President Strauss discussed financial challenges with SGA by Warren Smale SGA President At last Thursday’s SGA meeting, President Strauss gave a brief presen tation on a thought-piece written to promote discussion concerning poten tial strategies to address W PI’s finan cial challenges. With a full Senate and a contingent of interested students present, the President explained the effects of spiraling financial aid costs. For each of the last five years, the Institute has approached the budget ing process with a 1-2 million dollar shortfall. In the past, these deficits have been alleviated through cost-cut ting measures and increased produc tivity. It was of interest to note that the average course load for a professor has increased from three to four courses during one academic year; however, this is in addition to the advisory and professional development responsibil ities of the faculty. Unfortunately, the so-called “ fat” of the 80s has already been trimmed, and for the first time, WPI is faced with the prospect of cut ting into the meat, unless we are able to discover some creative solutions to the increasing burdens of financial aid. This year’s budgeting process has been plagued with the prospects of slashing funding for programs and services— nonetheless creating some tense situa
es of revenue that must be devoted to lished financial aid policy, which last chills up the spine of anyone involved tions throughout the campus commu financial aid. And, as staggering as year enabled us to remain competitive in higher education, particularly tech nity. In these trying economic times, it this problem is for WPI, we have actu for students, will require a 16% in nological higher education. The arti is interesting to realize that WPI has ally been less aggressive in financial crease in institutional cost, to $ 13 mil cle goes on to point out that similar been able to increase its freshmen aid than many of ourcompetitors stress lion, for a 5% increase in tuition price; problems had already forced North enrollment 7% over the last few years, ing an already difficult competitive i.e., a discount of 30.6% on $42.5 eastern, Harvard, Yale, and Brandeis while one of our less successful com position. million in gross tuition revenue. And, to take similar actions. Interestingly, petitors, Clarkson Institute of Tech One approach to this situation would in the current competitive climate, W PI’s experience suggests these sorts nology— NOW Clarkson University, be to increase significantly (say dou there is no reason to believe this situ of expense reduction actions, while has seen a 25% decline in its admis ble) the undergraduate applicant pool ation will improve markedly sions. WPI will weather to make it possible to improve the for the foreseeable future. this storm, as it has always average ability to pay of the matricu Our efforts to deal with this done in the past; however, W P I is fa c e d with the p ro sp ect o f cu ttin g lating class. Some thoughts are pre situation while still making we, as a community, must into th e m eat, u n less we are able to disco v sented here on how we might develop progress on our very ambi explore all possibilities as er so n ic creative so lu tio n s to the in c rea s an integrated marketing plan to ac tious agenda for institutional we look to the future. After ing h a rd e n s o f fin a n c ia l aid. complish that objective under the cat improvement are well docu President Strauss’ presen egories of Name/Organization, Prod mented in the WPI Annual tation, we had a lengthy dis uct, and Pricing. Reports. Specific efforts in cussion concerning the is cluded the Enrollment Management probably appropriate to reduce bureau sues of name/organization, product and Name/Organization Task Force in 1986, development of cracies grown fat during years of plen pricing which follow in the President’s Is it time to formally recognize by the Strategic Plan in 1989 and 1990, tiful resources, will not solve the fun White Paper. If you have any ques name and by organization that WPI is the Marketing Task Force in 1991, the damental tuition/financial aid spiral tions, or would simply like to the ex a university? work of the Blue Ribbon Task Force in that is the root cause o f much of the press your opinions on these important Interestingly, WPI is already con 1992 and 1993, and now the Bartonfinancial distress in American higher topics, feel free to stop by the SGA sidered a comprehensive university in Gillet marketing study in 1993 as rec education today. office and talk with a Senator. You the Carnegie classification. More ommended by the Blue Ribbon Task Moreover, all of the many actions may also choose to send written com over, the breadth and strength of our Force. we have taken in recent years at WPI to ments to sga@wpi.wpi.edu. academic offerings and our faculty, All of these efforts have led to sig improve quality and access, increase “A White Paper for the Presidential our strong graduate and research pro nificant improvements which have productivity, and restrain price, while Forum” February 5, 1994 grams, the presence of the Consor contributed to our consistent ranking successful against their specific objec by President Jon C. Strauss 1/18/94 tium, and the liberal focus of our edu by U.S. News & World Report as the tives, have not affected this fundamen numberone comprehensive university cational paradigm already make us a tal financial aid problem. The prepa Introduction university in all but name and organi in the north. Unfortunately, none of ration for the 1994/95 budget offers a A recent article in the Boston Globe zation. these efforts has provided the key to chilling reminder of the enormity of headlined: “ MIT to cut staff by 400 Continued to page 2 dealing with the increasing percentag the problem. To maintain the estab over four years” is enough to send
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Volume Twenty-two, Number Five
Environmental problems assail WPI by Jo el Waterman,Class o f ’97 and Jesse Zbikowski,Class o f ’97 In a dramatic response to the glo bal ecological crisis that is threaten ing our planet, bold new initiatives are being taken here at WPI to con serve our ecosystem’s diminishing supply of natural resources. Under the direction of Mr. Robert Wilder, programs have been created to ensure that our planet will continue to pro vide conditions necessary for life well into the next century. W hether his efforts will succeed or fail, however, lies largely in the hands of the stu dents themselves. Currently, Mr. Wilder, DAKA’s local manager at WPI, is conducting research to determine the amount of solid waste students produce through undesirable eating habits. “Some of them just take one bite from a piece of pizza, and throw it away,” he ob served. “Weigh the Waste,” DAKA’s ongoing environmental campaign, was created in 1991 to combat these bad habits by making students aware of the problem, then informing them of ways to cut down on the amount of food wasted weekly. This ten-week, nationwide program sponsored by DAKA has been met with both suc
cess and failure. Other colleges have had triumphs, while some have long since abandoned the policy. WPI, however, has seen noticeable chang es in the amounts of food waste since the program was initialized. The new students, however are generally un aware of the waste problems, and the program was designed to educate them. Also, as many of you may have noticed if you dine at DAKA, the white napkins were replaced recently with a brown, recycled napkin. This local program was installed when a nearby recycling company made an offer to supply all of DAKA’s napkin needs. The brown napkins are less expensive than their white counter parts, and DAKA just might have a larger napkin in store for its diners. DAKA, however, does not recycle its outgoing (used) napkins, but the re cycled brown ones will break down faster in a landfill. O ther environm ental programs which DAKA takes part in include recycling the fat from the fryolater through a local company that makes it into lubricants and soap. They have also eliminated the wasteful showplates that held samples from the menu, and the dinner signs are print-
Correction: A photo caption on the front page of the February 8 edition of Newspeak stated that a box, possibly containing a class C substance, was found in the mailroom. In actuality, the sub stance was found outside of the mailroom, in the student mailbox area, across the hall from the mailroom service window. We apologize for any confusion, and would like to thank Office Services for bringing this distinction to our attention..
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ed (on both sides) on recycled paper. If the wasting of food subsides, “prices in meal plans,” says Mr. Wild er, “may actually go down next year,” as a result of lower food costs for DAKA. They hope to cut down the amount of food wasted in a week by one-hundred pounds per week, which isn’t very much, compared to the amount wasted on this planet yearly, but it’s definitely a start. Advice from Mr. Wilder is to just “Take only what you will eat — you can always get up and get more later. It’s an inconvenience now, but it’s much better in the long run...”
NEWSPEAK STAFF PHOTO/JOF. FERRA
Enough already! This sight has become commonplace during the past weeks as Worcester continues the battle with the snow
GMAT takers face essays on exam Writing sample to be introduced in October 1994 The Graduate Management Admis sion Council (GM AC) has announced that, beginning with the October 1994 administration, students taking the G raduate M anagement Admission Test (GMAT) will be required to complete a one hour analytical writ ing assessment which will consist of two essays. According to GMAC, the essays are a response to the increased em phasis business schools are placing on communication skills. “Strong communications skills are critical in the business world; it’s about time the GMAT addressed this issue,” says Brett Gordon, Executive Director of The Princeton Review o f Boston, the nation’s leading test preparation com pany. Students will be given a specific topic for each essay. According to Barbara Hillhouse, a program direc tor GMAC, copies of the essays, as well as the scores, will be sent to
graduate schools. It is not certain, however, what role the essays will play in the evaluation of a prospective student’s application by individual business schools. The essays will be reported as a separate score on the GMAT. The current scoring system for the multi ple choice portion of the test will remain the same. Students will re ceive separate math and verbal scores on a scale from 0-60 and a combined score on a scale from 200-800. The scale for scoring the essays has not yet been determined by GMAC. To accommodate the new essays, the overall testing time will be in creased to four hours from its current three and one-half hours. Presently, the GMAT consists of seven thirtyminute sections: three math, three verbal, and one experimental. With the addition of the essays, each of these seven sections will be reduced to twenty-five minutes.
Hillhouse stated that more specific information regarding the format and scoring of the written test will be available in the GMAT registration and information bulletin which will be released in July. However, G or don believes that this may be too late for some students. He points out, “For those students trying to decide the impact of the writing sample on theirgraduate school application, this information will be released after the June test, which will be the last one without an essay.” Should testers fear? “ T esters shouldn’t stress-out over the essays because they’re incredibly coachable,” Gordon explains. “Historically, es says on other standardized tests have been graded holistically, which means that they’re graded upon a standard set of criteria. What matters is not so much what you write, but how you write it. Just figure out what they want you to do, and then do it.”
Table o f Contents In The N e w s ............................................................................... 2 N ew s........................................................................................2 ,3 Diversity-O pinion...................................................................... 5 Community U pdate...................................................................5 C om m entary..........................................................................6, 7 Student Governm ent Association...........................................7
Club C orner................................................................................ 8 Greek C o rn er.............................................................................. 9 A n n o u n ce m en ts.......................................................................10 Newspeak H u m o r.................................................................... 10 Classifieds..................................................................................I I Police L o g ................................................................................. 12