World Game a success by David Cortese The first event of Spring week took place on Tuesday night as Soccomm brought The World Game to Harring ton Auditorium. The World Game, which originated in 1969, was created by Buckminster Fuller as a problem solving tool. Buckminster’s goal of “Making the world work for 100% of humanity” was the idea and motivation behind his creation and since its begin ning in 1983 the Game has been an outstanding success. The Game was basically broken into four parts and was unique since the audience attending were the actual players. The hosts of the Game, Stephanie Butler and Dilip Da Cunha, started things off with a slide show that briefly demonstrated the time line of the earth’s life for the last billion years or so. The game itself was based around a Fuller projection map of the world that covered a majority of Har rington Auditorium and was to a scale of 1:2,000,000 or 1 inch equaling 31.5 miles. The main portion of the evening was spent indulged in the Game itself which was both challenging and re
warding. Each member of the audi ence once inside was asked to play the role of that countries' population, each country being distinguished by a dif ferent color hat. Your territory was given a designated amount of food, energy, weapons, etc. The goal of the game was to achieve a substantial amount of each for your country through three rounds of play. The fun part was that any type of dealing could take place, but there were people tak ing the parts of the United nations, the Biosphere and the Media to keep things under control. Some of the unique deals that took place during our own game were that Egypt sold the Sphinx, claiming it’s “just a rock,” and Japan sold all the rights to the Godzilla movies to North America. Past deals have included the sale of the Taj Mahal and the renovation of the Great Wall of China into condos. After the game another slide show was presented citing various quotes from world leaders and opening the eyes of many to the number of physical dangers the world presently exists in. After the slide show our hosts gave a
brief demonstration and lecture dis cussing the world’s most vital prob lems. These included the ozone layer depletion, the loss of tropical rain for ests, the topsoil problem of North America, etc. Overall the World Game was both entertaining and informative. The night brought on a plethora of laughs and speaking for the majority of us a fun time was had by all. The group that visited WPI was one of three that tours the country visiting colleges, corpora tions and high schools attempting to make people think on a global level and giving them a higher social awareness of the world around them. Putting on between 150-175 workshops this year alone the demand for tne World Game has been increasing greatly. Using visual demonstrations and the ever plentiful numbers of concrete statistics the World Game made everyone stop and think during the night about ex actly what the world’s destiny is and what we as individuals can do to stop the overwhelming number of natural threats the earth faces both presently and in the future.
NEWSPEAK STAFF PHOTO / B ILL BARRY
W P I s tu d e n ts p a rtic ip a tin g in la st T u e s d a y ’s “ W o rld G a m e ” in H a r rin g to n A u d ito riu m .
The Student Newspaper of Worcester Polytechnic Institute Volume 18, Number 9___________________________ Tliesday, April 10,1990___________________________________
T h e p r e s e n t a n d fu tu r e c h a n g e s ta k in g by Ajay Khanna Newspeak Staff Class of ’94 News - As the year draws to a close, and the seniors get ready to graduate, we sometimes for get the time that we had to go through the admissions process to get into WPI, and how tense we felt during that pe riod. The freshman admissions are in process now, and just over 2000 fresh men have been offered admission this year. It is expected that 32% will accept the offer, which will bring the size of the class close to the target of 750 students. This is also close to the target of 2550 for the total undergradu ate enrollment at WPI. 127 applied early decision. One promising fact about this year’s admissions is that there was a slight increase in the number of appli cations compared to last year. This is commendable because most science and engineering schools faced a de crease in the number of applications from last year. This has been attributed to their extensive recruitment pro gram, which includes, as many of you know, college nights, information ses sions, invitations to visit WPI, and a comprehensive mailing recruitment system. The mail system includes a career planning leaflet, a co-op leaflet, a guide for parents, a description of the WPI Plan (which is, incidentally, NOT dead!), and information on how to meet college costs, and visit WPI for more information. The Office of Admissions, which has since last year been focusing on
admitting students who would be fun to have at WPI, is quite pleased with the class of 1993. They also look for the quality of students, such as presi dents of student governments, but the primary requirement is the educational qualification and preparation neces sary for the program of this school. Class of 1993 - How do you think the freshmen have fared at W PI so far? Well, Ann Garvin, Director of Aca demic Advising, feels very pleased with the results. Less than a dozen freshmen dropped out by the end of B term. Although grade averages were not available, she said that the rest fared quite well academically. They have been very active in extra-curricular activities, particularly sports, though the sophomore class demon strated that their own enthusiasm had not diminished by winning two tradi tional freshman-sophomore competi tions. Math and Class of 1993 - For ex ample, the math program at WPI had faced some problems recently because too many freshmen were flunking out of math courses at WPI. This year, with the five-course math sequence made mandatory, the passing rate was higher. There was also the introduc tion of MA1000, a semester course designed to make the transition easier for people whose math background had been weak. Gordon Branche, Asst. Dept. Head (Math), said that the passing rate had increased in MA 1001,1002, and 1003 in A and B terms last year as compared to the rates in M A 1011, 1012, and 1013 in the year
Financial Aid Notification All financial aid applicants in Classes ’91, ’92, and ’93 will receive notification from the Financial Aid Office by the first week of July. If you have not yet filed a Financial Aid Form with the College Scholarship Service, please do so promptly, as it takes CSS four to six weeks to process and forward the forms to the WPI Financial Aid Office. Please contact the iFinancial Aid Office in the lower level of Boynton for any questions you may have.
before that. The passing rate for MA 1(XX) waslowerthanthe average of 1ast year, but he still thinks it was success ful because it included the students whose pre-college math preparation had been incomplete in some way. Minority Recruitment Plan - The Admissions Office is planning a mi nority recruitment plan in conjunction with United Technologies, which is providing funds for the purpose. The program will entail finding 50 minor ity students (Black and Hispanic) in their junior year at high school, who will be nominated by their high school counselors, and screened by the admis sions office, to put through a summer program. The program, which will be 8 weeks long, will consist of group seminars and projects designed for the purpose. There will also be individual academic advising for the students involved to keep them in a competitive program at their high school, since students who successfully complete the summer program and graduate from high school are automatically offered admission to WPI. New Orientation Program - The Orientation program for the class of 1994 will be very different from the experience any of us went through. Nancy Hunter Denney, Asst. Dean of Students, is working with Ann Garvin, Dean of Academic Advising, to create a more comprehensive orientation with the intention of making the transi tion to college easier and smoother. It will be one week long just before col lege starts instead of two days long in May/June. Another difference will be that it will include the international
p la c e a t W P I
students, who usually could not make the regular orientation, and therefore had one of their own. They will also be able to include the staff and faculty in the program and will be better adapted to the fact that 40% of W P I’s students are from outside New England. The program will begin with a lec ture on Getting Started at WPI, a lec ture on WPI traditions, and recreation on the first day. Parents will not be staying overnight since there will not be sufficient space to accommodate all students plus parents at the same time. Nancy Hunter Denney said the new orientation would be divided into five parts: intellectual, vocational, social, emotional, and recreational. The pro gram will have a number of choices at any given time to keep the orientation interesting. It will also have many “fun” events, such as a Comedy Night, a Freshmen Feud, and a Freshmen Picnic on the Quad. On the serious side, they will have a more comprehen sive introduction to computers at WPI and sports, where participation is cur rently low. They will also be improv ing the academic advising program at orientation, besides a couple of voca tional events. International Student Scholars? There will be a new program intro duced next year - The International Scholars Program at WPI. The goal of the program is to graduate profession als better suited to take advantage of the opportunities created by the recent developments in the world, such as the emergence of the Pacific Region as a developed industrial region, the merg ing of the European Economic Com
munity, and the increasing importance of many other countries in world econ omy and politics. The object will be to make the graduates of this program have an understanding of foreign cul tures and value systems by making them familiar with one or more regions in the world. The program will require complet ing the Humanities Sufficiency in a foreign language or culture, or in for eign policy, completing the IQP abroad or spending at least one semes ter abroad, and participating in interna tional events, such as an International Scholar Candidate Seminar where the student meets international students to discuss issues of common interests. Students admitted to the program will be guaranteed an assignment with one of W PI’s overseas project centers or exchange programs, and will have a faculty advisor with special interest in international issues. Admission to the program is competitive, and will be based upon high school grade records, and a separate application for the pur pose. Upon completion of the require ments for the program, the student will designated a W PI International Scholar. Currently, overseas WPI programs exist in Bangkok, Thailand; Limerick, Ireland; London, England; Venice, Italy; Munich, Germany; Stirling, Scotland; Stockholm, Sweden; and Zurich, Switzerland. Project site are planned in Darmadst, Germany; Katami, Japan; Pushkin, USSR (the twin city of Worcester); San Juan, Puerto Rico; Quayaguil, Ecuador; and Tai wan.
Accused firestarters expelled from WPI By Heidi Lundy Features Editor Mark Pawloski and Chris Luczkow, the two students who were arrested on the moming of February 8th outside of Fuller Laboratories for arson, were expelled from WPI. Both students had a choice between a campus hearing board or an adminis trative hearing. If they chose an ad ministrative hearing they would be
admitting their guilt and the board would just determine the appropriate sanctions. Both students chose the administra tive hearing route and on February 22nd and 23rd Mark and Chris were expelled. The board consisted of Tom Thompson, Assistant Dean of Stu dents; Brian Davis as the administra tive representative to the campus hear ing; and Janet Begin Richardson, Dean
of Students. As they had the right, both students appealed the decision to President Strauss. The President upheld the Administrative Board’s decision. Chris and Mark will be tried in Worcester Central District Court on the 10th and 12th of April, respec tively. Both were charged with one count of arson and two counts of burn ing private property.