developed a
portable version of the traffic maps
that were previously available only
online    through    the    Washington
State Department of Transportation
website. A working prototype was
developed in 1999, and the device
was launched for the Seattle market
in 2002.
Testing
I spent two months testing
out the TrafficGauge; traveling
over some of the Bay Area's most
notoriously congested routes.
My first trip with the
TrafficGauge took me on an hour-
long drive from Danville to San
Francisco. The weather was nasty,
along with the traffic. The most
logical route to take from Danville to
San Francisco involved driving north
on the 680, cutting across to Oakland
on Highway 24, then hopping on the
1-80 onto the Bay Bridge. The second
best route was cutting through 20
miles of local roads from Danville
to Hayward, jumping on the San
Mateo Bridge (Highway 92), and
then coming up on the northbound
101 or the northbound 280 into San
Francisco.
Before starting off, I popped
out the TrafficGauge and saw that the
traffic on the Bay Bridge was backed
up to the foot of the Macarthur
Maze.. I decided to take the more
southerly route using the San Mateo
Bridge. As I approached the end of
the San Mateo Bridge, I had to decide
whether to take the 101 northbound
or the 280 northbound. I looked at
my TrafficGauge again and saw that
the 101 northbound was a parking lot
with a long series of flashing dots. I
decided to take the northbound 280
instead, which was clear, but a longer
distance to travel.
I arrived in San Francisco
after about two hours, a half-hour
faster than it would have taken me to
travel via the Bay Bridge.
My next trip with the
TrafficGauge required a short hop
from USF to Oakland then onward
to Walnut Creek, usually 25 minutes
without traffic. But as most seasoned
commuters know, the western
approach coming onto the lower
deck of the Bay Bridge is one of the
top ten traffic nightmares in the Bay
Area. Working against me was a
5p.m. departure from USF, right in
the thick of evening rush hour traffic.
I popped out myTrafficGauge
and turned on the radio to determine
which on-ramp to take to get onto
the lower deck. Hospital Curve was
very congested, so I decided to take
the Fifth St. on-ramp. Traffic was
stop and go because of a stall and I
could see something was wrong. A
dotted segment was flashing on my
TrafficGauge, indicating stop and go
traffic.
With still no indication of
anything wrong according to the radio
traffic reports, I decide to tough it out.
It turns out that there was a stall on
the lower deck. The TrafficGauge
showed the back-up, but the traffic
reports on the radio didn't announce
it until I was already in Oakland.
Although the TrafficGauge
did not help me in avoiding traffic, it
was nice to know what was happening
with traffic in front of me.
Results
While my tests were
informal, the TrafficGauge provided
me with an on-the-spot, instant
visual display of traffic around the
Bay. While the TrafficGauge may not
be able to indicate where an accident
is, it's definitely an advantage having
a visual readout of traffic flow rather
than just guessing where the backups
are with traffic reports on the radio.
At i $79.99 for the
TrafficGauge plus $6.99/month
service, the TrafficGauge is great
value, compared to sitting in traffic
for hours on end. Take note, you no
longer have an excuse for being late to
class.
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