University of Puerto Rico ready to sign agreement with WPI Thursday by Brian Parker Editor-in-Chief On Wednesday and Thursday o f this week, WPI will be visited by some very spccial guests from the University o f Puerto Rico, who are here to sign an agreement to establish a new center in Mayaguez. The proposed center will be a “bridge” for the students and faculty o f both schools to interact and is the culmi nation o f one and a half years of work on the part of many people at WPI and UPRM. Dr. Stuart Ramos, Chance Ilor o f UPR, Mayaguez: Professor Luenny Morel I Ramirez, Vice Chancellor and Professor o f Chemical Engineering; Dr. Manuel Gomez, Director of the Office o f Re sources for Science and Engineering, Director o f the Alliance for Minority Participation and Coordinator o f Ihe Government o f Puerto Rico for Science and Technology Policy and Dr. Hamid Davoodi, Associate Professor o f Me chanical Engineering, and Co-Director of the UPRM/WPI Center o f Collabora tion in Mayaguez, will sill be given a chance to see the school and its depart
ments during their visit. South and Central America are actively 640, with 322 visiting, affiliated and involved incollaboration with theircounHighlights o f the visit include meet adjunct staffs, serving about 12,000 stu ings with department heads, a presenta terparts at UPRM. The strategic loca dents. tion o f the University has attracted many The school is the largest engineering tion on the "bridge" program for P h .D .’s, a meeting with Hispanic and Puerto Rican graduate and undergraduate students school in the entire Latin America and has the largest concentration o f His from these areas, in fact, more than half Students and the signing of the agree ment itself. The agreement recognizes of the current engineering graduate stu panic faculty with Ph.D. degrees (60%) the shared visions o f the two schools in dents at UPRM are foreign bom. among all engineering schools in Latin Students will benefit from providing high quality edu cation and cncouragment to this new collaboration through Students will benefit fro m this new collabora minority interest in the sci the cultural enrichment that is tion through the cultural enrichm ent tluit is sure ence and engineering fields. sure to follow. Hispanic stu to follow . H ispanic students fro m UPRM will This will be accomplished by dents from UPRM will gain an drawing on the strengths of additional opportunity to com gain an additional opportunity to com plete their both institutions and is ex plete their studies, benefiting studies, benefiting fro m WPI's experience in pected to have a very positive from W PI’s experience in pio pion eerin g project-based education an d m ulti effect on each one. neering project-based education disciplinary research program s. The University o f Puerto and multi-disciplinary research Rico was founded in 1903 by programs. There is enormous an act o f legislative assembly and today enthusiasm on the part o f the UPRM America. The University provides for it has three campuses which are dedi over 20% o f the Hispanic engineering faculty and administration to support work force in the United States and has cated to undergraduate and graduate stud joint research and educational programs ies. Included in the system are also two with WPI. These programs can be used the highest percentage of female stu four year colleges, four two year col dents in science and engineering (35%) to devise a new and innovative model of leges and two technical four year col am ong all science and engineering research and education and joint doc leges, providing a total enrollment of schools in the United States. toral programs not only for the UPRM, 50,000 students. The University o f UPRM serves as a technology trans but for Central and South America. fer center for Central, North and South Puerto Rico at Mayaguez was estab Because of the size of UPRM. it is lished in 1911 and has a faculty of over America and many researchers from guaranteed that students selected tocome
Koehne presents ideas about democracy by Brian Parker Editor-in - Chief On W ednesday, N ovem ber 1st, Rainer Koehne gave a talk on cultural reforms which would enhance demo cratic participation in the legislative pro cess. A native German, Koehne holds degrees in physics, sociology and phi losophy and he is considered an expert in special systems analysis and political philosophy. His lecture opened with the pointing out lhat today, November 7, is
election day and he stressed the need for the development o f procedures to allow adequate citizen input for governmental procedures. Koehne pointed out that the difficul ties involved in such a process are not overwhelming but arc in fact “measur able.” Inadequate citizen representation in government is not a problem which exists in only one country and as he pointed out "what you see is merely the American variant of a situation found everywhere. . .no one group is respon
sible for this problem, rather it is the result o f trends which effect the whole earth. . .it is independent o f social and political variables.” The sense of helplessness that many people find with regard to the political process is common everywhere, said Koehne, resulting in a general negative feeling about politics. There are often things which groups o f people want, things which seem feasible, but they are often not carried out. In many cases they
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Warm faces on a cold day
to WPI will be o f the highest caliber, having participated in U PRM ’s five year degree program. The UPRM students do not have doctoral degrees available to them at UPRM, in many o f the science and engineering disciplines. Collabora tion with WPI will allow them the op portunity to advance their studies, as well as help to establish WPI as a major university for the training of minority doctoral students. The agreement itself establishes a center at UPRM. which will facilitate and coordinate the joint research and education programs and help facilitate faculty and student exchange between the two institutions. They will also draw upon W PI’s experience to encourage local and corporate businesses, federal agencies and other universities to par ticipate and support the development and strengthening of the research infra structure at UPRM. The signing will take place on Thurs day morning at 8:30 in President Parrish’s office and will be immediately followed by a chance for the Hispanic and Puerto Rican students at WPI to meet our guests in Higgins Labs room 102.
It’s never too early to start thinking about your graduate studies by Donna Emma Edzards Associate Editor Every year, the work force competi tion becomes more and more fierce. Therefore, one possibility that one might consider as an undergraduate student is continuing an education through gradu ate studies. On Thursday, November 2nd, the WPI community was presented the opportunities that the WPI graduate program has to offer. Like other graduate schools, the pro gram at WPI is designed as a continua tion of the education one receives as an undergrad. Specialization within a field or a broader depth of knowledge can be obtained through the proper channels of training and preparation. But unlike programs at other schools, the WPI cur riculum encompasses much more, in cluding the combined B.S./M.S. pro gram, off-campus graduate study courses as well as the traditional evening classes. The combined five year B.S./M.S. program is designed foroutstanding WPI undergraduates wishingtocontinue their education towards a master’s degree at WPI as a means o f speeding up their progress. Participants in this program remain registered as undergraduate sta tus until all of their requirements to wards a bachelor’s degree have been fulfilled. Up to 40% of the credits sub mitted for undergraduate candidacy can be used towards the master’s program. These courses must be pre-approved by the registrar’s office as acceptable at the
advanced undergrad or graduate level. Students who intend to apply to this program may pick up an application form which may be found jn the Office of Graduate Admissions. Filed applica tions will in turn be sent to the academic advisor, the Registrar’s office as well as to the head of the department granting the graduate degree. Upon admittance to the program, the student is required to satisfy all prerequisites for the advanced degree and maintain a 2.9 average be fore obtaining that degree. Departments may require a thesis and/or additional course work for the graduate degree. Off-campus graduate studies offer the unique opportunity of accommodating the changing needs of technical profes sionals wishing to further their studies within their field of interest. These courses may be used in fulfilling degree ;tnd residence requirements at W PI. They are open to all interested students, al though enrollments may sometimes be limited. M ore traditionally, the E vening Graduate Program is a part-time pro gram intended for the working indi vidual. It is provided by WPI as a response to the needs of the technical professional working in New' England. Students completing two courses per semester are able to achieve the require ments for the M.S. program within just three years, or the M B A. program in four. Although an application must be submitted in order to obtain an official
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To all student organizations T h e Student G overnm ent A ssociation has sch ed u led two in form ation sessions to explain the budget p ack ages w hich w ere recently distributed. A represen tative from yo u r o rg a nization sh ou ld plan on attend in g to learn ab out the process and have any q uestions answ ered. M eetings are set for the fo llo w in g tim es: N ovem ber 15: 3:30-4:30 pm A K 116 N ovem ber 16: 7:00-8:00 pm A K 116
Last Thursday the Counseling and Student Development Center held an open house at their offices on 157 West Street. Pictured here is the center’s staff, who were more than willing to pour you a warm glass o f cider or answer questions about themselves and their careers. It was a good time for the dozens of people who did show up and if you missed this chance, they would be more than willing to have you just drop by anytime. One of their main points is that they are available to all students for all types of issues, from conflict management to spiritual grow th. This open house was a good chance for many people to meet with the people who provide a valuable resource for the community.
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N ew s .................................................................................................. 2 Sports ..................................................................................................? C C C .................................................................................................?, 6 Arts & Entertainment............................................................ 4, II Announcem ents ............................................................................. 5 Editorial ........................................................................................... 6 Commentary ............................................................................. 6, II \ __________________________________________________________
Contents Student Government Association .............................................. 7 letters to the Editor ...................................................................... 7 Ask CDC ........................................................................................... 7 Club C orner .................................................................................... (i Greek C orner ..................................................................................9 Classifieds ..................................................................................... / / Police iM g ..................................................................................... 12
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