The Student Newspaper of Worcester Polytechnic Institute
I n T h is I ssu e ... L una M u e b l e s ................... 4
Editorial ..........................9
Tuesday, September 23, 1997
Volume Twenty-five, Number Seventeen
120 Companies attend recent Career Fair by A dam Ross Newspeak Correspondent On Wednesday, Harrington Gymnasium was transformed into a giant stage for com panies searching for employees. Represen tatives from General Electric, dressed in bright red shirts, were like giant tentacles snatch ing students from the crowd. Representa tives from Teradyne Corporation were pre pared to give an offer on the spot. The man from Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. caught students’ ears with his pitch, “If it’s gaseous, we make it.” The companies had to compete for atten tion because of the large number of partici pants. For the first time in its five year his tory, the Career Fair expanded outside of Harrington, using Alden Hall for extra space. There were approximately 120 companies, with more than 250 representatives, said Mary-Beth Harrity of the Career Development Center (CDC), which sponsored and orga nized the event. Planning for the Career Fair began last spring with a giant mailing to companies, said Yvonne Harrison, director of the CDC. De tails and logistics were dealt with up to the
by Sarah Walkowiak Newspeak S ta ff
N K W S P E A K S T A F F P H O T O I W O L P W IN S * . 1
Students talk with the various presenters in Harrington Auditorium at last week’s Career Fair.
last moment before activities began on Tues day, September 16. There was a discussion session on Tuesday with company represen tatives about the ethics of recruiting coliege
Homecoming: Return of the Most Spirited Student Contest by Jon Barlow Mascot, most spirited student committee Once again. Homecoming is sneaking up on us. As WPI has never made a tradition of crowning a Homecoming King and Queen, to some people it seemed our Homecoming cel ebration was missing something. Last year, a student committee came up with a new award and presented it during the Homecoming foot ball game. This was the introduction of the Most Spirited Student Award. This award has been brought back by members of the student body who felt that school spirit should be rec ognized at a time such as homecoming. The Most Spirited Student Award - unlike last year - will be given to one female and one male stu dent who embody the spirit of WPI as deter mined by their fellow students. Last year, only organizations were given the opportunity to nominate someone for the Most Spirited Student Award. This year, the commit tee has decided to open nominations to resi dence hall floors as well. All organizations will
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.....2,3 News ............................................... ... 3, 11 Arts & Entertainment................... 4, 5, 14 Advice............................................. ......... 6 Ask the President.......................... ......... 7 Computing ..................................... ......... 8 Student Government Association ......... 8 International House .................... ... 8, 12
Voyager: User-friendly or research nightmare?
receive a nomination ballot in their boxes in the Student Activities Office. Every R.A. will re ceive their floor’s nomination ballot in their R.A. mailbox. Nominations should be made and agreed upon by as many people as possible in each organization and on each floor. All nomination forms are due back in SAO by Wednesday, October 1st at 5 p.m. Because it will take some time to decide on winners, late nominations cannot be accepted. A student committee made up of members of several or ganizations on campus will select the winners from the nominations received. The award will be presented during half-time at the Homecom ing game, where the winners will be asked to lead the crowd in the “E to the X” cheer. The 1997 Most Spirited Student Contest has been made possible by the sponsorships of Tatnuck Bookseller @ WPI, Newspeak, the Stu dent Government Association, the Student Alumni Scx'iety, and Masque. The Most Spir ited Student Committee would like to thank these groups for taking part in the endeavor to recognize WPI Spirit.
graduates into the work force. On Tuesday night there was a reception with student lead ers. Wednesday morning a brunch was held at the Higgins House, where WPI President Edward A. Parrish addressed company rep resentatives. Compliments were given by a representative from Quantum Corporation, who said she goes to a lot of these things, and said, “I was impressed with the nice buf fet and good service.” She also praised the student volunteers who helped set up the See Career, continued to page 3
This year, WPI’s Gordon Library moved their online search system to the web. Some changes to the system have been useful, while others have made searching for infor mation more difficult. For example, upon en tering the entry ‘artificial intelligence’ into the online search database, I received no hits. I had a hard time believing that our library has no material on the subject, so I reentered it as a title. Still no luck. As a last resort, I went through the remote system and found several entries under the old CW/Mars sys tem. Of course, finding a book was much sim pler than attempting to find a magazine or journal article. Two electronic jo u rn al searches resulted in no hits or errors, so I used good-old UNCOVER and found five ar ticles on artificial intelligence. I then had to go to the web journal search to see if the library carried the journals. Despite the diffi culties of basic research, I managed to find some useful features in the new system. Since the system is web-based, users with less computer experience will have an easier time with the graphical interfaces. Although I had a hard time finding hard copies of journals, the See Nightmare, continued to page 3
T&D on the Stodd Quad
Contents Editorial....................................................9 West Streel House .............................. 9, 11 letters to the Editor .................................9 Commentary.................................... 10, 11 Club Corner ...........................................12 Announcements.................................... 14 Classifieds.............................................. 15 Police U tg .............................................. 16
Over 100 Stoddard T-shirts tied, dyed and hanged on the Stodd-Quad Saturday, September 13th. Residents of the Stoddard Complex enjoyed the BBQ provided by DAKA, and the tiedying instructions of Lee Anderson.