T h e S tu d e n t N e w s p a p e r o f W o r c e s te r P o ly t e c h n ic I n s t it u t e
Sports update................ 4 The Year in Review........ 12 Turkey dies in crash......14 T u e s d a y , A p r il 2 9 ,
V o lu m e
1997
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Update on the infamous Campus Center What is being done to bring us closer to having one? by Lisa Bartee C o-E ditor-in-C hief
The last thing most of the WPI community heard about the Campus Center was after the February Trustee’s meeting, when it was an nounced that they would set the date for the ground-breaking for the center at their Octo ber meeting. What is being done to bring us closer to having a Campus Center during the interim? A major part of building the Campus Cen ter, a more apt name for which is actually the C am pus and R ecreation C enter, is fundraising. It is important that money be raised so that the cost of the center, approxi mately 16 million dollars according to Janet Richardson, will not have to be applied to debt for WPI. The Capital Campaign is in charge of raising this money. Right now, they are in a “silent phase.” This involves initial fundraising and the setting of a goal of the amount they hope to be able to raise. The time between February and October allows the Campaign time to determine this goal.
Roily Wester, from the University Relations office, is heading the campaign team of fund raisers. This involves creating materials for use in fundraising, such as brochures con taining artist’s renditions and proposed de signs for the Center. It also involves deter-
Right now , they are in a “silen tp h a se.” This involves initial fundraising and the setting o f a goal o f the amount they hope to be able to raise.
mining possible “naming gifts” in the build ing and finding contributors for these gifts. Naming gifts are parts of the building that could be named after significant contribu tors to the Campus and Recreation Center fund. Possibilities include the proposed swimming pool or the student activities sec
WPI/Mass Academy FIRST team earns two trophies in competition by Eric Clinton ‘99, Siu Ng ‘99, a n d Derek Bond ‘99
At the recent national FIRST competition in Florida the WPl-Mass Academy team gar nered yet another trophy. Previously, the WPI-Mass Academy team had won the Proc tor and Gamble Creativity Award at the Johnson & Johnson Mid-Atlantic Regional Competition held at Rutgers University in New Jersey. The most recent trophy from Florida was for being the Number One Seed out of the 113 teams competing. FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is a robotics com petition that pairs corporations and high schools together to design and build a re mote controlled robot to compete in a double elimination tournament. In W PI’s case, a university is teamed with a high school. Three teams compete on the field at a time, and each match lasts only 2 minutes. Every year, the playing field, scoring rules, and gen eral robot size and parts lim itations are changed to yield a whole new competition. The robot limitations this year were similar to last year’s. The initial ‘kit’ of parts was a
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N ew s ................................. 2, 5-7, 17, 18 Arts & Entertainment........................... 3 Sports............................................... 4, 5 This Day in History..............................8 Announcements.......................8,10, 22 Commentary.......................... 10, 14, 15
collection of components. Assorted pneu matics, electronics, and other various pieces of hardware could be used on the robot. An additional budget of $425.00 dollars was also allocated to help build the 120 lb. maximum, 3’x 3 ’ x 4 ’ high robot. This year, the playing field was a hexagon with a goal in the center and adjoining hu man player stations. The goal was free rotat ing on its fixed central axis. The goal’s base was a four foot equilateral triangle topped with three steel pipes joined at the apex some eight feet above the ground. There were three radial pegs on each steel pipe, evenly spaced along the edge of the resulting pyra mid. Teams scored by placing inner tubes on any of the nine pegs or on top of the goal itself. Point totals could be doubled by a vertical row o f tubes on one edge of the goal, and for each on the apex. Robots and human players could do this in any fashion so long as certain playing field borders were not vio lated. WPI-MA’s robot, Extensor, utilized a top hat style scoring platform that was loaded by the human player. It would then
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1997 Senior Class Pledge: Donations appreciated
tion of the building. Although the Campus Center is the admin istrations “top priority”, it will not necessar ily receive the first 16 million dollars raised by the Capital Campaign. Some donors con tribute with the specification that their money go to something particular (for example, fi nancial aid), which may not be the Center. Other donors do not specify a use for their contribution, while others may specify that their money be used specifically for the Cen ter. John Miller, Director of Physical Plant, and Janet Richardson, Assistant VP for Student Affairs, are working with a group to choose an architect for the project. At this time, they have solicited general information from a group of between 15 and 20 possible archi tectural firms. Those firms that were inter ested, approximately 16, submitted informa tion regarding their past experience in de signing buildings of the type needed for the Center. The chosen firm will need to have experience in “phased construction”, a build
This year, The Alumni Office is taking a new approach to generating money for the benefit of the WPI community. Despite WPI’s excellent standing academically, WPI is lack ing in student donations in comparison to other institutions. In fact, in the last couple o f years, the amount of money donated by graduating seniors has been quite disappoint ing indeed, due to the lack of organization in collecting funds from seniors. In order to reverse this trend, the Assistant Director of Annual Giving, Mr. Joshua Pahigian, created the 1997 WPI Senior Class Pledge Fund and a committee to organize its activities last December. Staffed by Mr. Pahigian and nu merous dedicated students, this committee endeavors to raise funds from graduating seniors and to foster a tradition in WPI
See Center, continued to page 6
See Pledge, continued to page 6
by Sany Zakharia Newspeak S taff
Cats stumble over Baby Bruins
During the ’Cats Wednesday night game against the Providence Bruins, IceCat goalie Jamie McLennan stops the attack of Bruin Kirk Nielsen. See page 4 for a complete review of the game.
See FIRST, continued to page 7
Contents West Street House .............................. 14 Computing ......................................... 15 tetters to the E ditor ............................15 Newspeak’s Year in Review ...... 12 & 13 Club C om er ...................................... 20 Police L og ..........................................24 ■ i m " - ......' ' . ".v mm
This week: An encore edition of
N e w s p e a k ’s
Philler
Year in Review
See page 14
See pages 12 8.13