Hallie Nell Swanson
2017-01-10T21:00:12Z
On Saturday at 11:42 p.m., a team called Brocahantus shot its target.
In their kill report, one of the team members wrote, "Upon opening the door we saw his sleeping body across the room, nestled beneath his covers. I crept stealthily through his room to his bed, where he lay in a protective sleeping position.
"I momentarily paused when seeing the peaceful, unsuspecting look on his face," the testimony confessed. "But alas, all good dreams must come to an end; he was shot dead in his own bed."
Brocahantus is one of 39 teams competing in the annual CU Assassins game. Battling for $700 in prize money, participants form teams of four, are armed with water pistols, and are assigned another team as targets. When they have killed all the members of that team, they are then assigned to the targets of the now-dead team.
The game lasts four weeks, during which time assassins must develop increasingly stealthy tactics to avoid the squirt of water to the back that signifies a death and, thus, a loss in the game.
Organized every year by the Engineering Student Council as part of Engineering Week, CU Assassins started at midnight on Saturday.
For the first time this year, the game is open to Barnard students. Siddhant Bhatt, SEAS '14 and ESC Vice President of Finance said that ESC opened the game to Barnard students because the council wanted to generate more attention and expand the number of teams playing.
"We didn't have Barnard students participate because CC and SEAS students have to be signed in to their dorms and vice-versa," Bhatt said, "but we basically thought, whatever, if it's tougher it's tougher. Big deal." He estimates that about 50 percent of participants in CU Assassins are SEAS students, 40 percent CC students, and 10 percent Barnard students.
Tim Qin, SEAS '13 and ESC president, said that first-year students are particularly excited about this year's game.
"Freshmen tend to be more excited about this," said Qin of the game's demographic. "There are some veterans who keep coming back. It's a fun game. It's better the more people that take part."
Bystanders can monitor the scoreboard on the Assassins website, where they can chart the progress of each team. Current winners include "Platypusses" and "Not Available." Clicking on a kill will show the time, a picture of the "killer" and "corpse," and a description of the murder.
This year, the game has been taken largely online, with registration via Google Docs and the scoreboard updated online with Facebook integration.
"If you had a kill in the past, you would have to submit a report and have it approved," Qin said.
This year, however, all reports are automatic and disputes are solved via email.
Robert Ying, SEAS '16 and ESC's director of technology, worked on making the website more accessible to participants to ensure that the game doesn't drag on, as it has in the past.
"Last year the game slowed down to a ridiculously slow rate and didn't really finish. It wasn't really tenable," Ying said. With Facebook integration, he said, there will be more information available to a potential killer via the Assassins website. "You should get their picture, you should get their name, you should have some way of identifying them," he said. "That way the game will go faster."
Also, he said, "The new website automates almost all of registration and makes it so that each individual person handles their own profile."
Some legendary assassinations have become Columbia lore. "I've heard of someone following someone to Disney World a couple years ago," said Ying. "But I can't verify that."
A WikiCU entry alleges that in 2004, the game stretched for six weeks, with the final kill of the game taking place in Baltimore over spring break. Also in 2004, another assassin allegedly traveled by car all the way to New Orleans to track down a target.
Qin said, "I heard one time there was a kill in Las Vegas. Someone just happened to be in Las Vegas with the other person. But these are more like urban legends."
For this year's assassins, Qin had these words of advice: "Be very cognizant now that the game has started. Basically, you will be paranoid and that will help you. People take this seriously. They're in it to win it. It's going to be a fun game."
hallie.nell.swanson@columbiaspectator.com | @ColumbiaSpec
... In their kill report, one of the team members wrote, "Upon opening the door we saw his sleeping body across the room, nestled beneath his covers. I crept stealthily through his room to his bed, where he lay in a protective sleeping position.
"I momentarily paused when seeing the peaceful, unsuspecting look on his face," the testimony confessed. "But alas, all good dreams must come to an end; he was shot dead in his own bed."
Brocahantus is one of 39 teams competing in the annual CU Assassins game. Battling for $700 in prize money, participants form teams of four, are armed with water pistols, and are assigned another team as targets. When they have killed all the members of that team, they are then assigned to the targets of the now-dead team.
The game lasts four weeks, during which time assassins must develop increasingly stealthy tactics to avoid the squirt of water to the back that signifies a death and, thus, a loss in the game.
Organized every year by the Engineering Student Council as part of Engineering Week, CU Assassins started at midnight on Saturday.
For the first time this year, the game is open to Barnard students. Siddhant Bhatt, SEAS '14 and ESC Vice President of Finance said that ESC opened the game to Barnard students because the council wanted to generate more attention and expand the number of teams playing.
"We didn't have Barnard students participate because CC and SEAS students have to be signed in to their dorms and vice-versa," Bhatt said, "but we basically thought, whatever, if it's tougher it's tougher. Big deal." He estimates that about 50 percent of participants in CU Assassins are SEAS students, 40 percent CC students, and 10 percent Barnard students.
Tim Qin, SEAS '13 and ESC president, said that first-year students are particularly excited about this year's game.
"Freshmen tend to be more excited about this," said Qin of the game's demographic. "There are some veterans who keep coming back. It's a fun game. It's better the more people that take part."
Bystanders can monitor the scoreboard on the Assassins website, where they can chart the progress of each team. Current winners include "Platypusses" and "Not Available." Clicking on a kill will show the time, a picture of the "killer" and "corpse," and a description of the murder.
This year, the game has been taken largely online, with registration via Google Docs and the scoreboard updated online with Facebook integration.
"If you had a kill in the past, you would have to submit a report and have it approved," Qin said.
This year, however, all reports are automatic and disputes are solved via email.
Robert Ying, SEAS '16 and ESC's director of technology, worked on making the website more accessible to participants to ensure that the game doesn't drag on, as it has in the past.
"Last year the game slowed down to a ridiculously slow rate and didn't really finish. It wasn't really tenable," Ying said. With Facebook integration, he said, there will be more information available to a potential killer via the Assassins website. "You should get their picture, you should get their name, you should have some way of identifying them," he said. "That way the game will go faster."
Also, he said, "The new website automates almost all of registration and makes it so that each individual person handles their own profile."
Some legendary assassinations have become Columbia lore. "I've heard of someone following someone to Disney World a couple years ago," said Ying. "But I can't verify that."
A WikiCU entry alleges that in 2004, the game stretched for six weeks, with the final kill of the game taking place in Baltimore over spring break. Also in 2004, another assassin allegedly traveled by car all the way to New Orleans to track down a target.
Qin said, "I heard one time there was a kill in Las Vegas. Someone just happened to be in Las Vegas with the other person. But these are more like urban legends."
For this year's assassins, Qin had these words of advice: "Be very cognizant now that the game has started. Basically, you will be paranoid and that will help you. People take this seriously. They're in it to win it. It's going to be a fun game."
hallie.nell.swanson@columbiaspectator.com | @ColumbiaSpec
2015-05-05T04:00:02Z
Tina Kit realized that she wanted to study operations research, with a track in engineering management systems, when she was in charge of organizing a 1,200-person conference for the Asian American Alliance.
... 
2015-02-09T15:00:02Z
After shutting down its in-patient pediatric unit in order to take in evacuees during Hurricane Sandy last October, St. Luke's Hospital announced last month that it would not be reopening the ward, opting instead to move it to Roosevelt Hospital in midtown.
Although St. Luke's, which is partnered with Roosevelt under the city-wide hospital network Continuum Health Partners, argues that the decision will help improve the unit's quality of care, the closure has drawn significant opposition from local officials and pediatric nurses, who worry that it will reduce accessibility to adequate medical care for the children of West Harlem.
"I'm a mother, and if my child got sick I would certainly want to jump in a taxi and get my child to a hospital," said Georgiette Morgan-Thomas, chair of Community Board 9, who noted that the hospital serves an area with a high frequency of respiratory ailments such as influenza. "That would cost about seven dollars, maybe 10, from most areas in CB9. But to go down to Roosevelt, that becomes cost-prohibitive."
Jim Mandler, a spokesman for St. Luke's-Roosevelt, said that St. Luke's will only treat pediatric patients on an emergency basis, while all other patients will be directed to Roosevelt.
Prior to the closure, Mandler said, St. Luke's pediatric ward operated a unit that typically filled only six of its 28 beds, while the 10-bed unit at Roosevelt usually held roughly three patients. He argued that combining the two units would allow the hospitals to pool their resources and give medical professionals more opportunities to gain hands-on experience with patients.
The new location is also more centrally located than St. Luke's, Mandler said, which will allow it to serve children throughout western Manhattan more effectively than two separate pediatric units did.
"It made better sense—most importantly from a clinical as well as an operational standpoint—to consolidate the units so we could provide a much better quality of care," Mandler said. "We firmly believe that this is the right course of action in terms of providing the highest quality of care that we can to our pediatric patients and their families."
Nurses from the closed unit, however, have accused the hospital of putting profits over patients. In a YouTube video released on Tuesday, they asked viewers to petition Continuum Health Partners to keep the ward open, and argued that St. Luke's had used Hurricane Sandy as an excuse to close an already unprofitable unit.
"They used the storm to close our unit," Adrian Demartini, a pediatric nurse, said in the video.
A group of St. Luke's nurses also attended the January meeting of CB9, having notified local officials on Jan. 17 that they feared action would be taken to close the unit.
Although Morgan-Thomas said it was not acceptable to leave the unit closed, she called claims that the storm had been used as a front to close the ward "speculative." Mandler said discussions to close the ward had been underway for months, especially as growing emergency room demand increased the need for adult beds over pediatric beds.
As a result of the controversy, St. Luke's has entered into discussions with CB9, and will appear at the body's general meeting on February 21. Morgan-Thomas highlighted the need for cooperation between the two entities, and said she would fight to guarantee at least a few outpatient beds for pediatric patients, many of whom come from low-income neighborhoods in upper Manhattan.
"We want them to be sensitive to the fact that our communities are often the first communities that suffer cuts," she said. "If the unit is underutilized, we would like to see if the community board needs to do other things, such as find additional outreach or get additional funding."
The closure of the unit will not take effect for at least a few months, and is unlikely to result in any job cuts, with some St. Luke's employees moving downtown to Roosevelt. The state's Department of Health must first approve the plan, after which the hospital will have 90 days to produce a formal plan for the consolidation.
hallie.nell.swanson@columbiaspectator.com | @ColumbiaSpec
... Although St. Luke's, which is partnered with Roosevelt under the city-wide hospital network Continuum Health Partners, argues that the decision will help improve the unit's quality of care, the closure has drawn significant opposition from local officials and pediatric nurses, who worry that it will reduce accessibility to adequate medical care for the children of West Harlem.
"I'm a mother, and if my child got sick I would certainly want to jump in a taxi and get my child to a hospital," said Georgiette Morgan-Thomas, chair of Community Board 9, who noted that the hospital serves an area with a high frequency of respiratory ailments such as influenza. "That would cost about seven dollars, maybe 10, from most areas in CB9. But to go down to Roosevelt, that becomes cost-prohibitive."
Jim Mandler, a spokesman for St. Luke's-Roosevelt, said that St. Luke's will only treat pediatric patients on an emergency basis, while all other patients will be directed to Roosevelt.
Prior to the closure, Mandler said, St. Luke's pediatric ward operated a unit that typically filled only six of its 28 beds, while the 10-bed unit at Roosevelt usually held roughly three patients. He argued that combining the two units would allow the hospitals to pool their resources and give medical professionals more opportunities to gain hands-on experience with patients.
The new location is also more centrally located than St. Luke's, Mandler said, which will allow it to serve children throughout western Manhattan more effectively than two separate pediatric units did.
"It made better sense—most importantly from a clinical as well as an operational standpoint—to consolidate the units so we could provide a much better quality of care," Mandler said. "We firmly believe that this is the right course of action in terms of providing the highest quality of care that we can to our pediatric patients and their families."
Nurses from the closed unit, however, have accused the hospital of putting profits over patients. In a YouTube video released on Tuesday, they asked viewers to petition Continuum Health Partners to keep the ward open, and argued that St. Luke's had used Hurricane Sandy as an excuse to close an already unprofitable unit.
"They used the storm to close our unit," Adrian Demartini, a pediatric nurse, said in the video.
A group of St. Luke's nurses also attended the January meeting of CB9, having notified local officials on Jan. 17 that they feared action would be taken to close the unit.
Although Morgan-Thomas said it was not acceptable to leave the unit closed, she called claims that the storm had been used as a front to close the ward "speculative." Mandler said discussions to close the ward had been underway for months, especially as growing emergency room demand increased the need for adult beds over pediatric beds.
As a result of the controversy, St. Luke's has entered into discussions with CB9, and will appear at the body's general meeting on February 21. Morgan-Thomas highlighted the need for cooperation between the two entities, and said she would fight to guarantee at least a few outpatient beds for pediatric patients, many of whom come from low-income neighborhoods in upper Manhattan.
"We want them to be sensitive to the fact that our communities are often the first communities that suffer cuts," she said. "If the unit is underutilized, we would like to see if the community board needs to do other things, such as find additional outreach or get additional funding."
The closure of the unit will not take effect for at least a few months, and is unlikely to result in any job cuts, with some St. Luke's employees moving downtown to Roosevelt. The state's Department of Health must first approve the plan, after which the hospital will have 90 days to produce a formal plan for the consolidation.
hallie.nell.swanson@columbiaspectator.com | @ColumbiaSpec
2014-10-21T00:05:03Z
Columbia College Student Council and the Engineering Student Council passed a resolution this week asking that undergraduates be allowed into Uris Hall's Watson Library after 5 p.m. during midterms and finals.
... 
2014-10-20T16:40:02Z
Faculty House workers voted to authorize a strike Thursday, the latest escalation in the employees' negotiations with Columbia over a new contract.
The vote means that the employees, who are represented by the Local 100 union, will now be able to take any form of "economic action" up to and including a strike. Before a full strike, workers have the right to stage multiple walkouts, which can happen at any time without notice—even during a wedding in progress at Faculty House, for example.
After the vote was passed, applause and chants from both workers and student supporters in Student-Worker Solidarity group, filled the room.
The decision came after a negotiation on Monday during which Sheila Garvey, Columbia's assistant vice president of labor relations, refused to begin with student supporters present, union leaders said. According to Faculty House employees, Garvey and administrators have done the same in past negotiation sessions.
The University did not respond to a request for comment Thursday evening.
Faculty House employees say they are being denied a 22 percent service charge, receiving little to no wage increases compared to other campus unions, and don't get unemployment benefits during summer and winter breaks.
"We're like Oliver Twist," Osmond Cousins, a cook at Faculty House, said. "How dare we ask for a second bowl of porridge? We're getting our ears boxed."
The decision to authorize a strike comes just a month before the workers' contract and health insurance expire on March 31.
"The fear today of the strike is, the insurance means a lot to all of us. To pay insurance out of pocket is impossible," said Cousins.
Renata Malionowski, a waitress at the Faculty House, said she was nervous.
"It's frustrating," she said. "We've been having meetings like this every day. We've received nothing. I hope this will make something happen."
Since the start of the semester, SWS has staged several protests in support of the workers.
"They've put us in the face of the community," Cousins said of SWS and other student groups who have supported their effort. "They are the gasoline to our empty vessel. Without you guys, we wouldn't have done anything that's worthwhile."
But at the same time, the rhetoric the workers are using has become graver.
"They are like slave drivers, plantation owners," Cousins said of administrators.
Juan Aquino, a caterer for Faculty House, accused Garvey of xenophobic language.
"She looks at us across the table, and she sees a bunch of immigrants," he said. "She thinks we speak with an accent, so we think with an accent, too."
hallie.nell.swanson@columbiaspectator.com | @ColumbiaSpec
... The vote means that the employees, who are represented by the Local 100 union, will now be able to take any form of "economic action" up to and including a strike. Before a full strike, workers have the right to stage multiple walkouts, which can happen at any time without notice—even during a wedding in progress at Faculty House, for example.
After the vote was passed, applause and chants from both workers and student supporters in Student-Worker Solidarity group, filled the room.
The decision came after a negotiation on Monday during which Sheila Garvey, Columbia's assistant vice president of labor relations, refused to begin with student supporters present, union leaders said. According to Faculty House employees, Garvey and administrators have done the same in past negotiation sessions.
The University did not respond to a request for comment Thursday evening.
Faculty House employees say they are being denied a 22 percent service charge, receiving little to no wage increases compared to other campus unions, and don't get unemployment benefits during summer and winter breaks.
"We're like Oliver Twist," Osmond Cousins, a cook at Faculty House, said. "How dare we ask for a second bowl of porridge? We're getting our ears boxed."
The decision to authorize a strike comes just a month before the workers' contract and health insurance expire on March 31.
"The fear today of the strike is, the insurance means a lot to all of us. To pay insurance out of pocket is impossible," said Cousins.
Renata Malionowski, a waitress at the Faculty House, said she was nervous.
"It's frustrating," she said. "We've been having meetings like this every day. We've received nothing. I hope this will make something happen."
Since the start of the semester, SWS has staged several protests in support of the workers.
"They've put us in the face of the community," Cousins said of SWS and other student groups who have supported their effort. "They are the gasoline to our empty vessel. Without you guys, we wouldn't have done anything that's worthwhile."
But at the same time, the rhetoric the workers are using has become graver.
"They are like slave drivers, plantation owners," Cousins said of administrators.
Juan Aquino, a caterer for Faculty House, accused Garvey of xenophobic language.
"She looks at us across the table, and she sees a bunch of immigrants," he said. "She thinks we speak with an accent, so we think with an accent, too."
hallie.nell.swanson@columbiaspectator.com | @ColumbiaSpec
2014-10-20T10:10:03Z
After working overtime to accommodate refugee patients from downtown hospitals during Hurricane Sandy, Glenda Miranda, director of Patient Care Services at St. Luke's hospital, said that she had never been happier just to see fresh laundry.
St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital found itself hosting roughly 125 evacuated patients from downtown Bellevue and NYU hospitals after their generators failed during Sandy—an influx of patients it dealt with by implementing a 24-hour command center, adding makeshift bedrooms, and having many staff members not leave the hospital for four days. And two weeks after Sandy ripped through New York, the hospital is still caring for dozens of those evacuated patients as their facilities recover.
Dan Wiener, chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at St. Luke's and one of many staff members who slept at St. Luke's Sunday night in anticipation of the storm, said that the space constraints of the hospital posed a major challenge in housing all of the patients.
"This was a storm I'm sure nobody imagined would ever hit New York City," Wiener said. "We went from being at nursing capacity to being at physical capacity," noting that the hospital was using all of its space to house the patients.
He added that the Roosevelt detox unit and the St. Luke's pediatric unit were cleared to provide more room.
The hospital found "mothball beds" on wards that are generally unoccupied, and the Salvation Army delivered cots for the staff members, several hundred of whom slept in conference rooms and halls.
During the hurricane, the hospital's staff set up its 24-hour emergency "command center" in a conference room equipped with a television screen that monitored patients' vitals, another screen to broadcast the news, and telephones to keep the staff connected.
According to Wiener, all hospitals in the Greater New York Hospital Association have command centers, which activate when a Code D for "disaster" is in effect.
"We would hear some news, and there would be a moment of silence where we all panicked," Miranda said."But then you take a deep breath and realize you can make major decisions in just a few seconds."
Greg Calliste, chief administration officer at St. Luke's, credits the command center's communication within and outside the hospital with the success of the operation.
"Part of our response was having a fast-track process for transfers," he said, which meant checking the patients and finding beds before completing paperwork. The hospital had a nearly complete list of patients' names and conditions, and would get the chart sent over in hard copy in the ambulance.
Wiener said that on an average day at the hospital, about 50 patients would arrive by ambulance. But during the hurricane, that number increased to about 100.
"You can sometimes look at these practice things as tedious," Calliste said, "but thanks to them, we were able to rise to the occasion. Disasters bring out the best in people." Though many nurses worked 12- and 24-hour shifts, the staff kept going. Most did not leave the hospital for four days, despite the effects that Sandy wrought on their own homes.
Now, the challenge for St. Luke's is to discharge the 35 evacuees who are still in the hospital, many due to the damage their nursing homes sustained from the hurricane, making it harder for some patients to return home.
As Bellevue and NYU remain closed, St. Luke's administrators are looking at ways to manage its patients, including an agreement whereby staff from closed hospitals are authorized to provide care for patients at St. Luke's.
Miranda said that the "heartwarming camaraderie" among the staff helped them to weather the storm together and provide the best care possible for their patients. Wiener agreed.
"One said she felt we had rolled out the red carpet for her," he said.
Alexey Sisov, a 26-year-old patient from Bellevue who was evacuated to St. Luke's early on Tuesday morning, recalled being woken up by "six army guys."
"I was pretty groggy. They just rolled me up like a hot dog, put me on a stretcher and carried me down six flights of stairs." He added that he got a glimpse of the lobby full of National Guard officers before being put into an ambulance.
He then recalled waking up "in a room reminiscent of a hospital in a developing country."
"I was only there for 20 minutes, and then I had this beautiful room where I've been since," he said, indicating the mural on the wall of the pediatric ward. "Who could be upset by butterflies?"
news@columbiaspectator.com
... St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital found itself hosting roughly 125 evacuated patients from downtown Bellevue and NYU hospitals after their generators failed during Sandy—an influx of patients it dealt with by implementing a 24-hour command center, adding makeshift bedrooms, and having many staff members not leave the hospital for four days. And two weeks after Sandy ripped through New York, the hospital is still caring for dozens of those evacuated patients as their facilities recover.
Dan Wiener, chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at St. Luke's and one of many staff members who slept at St. Luke's Sunday night in anticipation of the storm, said that the space constraints of the hospital posed a major challenge in housing all of the patients.
"This was a storm I'm sure nobody imagined would ever hit New York City," Wiener said. "We went from being at nursing capacity to being at physical capacity," noting that the hospital was using all of its space to house the patients.
He added that the Roosevelt detox unit and the St. Luke's pediatric unit were cleared to provide more room.
The hospital found "mothball beds" on wards that are generally unoccupied, and the Salvation Army delivered cots for the staff members, several hundred of whom slept in conference rooms and halls.
During the hurricane, the hospital's staff set up its 24-hour emergency "command center" in a conference room equipped with a television screen that monitored patients' vitals, another screen to broadcast the news, and telephones to keep the staff connected.
According to Wiener, all hospitals in the Greater New York Hospital Association have command centers, which activate when a Code D for "disaster" is in effect.
"We would hear some news, and there would be a moment of silence where we all panicked," Miranda said."But then you take a deep breath and realize you can make major decisions in just a few seconds."
Greg Calliste, chief administration officer at St. Luke's, credits the command center's communication within and outside the hospital with the success of the operation.
"Part of our response was having a fast-track process for transfers," he said, which meant checking the patients and finding beds before completing paperwork. The hospital had a nearly complete list of patients' names and conditions, and would get the chart sent over in hard copy in the ambulance.
Wiener said that on an average day at the hospital, about 50 patients would arrive by ambulance. But during the hurricane, that number increased to about 100.
"You can sometimes look at these practice things as tedious," Calliste said, "but thanks to them, we were able to rise to the occasion. Disasters bring out the best in people." Though many nurses worked 12- and 24-hour shifts, the staff kept going. Most did not leave the hospital for four days, despite the effects that Sandy wrought on their own homes.
Now, the challenge for St. Luke's is to discharge the 35 evacuees who are still in the hospital, many due to the damage their nursing homes sustained from the hurricane, making it harder for some patients to return home.
As Bellevue and NYU remain closed, St. Luke's administrators are looking at ways to manage its patients, including an agreement whereby staff from closed hospitals are authorized to provide care for patients at St. Luke's.
Miranda said that the "heartwarming camaraderie" among the staff helped them to weather the storm together and provide the best care possible for their patients. Wiener agreed.
"One said she felt we had rolled out the red carpet for her," he said.
Alexey Sisov, a 26-year-old patient from Bellevue who was evacuated to St. Luke's early on Tuesday morning, recalled being woken up by "six army guys."
"I was pretty groggy. They just rolled me up like a hot dog, put me on a stretcher and carried me down six flights of stairs." He added that he got a glimpse of the lobby full of National Guard officers before being put into an ambulance.
He then recalled waking up "in a room reminiscent of a hospital in a developing country."
"I was only there for 20 minutes, and then I had this beautiful room where I've been since," he said, indicating the mural on the wall of the pediatric ward. "Who could be upset by butterflies?"
news@columbiaspectator.com
2014-08-20T15:25:03Z
This article is part one in a two-part series about community at Columbia. Read part two of the series here.
... 
2014-08-20T15:25:03Z
This article is part two in a two-part series about community at Columbia. Read part one of the series here.
... 
2014-06-30T18:50:02Z
"That's an undergrad," second-year MBA student Tom Lundstedt said, pointing across the Uris Hall lobby at a dress-and-Keds-clad girl making her way into Watson Library. "Sometimes, you can just tell."
... 
