clark’s got talent • climate change activism • and more
volume xciv, no. 4 • october 2, 2014 | clarkscarlet.com |
the.clark.scarlet
ITS revamps Wi-Fi
Speaking from the elsewheres
Increased connectivity expected across campus
Junot Díaz discusses literature, politics, and marginalization By Jeremy Levine editor-in-chief
photo by jonathan edelman
By Alexis Richards contributing writer
Over the past few years, fast, efficient Wi-Fi has become increasingly essential to student productivity, and increasingly unreliable. In response, Information Technology Services (ITS) has begun the tedious process of com-
pletely revamping the wireless connectivity of an entire campus. Michael Cole, Manager of Network Operations, is one of the staff members who is involved with what he calls the “Wi-Fi revamp.” Cole explains that the university “started last May on an continued on page 3
The first of this year’s talks in the Presidential Lecture Series was a bit of a misnomer. Junot Díaz, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao and National Book Award finalist for This Is How You Lose Her set foot on Atwood’s stage on Tuesday evening with no lecture planned. The talk, organized by Professor Paul Posner in conjunction with multiple university departments (including the President’s Office) filled Atwood to capacity. Díaz made it clear from the start that he was not planning on giving a speech. After some lighthearted comments about the audience’s quiet reception of President Angels’ preintroduction of Paul Posner’s introduction, Díaz launched into a question and answer session, asking for the first few questions to come from female students. An early question was on the nature of writer’s block and how to
overcome it. After some introductory material, Díaz arrived at the idea that “students in general don’t get into college because they’re very compassionate toward themselves.” This theme of compassion, and that “most of us choose not to drive ourselves through passion… [but] through cruelty” extended throughout the evening, both directly and indirectly shaping discussions of race, literature, and gender. Sam Wallace (’16), an employee of the Clark University Bookstore who spent some of the night selling copies of Díaz’s books (many of which he signed after the reading), cited this as her biggest takeaway from the talk. “Students need to hear that,” she said. “It’s so relevant now with midterms and just in general.” Claudia Osorio (’15), another bookstore employee, agreed. After reading “Alma,” a tragicomedic short story from This Is How You Lose Her, Díaz fielded a question on Dominican masculinity, as much of his work focuses on young Dominican men and the ways in which the image of the stereotypical Do-
photo by will heikes
minican man affect their identities. The question at hand, essentially, was what makes Dominican men unique with regard to how masculinity shapes them. The answer, largely, was that they are no different from other men. Díaz referred to the typology with which his characters struggle as “the Dominican version of a global system called ‘patriarchy,’” and continued on page 4