Multicultural Overnight Program seeks hosts Program looks to provide incoming freshmen with authentic college experience
‘So-so script’ coupled with ‘fantastic’ actors
Two-sport star balances school and athletics
Columnist Jessie Wright reviews the latest Main Stage production, ‘What’s a Great Bard’
Senior Rick Massey plays both baseball and soccer for MCLA while also juggling academics
NEWS, page 3
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT, page 6
Student Newspaper of Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts North Adams, Mass.
SPORTS, page 9
The Beacon
SGA President weighs in on club budget process Todd Foy comments on budget cuts and encourages students to support the SGA OPINION, page 12
Volume 75 Issue 6 Thursday march 8, 2012
theonlinebeacon.com
SGA approves club budgets, community meeting to follow
Photo by Ed Damon/Beacon staff
Treasurer Peter Swain adresses the SGA at its February 27 meeting concerning club budgets.
By Ed Damon Editor in Chief
An email exchange following Student Government Association passing 2012-2013 club budgets, involving students and faculty, sparked the creation of a community meeting following spring break. Senior Mike Testa, representing the Society of Physics Students at Monday’s SGA meeting, questioned why the club received less than twenty percent of its requested budget. Treasurer Peter Swain agreed the recommended amount for the club was on the lower end, saying some clubs did have 95 percent of its budget request cut. One of the biggest cuts made was from a trip to a New York City museum. The $210 the club received, Testa said, would barely cover gas. But Swain reminded him that if clubs take school vans, they don’t need to pay for gas. Swain said one hundred dollars for a van driver was allotted, along with enough admit 10 people. After the meeting, Testa sent an email with the subject “Motion to Declare Shenanigans on Final Fiscal Budget 2012-2013” to club
eboards, SGA members, and club advisors. In it, Testa expressed concern that Swain, Rugby Club founder, had a conflict of interest, calling the 88 percent of its requested budget to be “less than just.” Swain fielded questions from students regarding why certain things were cut from requests. Trip meals were one area the BFC cut. Swain said if they had to allocate less funds for something, meal money was one place it would be ok. “It was one of the places that we felt if we had to allocate less funds for something, we thought it would be ok,” Swain said. He added clubs could get together to bring food on trips. “Everybody’s going to have to learn to be more frugal, and to spend the money they’re receiving better.” “A lot of the questions coming out now should have come up during the budget process,” Foy said. Foy said he would veto a vote by the Senate to examine each club’s budget as a whole, saying that would be “a complete revocation” of Swain and the BFC’s work. Foy advised clubs to come forward next year to request supplemental money to cover small
IN THIS ISSUE News
2-5
Op-Ed
12-13
A&E
6-8
Science & World
14
Sports
9-11
Comic & Games
15
Photo Essay
16
Campus Comment 12
amounts. With discussion time dwindling, Foy called a five minute recess, during which he met with Treasurer Swain, Advisor Craig, and Advisor Norcross. Following this, Foy explained how Parliamentary Procedure required them to continue. A motion was on the table to pass the budget could not be made again. “If the Senate votes down this motion, what we’ll be forced to do is go club by club,” Foy said, advising the Senate to pass the budget as a whole. “I know it’s not fair to everybody, I know it hasn’t been an easy budget semester, but it’s going to get better. I know as clubs we can start working together more and get things done cooperatively.” In response to the email exchange, Treasurer Swain has organized a community meeting for all clubs. The meeting will take place on Thursday March 22 at 7 p.m. in Murdock 218. “We feel that the majority of clubs were not given an ample amount of time to express their concerns and comments during the allocation meeting and wish for them to be able to do so,” Swain wrote. “Although SGA has already approved the budget requests there is certainly much more that we can do to help.” During the meeting, SGA will explain the budget process, allow clubs to ask questions they still have, and talk about how clubs can make do with less money. Swain said he would’ve liked to speak with people directly, rather than having the mass email exchange. “A lot of emails were sent around, but I didn’t receive any of them,” he said, adding that it wasn’t constructive. Swain said he hopes students will attend the meeting to express their thoughts out in the open. SGA’s budget totaled $390 thousand, with $244,800 allotted among the 43 clubs, $115,200 to the operating budget, and $20,000 in reserve.
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Iraqi activist talks role of women in war
Photo by Will Casey/Beacon staff
Zainab Salbi speaks with a small audience during a press conference prior to her lecture on Tuesday.
By Andrew Roiter Managing Editor
“In all these journeys, It’s constantly surprising to me what I continue to learn from people I’m there to serve,” author and founder of Women for Women Zainab Salbi said Tuesday night in the Eleanor Furst Roberts auditorium. Salib is an Iraqi activist who came to MCLA as this semester’s Public Policy Lecturer to talk about the role of women in war and the global discourse on the subject. She said that when people discuss war they usually talk about the fighting and the politics. “But that’s not the full story of war,” Salbi said. People need to not just have the frontline discussion, she added, but the backline discussion. Salbi spoke in front of a nearly packed Church Street Center about her experiences in Iraq, Bosnia, Sudan, the Congo and other war-torn countries and regions. She talked about how each person she met taught her something new, and eventually she began asking people what they defined as war and as peace. She was used to getting the concrete answers of war means fighting or war means death. But the answers she got surprised her. One woman told her that war meant wondering if her relatives
were going to die, others said hunger, and anger. And when she asked them what peace meant she got expected answers which were antithetical to the war synonyms. They said, having food, and happiness. But what one woman said stuck out to Salib. “’Peace means toenails’” she said. One woman told Salbi that when there is war she has to constantly move, which caused her toenails to fall off. When there is peace she could stay in one place long enough for her toenails to grow in. She stressed that as a society we need to change the course of discussion about war. That society should be more concerned with the work of fixing infrastructure after the fighting than it is currently. She explained that women are the barometer for societal change. When the people are going to be oppressed, it is usually the women who are oppressed first. When societies progress it usually begins with women gaining more rights of being treated better. Women for Women is an organization focused on supporting women who live in war-torn areas. The organization accepts donations and volunteers. For more information about Women for Women go to http://www.womenforwomen.org/.