W
The Student N ew spaper o f W orcester Polytechnic Institute
e a t h e r
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l\iesday: W indy and Sunny. High 50 to 55.
Wednesday: Partly cloudy. H ighs in the50s to 60s.
Thursday: Warm. Highs in the 60s to 70s. T u esd a y, M a rch 30,
L E A P a n n u a l
h o s ts f ir s t R e tre a t
1999
V o lu m e T w e n ty - S e v e n , N u m b e r E ig h t
T h e
W
P I G le e
C e n tr a l
C lu b
“ S e x is m
C z e c h s o u t
-
E u ro p e
a n d
G e n d e r R o le s ”
B ill N e ls o n
sp e a k s to W P I
by Christopher B. Stank News Editor
by Sarah Walkowiak Features Editor
On Saturday, March 27, approxi mately one-hundred WPI students attended an all day Leadership Ex perience and Practice R etreat at W orcester’s Crow n Plaza Hotel. The students ranged from fresh man, or first-year leaper’s, to ju n iors, or third-year leapers. The days activities were planned by LEAP co o rdin ato r’s Thom as Balistrieri and Rosalyn Eaton. The d a y ’s activities opened at 9:00am with opening remarks from Provost John Carney III. After Pro vost Camey had completed his re marks, the LEAP students went onto the first group activity o f the day. T h is activ ity w as e n title d , “LeaderShop: A Leadership Simula tion G am e.” This workshop got groups o f students working together to form their vision of a perfect leader. The activity started off with each group receiving $5000 in “donkey” money. Then the groups had ten minutes to decide which qualities, out o f a given list o f qualities, they would purchase. Then they had an o th er tw enty m inutes to p u r c h a s e th e q u a litie s fro m the “LeaderShop.” O nce they com pleted the purchasing the teams had ten m inutes to figure out which qualities they would like to negoti ate for. N ext the g ro u p s spent tw enty m inutes n eg o tiatin g for qualities, they didn’t originally pur chase, but had wanted for their ideal leader. Finally the groups presented the qualities they had picked, and de fended why they made their choices. After the workshop was complete they had a guest speaker who talked about entrepreneurship. The guest speaker who was cho sen was Mr. Larry Abramoff, the Owner o f Tatnuck Bookseller. His entrepreneurship adventure started when he decided to move from New York City, where he was working. He realized that if he was going to succeed, he would have to try new things, and be willing to fail at them. In 1991, his staff at Tatnuck Book seller, expanded from forty to over on e-hu n d red in literally w eeks. Then in 1996, he was approached by WPI to run the campus book store. W hen the bookstore opened it was such a success that his origi nal three-y ear co n tract w as ex tended to a fourteen-year contract. During his years in business he saw management restructuring and turn over. He also stated, “Leaders need to have a vision.” He closed out with a final thought: “The differ ence between a good idea and a
Last Tuesday, Bill Nelson spoke on the topic o f Sexism and Gender Roles. When I first arrived, I ex pected the typical WPI lecture setup - a few rows o f people in nearlyem pty room . W hen I got there, Alden was about 3/4 full, and the remaining seats were filled quickly. The audience was about 90% male. Realizing that this was a lecture on w hat a re ty p ic a lly c o n sid e re d “W omen’s Issues,” I wondered if I was in the wrong building. I checked the flyer again, and confirmed that I was in the right place. Prior to the presentation, it was revealed that most of the men in the audience were Fraternity mem bers, and that the event fulfilled a requirement. This explained the audience, and I was in terested to see how a roomful of guys would react to such a presentation. Bill Nelson was interested as well. He noted that he usually lectured to groups o f w om en, and stated that the circum stances gave him a unique “ o p p o rtu n ity to address men.” His lecture focused on why (statistically) men com m it crime more often than women, and ways to improve relations between men and women. He brought the issue of rape and violence closer to the audience by disproving false myths and stereotypes about rapists and criminals. According to Bill, people who think that rape will never hap pen to them, or their loved ones and friends, are putting them selves in danger. Most people often expect
See LEAP, continued to page 12
C O N T E m S ... N ew s .............................................. 2,3 National N ew s .......................3,6,9 Sports .................................................2 Arts & Entertainment..................5 International H ouse ................... 6 E ditorial .......................................... 7 letters to the E ditor ..................... 7 Club C o m e r ................................... 9 WPI Honor C o d e ......................... 9 Announcem ents ......................... 10 C lassifieds .................................... II Com ics ............................................II Crossword Companion .............II What's Happening .................... 12
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P H O T O CO UR TESY O F C .IX E CLUB
The WPI Glee Club spent their vacation in the Czech Republic (oddly, he couldn’t make the con certs). In four cathedrals through out the Republic, all extraordinary and magnificent in their own right, the men o f WPI performed every thing from the sacred Latin to secu lar works from some of our contem poraries. The conclusion of every performance included, much to the amusement o f the Czech nationals always in attendance, a rousing ren d itio n o f a p o p u lar C zech folksong, sung in Czech. B etw een p erfo rm a n ces, the Club saw what the open country side had to offer. South o f Prague C esk y K ru m lo v , a tow n th a t thanks to preservation laws has changed little in the last five cen turies, showed off its magnificent arch itec tu re and w inding city
by Jeff Haynes President, WPI Glee Club There is an unwritten precedent regarding the Presidential office in the C zech R epublic, form erly C zechoslovakia. Traditionally, Presidents have been theologians, playwrights and also incarcerated before achieving the seat held to day by Vaclav Havel, a former in mate and poet himself. It seems to be something o f a prerequisite to the office. In the spirit of that time-honored tradition, the WPI Glee Club em barked on a spring tour o f the Czech Republic. While avoiding incar ceration (just barely), the Glee Club did on several occasions deliver musical presentations that would have im pressed Vaclav him self
See Glee Club, continued to pg ?
rapists to appear as dark shadowy figures behind a street com er, but the m ajority o f rape victim s are raped by someone they know. B ill’s next question w as then “W hy do men rape w om en?” He was careful to state that “the ma jority o f men are not rapists, but the majority of rapists are m en.” Most ra p ists are m o tiv a ted not by a w om an’s appearance o r overactive horm ones, but by pow er control. Bill com m ented on this myth by making comparisons between the treatm ent of men and wom en in so ciety: “ ...2 2 guys at the line o f scrimmage and I bet nobody says ‘Hey, look at those tight pants - I bet he wants to be raped.” Some of Bill’s comments were out landish or silly, but also useful in showing how ridiculous it is to treat women as objects, and to help the men in the audience see how nega tive treatment and violence affects women. My favorite moment was when he asked for the audience mem bers to send him any pornographic posters, videos, etc. they had so he could bum them. He even offered to send back a videotape o f the burning. Bill also presented some serious material, including a highly unset tling tape of a 911 call o f a woman being burglarized and raped. He used the audience re sp o n ses to show how society has a tendency to accept blaming the victim in rape cases. Throughout the p resen ta tion, he offered a series o f “attitude checks,” such as this one, to make the audience members more aware
See Sexism, continued to page 12
N e w m a n C lu b g o e s t o Y o u v ille H o u s e f o r t h e ir a n n u a l p r o j e c t selves in five cars making their way to Youville House for their annual project. Once there the group re paired and painted two large recre ation rooms, two large hallways and a few doors. All total they gave over a hundred hours of manual labor. They all agreed that it was worth giving up a day o f term break to help people whom are down on their luck right now. More important it helped them to reach out to our fel low human beings and show them that there are people who care about others. Later that night, all sixteen o f the group, one got lost in traffic, went to A rtu ro ’s R estaurant for supper and to celebrate the spirit o f community. Wednesday morn ing found a few o f them back down at the Religious Center to put away all the tools, paint brushes, etc. until they would need them again at the next project. The Newman Club is grateful to all those who volunteered their time
by Amandio Hilario Rua Class o f ‘99 For those o f the Newman Club involved in this year’s Appalachia in Worcester, it meant that keeping an eye on the weather reports on Sunday, March 14th and Monday, M arch 15th. They also received weather updates via e-m ail from Father Scanlon. Luckily for all, late M onday night the e-mail message came that the snow had stopped in W o rc e ste r an d A p p a la c h ia in W o rcester w as g o ing a h ead as scheduled on Tuesday, M arch 16. However, the end o f the storm in Worcester still left five o f the group members stranded in various air ports around the country and they were not able to fly into W orcester until late Tuesday. Despite this, seventeen Newman Club members reported to the Reli gious Center at 9:00am on Tuesday m orning and soon found them
What's Inside
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th e
CO UR TESY O F T H E N EW M A N CLUB
The Newinan Club stands in front of Youville House where they held their annual Appalachia in Worcester project. especially Jen Hardy for setting up the project and Amandio Rua for being crew boss. They know that the people at Youville House arc
S ta g e ...
R e a d e rs
Rob Zombie at the Centrum N a tio n a l N e w s
Brov/n Students protest "Protesters opposed to the bombing in Yugoslavia chanted and waved signs in Kennedy P la z a , s e v e ra l h o u rs a f
te r th re e NATO officials explained the air ra id s to B row n U n iv ersity s tu d e n ts."
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grateful for the caring students at WPI. More than one o f them said “ God Bless you and thanks” as they left them.
R o b Z o m b ie p ro v e d h is skill a s a s h o w m an w hile playing s o n g s from his h o t n e w alb u m , Hellbilly Deluxe. H is s ta g e w a s utterly a m az in g with its sc u lp te d b ack d ro p , th re e h u g e s c r e e n s with v id e o s p lay in g on th e m , s c a n tly c la d d a n c in g w o m e n , m u lti-co lo red fla m e s , a n d of c o u r s e th e 12-foot tall c re e p e r.
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R e s p o n d
Letters to the Editor... "The r e a s o n that w o rd s like 'C h a ir p e rso n ', “P olice O fficer”, a n d 'P o stal W orker' a r e b eing u s e d to d a y is b e c a u s e th e y a r e inclusive of b o th m e n a n d w o m en alike. It d o e s not ex clu d e m en but ra th e r in clu d es w o m en ..."
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