Our very own Cabaret opening this weekend by Carlos Zapata Newspeak Staff N o need to pack, B roadw ay is c o m in g to us! You m ight recognize som e o f them from last y ear’s M asque p r o d u c t io n “Jesus C h r is t S u p erstar,” (JC S) others through the O p era recitals, or ju st b ecau se they are in your sam e class. But even if you d o n ’t recognize them , they w ill give you som ething to rem em b er th is S atu rd ay , the 29th when they do th e ir a n n u al C abaret. T hey are A lden V oices. T h is is the second year that A lden V o ic e s , fo rm e rly k n o w n as th e W o m en ’s C horale, has p u t on a show like this. In this cabaret th ey will be sin g in g selection pieces from “ 100 Y e a rs o f B r o a d w a y ,” “ L e s M iserab les” and “The Phantom o f the O p era.” D aw n V aracchi, the m usical d i re c to r o f JC S, and a m em ber o f A lden V oices invited Newspeak to a sneak
V
the rehearsals, they were still striving JC S, co m m en ts that they have been preview o f th e ir act. In a sm all room to get some parts right as well as brain p racticin g sin ce F eb ru ary b u t the in the basem ent o f A lden H all, the 26 storm ing on how to im prove the act. so n g s e le c tio n an d th e p la n n in g m em bers p racticed the act. There, A ccording to M anas, this was a total started much before that. F ran cesca E scoto, ‘98, F undraising change o f style regarding what they One o f the most im pressive things C h air for A lden V o ices, said that were doing before. about the group is its ability to sing as this C abaret is going to be better M anas also com m ented that o v er a group. Throughout the rehearsal, a than last y e a r’s. “The q u ality o f the c o m in g o b s t a c le s h a v e sin g e rs has im p ro v e d a helped the group to com e lot,” she said a lso p o in tin g “ T h ro n g /u n it th e r e h e a r sa l, a f e w m e m b e rs together. “We are co m m u out th at they have m ore a r r iv e d late a n d sa m e left e a rly b a t th e q u a lity n ic a tin g m u c h b e t t e r , ” m e m b e rs n o w , m a k in g o f th e s o u n d w as n e v e r a ff e c te d b y th em . M anas said. A nd they have A lden V oices a more “d i to, because they are no longer verse group o f the fem ale H o w e v e r , a ll th e m e m b e rs w ill g e t th e ir m o standing and singing but on po pulation at W P I.” m en t o f g lo ry . T he w h o le a c t in c lu d e s a lo t of lin e s , s ittin g , m a r c h in g , A ccording to her, th ey solos, c h o r e o g r a p h y a n d so m e a c tin g too. w a lk in g b a c k a n d fo r th , are do in g m ore songs th an crouching in the m iddle o f last y ea r and are co n fid ent the stage and slicing throats. few m em bers arrived late and som e about the turn o u t for th e ir C abaret. H eidi C a lla h a n ,‘98, is extrem ely left early but the quality o f the sound “T his year we w ent w ith A lden, in p syched about it. “ I love it [the was never affected by them . H ow stead o f G o m p e i’s, so we could ac C a b a re t]” she said w ith a sm ile. ever, all the m em bers will get their com m odate m ore p eo p le.” She also D aw n O stenberg, ’97, is also very mom ent o f glory. The w hole act in feels that they are b e tte r organized ex cited about it. “[The thrill] is about cludes a lot o f solos, choreography this y ea r and h av e last y e a r’s ex p eri g ettin g an id ea and putting it into and some acting too. “The most diffi ence b acking th em up. ac tio n .” T hey rehearse 3 tim es a cult part was getting all the parts to W endy M an as, P resid ent o f Alden w eek for about one ho u r and a half. work together,” M anas said. D uring V oices and one o f the lead singers in
“We had to put a lot o f tim e into it,” said C allahan and it d efin itely show s. C allahan also likes the idea o f giving everybody a chance o f d em o n strat ing their talent with the solos, “e v erybody does w hat they are good a t.” A lthough being the only m ale in the room could ju s t about m ake any m ale’s day, listening to them sing is a great experience, and even though the choreography w as not yet in as excellent shape as the sin g in g , the ideas for it w ere great an d p ro m is ing. D uring the rehearsal I un d er stood better O sten b erg ’s reason for jo in in g the group, “ I c o u ld n ’t stand w atching their perform ance and not being part o f it.” I will have to defin itely agree w ith Heidi w hen she assured “ the C ab a ret is going to be great, sp ectacu lar.” O nly one question rem ains, is it g o ing to be better than JC S ? W ith the JCS m usical d ire c to r there and the talent o f the entire group, I am sure it will be a close call.
The Student Newspaper of Worcester Polytechnic Institute
\ N ew spea k
Tuesday , A pril 25 , 1995
Volume Twenty-three, Number Thirteen
West Street closing being sought by Brian Parker Editor In C h ief A fter months o f careful study, WPI is ready to consider subm itting a pro posal to the W orcester C ity Council, w hich calls for the closing o f the sec tion o f W est Street which runs through the cam pus. Specifically, the street w ould be closed from abov;e the Quad parking area to ju st past Salisbury Labs. T his would clearly m ake the cam pus safer for pedestrians, for although there has been no major accident on the street, many consider this to be due to luck or ju st a quick student body. It also would do a lot towards attracting students, faculty and staff to WPI, as current plans look for a tree-lined area, sim ilar to Freem an Plaza. T here has been a lot o f concern w ith the neighborhood’s acceptance o f this idea. B ut there is hope that c lo sin g the street will not o verly in c o n v e n ie n c e p e o p le . C u rre n tly , about h a lf o f the cars w hich travel on W est are W PI-bound. It is those o th ers w ho w ould have to change th e ir d riv in g patterns. W hile the traffic engineers hired
to study the area and d eterm in e the p o ssible effects o f the c lo su re feel that it w ould actu ally red u c e through traffic on m any o f the surrounding streets, a few m ight see an increase. T h ese in clu d e the m a jo r through streets. Park and S alisbury as well as L ancaster, w hich are m eant to handle th e tra ffic , as w ell as D ean and B oynton. O ne current th o u g h t is that W PI “w o uld be w illin g to con sid er im p ro v em en ts to th e street [B oynton], in cluding an ex tra lane to enter S alisbury S treet from Boynton S tre et.” S alisbury and Park w ould see a sm all increase in traffic (2 -3 % ), but this w as incorporated into the study. A re-tim ing o f th e lights at the inter section o f the tw o roads w ould more than im prove the tim e sp en t w aiting in traffic, w hich w ould reduce w ait ing tim es from 33-50% . Em ergency vehicle a ccess is a con cern, b ut the area w ould be designed to allow access and W PI has been told th at “ W est S treet, b ecau se o f its config u ratio n , is not a stre e t used by the Fire D epartm ent for access to any address in th e area.”
C urrently, W PI is circu latin g a petitio n w hich su pports the closure and it is ex pected that there w ill be six to seven h undred sig n atu res w hen W PI is ready to subm it the proposal. A s o f last F riday, aro u n d four-hund red -an d -fifty sig n atu res had been solicited . The proposal is sch ed u led to be s u b m itte d so m e tim e d u rin g th is spring, but W PI w ould like to be sure that this is som eth in g w hich is not only good for the co lle g e , but also fo r the n eighborhood, before going to City C ouncil. As both C lark U ni versity and W orcester A cadem y have closed streets w hich ran through their cam p u ses in the last tw enty years, W PI has also looked to th eir cases as w ell. T here w ere short term concerns w ith changes in d riv in g patterns, but in the long-run, they both ap p ear to h av e b en efited the resp ectiv e in sti tu tio n s. It is hoped that th is w ill be the case with W est S treet as w ell. A m ore attractiv e cam p u s m eans m ore in terest in W PI and th is b rin g s b u si n ess to the n eig hborhood as w ell as th e college.
Campus-wide party hits the Quad by Amy L Plack N ewspeak S taff and QuadFest Committee Co-Chair T his W ednesday, from noon to fo ur-thirty and again from seven to e le v e n P M , th e e f f o r ts o f th e Q u a d F e st C o m m ittee w ill be re w arded, as Q uadFest III: T oucan Jam w ill hit the Q uadrangle in full force. T he daytim e festivities w ill begin at n oontim e, with a cookout served up by IFC and Panhel, with th e veggie kabob expertise of the V egetarian S ociety. Free soda will also be pro vided, as w ell as soft-serve ice cream , co tton candy, courtesy of Phi Sigm a S igm a sorority and sno-cones made by Skull. B ack this year by p opular dem and are A irball and the G yroscope, as w ell as Virtual R eality G am es and
Fun Flicks: m ake your ow n video (and take it hom e fo r free), sp o n so re d by th e S o c ia l C o m m itte e . A dding to the fun will be the R esi dent A dvisors w ith th e ir dunk tank, paid fo r by the O ffice o f R esidential S ervices. N ine R A ’s and IFC P resi dent Ju stin C u tro n i w ill g race the tank betw een noon and 5 :0 0 , so d o n ’t m iss y o u r ch an ce to show yo u r RA w ho’s the boss! S tudents will also get th e o p p o r tunity to be d raw n by a professional caricatu rist, try th eir h an d s at sand art, and get th eir ow n tem p o rary tat toos. All these events are free to everyone. The S tudent A lum ni S o ciety ’s pieeating co ntest is also back this year, and sig n -u p s have a lre ad y begun. The P hiller Phun Phind beg in s to night, A pril 2 5th, with sig n -u p s tak
ing place in F u ller L ab o rato ries o u t sid e o f the Lens and L ig h ts cult film d o u b le feature. O th er co n tests in clu d e a sand castle b u ild in g com p e titio n and a lim bo co n test, both o c cu rrin g at the nigh ttim e festivities. The H aw aiian Luau w ill begin at 7PM , featuring “ D ow n E ast,” a cover b an d w ith a repertoire span n in g from E ag les to G reen Day. B acchus will b e serving up th e ir fam ous m ocktails, an d the P re -M ed /P re -V e t S o ciety retu rn s again w ith their fruit fondue. T he w inners o f all co n tests w ill be an n o u n ced o v er the co u rse o f the e v en in g , and prizes w ill be aw arded. W hat could be m ore fun than a day in the sun, free food, and lots o f co o l stu ff to do? W ell, Q uadF cst IV, I suppose, but we h av en ’t g otten that far yet. C om e on out and enjoy Q uad F est 111: T oucan Jam !
Ta b l e
The Phinal Philler? See page 8 )
Organizational Changes and Related Issues Date: April 17, 1995 To: WPI Community From: Diran Apelian, Provost Earlier this year, President Brown asked each of the officers o f the College to review their respective operations in an effort to reduce administrative overhead. In order for us to attain financial stability and to invest in our future growth, we need to reduce our cost structure by lowering administrative overhead, eliminating duplication, increasing efficiency and, o f course, increas ing revenues. The educational mission o f the College should be our highest priority. Over the last four years, some reduction in the number of faculty has take place (from 207 to 188, approximately 9%); at the same time, our enrollments have kept up and, in fact, we have gained market share during an adverse demographic period. Faculty productivity, measured by any index - courses taught, projects supervised, research expenditures, etc. - has shown a marked increase. In brief, our Faculty have responded valiantly to the revenue squeeze by increasing workload and by demonstrating educational leadership through developing new programs and ensuring that the WPI student’s learning experi ence is innovative, challenging and exciting. Our faculty’s dedication to W PI’s educational mission is one of our most precious assets. President Brown and I agree that any further reduction of our operational expenditures must be derived principally from our support functions (administrative functions) in both academic and non-academic sectors of the College. Such reductions must contribute to lowering bureaucracy, but must also ensure that the “core business” which has retained our market share in difficult times over the last decade is preserved and nurtured. It is the case that in academic affairs significant reduction in our cost structure by eliminating administrative personnel cannot be achieved at once because academic department heads, the Deans and the Provost are tenured members of our Faculty. However, by shifting positions from administration to faculty wherever it is possible and by examining the value added o f our processes, we may be able to increase efficiency and reduce redundant work. The purpose of this memorandum is to inform the WPI Comm unity o f the organizational changes which are being made. 1. The positions of the Dean of Undergraduate Studies and the Dean for Graduate Studies and Research will be consolidated into one position, entitled Dean o f Academic Affairs and will report to the Provost. The intent is to bring increased synergy between Undergraduate and Graduate education. William Durgin will be appointed Dean of Academic Affairs beginning the Academic Year 1995-96. Francis Lutz, who is tenured in our Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, will be on a leave for the academic year 1995-96 to pursue professional interests. 2. Undergraduate and graduate scheduling and registration for all academic activities (including Summer School and projects) during the entire academic year will be combined into one office. The Office o f Project and Enrollment Sen ices, to be headed by Kari Blinn, who will report to the Dean o f Academic Affairs. 3. The Projects Office functions will be redistributed with all current services
See Change, continued on page 6
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N ew s ............................................................................................. 2, 6 Sports ................................................................................................. 3 Reader’s Poll Results ................................................................4, 5 Arts & Entertainment...................................................................7 Announcements ............................................................................. 7 Editorial ........................................................................................... 8 Commentary .................................................................................... 8
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ontents Career Development Center ....................................................... 8 Student Government Association .............................................. 9 Club C orner .................................................................................. 12 Greek C o m er ................................................................................ 13 Classifieds ......................................................................................15 Newspeak H u m or ........................................................................15 Police Ix tg ..................................................................................... 16