1998 v26 i6

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W e a t h e r ...

The Student Newspaper of Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Today: Mostly cloudy. Highs in the 40s. T om orrow a n d T h u rsd ay : Chance o f rain. Highs in the 40s.

Volume Twenty-six, Number six

Tuesday, February 17, 1998

A pageant...at WPI? Students compete for Mr. WPI by Justin D. Greenough News Editor Last Tuesday, the third annual Mr. WPI Pageant was held in Riley Comm ons and what a sight it was. Eight buff WPI men were present to “strut their s tu ff’ on the runway, competing in wild events such as Formalwear, Question & Answer, Talent and the most popular among the women, Best Legs. T he e v e n t is sp o n so red each year by the Society o f Women En­ gineers, a non-profit educational organization on campus in effort to bring the cam pus together as a c o m m u n ity , S W E P re sid e n t Rosanna Catricala informed News­ peak. W hat’s even more, the event functions as a service to the com ­ munity. “ Votes” for pageant nomi­ nees are taken in the form o f quar­ ters, where a nominee must accu­ mulate six dollars in order to par­ ticipate in the pageant. That money, and any other funds generated by admission to the show are all do­

nated to a local charity. “This is the th ird annual Mr. W PI, and it has gotten better each year. Last year was more organized than the first, and this year was even better than last year,” com ­ m ented Jessica Hopey, SW E Trea­ surer in a pre-show interview. The show itself held an informal atm o sp h ere and drew a diverse crowd from across campus. MC for the evening, Jeevan Ramapriya led th e cro w d th ro u g h the n ig h t’s events with his good-natured, hu­ m orous spirit and a whole lot of W PI pride. During a brief intermis­ sion he com m ented on this year’s event saying, “There are eight guys, all diverse and talented in the show and this is a tough crowd. T his’ll be a tough com petition.” Perhaps the m ost entertaining part o f the evening came when each contestant proceeded to show his talent. Acts ranged from a har­ m onious three m em ber a ’capella act, to a g u itar solo. H ighlight

Cheating in math at WPI by Leann Davis Class o f ‘01 It’s the end o f the term and your exam s are com ing up. You a re d o in g fine in all o f yo u r classes except Calc IV. You know you have a chance o f failing if you do badly on this last exam. You cram as m uch as you can but you are not sure if that will cut it. T he day o f reckoning fi­ nally com es. You receive the test and say “ Oh m y god, I d o n ’t know any o f this” . You have two choices, one cheat and pass the course, or two fail the test and the course w ithout cheating. The academ ic H onesty com ­ m ittee found that it had m ore re­ ports for cheating from the Math Departm ent than from any other. W hy d o people cheat in math m o re o f te n th a n an y o th e r course? I asked a few students here th is q u estio n , w hich will rem ain anonym ous. One student said “ I d o n 't see any point in m em orizing equations when in real life I will alw ay s have a manual in front o f m e” . I asked Professor Joseph D Petruccelli if he thought this to be true and he said, “ A blanket statem ent like th at can be both true and false and anyw here in betw een. In general, I’m not a big fan o f

m em orizing eq u ations. H ow ­ ever, there are som e form ulas you ju st have to know. Typi­ cally, these are form ulas so b a­ sic to the d iscipline that know ­ in g them is in d istin g u ish a b le from know ing the concept they sta n d fo r.” A n o th e r stu d e n t su g g e s te d th a t k n o w in g the equ atio n s does not prove you know the c o n c e p ts and v ise versa. “If you have the calcu la­ tions in front o f you, you still hav e to know how to use it. E quations should be giving to you, that way they test how well you know how to use them and not if you rem em ber them .” A n o th e r s tu d e n t at W PI s ta te d a n o th e r re a s o n w hy people cheat m ore often in math, “ M ath is the h a rd e st su b je c t here at W P I.” A re the m ath teachers being too hard on stu ­ d e n ts ? P ro fessor Jo se p h F ahribach replied to this. “That is strictly an individual th in g .” T here are students here w ho do very well in math. T his proves that the m a th c o u rse s h e re are accom plishable. Scan L evatino, a student here s ta te d a n o th e r re a s o n w hy people cheat m ore often in math at W PI. “T he reason why it See Math, continued to page2

acts fo r th e e v e n in g w ere Kevin Delaney’s rendition o f “I’m too Sexy,” where he p ro ­ c e e d e d to p a n to m im e u n ­ dressing taking a full show er for the audience (com plete with show er-cap and deodor­ ant). An additional chuckle for the evening was provided by E ric C lin to n , w ho c a p ­ tured the audience with his full-dress K ilt costum e and a S c o ttis h - lik e tu n e th a t s o u n d e d r e m a r k a b ly lik e Amazing Grace. “I know what you guys are thinking,” Clinton was quoted as saying on stage, “ .. .and no, th e r e ’s n o th in g on u n d e r­ neath.” NEW SPEAK STA FF P H O T O / JU S T IN D. G R EEN O U G H The evening wound down Chris Neumaier is crowned Mr. WPI to it’s final moments as SWE President R osanna C atricala O th e r c o n te s ta n ts fo r the announced the winners. Out o f the evening included John Casil, Jason nine o rig in a l co n te sta n ts, only Skonieczny, Jurg Zw ahlen, Eric th ree: C h ris N e u m a ie r, John Reynolds and Kevin Delaney, were Clinton, and Mike Wheeler. Female escorts for the evening were: Jes­ chosen for first place, first runnerup and second runner-up respec­ sica Hopey, Angela Ruel, Amber Fuchs. tively. This year’s Mr. WPI, Chris Jud g es for th e even in g w ere Neumaier said o f his victory, members o f various campus orga­ “I guess I’m both flattered and nizations including: AGD - Liz excited. The competition itself was A m aral, R eb ecca H offm an and a lot o f fun and I’m glad I had the Amanda Egan. SW E -Nicole Roy chance to compete with everyone and S te p h a n ie M cG rath . else there. I though the evening was a great time for everyone - Panhellenic Council -Sarah Snow and Julie Rasku. PhiSig- Melanie both the contestants and the crowd. Chabot, Lauren G oodfellow and Congratulations to SWE for a job Megan Sullivan. well done.”

Behind the scenes in NYC by Sarah Walkowiak Associate Editor L a st T h u rs d a y , S o c C o m ’s M SEC sponsored a trip to New York C ity to w atch a taping of “ L a te Show w ith D av id L e tte rm a n ” . A p p ro x im ately 45 WPI stu d en ts attended the tap ­ ing. T he tickets to the taping were g iv e n a w a y at s h o w in g s o f “ G a tta c a ” last Sunday, on the S o c C o m m ra d io s h o w s , and throw n o ff onto the quad. The lucky w inners took a bus to New York to see the taping. B efo re the show , the stu d e n ts were free to roam about the area. Students saw fam ous sites such as Tim es Square, Radio C ity M u­ sic H all, Broadw ay, and the Em ­ pire State Building. At the taping, the studio audi­ en ce w as g iven a b e h in d -th e sc en e s look at the Late Show. (Yes, they really do have those

"applause” signs.) The audience got to see D ave Letterm an, Paul S h a ffe r, th e c re w , and g u e sts (Adam S andler and Jack Hanna) up close. W hen the cam eras were o ff, s tu d e n ts c a u g h t b r ie f glimpses o f them acting like regu­ lar people. D uring “com m ercial breaks” , the C B S orchestra enter­ ta in e d th e g ro u p w hile s ta g e ­ hands prepared for the next se­ quence. T he o rc h e stra gave an excellent perform ance, which is only heard in entirety by the stu­ dio audience. The stage and set were also im pressive — the model o f New York behind D ave’s desk is very intricate and detailed. One o f the biggest surprises was the size o f the set. The Ed Sullivan Theater is m ore com pact than it appears on television. Overall, the trip was entertaining, and a great way to spend the day off. A special thanks goes out to MSEC for sponsoring the trip.

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A&E... Pg. 5 “ While interactive is usually a term left to cd-rom grimes in m ost of our lives, this thrillerm u rd e r-m y ste ry d efi n itc ly makes the most of the word.” -Kimberly Farrell reviews Shear M adness in its 18th year in Boston

C o n t e n t s .. ............ 2 ............ 3 ............ 4

Arts A Entertainment........ 5-7,10 .......9,11 ............ 9

Letters to the E ditor ...... ............ 9 ............ 9 .......... 12 .......... 13 .......... 14 .......... 15 .......... 15 .......... 16 What's Happening ....... .......... 16


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