C M g e ts n e w d e p a rtm e n t h e a d by M elanie E. Wallace Newspeak Staff The Chemical Engineering depart ment is operating under new leader ship. Prof. Albert Sacco, Jr. assumed the reins this past July from Dr. Y. H. Ma. w ho had served as department head for the past ten years. Prof. Sacco was born in New Eng land. and lived in the North End o f Boston for many years. He attended high school in the North End and also in Belm ont, where his parents moved while he was still in high school. He did his undergraduate work at North eastern University in Boston, receiv ing his B.S. in Chemical Engineering. During the next few years, he worked part o f the time for Cabot Corpora tion. and for Badger Engineering in the chem ical process division. He then did his graduate work at MIT. receiving his Ph.D. in 1978. His ini tial intention had been to get his M aster's Degree and then go into industry, but during graduate school
he decided to get a Ph.D.. and he then decided to join the academ ic world. After receiving his Ph.D.. he joined the Chemical Engineering faculty at WPI and has been here ever since. He is married, with four children and several pets. He says he has the "allAmerican family.*’ They reside in Holden. MA. One o f Prof. Sacco's favorite hob bies is scuba diving. He has been an avid diver for about 23 years. He is a certified instructor, and has been teaching scuba diving at WPI for the past several years. He travels world wide to dive, and spends some time each year in the Caribbean diving and doing underw ater photography. In his time al W PI. Prof. Sacco has taught many different courses. He has taught the Unit O perations Lab. Mass Trans fer. Therm odynam ics, both graduate and undergraduate level, and a gradu ate level course entitled “Solid-Gas Reactions." At this time he is teach ing only a graduate level thermodynamics course.
Prof. Sacco has many plans for the department. O ne o f his more chal lenging goals is to update the Unit Operations laboratory to a state o f the art facility. C oncentration will be in two main "um brella areas’’ of chem i cal engineering, one of which is ad vanced materials, including zeolites, inorganic mem branes, and catalysis. The other area is biotechnology, which includes ferm entation, separa tions. and biomaterials. Some o f the existing experim ents will be replaced with more updated experiments. Al ready there is a bio unit in the lab. the department is in the process o f getting an inorganic m em brane unit set up. an they are trying to negotiate with DuPont to get a fiber spinning unit. This unit is a state o f the art piece of equipment that DuPont already has in use. For a number o f years. Unit O pera tions has been coordinated by Dr. Robert Wagner, w ho will be retiring. At this point, each professor in the
department is participating in the. operation of the course. The depart ment is trying lo decide the best way to run the lab. One suggestion has been to have the faculty act as consult ants. and have T A 's available for assistance, but to have the students be more on their own for experiments. This would give the students more of a feel for what industry is really like. Prof. Sacco would welcome any sug gestions from students about what they think would be a good way to run the Unit Ops. lab. The long term goal is to publish a book on Unit O pera tions. which would highlight the new lab. To Prof. Sacco's knowledge, there would be 110 other lab like this at any other school in the country, so it would be a good first for WPI. Another of Prof. Sacco’s goals is to bring the department as a whole closer together. He feels that in many ways the department is growing apart, and he would like to take steps to change that. A bulletin board with pictures of
all faculty, staff, grad students, and AIChE officers is in the making, and will be hung on the first floor of Goddard Hall to assist everyone in getting to know w ho’s who. Many students have noticed the change in many teaching assignments in the department. Prof. Sacco is trying to increase the flexibility o f the professors, so that if any given profes sor has a particularly busy term, an other professor can fill in to teach the class. The departm ent wants each professor to be able to teach four different undergraduate and tw o to three different graduate courses and be able to teach them well. That flexibility would allow Prof. Sacco to arrange a teaching schedule to best suit the outside dem ands of profes sors. The new leadership in the depart ment should produce a fresh atm os phere with many positive changes taking place. Best o f luck to you. Dr. Sacco!
The Student Newspaper of Worcester Polytechnic Institute Volume 17, Number 18 Tuesday, September 26, 1989
Updated Rush rules imposed by the IFC by M elanie E. Wallace Newspeak Staff In response to concerns expressed by Dean Grogan as to the academic influences of fraternities, the IFC has rem odeled its Rush rules and policies. The goal of this remodeling is to im prove the academic performance of freshm an m ales by lim iting the am ount of time spent at the fraternity houses during the rush period. Some of the policies remain the same, while others have been changed drastically. "D ry Rush.” as it is commonly called, is still in effect. This means that no male who is a rushee may be served alcohol by any fraternity dur ing the rushing period. This year is the fourth year for dry rush. Last year’s rush period began on the first day o f arrival for freshman, with house lours, and lasted only three w eeks. This year, rush is not begin ning until the third week of A-term, and will last for seven weeks. By postponing the beginning of rush, the IFC is trying to allow freshmen to becom e acclimated to the school and their new environment before having the fraternity scene thrust upon them as well. The increased length of rush is intended to give the rushees more time to really get to know the house they are interested in. By having a longer rush period, it will be more difficult for any given house to uphold
an image that does not present the house as it truly is. It gives the rushees a better opportunity to see the individ ual houses in the true light, and will help them to make a more well-in formed decision as to which house to join. Hopefully, the amount o f depledging that som etimes occurs will be reduced by this longer rush period. The num ber o f rush events per week is now being limited. Rather than allowing the fraternities to have events on w hatever nights they choose, events are scheduled for Monday and Friday nights during Aterm, and during B-term on Monday and Thursday nights. One weekend event per week may also be held, with Sunday events being over by 6 pm. The idea is to prevent rushees from being at a different house every night o f the w eek, thereby increasing the amount o f time available for studying. Also, only two "studying" nights will be occupied by rush events. These m easures will hopefully improve the academic perform ance o f rushees. In order for a rushee to receive a bid. he must pass at least one course during A-term, and a total o f 4/3 units during A and B term s. Bids night is Novem ber 17. during the middle o f B term. In a sense, all bids are “probationary” until B term grades are received. At that point, anyone who fails to meet the above criteria will be ineligible to participate in pledging. Penalties for
violation of rush rule*Jpve also been set forth. The first violation results in three weeks social probation, a letter to the Alumni board, and a letter to the fraternity's national office. A second violation results in three additional weeks in three additional weeks social probation, a S5(K) fine payable to IFC.
and a second letter to the national office. A third violation will be sub ject to review by the President's board, who will decide the punish ment on a case by case basis. The IFC is hoping to improve the quality and effectiveness of rush with these m eas ures. Any input from fraternity
members or rushees on what further changes could be m ade for next year would be w elcomed. The im pending changes will hope fully curtail some o f the poor aca demic perform ances experienced in years past.
Two dorms will be re-keyed by G ary DelGrego G raphics Editor When the residence halls were opened during the last week o f Au gust, the Office o f Housing and Resi dential Life discovered m ajor security problems in both Morgan and Found ers Halls, nam ely the loss of master keys. In Morgan, a resident advisor key ring was found to be missing while in Founders two m aster keys were not returned by a conference group that used the building during the summer. T o te m p o ra rily p re v e n t any breaches of security, the outside doors o f both buildings were re-keyed until the buildings could be perm anently re-cored. Because of the overw helm ing work involved in changing over 300 locks and issuing new keys, the jo b will be com pleted over A/B break. All Morgan and Founders residents
Livingston T a y lo r
brought a wonderful mix of music and humor to Alden Hall for Parent’s Day. NKW SPKAK PH O T O /C H R IS K I.I.IO I
will be issued new keys upon return ing. The estimated cost of the work in Founders is S8000.00 and $4000.00 for Morgan, according to Peggy Jab lo n sk i. D irector o f H ousing. While the Office of Housing andResidential Life will absorb the cost to re-key Morgan Hall, the charge from Founders will not be paid by the Housing Office. W hether or not the sum mer conference group will be charged has not yet been determined. Students should realize that they will NOT be charged for the work in their
building. The Office o f Housing and R esi dential Life in conjunction with Plant Services decided to change the cores to maintain the security o f the build ings. According to Peggy Jablonski. many colleges do not change locks even if a m aster key is lost. WPI has been trying to upgrade the security o f its residence halls as well as educate students about their responsibility in m aintaining the security o f their hall. The O ffice of H ousing and R esiden tial Life appreciates the cooperation o f the residents o f Morgan and Found ers.
Need to talk? Stop by the counseling center by M ichael O 'M alley Not many people are aware o f this, but there is a place at WPI where someone can go to talk about any problems he or she might have what soever: It's called the Counseling & Student Development Center. It's located at 157 West St.. right near the corner o f Institute Rd. Upon hearing the word "counseling." most people automatically respond by widening their eyes, thinking that counseling is
only for your average, run-of-themill. suicidal lunatic who needs noth ing more than a small room with I foot-thick padding. In other words, most people have an immense feeling of personal insecurity when it com es to dealing with their own problems. What most people think is not true at all. The counseling Center is for anyone who wants to talk about any problems one might have: no m atter how big or how small. You don't have continued on page 3
ELECTION RESULTS The votes have been counted! Here are the results from the| Freshmen Class Officers elections held last week: President: Kimberly Phillip Vice President: Cynthia Richards Secretary: Jennifer Hodge Treasurer: Tania Wolanski Representative: Lisa Panico