The Student Newspaper of Worcester Polytechnic Institute
W e a t h e r ... Today: Possible showers. Highs up per 70's. Tomorrow: Cloudy. Highs 70s. Thursday: Fair. High lower 70s.
Tuesday, September 15, 1998
Volume Twenty-six, Number Sixteen
Behind the scenes with Gravity Kills: The Groovy Purple Tour Bus by Sarah Walkowiak Associate Editor & Wes Jones Class of '97 Last Friday, N ew speak inter viewed Douglas Firlcy (keyboards), Kurt Kerns (bass/drums), and Matt Dudenhoffer (guitars) from Grav ity K ills before their concert at WPI. They spoke with us about their thoughts on touring and mu sic. Wes Jones: So, first of all, where did the band name come from? Kurt Kerns: Doug was reading a very long-winded political article in a magazine like Rolling Stone or something, and - you go ahead... Doug Firley: Well, I think I mis read a sentence, because I thought it said ‘and like a gravity kills, he turned a comer and walked away’ or something like that. I’m going, what the hell did that mean? I kept flipping, and I was really pissed off, I was like that didn’t make any sense... what a dumb editor who
didn’t catch that, [as though to the actual e d ito r:]‘C hange that, it doesn’t make any sense’, it was cryptic. Then it just stuck in my head. When the guys called up from work I said, our name is Grav ity Kills , and they said okay, cool. And when I flipped back, it wasn’t there anymore. Sarah Walkowiak: “How long have you guys been together as Gravity KillsT'
KK: About four years. WJ: I know that computers and samples and stuff come into play in both albums, did it really change a lot between the first and the sec ond one? DF: I switched sequencers, so I did switch from ... Unit Pro Per former to Steinberg Cubase [se quencer software]. The graphic in terface is different. “It’s just my perspective, but when I look a page ... in Pro Performer, I see the entire sequence on screen so you can actually see patterns setting up, like
Th e N a t i o n t.««♦ , v-^ffm N EW SPEA K PHOTOS / N A T A L IE C H IN
Gravity Kills played in Alden on Saurday night. visual patterns. In Cubase there’s a second layer, you have an outer layer of the graphical interface. The actual sequence is one layer in, so when you’re on the outer page
BU sexes ratio off national average by Thomas M. Keppeler The Daily Free Press (U-WIRE) BOSTON, Mass. — It’s a great time to be a guy. Well above national averages, Boston University is nearly 58 per cent female, and College Board data show little hope for a tem pering of the statistic. “W e’re getting pretty close to 60 percent female,” said Adm is sions Director Thom as R ajala. “But we’re not recruiting more fe males on purpose.” BU’s female percentage is 5 per cent above the national average for colleges and 10 percent above figures for college-age A m eri cans, officials said yesterday.
This year’s freshman class has about 2,500 women to 1,800 men. Rajala said more women than men apply to BU. “It sucks,” said Kate Murphy, an SFA sophomore. “I went to my French class the other day and there were probably five guys to probably 27 girls.” “I don’t have a problem with it,” said Dave Ezersky, a School of Management sophomore. “If they did admissions right, and it just turned out to be more female, then there’s nothing wrong with it at a ll” Nationwide, about 54 percent of incoming freshmen who took the SAT were female. About 53 percent of SAT-tak-
ers were female in Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey, states with the largest representation at BU. “Simply put, more females than males are going to college,” said M ary Beth B cn n is, a sp o k es woman for the College Board. The College o f Arts and Sci ences is about 62 percent female this year, according to BU spokes man Kevin Carleton, and roughly two-thirds of the College of Com munication is female. But those are nothing com pared to the Sargent College of Health and R ehabilitation Sci ences. That school’s male con stituency comes in at under 18 percent.
you’re not seeing.... KK: It’s the same but what we used to get there was different... SW: So basically, you pick your own samples, you don’t have some other crewmember that does that... DF: No, no, n o ... hours and hours can be spent on sam ple searches KK: Oh my g o d ,... an entire day maybe, just looking for stuff. SW: Do you take one day to pick out samples, and then put them in later... how does that work? DF: Som etim es when y o u ’re working on a song you’11go ‘oh’... y ou’ll rem em ber som ething, a source that you’ve found. I just bought this drum and bass CD and I noticed something really cool, like endings of songs that go ... [makes whooshing sound] and I’ll grab them and put them backwards or something. Or you’ll be listening to music at home and ... make a note to yourself that this will make a cool sample in the future.
(U-WIRE) LEXINGTON, Ky. — It’s a good year to be graduating, labor experts say. “This is one of the best em ploy m ent perio d s sin ce the early 1980s,” said Diane Kohler, senior associate director at the UK Ca reer Center. Kohl called it a “captive market” for students, where com panies
come to campus to interview and find new employees. Chad Sherwood, who graduated last May with a degree in com puter science, reaped the benefits of the booming economy in June. Three months after submitting his resume to the Lexington-based Jockey Club, a leader in the thor oughbred breeding industry, at a Career Center job fair, he received an offer for a programming job with a salary in the mid-$20,000
range. “The job fair was the only use ful thing UK ever did for me,” he said with a laugh. S till, Kohler w arned against complacency. “The student who knows whal he wants, researches the job mar ket and takes advantages of the resources of the C areer Center will find an excellent job market,” she said. John Cockrell, a graduate stu-
Career Fair offers something for everyone by Edward J Cameron Jr. Editor-in-Chief Tomorrow, from noon to 4pm, Harrington Auditorium and Alden Memorial will hold representa tives from more than 120 compa nies for the Career Development Center’s sixth annual career fair. Besides the obvious opportuni ties for graduating students to meet prospective employers, op portunities exist for all students. Juniors can look for co-op and summer employment as well as make contacts for their job search the following year. Sophmorcs and freshmen can also find out about summer and co-op possi
bilities and learn about the career opportunities within their majors. A little preparation can go a long way in making the time spent at the fair as productive as possible. This year’s hot majors arc computer sci ence and electrical engineering. However, there are plenty of com panies for other majors as well in cluding more opportunities for civil engineering. Students planning on attending should pick up a copy of the booklet containing the com pany descriptions, available at the CDC and at the fair, and determine which companies they want to tar get. The CDC has a web page setup with links to the various companies to allow students to find out about
the companies and be able to ask specific questions to the various company representatives. The Career Development Cen ter recommends preparing a oneminute “commercial” about your self to present to company rep resentatives to prom ote your education and skills. The CDC also recommends attending the Corporate Interviewing Skills Panel tonight at 7:00pm in Perreault Hall where representa tives from General Electric and PricewaterhouseCoopers will be on hand to talk about what they look for in potential employees. So copy those resumes and good luck.
h ttp ://w w w .w p i.ed u /A d m in /C D C /C areerfair/
■■~
E
v e n t s ...
See Interview, continued to pg 16
Job market looks promising for grads by Richard Cook Kentucky Kernel
Womens Soccer Now oh a three game winning streak. Check out. the rest of WPI's winning teams.
dent in the Patterson School of D ip lo m acy and In te rn a tio n a l Commerce, was at the Career Cen ter signing up for interviews with recruiters yesterday. He said he is not worried about finding a job despite recent inter national economic problems that have caused fluctuations in the stock market. “I do n ’t think that it has caused problems for the U.S. job market yet, but it could go cither way,” C o ck rell said. “ At w o rst, the economy might slow down a bit.” He’s hoping for a position with the State Department or Commerce Department when he receives his master’s degree in December. Job growth is continuing in the com puter field, said Tony Baxter, a UK computer science professor. Companies like Procter & Gamble often woo potential recruits by taking them out to lunch, and the Computer Science Department re ceives calls every day from com panies looking for personnel. “It’s a seller’s market,” he said. David Royce, director o f gradu ate studies in the College o f Social Work, said there is a myriad of op portunities for social work gradu ates. Those willing to accept the low-pay and often stressful begin ning jobs find lots of flexibility in the job market, he said, from hospi tal or nursing home work to state employment. See Jobs, continued to page 16
Should you goto the career fair? When is it being held who's going to be there?
All you questions and more are answered. See pages 12-13 Salisbury S t Sampler opening soon find out more on page 7 Parent's Day 1998 September 19th Rosh Hashanah (begins at sundown) on Septem ber 20th Global Opportunities Fair takes place a week from today. Check it out!
News............................... 2,5,11 Sports...................................... 3 Arts & Entertainment........... 5,9 Gaming.................................. 6 Club Corner............................6 West Street House....................8 International House...............8 Editorial Cartoon....................8 Commentary.........................8-9 Announcements.................9-15 Classifieds.............................15 Comics.................................. 15 Wlmt's Happening................16