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