Cardboard pizza box deemed “ungreen” Dishwashable plates save more energy, says winning team By Sarah Marzen Staff Writer | February 19, 2008 Last week’s blurb on Reader’s Digest’s campus safety survey was incorrect, but it wasn’t the Tech that messed up. The Reader’s Digest calculations of Caltech’s “safety preparedness index,” where Caltech placed 13th out of 139 colleges, were based on a faulty statistic sent to Reader’s Digest by Chief of Security Gregg Henderson. “I was going off of what my understanding was, that I thought I was current on.” The statistic in question asked for the percentage of students in dorms with a sprinkler system. Henderson thought that all Caltech dorms had sprinkler systems. According to Michael Raven of the Housing Department, Marks and Braun don’t have sprinkler systems, since they were built when Pasadena Fire Code didn’t require sprinkler systems. Further, five of Caltech’s statistics about dorm security were reported as “n/a”, or not applicable, even though Henderson remembers answering those questions. “Why it would be listed as n/a, I don’t know,” says Henderson. Inquiries to Reader’s Digest about why these particular statistics were labeled “n/a” have not yet been answered. These statistics were: the percentage of students in dorms with a camera; the percentage of students in dorms with an attendant; the percentage of students in dorms with full-time security; the percentage of students in dorms that have rooms with self-locking doors; and the percentage of students in dorms with peepholes or chains. Except for the percentage of students in dorms that have rooms with self-locking doors, Caltech’s percentages are zero or below the mean percentage of the other colleges. As Matthew Kahn, who performed statistical calculations for the Reader’s Digest article, explains, “If a school didn’t report data, we assumed that the school would have been in the middle of the distribution on that category.” Thus, replacing “n/a” with Caltech’s true scores on the five statistics mentioned above inflated Caltech’s score. Caltech’s high score in safety preparedness—13th place out of 139 colleges—drops below 40th place when these factors are taken into account, based on a recalculation done by the Tech staff according to Reader’s Digest methodology. Regardless, “Caltech Security ranks extremely well against other colleges,” says Henderson. “It’s hard to make judgements from a statistical standpoint. You need to look at the services Security provides, the ratio of campus crime to population, and the setting.” The Reader’s Digest safety preparedness index didn’t consider any of these and many other factors. Other colleges may have also reported statistics incorrectly, or taken some liberty in interpreting the survey questions. For example, Caltech dorm rooms have “self-locking doors”, but many students put their locks on override. The percentage of Caltech students with self-locking doors could range from 50%-100%, depending on how you count the number of doors in override. more...

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