Fed Cup Comes to Worcester

Scarlet photographer, Liz Mattarazzo, was at Wednesday’s press conference. The Fed Cup is an international tennis event  that is coming to Worcester February 4-5, at the DCU Center. The U.S. will take on Belarus with matches featuring tennis champion Serena Williams and world No. 3 Victoria Azarenka, of Belarus.

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Love in Ink!

Print your messages of love in The Scarlet!

Show your friends, lovers, roommates, or pets how much you care by printing a Valentine’s Day message to them in The Scarlet for all to see. We will print appropriate messages under 75 words in the annual Love in Ink section of our February 9th issue. Email submissions to Scarlet@clarku.edu by February 6th at midnight!

The state of corporate personhood

Congressman Jim McGovern and other political leaders speak at Clark

by Jeremy Levine
Scarlet Staff

On Monday, January 30th, a panel discussion was held in Tilton Hall to discuss the People’s Rights Amendment, the Citizens Uniteddecision of January 2010, and the overall issue of corporate personhood in the United States.

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Congressman Jim McGovern, the representative for Massachusetts’s third district (which includes Worcester), was on the panel. He has championed the People’s Rights Amendment in the House of Representatives.

Also present were two co-founders of Free Speech For People, an organization devoted to reversing the United States’s position on corporate personhood. They were Jeff Clements, the author of the book Corporations Are Not People, which was sold at the event, and John Bonifaz, who has been a longtime voting rights leader.

State Senator Jamie Eldridge of the Worcester and Middlesex district was also present. Senator Eldridge is a co-sponsor of legislation to lessen the effects of Citizens United in Massachusetts.

Corporate personhood is one of the issues that, because of its seemingly complicated legal structure, is neglected by a large number of people, but as Congressman McGovern said, “You don’t have to be a constitutional lawyer to figure out what’s right and what’s wrong.”

Clarkie by day, DJ by night

DJ Wubson opening for big name in dubstep at the Palladium

By Ashley Klann
Editor-in-Chief

Some may know him as the vocalist from former Clark band The Way Out is Through, or perhaps as the elusive Reverend Robot. Or maybe just as that kid who always wears a tie and/or Kermit the Frog hat.

Photo by Sampson Wilcox

While senior Hudson Eakin has reshaped and rethought his musical outlet, something that’s stayed the same is his determination.

On February 9th, a big name in dubstep will pack the Palladium with glow sticks, tutus, and enough bass to kill your eardrums. Rusko’s coming to town, and our very own DJ Wubson is opening.

He spins at Tammany Hall’s weekly episodes of Elec*tric Tuesdays and has packed house parties around campus. DJ Wubson has also played at Amherst College and Brandeis University as well as the 2011 Burning Man Festival.

So for those of you who haven’t already heard our resident DJ’s bag of tricks, what can attendees expect from this opener?

From the mouth of the man himself – “A scrawny white boy going absolutely apeshit in front of thousands of people.”

As is the case with a lot of dubstep, describing the sound is hard to do. It’s a little bit of everything set over an infectious beat. What DJs do with it is really open to their own devices. Digital music and experimentation is practically endless.

Wubson has described his sound as a mixture of a few schools of electronic dance music.

Editor’s Corner

The stoplight saga continues

By Gwen Walsh
Alumni Editor

Last week I wrote an Editor’s Corner about a stoplight on Highland Street that was not functioning properly and was causing traffic jams in the WPI neighborhood. I retold the story of how I reported the issue to a Becker security officer and he literally slammed his door in my face.

Several days after this incident I noticed the light was still broken so I called the Worcester Department of Public Works (DPW) to file a complaint. A week later I was still sitting at that red light in a gridlock of impatient drivers, so I called again to check up on my complaint. An incredibly curt woman answered the phone and insisted that I had never filed a complaint and that if I wanted to do so I would have to call so-and-so. Which sounds curiously like her job description to me…

Twenty minutes of phone calls with apathetic employees and a slew of voicemails later, I had achieved nothing except raising my blood pressure: the next day the light was still broken. Maybe I’m in the wrong, but this whole situation seems ridiculous. The traffic light was broken, creating a serious public danger and nuisance. I informed several public officials of the problem, but none of them wanted to take accountability for getting it fixed. I wonder how long it would have taken for the light to be repaired without my involvement. I also wonder how long it would have taken for any of the other scores of inconvenienced drivers to step up to the plate. I’m satisfied because I did my part, but what is that worth if the authorities don’t care? And what happens when everyone starts to think “I’m sure someone else will take care of it”? Will anything get done?

News of the Weird

Five articles about snooze news

by Claire Tierney
Scarlet Staff

Snoozy moos

Further research into cows’ sleeping habits has been released. Testing in Germany concluded that cows are able to sleep on waterbeds, among other things. A tire recycling plant in Nova Scotia has sold something called “rubber crumbs” to a Canadian company so they could manufacture 45,000 cow mattresses. These mattresses would soften cows’ sleeping positions.

Dream boat

Pastor Greene of Frostberg, Maryland has been working for 30 years on his three-story high, 400 foot long frame for his “modern Noah’s Ark,” which will be utilized come judgment day. Many citizens of Frostberg are growing frustrated at the never ending construction of the ark, which originally began in 1976 after Greene experienced a series of disturbing “visions.”

Sleep stabbing

A few years back, a Kansas City woman was questioned by police about why she had stabbed her 24-year-old boyfriend. Evidently he was sleep walking, and she feared that he would hurt her if she didn’t wake him up. So she stabbed him in the face. Reportedly, he had just finished urinating in her closet when the stabbing occurred.

CUSC runs into scheduling conflict

Cumulative surplus groups give a progress report

By Jeremy Levine
Scarlet Staff

This week’s student council meeting started with appearances from Project Playground and the Clark Recycling Initiative, organizations that both received funding last semester from the cumulative surplus.

The Recycling Initiative was represented by Jenny Isler. New recycling bins for paper and bottles are in the conference rooms in the UC. Custodians, Clark Eco Reps, and Sustainable Clark have all been involved in the effort, which helped Clark save $4,000 from July to December of last year.

Project Playground is also on the move, and is set to build on April 28th. They are currently looking for volunteers. Opening day of the playground is going to be on May 5th, complete with a community barbeque. They are also working on developing a name for the site.

A committee was recently set up to run the Political Economy for World Systems, an annual social, political, and economic conference that is going to be held at Clark. This committee received $4,000 from the Grants committee to hire Jimmy Tingle, a political comedian.

A long time ago, before 1992, Clark ran an event called the World Community Peace fair. It brought students and peace organizations together to discuss what can be done about various world conflicts. Peace Studies received $1,000 to get a stage for the event, the cost of which would be split with Relay for Life.

And the winner is…

Results for Eco Reps’ Power Down Competition are in

By Michelle Scott
Scarlet Staff

This winter break, while most of us were skiing the Alps, sipping hot cocoa, and reading Heidegger by the banks of the Rhine, Eco Reps were keeping tabs on our dorm rooms. Before vacation they warned us, challenging us with their Power Down competition, to unplug all of our unnecessary electronics before we set sail for home.

The dorm to cut down its electrical usage the most during that month long academic reprieve (as compared to its previous years’ usage) would win a date with a chocolate fountain. Well congratulations, Hughes Hall!

The Hughes winners cut down their average in-school electrical energy emissions by an outstanding 36.23% from last year to this year. Sanford came close, with a 35.14% reduction, and third was Wright, with 23.95%. Sorry to say, Maywood, you came in last with a year-to-year reduction of only 3.04%.

But what does it all mean? I spoke with Corinne Jachelski, the Eco Rep in charge of planning the event and coming up with all these crazy digits and percentage signs. Let’s take a look at, say, Wright Hall. Last year during winter break it used an average of 203.3 kWh a day. During this break it only used 154.6 kWh everyday. 

Clark’s student-run co-op gears up for a fruitful spring

By Ashley Klann
Editor-in-Chief

College campuses are famous for being havens for the many students they accommodate. You live and study there. The library and bookstore aren’t far. Entertainment comes to you, and on-campus dining options are required for new students.

While some Clark students are content going to the dining hall for their regimented meals, many students see the value in going local with their greens… and ditching the dining hall.

Last semester, The Clark Food Co-op held two farm stands on campus which met with success and hoards of hungry students.
Despite their small size, they were persistent in garnering support from students and raising awareness about why local, organic produce is something that should concern everyone.

After the success of last semester’s efforts, the group has spent the off-season planning their growth. At first, the group had their doubts; many student-run organizations fizzle out. People lose interest, and ideas are overthrown during finals week.

Horoscopes

Predicted by Anonymous

Aries (3/21 to 4/19) – If you can’t get the glitter out of your clothes from Euphoria, it’s probably time to give up.

Taurus (4/20 to 5/20) – Careful what you do during the Superbowl or your roommate might shave your head during the night.

Gemini (5/21 to 6/21) –  Don’t bother trying to hide the embarrassing Euphoria pictures from your parents, boss, or significant other… they have already seen them.

Cancer (6/22 to 7/22) – Make sure you get extra dip for the Superbowl for when your guests bring along more people than you had bargained for.

What’s in a name?

Before The Scarlet was The Scarlet

By Ashley Klann
Editor-in-Chief

We’ve been stickin’ it to the man since 1927, but over the decades, The Scarlet has changed in many ways since it was first published. But then again, some things never change. “From the Archives” will be a semester-long look at when things were different and how The Scarlet became what it is today. Clarkies of the past have Spreed like the best of us, enjoyed nice weather on the Green, and sweated to death in the JC, and although we are all intrinsically linked by our alma mater, Clark and its students have changed over the years. And The Scarlet has served both as a record and a changing entity of its own.

As we saw, the student newspaper has always been concerned with feedback and making sure it stays true to its audience. The Scarlet has always encouraged students to participate and believed in upholding the founding reasoning behind journalism: to inform, to be a watchdog, to give people a voice, and to encourage engagement with the community.

Even in the first issue: “Remember, this is your paper!”

In an article titled “Retrospection” (yes, we were already looking back) in the last issue of the old style of printing in 1931, The Clark News called a student newspaper something “of vital importance to an ambitious and aggressive institution…”