Jazz Ensemble wails in wedge by H eidi Lundy Newspeak S taff The WPI Jazz Ensemble per formed last Tuesday night in the lower wedge for a small but responsive crowd. This ensem ble consists o f 2 saxophonists, trombonist, trumpeter, and a four-m an rhythm section. Their director is the mustached Rich Falco. The lower wedge was dimly lit except for the area above the m usi cians, providing a stage-like atm os phere. A fter a few delays due to sound system p ro b lem s, the c a su a lly dressed m em bers of the group began to play their first number. The piece was an up- tempo bop piece by Jam ey A eborsold called “Blue Note.” The song w as spiced with fanastic solos by Troy Nielsen on trombone and Rob Bennett on sax. The music was loud and catchy and as heads started bob bing and feet tapping in the wedge, passerbyers stopped to poke their heads in to see what was happening.
The next number, "The Secrets of Love,” was introduced by Rich Falco who revealed that he had composed the piece. The song turned out to be an avante-garde ballad with very innova tive and interesting new sounds to ja /z . T rum peter Thom Bober played a haunting solo and Rob B ennet's solo on saxophone again was an excellent contribution. The ensem ble then plunged into "Hit and R un,” a funk tune that fea tured unusual time signatures for jazz music. The time signatures included three-four and seven-eighths. The audience show ed their approval of this num ber with shouts of encouragment and more foot-tapping. In the m iddle of the performance was a num ber called “ Hippodelphia.” The song w as composed by Joseph Zawinul, a mem ber of the jazz-rock group “W eather Report.” "W indflow er” was the title o f the next piece, another Rich Falco ar rangement o f a Miles Davis-type of
blues. Almost every m em ber of the ensem ble took a solo. Robert Prytko on bass was especially noteworthy. Keeping the audience guessing, the ensem ble next played a rock type o f tune called “Mine is Y ours.” A popular jazz ballad called “ Spring Can Really Hang You Up the M ost” was the next song. This fea tured a spectacular solo by Rob Ben nett on alto saxophone. During this num ber many curious people entered the lower wedge to check out the rest o f the show. Unfortunately, the en sem ble played only one more piece. Show ing a diverse range o f songs, the group capped the night off with a latin p ie c e by H orace S ilv e r c alled “ N utville.” After it was introduced to the audience by Rich Falco, Tromboninst Troy Nielsen jokingly told the crow d that it was “actually a Madonna co v er.” The concert was fun to watch because it was obvious that the m usi cians were having a good time. They
NEWSPEAK STAFF PHOTO/BUDHI SANVOTO
T he W P ! Jazz E nsem ble, d irected by Rich Falco, perform ed in the W edge last T uesday night. often added their spur- of-the-moment choreography when not busy playing. The performance was defi
nitely worth the onlooker’s time and the ensem ble deserves an even bigger turnout in the future.
The Student Newspaper of Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Volume 16, Number 25
Tuesday, November 22,1988
The Greek view on rush by Pete M ullen IFC President The beginning o f any school year is busy, and this year has been no exception. Each year the students and faculty adapt to new changes and policies at W PI. Recently, concern about the declining availability of engineering students throughout the country and the problems in the aca demic perform ance of the freshmen class have been major topics o f dis cussion in Newspeak, student govern ment, the G reek system, the faculty and the WPI administration. Several student groups and faculty/adminis trative com m ittees are investigating the factors involved and any possible alternative solutions to avoid future problem s or at least optimize the re sources available. The last two years have involved many changes in the Greek system and the legal responsibility o f the college for the fraternities and sorori ties. The relationship between the college and the Greek organizations has changed only slightly. WPI con tinues to support the Greek system on m atters concerning the betterment of a c ad em ics, cam p u s invo lv em en t, philanthropy and increasing aw are ness o f risk liability. The school con tinues to m aintain its position as advi sor and educator to these organiza tions. Both the fraternities and sorori ties and the college are working to w ards building a stronger system throughout the campus and the City of W orcester. O f the major issues on cam pus, academ ics is by far the most im por
tant to all o f us. On the subject of freshmen academ ics and the Greek system ’s Rush schedule, much confu sion has arisen. Dean Grogan on be half of the faculty, has expressed a great concern for the academ ic wel fare of the students. Based on a study completed earlier this year. Dean Grogan pointed out particular prob lems in the number of failures of freshmen over the last three years. This change, from an average o f 3 or 4% over the last 10 years to 11% this year, is alarm ing to the faculty and a growing concern to members o f the Greek system. Dean Grogan relayed his concerns to faculty m em bers in a letter late this summer. Factors in the assessm ent o f the situation include problems in the students’ studying habits, inconsistencies in the M athe matics departm ent and the over
whelming transition into college life with the new social atmosphere. D iscussions with Dean Grogan, faculty com m ittees and the IFC and Panhell mem bers have yielded many excellent ideas with a larger emphasis i n improving the overall academic atm osphere among the students, both G reek and non-Greek. Although no official proposal has been presented to the faculty, the IFC and Panhellenic C ouncil are now working towards establishing a system-wide program to m onitor grades witin the houses and those of any rushees. At this point, the discussion of the future Rush and pledging programs and schedules are open and any suggestions are encour aged. No dates have been set for the beginning, end, or duration of Rush. Please bring any ideas to the attention o f the chapter presidents.
Jay Leno comes to WPI (N ews Release) - Jay Leno, who is one of the hottest comedians in show business today, will be at W PI on December 10. For those who do not know who Jay Leno is, the following is a short biography. David Letterman states “Jay Leno is the funniest comedian w orking today!” To elaborate, Leno also is hys terically funny, the pre-eminent com edy light in show business, and one o f the most popular purveyors of belly laughs to roar down the pike in decades. Leno averages 300 concert per form ances annually in a mininum of 42 states. He has accumulated enought free air miles to upgrade the entire passenger manifest o f a
NEWSPEAK STAFF PHOTO/ROB SIMS
See "L en o ", page 5
President Strauss forms three new study groups by G eorge M. Regnery Newspeak S ta ff Three new study groups have been formed at WPI by President Strauss to make som e campus wide strategic plans. T he study groups originated after several trustees wanted to see and be involved in strategic planning, which has taken place at WPI for individual departments recently, but not for the campus as a whole. The three groups jdeal with Enrollment, Academic Programs at W PI, and Student Life. Each study group will attem pt to identify the principal strategic issues
in that area in a five year time frame, and conduct surveys among students, faculty and trustees. The faculty and trustees will then meet to lead a gen eral discussion to develop a consensus on the strategic issues and summarize the results. Im plementation is tar geted for next year, since the final reports will not be completed until M ay. The Enrollment group is the only group that has completed its survey and sum marized the results so far. The survey did not just ask questions, it first gave some data and they asked a question concerning the future in that area. The Enrollment survey
asked a wide variety of questions concerning the future of the campus, financial aid, and the role of women and minorites. T he survey asked if WPI should becom e a university and offer exten sive offerings outside math and sci ence. H alf of the faculty and staff and nearly three fourths of the students said this was an unacceptable solution
to maintain the quality of students admitted to WPI. The Survey results also suggest that W PI students tend to be more conservative than the faculty. Concerning the sm all number o f Women at W PI, 39.5% o f the faculty said that it was unacceptable to allow the market to determine the number o f see "Three new study groups", page 3
Study groups solicit student opinion by Janet Begin Richardson Dean o f Students
Michelle LeBlanc and Mindy Neligon collect food from shoppers at Shaw's for the APO Thanksgiving Dinner Food Drive to go with turkeys donated by the WPI community.
Jum bo Jet. Jay has sold out New Y ork’s Carnegie Hall, put the SRO sign up at Los A ngeles’ Universal Am phitheatre and has played to full houses in Las Vegas, Tahoe. Reno and Atlantic City. He enjoys the road and his tours include Grand Forks, Utica, Bismarck, Council Bluffs, et al. His superstar status on both coasts and all points in between is helped by his status as Johnny C arson’s M onday night guest host. Jay also does the Monday-through-Friday hosting duties during Mr. C arso n ’s vacation weeks. Signed exclusively with NBC,
In September o f 1988 President Jon C. Strauss established a series of cam pus study groups to assist the college with strategic planning for the future by defining strengths and im provem ent opportunities in three ar eas o f strategic emphasis: enrollment, program s and student life. W ithin the larger context of stu dent life our particlar study group has been charged with reviewing each of the residential life options at WPI residence alls, greek houses and off cam pus living units - as living envi ronm ents and learning environments. T he residential life study group is applying the SW OT approach to it’s review; that is, we will look at each
option in terms of it’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities for im provement, and threats that exist or are anticipated due to political, socie tal or demographic changes. One o f the approaches we intend to utilize to better understand residen tial life and develop the SW OT analy sis is to gather student opinion through a series o f focus groups. To that end m em bers o f the study group would like to meet with stu dents residing off cam pus to elicit comments about the pros and cons of off campus apartments as “ living and learning” environm ents. Please at tend a brief but im portant discussion on this topic on Thursday, D ecember 1 at 4:30 pm in K innicutt Hall. Y our participation in a thoughtful discus sion of the issues is most appreciated.