Student Newspaper of Massachusetts College

of Liberal Arts

North Adams, Mass.

Volume 74Issue 9

For more content,visit us at:

theonlinebeacon.com

Index News 2-3 World News 4 Features 5 A&E 6-8 Sports 9-11 Science 12

Campus Comment 13Commentary 14Editorial 14Comic 15Word Search 15Photo Essay 16

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Trailblazers drop opener to Sage College, 70-67

‘Furthur’ spectacular atTimes Union Square

Sophomore forward Ramon Viches scores 13 points in the loss

Fans in Albany, N.Y. witnessed an amazing show on Nov. 15

Sports, Page 9 Arts and Entertainment, Page 8

The Student Government As-sociation Senate unanimously approved the referendum to gauge the student body’s opin-ion on whether or not to arm the Public Safety officers on Monday.

This decision also struck the proposed third option, which allowed students to abstain on the issue.

Voting will take place on Dec. 6 and 7. A time and place has yet to be determined.

Senator Brendan Peltier sug-gested the voting time to stretch from 8 a.m. until the end of the class day. Peltier and Senator Ja-cob Fennel volunteered to work

all day, both days. Foy discussed the possibility

of working with Robert Redcalf, MCLA’s new web manager, to implement an online vote.

“We’re just exploring it as an option to get students out to the polls better,” Foy said.

Foy explained that students would use their A# in a secure, vote-once system.

Senator Jason Brown, who left early due to prior engagements, left a statement that mentioned his stance on striking the third option:

“I wholeheartedly believe that the best decision this Senate can make is to offer the student body of MCLA a yes or no choice. I believe this is the most effective

and reliable way to assess the opinion of the student body on this important topic.”

Nobody disagreed.In addition, Brown’s statement

urged the SGA to offer addition-al student-dedicated meetings held during a more convenient time when less or no classes are scheduled, such as Common Time. He also supported the publication of readily available neutral information about the topic.

Senator Catt Chaput also sug-gested an SGA hosted Q+A ses-sion.

President Todd Foy applauded the Senate for creating and pass-ing this referendum.

A four-personal panel, moderat-ed by Professor Don Pecor, shared various perspectives regarding po-tentially arming Public Safety with � rearms.

� e panel opened up the Nov. 16 meeting, which attracted about 35 professors, students, administra-tion and community members, by answering directly whether or not Public Safety should be armed. � en, a half hour was devoted to the panel answering questions from the audience.

Gina Puc, who works in the ad-missions o� ce, Commissioner of Public Safety at the North Adams Police Department John Morocco and student Alex Mukendi favored implementing � rearms.

All three shared the perspective that society is becoming increas-ingly violent.

“� ings have changed, not only in the United States, but across the whole wide world,” Morocco said. “People are getting more and more violent.”

Morocco said when he � rst started over 40 years ago, � st � ghts would break out every night.

“Today, the society has moved more and more towards violence today. If you have an argument, if someone brings a knife to a � ght the next person brings a gun.”

Puc said she deals with prospec-tive and students of a “post-Colum-bine” era.

“� ese students had to go through school in times of height-ened school security,” Puc said. She added these students attend high schools with armed campus safety guards and metal detectors.

Mukendi agreed that national events need to be considered, as well local, such as the armed rob-

bery at the Flagg Townhouses last December.

“I think the issues that happened the past few semester are warnings and warnings should be taken seri-ously,” he said. “Student lives were put in jeopardy, and thank God nothing horri� c happened, but what if something had happened?

Mukendi also discussed the op-position, referencing the $25,000 cost implementation and the per-

ceptions associated with Public Safety, as student Barry Sanders mentioned during the question and answer session, “intimidating.”

Professor David Langston, in op-position, disagreed with the notion that crime is on the rise, both lo-cally and internationally. Langston said the Clery Report indicates that violent crime is falling on campus. Nationally, Langston referenced a recent Steven Pinker book stating

that we are “living in one of the least violent time in human history.”

Langston also said an important aspect of a college community should be “dedicated to face-to-face discussion and to debate.”

“Coercive violence, along with the symbols of coercive violence,” Langston said, “are the anti-thesis of what a college or university should be appealing to when facing violations of civil behavior.”

During the question and answer session, the topic of whether hav-ing an armed Public Safety force would make the campus safer was discussed.

“I don’t know if having your of-� cers armed is going to make your campus any safer,” Morocco said. “I know that having your o� cers armed would make a delicate situ-ation or a life-threatening situation less dangerous.”

“Society today dictates, unfor-tunately, this is something that a police o� cer has to deal with ev-ery day,” Morocco said. “He has to carry his gun in order to protect himself, his partner, and the people he’s sworn to protect. Is it going to make the campus any safer? I don’t know. I know that it should be some type of deterrent if anyone wants to come on campus and do something with [a gun].”

SGA approves referendum

Firearm panel convenes

Photo by Dennise Carranza/Beacon Sta� From left: Gina Puc, David Langston, Don Pecor, John Morocco and Alex Mukendi discussed arming Public Safety. Pecor introduced the topic and moderated the event, the others debated.

By John DurkanEditor-in-Chief

By John DurkanEditor-in-Chief

Photo by Brian McGrath/Beacon Sta� Mikaele Maiva and other performers from “Water is Rising” spoke to students about sustainability and climate change at the latest Green Living Seminar.

FOR STORY - SCIENCE, PAGE 12

Above the waves

SGA, continued on Page 2

Ballot to gauge student opinion on arming Public Safety officers scheduled for Dec. 6 and 7, time and place to be determined

For more info visit

theonlinebeacon.com/?s=� rearms

Thursday, November 17, 2011 News theonlinebeacon.com2

“What we were able to just do hasn’t been done in a long time,” Foy said. “I think we all gave back to the students exactly what we [needed to].”

Nov. 16 and 17 meetings

Dean of Students Charlotte Degen said the Nov. 16 and 17 community meetings format change to a panel will support discussion and perspectives, both for and against arming Public Safety.

Both days will feature different panels due to scheduling con-flicts, but the moderator and re-gional expert will likely remain the same, according to Degen.

Extended Lbrary Hours

Secretary Jake Powers said that extended library hours are “in the works.”

He mentioned the possibil-ity of Freel Library opening at 7:45 a.m., fifteen minutes earlier than the current time of 8 a.m.

“[The sub-committee] seems really positive about that,” Pow-ers said.

The Library Advisory Com-mittee, comprised of faculty, Student Trustee Jaynelle Belle-more, Powers and Senator Jamal Brown, also went over strategic planning.

Powers also announced that a video downloading service to incorporate movies into class-rooms is now available at the Freel Library website (mcla.edu/library).

All College Committee update

Public Relations chair Kate Moore said the committee passed new Sociology and Ath-letic Training packages on Nov. 10.

The sociology major now in-cludes a criminal justice minor.

The Just Aging class was also removed because four classes al-ready covered the topic of aging and the class hasn’t been used in several semesters, Moore said.

The Athletic Training package passed includes an emergency medical response course.

RPS seat on its way?

Foy said he discussed add-ing a Residential Program and Services chair to the SGA with Director of RPS Dianne Man-ning and SGA Advisor Jennifer Craig.

The proposed seat would act as a “liaison between RPS and stu-dent government,” Foy said.

Foy said talks have been made to add a student resident to the SGA for about two to three years.

Amending the SGA constitu-tion to add a student resident seat will be further discussed in the spring.

Flu kit drive update

Yvonne Camacho said the Class of 2013 sold 143 flu kits. More flu kits, which contain a disposable thermometer, tea, chapstick, hand sanitizer, cough drops, salt packets, a fe-ver reducer, and facial tissues all packaged into an MCLA mug, are available at SGA Advisor Jennifer Craig’s office inside the Amsler Campus Center, room 318.

Next, the Class of 2013 will sell flowers at the Dec. 5 Harlequin play.

Club constitution updates

Next week, the SGA will vote to accept the constitutions for the Gaming Alliance and the Education Club.

The SGA meets every Monday at 7 p.m. in Murdock Hall 218.

On Tuesday, Nov. 29, students from three classes in the Sociol-ogy Department and one in the Interdisciplinary Department will sponsor a Hunger Banquet for all interested students, facul-ty, staff, and community mem-bers.

This interactive dinner, which takes place every other year, will be held in Murdock 218 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. The entry fee is $1 or one nonperishable food item, which will be do-nated to a local nonprofit food pantry or soup kitchen.

“The goal of the banquet is to demonstrate the social and eco-nomic inequalities surrounding the distribution of resources, including food and water, across the globe,” Dr. Sue Birns from the Sociology Department said.

Birns’ Community Organiz-ing class, Dr. Sumi Colligan’s Culture, Power, and Protest class, Dr. Nancy Muller’s Na-tive American Peoples class, and Dr. Rita Nnodim’s Globalization class have all been collaborating on this event.

“The Hunger Banquet is a fo-rum for students in these classes to share their knowledge about global poverty and inequality, as well as the ways in which people around the world are working to bring about greater equity and justice,” Birns said. “In some ways, it is ‘Occupy Wall Street’ writ large.”

“Participants will be assigned to the upper, middle, and lower classes and will be fed accord-ingly,” said Colligan, a Sociology professor.

Ten people will represent the wealthy class and will receive a full course meal, silverware, and tablecloths. Twenty places will be given to the middle class, who will have chairs and a basic meal. The vast majority of par-

ticipants will sit on the floor and will be fed rice and water, she said.

Students have written stories, which will be distributed to par-ticipants to read as the evening unfolds. There will also be three skits performed by students to demonstrate how people are ei-ther protesting for social change or how poverty and hungry plagues their everyday lives.

“We hope to bring great aware-ness of the magnitude of in-equality both nationally and globally to the community,” Colligan said. “People who suf-fer from inequality aren’t just passive victims; they are actively trying to bring these injustices to the public’s attention to pro-mote change.”

According to the U.S. Cen-sus Bureau, 925 million people do not have enough to eat and 1.4 million people in develop-ing countries live on $1.25 a day or less. Only 12 percent of the world’s population uses 85 percent of its water. The world produces enough food to feed everyone, but many people in the world do not have sufficient land to grow enough food or the income to purchase it.

“The Hunger Banquet is a re-markable event,” Colligan said. “Students have worked excep-tionally hard throughout the semester to bring these issues to the public and become edu-cators for the campus along the way.”

Senior Todd Foy said he at-tended the Hunger Banquet in fall of 2009 and found it to be a moving experience.

“Most of us just ‘think’ or ‘un-derstand’ that we are in a dis-advantaged situation because the media or political pundits say so,” Foy said. “The Hunger Banquet helps us to really un-derstand and see this first hand.”

SGA approves referendumSGA, continued from Page 1 � e following is an unedited

copy of the revised referendum approved by the

Senate on Nov. 14, provided bySGA President Todd Foy.

Referendum on the Issue of Arming Campus Police

Student Government Association (SGA)

December 6 & 7, 2011

To cast your ballot, place an “X” in the box provided next to the statement of your choice. Choose only one or your ballot will be thrown out.

e issue of arming campus police has been discussed throughout the college cam-pus. e MCLA Board of Trustees will now move to vote upon whether or not to arm the campus police. e results of this referendum will be used to convey the student position on this is-sue.

Based on the college cam-pus discussions and infor-mation provided, do you support the arming of the campus police?

Yes, I support the arming of the campus police.

No, I do not support the arming of the campus police.

By Skyla SeamansSenior News Editor

Students sponsor Hunger Banquet to spark awareness

BANQUET, continued on Page 3

Thursday, November 17, 2011 News theonlinebeacon.com 3

Tomorrow Caroline Scully will conclude the Brown Bag Lec-ture series of the semester with a presentation titled “A Survey of Bumblebees in Northern Berk-shire County.”

Previous Brown Bag Lectures have been held in the Smith House, but Scully’s lecture will take place in Sullivan Lounge. The lecture will begin at 3 p.m. and is open to all students.

Scully is the Coordinator of the Berkshire Environmental Resource Center and Chair of MCLA’s Sustainability Commit-tee. She will illustrate her Mas-ter’s thesis research, which she completed at Antioch University of New England, on bumblebees in Northern Berkshire County and where they are found in our landscape.

“In 2008, I found ten different bumblebee species, including Bombus terricola, a bee that was once common but is now rare,” she said. “The talk will also touch on the life cycle of bum-blebees and their importance as pollinators of both food crops and native plants.”

Scully to concludeBrown Bag series

By Skyla SeamansSenior News Editor

Scully will discuss the decline and importance of bumblebees in the Northern Berkshire County

Brown Bag Lecture

Caroline Scully presents:“A Survey of Bumblebees

in Northern Berkshire County.”

Friday, Nov. 183 p.m.

Sullivan LoungeAll are welcome

OccupyMCLA to take advantage of N.Y.C. trip

By Jess GamariStaff Writer

Members of OccupyMCLA are taking advantage of the scheduled bus trip to New York City in De-cember.

Residential Programs and Ser-vices (RPS) and the Student Activ-ities Council (SAC) are sponsoring the trip which is open to all MCLA students to explore the city at their leisure. This could include holiday shopping, a Broadway show, or a chance to experience the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Departure from Montana Street (behind the Campus Center) will be at 8 a.m. on Saturday Dec. 3 and students will depart the city at 7 p.m. sharp. Those wishing to sign up should bring exact change of $16 to Townhouse 89. Angelina Lesniewski is available on First-Class for more details.

The OccupyMCLA members have been taking their own ve-hicles and carpooling to New York City or Boston whenever their schedules allowed for it.

The group was created by senior Walter Bouchard, and is com-pletely student run. With a core group of 7 or 8, however, it is hard to arrange schedules to find one time that works for everyone, said senior Jonathan Logan. Soon after the first general assembly came midterms.

“It’s difficult to be a traveling ac-tivist and student at the same time. It takes time and money for gas or train tickets, and there’s little time for homework. It’s possible, but difficult to maintain both respon-sibilities,” Bouchard said.

Logan has visited the city a few times already and has seen how differently people protest. He said some people play music, while others prefer to march or shout their anger in the streets. The im-portant thing happening is the ex-change of ideas to generate energy and harvest support, he said.

“Some people don’t know why they’re there, they just have a gen-eral sense something is wrong,” he said. “They can’t articulate why.”

Bouchard attended other protest movements in the past, and was inspired to bring that energy back with him. He visited the Occupy Boston site in October.

“It’s easy to stay informed online, but it’s a whole other experience to

see it for yourself,” he said.When in Boston, Bouchard said

there are different ways to get in-volved. Activists can work at the different tents, or be active in solv-ing issues to find methods of pro-testing, some of which include sit-ins at banks like Bank of America or the Federal Reserve.

With the winter months and holidays coming, it is evident that some protestors will want to return home to spend time with their families.

“It will wane a little bit. There will be impulses to spend time with families,” he said. “But there will be some hard-core people tough-ing it out. The idea isn’t going any-where. Come spring or summer, it will bloom again.”

Logan said many people are in-terested, but not as many are pro-active. To fix this, Logan hopes

townspeople and politicians will support future meetings.

On Nov. 15, Williams College sponsored a well-attended Oc-cupy movement information ses-sion at Mass MoCA. Professors of Williams College and community members gave their opinion on the movement thus far.

Bouchard said events like these are important because it gives a chance for people to sit down and share opinions.

“The focal point of Occupy is to brainstorm and get people think-ing about the inequality of the classes,” he said. “It’s a big step to bring it into popular conscious-ness.”

The group primarily communi-cates through Facebook. Anyone interested is encouraged to follow OccupyMCLA for updates and fu-ture meetings.

Photo by Cara Sheedy/Beacon StaffSenior Walter Bouchard helped organize the OccupyMCLA group, which formed in October.

He encourages students to at-tend this event because it edu-cates students about real and specific issues, instead of sup-plying a broad overview.

“I am excited and actually hon-ored to participate in this year’s banquet,” he said. “The issues it focuses on are personal and im-pactful to me.”

Junior Corey Sloane said he has been part of a hunger ban-

quet before and has found the event to be successful in raising awareness and entertaining an audience at the same time.

“Hearing that there are people in the world who live off of less than a dollar a day and then see-ing how many people are sitting on the floor as part of the lower class can really open peoples’ eyes to how the majority of the world deals with poverty,” he said.

Sloane said the stories at this

event give details about more than economic justices, but also gender and racial discrimina-tion and how these people deal with crimes, political corrup-tion, and other social justice is-sues.

Reservations can be made by contacting Dr. Sumi Colligan via FirstClass or by calling 413-662-5472. Those without res-ervations will be admitted on a first come, first served basis.

Students sponsor Hunger BanquetBANQUET, continued from Page 2

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Obama pushes Congress’ deficit panel to act nowWASHINGTON — Sounding

increasingly frustrated as a dead-line for action approaches, Presi-dent Barack Obama accused members of a special congres-sional de cit-reduction panel of refusing to budge from rigid po-sitions and nd a solution to the country’s yawning de cit.

And with Republicans unwill-ing to cooperate on his jobs bill, Obama said it might take a new Congress to get economic growth package done.

“It feels as if people continue to try to stick with their rigid positions rather than solve the problem,” Obama said of the 12 members of the bipartisan de -cit “supercommittee,” spreading criticism among Republicans

and Democrats alike, at a wide-ranging news conference Sun-day night, capping an economic summit in his home state of Ha-waii.

“My hope is that over the next several days, the congressional leadership on the supercommit-tee go ahead and bite the bullet and do what needs to be done, because the math won’t change,” Obama said. “ ere are no magic beans that you can toss on the ground and suddenly a bunch of money grows on trees. We got to just go ahead and do the respon-sible thing.”

Obama spoke as lawmakers on the specially created panel ap-peared deadlocked, with a Nov. 23 deadline fast approaching to nd more than $1 trillion in de cit cuts or see harsh spend-ing cuts triggered for a range of

federal programs including the Pentagon. e president rejected the idea of so� ening the trigger-ing mechanism, as some have proposed, though he stopped short of threatening to veto such a move.

Obama repeated his call for a “balanced approach” that would raise taxes on the wealthy and corporations while also making cuts in entitlement programs and elsewhere.

Obama also defended his poli-cies on Iran, struck back at criti-cism from the GOP presidential eld, and addressed the fate of his stalled jobs bill as Washing-ton politics followed him to Ha-waii, where he’s on the rst part of a nine-day trip aimed at build-ing ties and nding economic opportunities in the fast-grow-ing Asia Paci c.

By Erica WernerAssociated Press

NYPD clears Zuccotti Park of Occupy Wall Street protestersNEW YORK — Hundreds of

police o� cers in riot gear evict-ed dozens of Occupy Wall Street protesters early Tuesday from the park that has become the epicen-ter of the worldwide movement protesting corporate greed.

About 70 people were arrested, including some who chained themselves together, while o� -cers cleared Zuccotti Park so that sanitation crews could clean it.

Police in riot gear lled the streets, car lights � ashing and si-rens blaring. Protesters, some of whom shouted angrily at police,

began marching to two locations in Lower Manhattan where they planned to hold rallies.

Protesters at the two-month-old encampment were told they could come back a� er the cleaning, but under new tougher rules, includ-ing no tents, sleeping bags or tarps, which would e� ectively put an end to the encampment if enforced.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a statement Tuesday that the evacuation was conducted in the middle of the night “to reduce the risk of confrontation in the park, and to minimize disruption to the surrounding neighborhood.’’

He said a� er the cleaning, pro-testers would be allowed to return

but “must follow all park rules.”“ e law that created Zuccotti

Park required that it be open for the public to enjoy for pas-sive recreation 24 hours a day,” Bloomberg said. “Ever since the occupation began, that law has not been complied with, as the park has been taken over by pro-testers, making it unavailable to anyone else.”

Concerns about health and safety issues at Occupy Wall Street camps around the United States have intensi ed, and pro-testers have been ordered to take down their shelters, adhere to curfews and relocate so that parks can be cleaned.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A magnitude-5.2 quake early Tues-day shook eastern Turkey – already devastated by two powerful trem-ors, the Kandilli observatory said.

e latest quake hit Van prov-ince but there was no immedi-ate report of damage or injuries, state-run Anatolia news agency said. Its epicenter was in the vil-lage of Mollakasim, the observa-tory said in a statement.

Previous quakes have turned Van, the provincial capital of half a million, into a virtual ghost town, Gov. Munir Karaloglu said Monday. He called for urgent re-lief aid for survivors.

Last month’s magnitude-7.2 quake and a magnitude-5.7 quake last week � attened some 2,000 buildings, killed 644 peo-ple and le� thousands homeless in the eastern province, where an unusually cold November is forcing survivors to endure even more su� ering.

Very few state-owned build-

ings in the capital survived the quake, Karaloglu told the state-run Anatolia news agency. Many residents have � ed because they fear going back into their homes even if they are not damaged.

“It is a ghost city,” said Karalo-glu. “Almost none of the buildings are in use.”

Karaloglu called on the coun-try to show “even more mercy” in the face of mounting needs, ranging from housing to food and warm clothing.

e remaining homeless were su� ering through unseasonably frosty weather. e Anatolia agency cited weather o� cials as saying Monday that tempera-tures dipped as low as -15 de-grees Celsius (5 degrees Fahr-enheit) overnight in the town of Ercis, which was the worst hit by the rst quake.

Several countries, including the United States and Israel, have sent in tents and prefabricated homes.

New quake hits Turkey

By Colleen LongAssociated Press

Thursday, November 17, 2011 Features theonlinebeacon.com 5

Mary RedstoneFeatures Editor

Gotta Get Down on Black

FridayThanksgiving may not be the

greatest holiday out of the year, nor is it my favorite, but it’s pretty high on my list.

The placing of five days vac-tion is pretty close to perfect - it’s right at that point in the semester where you’ve become so frustrat-ed by work that all you want, and need, is a few days to recharge.

And, what better way to re-charge than spending a day eat-ing an excessive amount of food and sprawling out on the couch to watch all the football you could ever want?

The best thing about this holiday to me is that it can’t possibly be any more commercialized than it already is. It’s a holiday that is sur-rounded by food, so you already have to run to the store and spend money on things. And, unless you count the B-horror movie Thank-skilling, there aren’t any Thanks-giving movie marathons all over the television.

However, Black Friday is slowly becomming a Thanksgiving tradi-tion solely because it falls on the day after.

For those unaware of this un-official holiday, it is the day after Thanksgiving, a Friday, where stores like WalMart and Best Buy have almost obscene sales on ev-erything from televisions to soap.

If you’ve never been to WalMart at 3 a.m. on Black Friday, it’s worth the amusement even if you aren’t buying anything. I went last year, and I stood in line with a friend in the electronics depart-ment watching parents fight over baby clothes and grab wildly at video game consoles.

Watching hordes of people clammor over on-sale electron-ics is the perfect example of what we have become as consumers, which is a sad statement for sure. However, I can’t help but find en-tertainment in the whole idea just because it is so absurd.

Now, I’m not saying this year you won’t find me in lines at stores to take advantage of crazy sales, because I absolutely will be. But, I am not planning all of my shop-ping around this non-holiday. I also plan on doing a bulk of my holiday shopping at smaller stores and places online.

I would advise everyone to do the same. Don’t boycott the big stores, because they have to make a living too, but never forget about the small stores. Sometimes a big store is the only place that has what you need, but a little one can have something you never knew you wanted.

Bowman Darkroom reopens after month of work

The Bowman Darkroom, locat-ed in the lower level between the two lecture halls, recently closed due to technical problems. Stu-dents in the Introduction to Black and White Photography class had to use the Campus Center Dark-room to complete their assign-ments.

George Galli, assistant director of Facilities, said that he worked to solve the problem, complet-ing the work on the neutralizing tank in Bowman last Friday. It re-opened on Monday for a final inspection by the plumbing staff.

“The neutralizing was cleaned and is functioning well,” Galli said.

The Bowman Hall Darkroom is now available for the Introduc-tion to Black and white Photogra-phy students to use.

According to Gillian Jones, the instructor for the class, there was a blockage in the pH neutraliza-tion tank within the sink, which students use for the class. Because of this blockage, water came up from the sinks in the lecture halls and also in the darkroom, flood-ing the darkroom and adjacent lecture halls.

“The stones in the tank have to be properly disposed of and re-placed before the sink can be used again,” Jones said. “While there are hazardous material buckets that hold used or exhausted developer, stop bath and fixer, water for rins-ing film and negatives is flushed down the sink into the tank and treated before being allowed into the regular waste stream.”

The Campus Center Darkroom, located right across from the el-evator on the third floor, was be-ing used by both students of the photography class as well as the members of the Photography Club. Jones said that the Campus Center Darkroom is smaller than the Bowman Hall Darkroom and is not able to accommodate as

many students at one time. “Students were trained in the

Bowman Darkroom and are more comfortable there,” Jones said. “The Campus Center Darkroom is a little difficult to navigate to with all the construction in the Campus Center, but if students take the elevator to the third floor it is right across the hall.”

Kayla Degnan, a student in the Introduction to Black and White Photography class, said moving to the Campus Center Darkroom made things difficult at first, but she became accommodated to the new darkroom after awhile.

“The Campus Center darkroom is definitely smaller, but nonethe-less a darkroom,” said Degnan. “You had to simply look at where things were and it was not much different than the Bowman Dark-room.”

Tyson Luneau, the secretary of the Photography Club, had a dif-ferent view on the extra usage of the Campus Center Darkroom. He said that increased usage of the Campus Center Darkroom has become problematic.

“It is a very small space, so the increased number of users has restricted some of our club mem-bers from being able to do their work,” Luneau said.

The Photography Club has its own materials purchased through their budget, while the Introduc-tion to Black and White Photog-raphy class’ materials are pro-vided by the English department. Because of the unavailability of the Bowman Hall Darkroom, the photography class’s materials had been temporarily moved to the Campus Center Darkroom and kept separate.

“Gillian Jones did bring a box of chemicals to the darkroom for student use. However, this does not guarantee that these students will not use ours, or worse, mix up our chemicals,” Luneau said. “The latter mistake will render our batches of chemicals useless and could potentially affect the development of our film.”

Luneau added that he personally trains every club member about the development and printmak-ing of photos in the Campus Cen-ter Darkroom and the layout and location of materials.

“We have had issues with club members’ film being dropped on the floor and ruined, as well as prints being scattered all over the darkroom,” Luneau said. “There has also been a major issue with excessive messes left in the dark-room. While this is not necessar-ily the fault of the photography class, we did not have these issues prior to their use of our dark-room.”

Jones expressed further uneasi-ness about the Campus Center Darkroom.

“There was some concern that the darkroom was not large enough for the additional traffic caused by my students and that they keep the Campus Center Darkroom clean,” Jones said. “I stressed to my students the im-portance of respecting the Cam-pus Center Darkroom and they are especially sensitive of that.”

Jones stated her students prefer the Bowman Hall Darkroom and that this past summer she reno-vated with new surfaces and ad-ditional equipment. Jones hoped that the Bowman Hall Darkroom would be fixed before the end of the semester so that her students can finish their final portfolios.

“I’m grateful that facilities were able to fix it so quickly,” Jones said.

By Ayaka LanzoniSpecial to the Beacon

Photo by Mary Redstone/Beacon StaffThe neutralizing tank in the sink of the Bowman Darkroom be-came blocked recently, making the room unusable to students.

Campus Center Pool closing affected students and faculty, now open

“I love to swim laps, everyone has their way of exercising and this is mine,” said Ben Jacques, English professor at MCLA who has been deprived of his exercise regimen. “I haven’t worked out since the closing.”

Lately, if you’ve wanted a warm swim in the school pool to escape the colder weather ap-proaching, you haven’t been able to because the pool had been closed for over a month.

“The heater had some age to it, and broke down.” said Jimmy Sumner, second maintenance supervisor. “In order to run a pool efficiently you need to maintain a certain water tem-perature so people can swim in it.”

Adam Hilderbrand, who is in charge of running the pool, said, “The pool’s heater was also effecting the water supply of the campus center. No one had any idea that the pool would be down for this long and it has af-fected my job as well as the life

guard’s.”Austin Bodzioch, a student

at MCLA who signed up for a swimming physical education class, said, “My classes have been postponed for over two weeks. I’m still getting credits, but I’ve really missed a class where I could use my body rather than my mind. It gave me a balance. I’m looking forward to getting back in the water.”

“The plumbers have finally fixed the problem,” said Tom Degray, in charge of the opera-tion of the pool. “The tempera-

ture of the pool is up, and people will be able to swim again start-ing Wednesday, Nov.16.”

The closing has affected many, but seems to have been less of a detriment to one. “I had com-pletely forgotten about the pool, I much rather go there than the gym now,” exclaimed student, Cassandra McMartin, who has been reminded of the pool’s ex-istence.

Jacques is glad to hear of the reopening. “It’s my stress reliev-er, I’ve missed it.”

By Holly JohnstonSpecial to the Beacon

Students in the Introduction to Black and White Photography class shared the Amsler Campus Center Darkroom with the Photography Club until recently

Thursday, November 17, 2011 A&E theonlinebeacon.com6

When Jason Peabody first en-visioned his poetry series, he pictured a small group of poetry fans listening intently while local poets read their inspiring work. Last Thursday, Peabody’s first or-ganized poetry reading was much larger than he expected.

The first reading of the PRESS Poetry series generated such in-terest the event had to be moved from the small space at PRESS on Main Street to Gallery 51 to accommodate the 50-plus crowd that attended the event.

“Having to move because of the number of people was difficult, but it shows that there need to be more [readings],” Peabody said.

The reading began with PRESS manager Melanie Mowinski, whose poems mostly expressed her love of running.

“I have been running more than half my life,” Mowinski told the group before she began to read poems about her experiences running.

“Mad River Press” editor Barry Sternleib read poems that exam-ined the forgiving nature of dogs and children. Much of his poetry also discussed war and peace and their effect on us all. The poetry

editor for Great Barrington based Orion Magazine, Hannah Fries, read a series of poems using the perspectives of women from my-thology and history.

English professor Abbott Cutler rounded out the evening with po-ems about his experience in Bor-neo in the South Pacific, as well as a poem about teaching.

When asked what his favorite moment of the event was, Pea-body said, “As Abbott finished we shook hands and I was in awe of being able to be the first to shake

his hand after he read those po-ems.”

“These interactions between mentors and young poets are what the series is all about,” Pea-body continued. “[Cutler] was still in his poet mindset when we shook hands and I watched him snap out of it. It was inspiring.”

After the event there was a re-ception held back at PRESS. The poets mingled with the audience, signed posters, and talked about their work. Peabody said he wants the reception after the next read-

ing to be in the same location as the reading to make it easier for everyone involed.

The next reading in the series is set for Reading Day on Dec. 15, in hopes to draw out more students.

“After all the work of finals I hope people will come to listen to great poetry and relax before finals,” Peabody said. The reading will include all new poets with a mix of local poets and faculty. Peabody also said the next event will showcase some student poets as well.

Edwin Fitchett, home movie camera in hand, had no plans to get close-ups of his boss that rainy, steamy day in the Philippines 65 years ago. He just wanted to capture the commotion of the Independence Day celebration in Manila.

But the boss was Gen. Douglas MacArthur, supreme commander of Allied forces in the Pacific, and when Fitchett, a junior officer who was off duty, found himself within arm’s length of one of the world’s most recognizable figures, he took advantage.

With his khaki uniform help-ing him blend in with the military photographers in the crowd, the 24-year-old second lieutenant eased his way into the throng of press cam-eramen covering the festivities on July 4, 1946, the day independence was declared. He trained his Kodak Model K on the American general who two years earlier had carried out his famous vow to return to the Philippines.

“I felt a little queasy about it,’’ Fitch-ett recalled recently in the den of his home in Poughkeepsie, in New York’s Hudson Valley. “He could have banished me off to the moon if he wanted to.’’

Instead, he captured rare color footage of a hatless MacArthur, sans his signature corncob pipe and avia-tor sunglasses, chatting with newly elected Filipino president Manuel Roxas and other officials as Filipinos celebrate their first day of indepen-dence from the United States. The scenes are among the highlights

of “Ed Fitchett’s Army Memories, 1945-1946,’’ a 71-minute DVD Fitchett produced from the home movies he filmed while serving in the Pacific at the end of World War II.

Much of his DVD resembles a 1940s movie travelogue rather than a wartime newsreel: young, shirtless American soldiers toss a football on a sunny beach; friendly locals wave from a dugout canoe gliding in front of a jungle waterfall; merchants ped-dle their goods on crowded streets.

But the aftermath of the just-con-cluded war also fills many scenes, from battle-damaged government buildings in a devastated Manila to sunken Japanese ships dotting a harbor in Formosa (now Taiwan). Stored for the past 65 years in the basement of Fitchett’s house, the footage offers a GI’s view of street and country life in the Philippines and Japan not usually seen in official military films from World War II.

“Not many people were interested’’ in seeing his Pacific movies once he returned from the war, said the 89-year-old retired dairy company executive.

There was so much war news that most people had enough of it by this point,’’ Fitchett said. “My stuff didn’t impress them much.’’

Because the U.S. military prohibit-ed troops from having unauthorized cameras in a war zone, such home movie-style films are uncommon, said Seth Paridon, manager of re-search services National World War II Museum in New Orleans.

Black-and-white newsreels of the Filipino Independence Day ceremo-nies exist, said Nick Cullather, asso-

ciate professor of history at Indiana University, but Fitchett’s film is the only color footage of the event he has seen. The film includes a brief glimpse of the U.S. flag being low-ered during the ceremony while the Filipino flag is being raised, an im-age that appears on the Philippines’ 100-peso bill.

With U.S. military censorship restrictions lifted, Fitchett had his camera sent from home, along with any rolls of Kodak color film his parents could find. Soon he was tak-ing the camera along on sightseeing trips to Manila and the Philippines countryside, often in the battalion’s flimsy two-seater planes used as aerial spotters.

His film also includes footage from a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp Fitchett commanded after the surrender. The prisoners included hundreds of Formosans and Kore-ans conscripted into the Japanese military as soldiers and laborers. The footage shows the POWs in their camp and later aboard the U.S.S. John L. Sullivan, which transported them back home.

Press Poetry series opens to packed houseBy Andrew Hodgson

Staff Writer

Kansas schools giving up on music

Rare World War II footage converted to DVD after 65 years

Photo by Cara Sheedy/Beacon StaffProfessor Abbot Cutler reads his poetry in Gallery 51 at the first of the Press Poetry series.

Photo courtesy of ajc.comEdwin Fitchett with his war-time camera

Associated Press

A group of music educators is encouraging grassroots advoca-cy to protect music programs in Kansas schools.

Members of the Kansas Music Educators Association say they are fighting against a steep drop in funding for their programs.

KMEA president Craig Man-teuffel of Hays recently told the state board of education that budget cuts have hurt school districts across the state, al-though some suffered more than others.

He says a 2010 survey conduct-ed by the association found that since 2007, 185 music education positions have been dropped, including 124 positions elimi-nated in the 2009-2010 academ-ic year.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports (http://bit.ly/t9IydG) many of the 190 school districts that responded to the survey also reported reduced travel budgets, increased fees and teachers being asked to teach in subjects outside of their exper-tise.

By Chris Carola Associated Press

Nov. 29 -Williams Clarinet Choir under the leadership of Susan Martula at 5pm.

Nov. 30 -MIDWEEKMUSIC, the midday concert smorgasbord at 12:15pm.

Dec. 1 -Peter Serkin, concert pianist in a solo recital at 8pm.

Dec. 3 -WIPE, Percussion Ensemble in the ‘62 Center at 8pm.

Dec 3&4 -Lessons and Carols with the Concert Choir in Thompson Memorial Chapel.

Dec. 4 -Solo Flute Studio Recital with students of Floyd Hebert at 6:30pm.

Dec. 5 -Taylor Halperin ‘14 jazz pianist with his small group at 7pm.

Dec. 6 -Vocal Studio Recital with students of Kerry Ryer-Parke at 4pm.

Dec. 6 -Trumpet Studio Recital with students of Thomas Bergeron at 7pm.

Dec. 7 -MIDWEEKMUSIC, a tasty midday musical treat at 12:15pm.

Dec. 7 -Jazz and Improvisation Recital with students of Andy Jaffe at 7pm.

Dec. 8 -Small Jazz Ensembles with students of Andy Jaffe at 7pm.

Dec. 9 -Alice Sady ‘14, piano performs Chopin, Brahms, Bach, Beethoven at 5pm

Dec. 9 -Williams Symphonic Winds directed by Heidi Miller 8pm.

Dec. 9 -Chamber Orchestra at Williams in Thompson Memorial Chapel 8pm.

Dec. 10- Piano Studio Recital with students of Doris Stevenson at 2pm.

Dec. 10 -Williams Student Symphony 8pm.

Dec. 11 -Cello Studio Recital with students of Nathaniel Parke at 1pm.

Dec. 12 -Violin Studio Recital with students of Joel Pitchon at 4pm.

Dec. 13 -MIDWEEKMUSIC, a chamber concert of delightful diversity 12:15pm.

Dec. 13 -Jazz Guitar Studio Recital with students of Robert Phelps at 7pm.

Music at Williams releases late-fall schedule

The Williams College Department of Music offers daily concerts between Tues., Nov. 29 and Tues., Dec. 13  on the Williams College campus. These free events are open to the public.

As the days grow shorter and colder, we can all look forward to a feast and some solace before the solstice. Lucky music lovers in the region around Williamstown are again invited to a bumper crop of music. This late harvest includes concerts representing almost every aspect of music at Williams. Whether large ensemble, or small, solo or collective, jazz or classical, there is something for everyone:

Thursday, November 17, 2011 A&E theonlinebeacon.com 7

The last musical most MCLA students saw was probably the “South Park” episode that par-odied Broadway productions: a 30-minute, sexually explicit satire on the subtext most mu-sicals profess through song and dance. Students in the Fine and Performing Arts department will be doing a similar thing with their production of “Uri-netown.” This fall’s Main Stage production opened yesterday and runs through Saturday with two showings that last day.

With the “South Park” episode airing only a few weeks ago and the current financial problems in this country, “Urinetown” is about as relevant as Rick Perry’s “oops” moment last week.

First performed in 2001, “Uri-netown” became well-known with its premise that made de-liberate fun of classic Broadway shows, as well as its direct paro-dies of capitalism, the American legal system, and basic social ir-responsibility. Sound familiar?

The musical follows sev-eral townspeople who endure the consequences of a 20-year drought that has made private bathrooms impossible to main-tain and fund. People now have to pay out of pocket to use lav-atories that are controlled by an unseen mega-corporation. Those who don’t pay are sent to the penal colony known as “Uri-netown.”

“‘Urinetown’ is a fantastic mu-sical,” said junior Jackie Cough-

lin, “not only for the music, but for the fact that it is fantastically hilarious. There won’t be a scene where you don’t laugh.”

Coughlin plays the frustrated-with-life warden of the poorest and filthiest urinal in town who lives to control the public bath-rooms with an iron fist. Cough-lin revels in the fact that she is not alone in playing such com-plex and real characters.

“I’m really proud of the fact that we have an awesome and talented cast,” Coughlin said. “We have fun on stage, and so will everyone else.”

With the Occupy movement still relevant and picking up speed across the country, as well as the race for the Republican presidential candidate getting close, Main Stage’s production of “Urinetown” couldn’t come at a better time. Mirroring the is-sues of today’s society is always amusing (again, South Park), and those who do it with the utmost cleverness are often the funniest. (Book of Mormon, anyone?)

“‘Urinetown’ is meant to make fun of everything around it, even other musicals,” said senior

Sam Cournyn, who plays gan-gly, man-child Tiny Tom. “It’s a satire on both musicals and so-ciety.”

Main Stage is giving students the good old “recession amend-ed” ticket price: free. Students can reserve their free seats by calling the box office at 413-662-5123. There is a showing tonight, Nov. 17, Friday and Sat-urday at 8 p.m. as well as a mati-nee on Saturday at 2 p.m.

James Taylor is out to prove he can do more than write a catchy tune.

The Grammy-winning singer-songwriter is taking up acting after more than four decades in the music industry. Taylor is to play Bob Cratchit next month in a Massachusetts’ theater group’s annual performance of “A Christ-mas Carol.’’

Kate Maguire is artistic directr of the Berkshire Theatre Group. She tells The Berkshire Eagle she had to coax the 63-year-old Tay-lor into taking the role.

Taylor’s wife, Kim, is return-ing for her second year as Mrs. Cratchit. Their two sons are also in the production.

Maguire says she that to per-suade Taylor, she told him how much it meant to her to perform on stage with her own daughter.

The Taylor family has a home in the Berkshires.

James Taylor to act on Colonial Stage

Photo courtesy of starmedia.comJames Taylor will be Bob Cratchit in the Colonial Theatre’s annual production of “A Christmas Carol.”

Associated Press

‘Urinetown’ begins on Main StageBy Nora Weiss

Staff Writer

Photo by Cara Sheedy/Beacon StaffFine and performing arts students will perform the musical comedy “Urinetown” four times from Nov. 17 to 19.

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Durkan’s Pick

Shows to seeto cap 2011With about a month to go until

New Years, if you need that show fix, there’s some awesome options out there.

Disco Biscuits: 12/28, Best Buy Theatre, New York, N.Y., SOLD OUT

Sold out doesn’t mean you can’t get in, but finding someone will-ing to part with a ticket might be difficult.

After a lackluster Identity Fest run, the Disco Biscuits will play for the first time since September on Dec. 26. By Dec. 28, the rust should be shaken off and the dark and dirty Biscuits will take off.

The New Deal: 12/30, Highland Ballroom, New York, N.Y., approximately $29+fees

The three piece electronica/jam band are calling it quits after a 12-year career. And last year, same date and same place, The New Deal played a fun cover show.

Rubblebucket: 12/31, Pearl Street Ballroom, Northampton, Mass., $20 adv.

Amazing performers, close loca-tion and cheap. Solid pick.

Phish: 12/28-31, Madison Square Garden, New York, N.Y.

Go see Phish. Phish rules.

Thursday, November 17, 2011 A&E theonlinebeacon.com8

The place affectionately known to Grateful Dead fans as “The Knick” was full Tuesday night, but not with the lineup of yesteryear beating it on down the line; no, what is now known as the Times Union Center in Albany featured two of the Grateful Dead’s original members with their ever evolving touring band Fur-thur. Featuring Phil Lesh and Bob Weir on their four decade tenure of bass and rhythm guitar, these two lead the band in carrying the sound and the spirit of the San Francisco pioneers hallowed to so many.

From the opening burst of “Here Comes Sunshine” and through its climactic choruses, a set list of mar-vels started to unravel as Phil dragged out the base line into a beautifully tran-sitioned “Row Jimmy” that featured guitarist John Kad-lecik in the spotlight as he tore through a string bend-ing Jerry-esque solo.

John would spend much of the evening wowing the enthusiastic crowd of dead heads with his Garcia mir-roring vocals on classic songs like “Dire Wolf” and the beautiful ballad “Stella Blue.”

The highlight of the first set was Bob Weir taking center stage to sing a mind

rocking “New Minglewood Blues” and again for a bluesy “Loose Lucy” that featured a strong vocal arrangement with backup singers Sun-shine Garcia and Jeff Pehr-son.

Bob and Phil have been performing music on the road for over four decades; since they are pieces of American rock history, it is no surprise how comfort-able they are on stage as the ambiance of their sound and visual displays seem to shine upon them and fill the arena.

Phil Lesh is a steady old war horse; at 71 he still is able to hear those spaces in each song where he can fit in mind blowing scales

and drop his ‘bombs’, while Bob switches out guitars and hacks away at them, his hand meeting every fret at one point or another.

This ability to fill a bottom-less pit of sound is Furthur’s tradmark. Joe Russo drums himself into a constant flow of perfectly placed symbal crashes and drum rolls that sounds at times like the work of two. Songs like “That’s It for the Other One” feature this percussion tornado as a multitude of speed changes and pace changing jams ex-plode into each verse.

Not uncommon to most Furthur setlists were the covers. The Beatles cover of the evening, “Here Comes the Sun,” was a beautiful in-

terpretation as each element of the band rang in at once. Jeff Chimenti added intrin-sic layers of piano and organ, jumping from keyboard to keyboard throughout this and every song. The sec-ond of the evening’s covers “All Along the Watchtower” was Furthur at their finest; Bob’s vocals, Phil’s bass pro-gressions, and Kadlecik and Chimenti’s trade-off solo’s made this Dylan classic a highlight.

And “like an angel, stand-ing in a shaft of light” Bob found himself un-der the ominous blue lights to sing perhaps his finest song. “Estimated Prophet” the mys-

terious, glorious, prophetic masterpiece was brought out to a roar from the crowd as Bob cocked his head up, and from under his gray beard belted out, “My time coming anyday, don’t worry bout me no.” As we rose with Bob to glory, John squeeled out a solo that built anticipa-tion to a peak.

As rainbow strobes shot down on the audience, “Uncle John’s” happy musi-cal demeanor provided a collective sing along to end the show.

An extended encore was presented to the crowd of balding fans who remem-ber the glory days and the dread-headed young faces of those who never were lucky enough to see Jerry Garcia play. “Not Fade Away” tore the roof right off the Knick as the crowd took over singing and clap-ping as the song drifted off. “Brokedown Palace,” one of the Grateful Deads oldest and most beautiful tunes, was brought out as a lullaby farewell for the endearing Albany crowd. “I love you more than words can tell,” Bob sang. if one looked at the faces of the thousands there it was evident; the feel-ing was mutual.

There is a lot to discover with the diversity and different cultures of our peers. From variations on tra-ditions during the holidays to dif-ferent foods that bring families to the dinner table, the Multicultural Student Society (MCSS) continu-ally highlights the importance and fun of diversity here at the College.

“Diversity is important on cam-pus because variety brings some-thing new to students,” said Kayla Hollins, president of the MCSS. “Our campus is a great place to learn new cultures all while creat-ing a new one.”

Creating is important to MCSS, especially when it comes to creat-ing traditions and culture, as well as tacos. Yes, tacos. In celebration of the Hispanic culture and the un-derstanding of the hungry culture of college students, MCSS recently hosted a taco bar. Donations from students were given to Hurricane Irene aid.

“Our club holds multiple events in order to show diversity on cam-pus,” said Co-Vice President Avery Tiner. “We welcome anyone who wants to join and we try to encour-age them to help come up with new

ideas for events.”MCSS has held other events like

its annual “Sushi in Sullivan,” as well the third installment of the an-nual fall pumpkin carving contest. MCSS dives into culture constantly, trying to encourage other students to appreciate a tradition, or activity they otherwise would not have be-come familiar with.

“One of my favorite MCSS events,” Hollins said, “is ‘Uniting MCLA One Journey at a Time’ (UMOJA). It’s usually the first week of April.”

“MCSS hosts a whole week of events that feature diversity. We have a variety of events such as trivia, scavenger hunts, tie dye, and trips to Six Flags. This is a really fun week for us and this year we plan on bringing it big!”

Joining MCSS is just as easy as participating in their events; the group has weekly meetings Mon-

days at 9 p.m. in Sullivan Lounge, according to Tiner.

“Anyone can come to our meet-ings,” she said. “Students can simply attend one meeting to see if they want to join; we don’t pressure any-one.”

Hollins added that every meeting has a theme. The recent meeting’s theme was “Learn a Language with MCSS,” where members gave brief showcases of different languages from a variety of heritages.

“During an open house freshmen year, a previous e-board member convinced me to join,” Hollins shared. “Being half black and half white, I was slightly destined to be a part of multicultural club. I wanted to join because I’m from New York City; the place just oozes culture. I figured some of my experiences at home would help me in the club.”

Members of MCSS see the impor-tance of diversity amongst students on campus and the joy in experi-encing new cultures.

“I wanted to get involved on cam-pus,” recalled Alex Mukendi, co-vice president. “I joined MCSS for two main reasons: one, because I wanted to be involved and two, to contribute to our school’s growing cultural diversity.”

John DemingA&E Editor

Jungle Work

Editor’s Pick

Fall’s finest new releasesThe holidays are coming, and

whether its a present for your folks or something for the ride home,

everyone needs some new music. Here is this weeks pick

from among 2011’s finest releases

By John DemingA&E Editor

Photo courtesy of heyreverb.comBob Weir, rhythm guitarist of Furthur, during a show at Times Union Center Tuesday night.

‘Furthur’ better than ever in Albany

The Goat Rodeo Sessions

Yo-Yo Ma/Stuart Duncan/Edgar Meyer/Chris Thile:

Genre: Bluegrass/ClassicalPrice: $ 11.88Perfect for: Lovers of Country, jazz, Bluegrass and classical music. Also NPR listeners...

Yo-Yo and the gang cover the entire bluegrass genre with this tightly picked and strummed piece of labratory made perfection.

Multicultural Student Society provides fun and diversity

By Nora WeissStaff Writer

“We welcome anyone who wants to join and we try to

encourage them to help come up with new ideas

for events.”

Each time seeing Furthur perform (Tuesday night be-ing my third show) is stun-ning: the versatility of the set list, the old-school musician-ship of Bob and Phil, and the talented group they have as-sembled to accompany them in performing their musical history. It is a continuation of the Grateful Dead, a band that proved versatile through the wear and tear and challenge of life on the road.

This challenge would ulti-mately form different periods of the Grateful Dead, which saw six different keyboard players, and the up and down health and resurgences of their iconic and lovable gui-tarist Jerry Garcia.

When I worked as call screener for the Grateful Dead talk show “Tales from the Golden Road” on SiriusXM it was always interesting to me listening to fans speak of their favorite ‘era’s’ of the Grateful Dead. The majority of emails received by our stations web-site were requests from listen-ers who wanted to hear their favorite live years of their 30 years on the road.

Speaking to some fellows at a show this summer, I found they shared my love for late 80’s Dead featuring Brent Mydland on the keys. While I agreed with these guys, they loved this era because they were there, they were alive, and they followed the dead around to many shows in 1989 and 1990. I am part of a gener-ation of Deadheads who were too young to know who Jerry was when he passed in 1995. We can go see Bob Weir’s band Ratdog, we can go see Phil Lesh’s Phil and Friends, and we could go see 7 Walkers, but the real deal is something we will never have the pleasure of experiencing.

There is an element of sor-row in this for many, but while those golden days are gone, Furthur is carrying on that Grateful Dead tradition better than any incarnation since Jer-ry’s death. This is what is left for my generation, and it is an amazing and heart-warming gift that Furthur provides us, we get to see those great songs we all love in truly their most original vein since.

Thursday, November 17, 2011 Sports theonlinebeacon.com 92011 Men’s Basketball season begins on Tuesday with loss

By Brendan FoleySports Editor

Men’s basketball began their season on Tuesday night with a disappointing loss against Sage College. The non-conference game finished with a score of 70-67.

The Trailblazers took the court with twenty minutes to go before the game started and launched into their warm-up drills. The crowd of students and the great-er MCLA community trickled in to fill up the bleachers, while the speakers blasted them with a playlist that ranged everywhere from Eminem to the Backstreet Boys.

With only seconds to go before their season officially began, the ‘Blazers huddled at mid-court

and rocked and chanted as one, psyching themselves up for the game ahead.

The starting line-up was intro-duced to the roars of the gathered fans, which mixed with the bel-lowing voice of the announcer and the chanting of Sage players in their own huddle, mixed to cre-ate a deafening cacophony.

Finally, the game itself got un-derway, with number five, Ver-non Cross, stepping up to take the opening tip-off.

Sage won the tip-off and pro-ceeded to take an early leave. The visiting college played extremely aggressive basketball, waiting only a few minutes before launch-ing into full-court presses to ha-rass the MCLA players. Both teams struggled to connect with the hoop throughout the night.

The first basket of the game was Sage’s with 18:06 left in the first half. MCLA immediately re-sponded which prompted huge roars of approval from the gath-ered crowd.

Sage took an early lead, and pro-ceeded to play a very physical, in-tense game. They drew numerous fouls and again and again were brought to the free-throw line for penalty shots.

This was probably best repre-

sented when mid-way through the first half, MCLA junior Rich-ard Johnson launched into the air to try and halt a Sage lay-up, only to come down on top of the un-fortunate opponent’s head, lead-ing to two free shots.

The player causing the most trouble might have been the sin-gle smallest player out there. Sage junior Jeff Stopera stands at only five foot six inches, yet through-out the night he used his smaller status to swipe away the ball from the Trailblazers mid-dribble, or to sneak up and cause interceptions without notice.

The Trailblazers were able to early on capitalize on some of Sage’s show-boating. At one early point, two Sage player’s attempted to go for an off-the-glass alley-oop while alone in MCLA’s zone. They failed, and MCLA was able to easily reclaim the ball and take it back up the court for a basket.

Sage continued its aggressive play on the defensive side as well as the offensive, swarming any MCLA player who went for the rebound.

GAMEDAYWith:

Dillon WagerMen’s Trailblazer’s Junior Goal-

tender Dillon Wager has played in thirteen games this season and started in ten of them. Dillon has played for over 1,250 minutes in this season alone and knocked back 68 shots on goal. explains just how he does it in this week’s GAMEDAY:

Before gameday, I like to get my mind right even the night before, when it comes to a game, for my team and for the coaching staff, my mentality is to give everything I have to help secure a victory. So the night before [a game] I go to sleep a few hours earlier than usu-al, to rest my body and thoughts to clear my mind and think about what has to be done the following day.

In the morning I am woken up with a playlist from my iTunes that sets me in the perfect mind-set to close into a competitive day ahead of me, all focus on what-ever team we are playing.

I always shower before a game, no matter what time of day, I just have to feel fresh and clean before

a game. Once I leave my Town-house, the headphones are on. I grab a quick bite to eat and I head to the locker room where its all business.

You will not see me giggling or smiling or talking about the past week of anything tht has hap-pened, all focus on getting the win.

I try to pump the team up pre-game huddle by saying some in-spiritional words letting the rest of the team know how each game is equally significant and to keep your heads in the game no matter what happens throughout.

Photo by Ian Grey/Courtesy of MCLA.eduDillon Wager (#1) stood with the rest of his team at the beginning of the 2011 season.

With eight minutes left to play, a strange, manic energy

took over both the crowds and players

alike.

Starts new season with hard-fought loss against the visiting Sage College in non-conference game

Women’s cross country team ends season at NERC on Saturday

Photo courtesy of MCLA.eduThe 2011 women’s cross country team finished on Saturday.

By Kayla KoumjianSports Writer

Women’s cross country finished their season this past Saturday at the New England Regional Championship at Bowdoin Col-lege.

The team placed 48 out of 51 teams. Freshman Danielle Sylves-ter finished first for MCLA and

261st overall.Head coach, Rob Colantuono,

is very proud of the improvement of all his athletes saying, “I mea-sured this seasons success on how hard they worked and how each player improved since the begin-ning of the season.”

XCOUNTRY, continued on page 10

BASKETBALL, continued on page 10Photo by Dennise Carranza/Beacon StaffThe 2011 Men’s basketball season started with a loss against Sage College.

Thursday, November 17, 2011 Sports theonlinebeacon.com10Women’s cross country races at Bowdoin College

Senior Captain Caitlyn Culver agrees with her coach about the team’s success saying, “The suc-cess of the team went really well. Individually everyone improved from week to week.”

Culver is also grateful for the coaching she received from Col-antuono saying, “His coaching is what made us better runners this year and we all stayed healthy for the whole season which is some-thing that is hard to do for run-ners.”

The team had eight players this year which consisted of two fresh-men, three sophomores, one ju-nior, and two seniors. Eight is the minimal amount of players to have for a cross country team in order to compete.

“We weren’t sure if we were go-ing to have enough girls this year,” said the coach. “We started pre-season with six kids, then two more ended up joining.”

Fortunately for the team, they were able to compete and they grew a very strong bond. “The team chemistry was perfect. We all got along everyday and never had any problems,” explained Culver. “The first day of prac-tice we all clicked and it only got stronger. We are all really good friends.”

The head coach agrees with his captain and enjoyed watching them become closer. “One of the highlights of the season was just watching them grow as friends,” said Colantuono.

During a meet at UMass Dart-mouth, the team had to stay over on a Friday night and drive home the next day. The ride home was supposed to be a three and a half hour drive, but because of a snow storm, it turned into eight hours.

“They had to push the van, but no one ever complained and they

made the best of it,” Colantuono said.

Caitlyn Culver will be graduat-ing in the spring semester and will miss her teammates and coach, but she will also miss prac-ticing.

“Another thing I can honestly say is that I will miss the hard practices,” she said. “ They are aw-ful when you are doing them but when I got done I always felt so accomplished.”

Along with holding great prac-tices, coach Colantuono is doing a lot to turn the program around. “I’m starting to recruit a lot of Berkshire County members,” Colantuono said. “I’m also mail-ing a brochure and a card with a note from the team members.”

Culver is confident in her coach improving the cross country pro-gram. “With coach still being around, the team will absolutely only get better,” she said.

She also went on to say, “His plan is one day for MCLA to win MASCACs. How he trains us and with the recruiting he is going to do, the program will most defi-nitely become bigger and better.”

Coach Colantuono and Cul-ver have a strong belief MCLA’s women’s cross country program will continue to improve and be-come better than it ever has be-fore.

Photo by Ian Grey/MCLA.EDUThe women’s cross country team ran hard in their final meet of the season on Saturday.

Kaitlyn Dano weathers the ups and downs Finishes four years with team proud of accomplishments

By Kaitland HagerSports Writer

Kaitlyn Dano would say that soccer is a larger part of her life. In fact, she would go so far as to say it’s a huge aspect of her life.

“The only reason why I ever de-cided to come to college was so I could play soccer,” Dano said.

An athletic training major who joined the Naval Guard her sophomore year, Dano finished her time as a leader, with MAS-CAC regular season champion-ship title under her belt.

A four-year women’s soccer player, Dano came out of Scho-harie, NY and began her career with the ‘Blazers as a freshman and played in all 18 games that season. She spent most of her time in the backfield, a force against opposing teams. She got her start in soccer much earlier than that, though.

“I’ve been playing soccer since I was nine,” Dano said. “What got me started was my older brother’s coach. He noticed that I was athletic and asked me if I wouldn’t mind playing on an all boys’ team. In my town there wasn’t a girls’ team for my age group.”

Soccer has been there for her from that moment on.

“I have noticed with soccer I get out what I put in,” Dano said.

So Dano put in everything she could and more. Balancing soc-cer, an athletic training major’s schedule and joining the Na-val Reserves in the fall of 2009, Dano had to learn how to give as much as she could to all three major parts of her life. Being a student-athlete is a challenge no matter the standards, but adding the Naval Reserves to her life, Dano had to focus hard on stay-ing on top.

“Being a student-athlete had its ups and downs, but overall it has been good,” Dano said. “It helped me learn things that I could never learn on my own. Especially with my major I have had to learn time management.”

Dano came away from her busy college schedule with a good life lesson: there is more to life than soccer. She still credits soc-cer with getting her to college

though, giving her the chance to learn that lesson for herself.

“If you told me that as a senior in high school, I would have thought you were crazy and said there’s no way I’m going to col-lege,” Dano said.

Though college play is more in-tense, Dano loved the competive-ness of the sport. In a high school system where mostly everyone made the team, Dano enjoyed working hard to earn her spot.

It eventually led a leadership spot on the team in her senior year. Even from the backfield, Dano’s presence and attitude car-ried through the team. She cites it as her biggest accomplishment on and off the field.

“It wasn’t until this year that I realized how much of a differ-ence one person can make on many,” she said. “As a freshman I tended to be shy and I did not want to talk to anyone. But this year, I fell into the type of lead-ership role where I knew others were depending upon me every day.”

Her leadership role might have stemmed from her training in the Naval Reserve. In the fall of her sophomore year, Dano left MCLA for a brief stint to start her boot camp training. She missed playoffs that season and most of her spring semester, but returned to MCLA standing tall-er. The balancing act was a little harder to handle but Dano did it gracefully.

“It’s a lot of traveling and I feel as if I never have a ‘normal’ col-lege weekend. But it’s worth it as I have made numerous friends that would help me with any-thing,” Dano said.

Dano has her future to look for-ward to. The plan tends to change but she wants to focus on finding out what really interests her. One of the upsides to being an athletic training major is that it is part of a growing field and it leaves her options open, especially since she is minoring in biology and coaching.

What she does know is that she likes keeping her hands busy. A bit of a “greasemonkey”, Dano admits that she loves to work on cars. Keeping busy is exactly what she’ll do. In her own words, “How many girls do you know that can do an injury evaluation on you, speak in medical terms, and then be able to change the oil in your car?”

Her well-roundedness will be just another defining factor of her character as she graduates in the spring. It will be another layer of the person Kaitlyn Dano has become in her time at MCLA.

Dano will be able to say that soccer was the only reason she came to college, but it wasn’t the only reason why she left with a degree.

“If you told me that as a senior in high school, I would have

thought you were crazy and said

there’s no way I’m going to college.”

Photo by Dennise Carranza/Beacon StaffKaitlyn Dano has fought hard to be a powerful force on the Trailblazers her entire time on the team.

XCOUNTRY, continued from page 9

“The team chemistry was perfect. We all got along and never had any problems,” explained Culver.

Come in 48th out of 51 gathered teams

Thursday, November 17, 2011 Sports theonlinebeacon.com11

framingham salemworcesterwestfield bridgewatermass. maritimeMCLAfitchburg

worcester westfieldbridgewaterfitchburgframinghamsalemMCLAmass. maritime

Standings(As of Press Time)

Men’s Soccer

Women’s Soccer

Volleyball

westfield framinghamworcesterbridgewater MCLAsalemmass. maritime

8-8-312-7-08-8-210-7-16-7-32-12-15-10-13-12-1

5-1-15-2-04-2-14-2-13-1-31-5-11-5-11-5-0

15-2019-1313-178-22

12-213-170-28

All Conf

13-5-115-3-1 11-7-110-6-2 8-8-17-7-36-10-12-13-0

5-2-05-2-05-2-04-3-03-3-12-3-22-4-10-7-0

All Conf

All Conf6-05-14-23-32-41-50-6

Brendan FoleySports Editor

Women’s Basketball

11/22 @Becker 7 p.m.11/27 Williams 4 p.m.12/2 @Bates 4 p.m.

Men’s Basketball

11/18 vs. Suffolk@Endicott 8 p.m.11/19 TBD @Endicott 4 p.m.11/22 Keene State 7 p.m.

Penn State ProblemsHere’s the thing about the Penn

State scandal: any rational, ethi-cal person will react to the stories of what happened with disgust and shame and anger. It’s just the basic human reaction to the atrocities that were committed and were allowed to be commit-ted.

But let’s all of us be VERY care-ful about how we proceed with the handling of this story. No one wants another Duke’s lacrosse scandal.

There’s an obvious difference, of course. There, the players were completely innocent and were rail-roaded by a crazed DA and a mentally unstable woman’s delu-sions.

Here, with this case, there can be very little doubt that this scumbag is guilty and deserves every measure of punishment that can be dished out. Jerry Sandusky needs to go to jail, and anyone who is found out to have been aware of his actions needs to be canned right out of a job.

But we need to stick to the facts. We need to stick with things that can be proven. Not rumor. Not conjecture. Not “educated guess-es.” Facts. Stone-cold facts.

Because there are kids here. Not just the victims, who don’t de-serve to have to listen to tabloid journalists (or mainstream jour-nalists, for that matter) try to one-up each other with different tales of abuse and violence. But there’s also the students at Penn State, and also the numerous members of the faculty, athletics programs and greater Penn State commu-nity who have nothing to do with the football coaching staff and are as sick and blind-sided as the rest of the country, if not more so.

If something were to happen along those lines here at MCLA, God forbid, I’d know that I wouldn’t want myself lumped in with the perpetrators. I wouldn’t want my school to have it’s name tarnished forever because one teacher or coach was a pervert. The good far outweighs the bad.

Let’s find the guilty, and punish them to every inch of the law we can find. I’ll happily stand in that mob. Heck, I’ll bring the torches and pitchforks. Well, the torches at least, pitchforks are kind of ahrd to come by nowadays, and the economy being what it is…

But let’s leave the innocent out of it. Let’s limit the blast are so that only the truly sick and dis-ingenuous get burned. Anything else would be a miscarriage of justice.

By Bobby BeauchesneSports Writer

Dorothy “Dot” Houston has been on teams her whole life. Whether it is basketball, softball, or field hockey, she has loved the competition and camaraderie. Now, she is on the biggest team of her life.

Houston is the assistant athletic director at MCLA. She works side by side with coaches, players, as-sistants, and administration to help MCLA field competitive teams and develop young minds. Just like a sports team, it takes a concerted effort from every indi-vidual part to produce results.

Houston knows firsthand that being a student athlete is not easy. To compete in college while pull-ing sufficient grades takes great time management and an unwav-ering competitive spirit. College seasons are long and intense, and it can take a toll on the body and mind.

While at Springfield College, Houston played softball and bas-ketball. She knows that playing sports in college is a privilege that only a fraction of kids get to ex-perience. Houston has used her experiences in sports to shape her life and career.

“Sports have allowed me to pur-sue something I’ve always loved. I am very passionate about the val-ues one can receive through sport. Now, personally, it is about health and wellness for life.”

After college, Houston natu-rally wanted to pursue a career in sports. She became a coach and started a family. As her kids began

to grow up, coaching and recruit-ing forced her to be away from home. Also, her husband was looking to attend graduate school in the Albany area. Little did she know, opportunity was about to come knocking.

“I was interested in coaching at the college level – there was a part time coaching position here in softball and basketball.”

Since she loved these sports, and coaching was what she wanted to do, MCLA seemed like a good fit.

At the time, she did not think of being an assistant athletic di-rector. She gained experience at the College, made connection and eventually worked her way up to the position of assistant athletic director. Houston knew that sports at MCLA went much deeper than just the playing field.

“Educating the administration on the values of sport at MCLA and how it can help to recruit, retain and connect with alumni

took some time. I am very proud to see the progress we have made and hope we can continue to make strides in the near future.”

In a few short years, MCLA has added several new sports pro-grams, built a state of the art turf field, and performance on the field is enjoying great success. Houston refuses to take individu-al credit for this.

“This has been a team effort – a team is only as strong as its indi-vidual players. These include cur-rent President Dr. Mary Grant, Dean Charlotte Degen, Athletic Director Scott Nichols, our cur-rent and past coaching staff, ad-missions and most importantly our current and former student-athletes.”

Houston has seen the sports programs grow in on field per-formance as well as in the class-room. The student athletes here have also performed community service in North Adams and the Berkshires.

She counts these as her best ac-complishments while at the col-lege. Her proudest moment ath-letically was watching the MCLA women’s basketball team win the MASCAC Championship in 2010.

Houston enjoys her responsibil-ities at MCLA. She has grown as a person as well as professionally, and she credits this to her posi-tion at the college.

“Through attending conferences and networking you meet some great people who share the same passion and give good advice as you attempt to move forward with your life choices.”

Dot Houston: A Life in Athletics

Men’s basketball loses season opener against aggresive Sage team

With eight minutes left in play, a strange, manic energy began to take over both the crowds and players alike. There was no way of telling where it began. Suddenly, while the players on the court were trying to stop a Sage offen-sive push, the bench began a cheer of defense, which fed into the crowd who began to cheer “DE-FENSE! DEFENSE!” again and again and louder each time.

The Trailblazers on the court took charge, eating up the differ-ence to come closer and closer to taking the lead for the first time all night.

When sophomore Mitch Scace drilled a three, the crowd went into hysterics. They cheered even louder only seconds later when sophomore Vernon Cross drained another three, putting the ‘Blazers up for the first time all game, 26-25.

MCLA remained in control for the rest of the first half, finishing the half with a five-point lead of 39-34.

They remained on top for much of the second half as well, at one

point leading by as much as eight points with only seven minutes to go.

But Sage refused to give any cor-ner, and embarked on a last min-ute run, scoring 14 points to the

Trailblazers two. A final salvo of baskets by the Trailblazers was not enough to make up the difference. The men’s Trailblazers will next play in a tournament at Endicott College. Their first opponent in

the tournament will be Suffolk College. MASCAC conference play will not begin in earnest until January.

BASKETBALL, continued from page 10

Photo by Dennise Carranza/Beacon StaffConnell Brown went head-to-head with Sage on the Trailblazers opening night.

Photo by Will Casey/Beacon StaffDorothy “Dot” Houston is assis-tant director of athletics.

Thursday, November 17, 2011 Science theonlinebeacon.com12

Performers from Water is Ris-ing joined a panel of students, faculty, and staff in Murdock Hall on Monday evening to dis-cuss sustainability in an event entitled, “Global Warming and MCLA: A Panel Discussion about Sustainability on Campus.”

The panel included Caroline Scully, sustainability coordi-nator and chair of the Green Team; Jonathan Secor, director of special programs at MCLA; Nancy Nylen, from the Center of EcoTechnology in Pittsfield; John Kozik, director of dining services at MCLA; Jason Brown, president of the Environuts; and Environmental Studies Profes-sors Ben Kahn and Daniel Shus-tack.

Scully said that since the year 2000, some of the action taken on campus towards sustainabil-ity has included new controls on boilers, lighting controls, auto-mated thermostats, and studying transportation issues. All these things are accounted for in car-bon footprint.

“You have a tremendous amount of power here at MCLA,” Scully told students, adding that they can always speak up and talk to the institution about changes.

Kozik, who works with ARA-MARK, talked about what the company is doing to contribute to sustainability, including re-cycling cardboard, using green chemicals in cleaning, and the Green Thread commitment.

“We’re very conscious of what we do and try to blend in with everyone else to make it a suc-cess,” he said.

Mikaele Maiava, dancer, cho-reographer, and artistic director for Water is Rising, said that back home in Tokelau, they are pretty much sustainable except for en-ergy. However, they are facing drought and a state of emergency was declared a month ago. Cli-mate change and global warming has already caused them to expe-rience rising sea levels.

It took Water is Rising 10,000

miles to reach Massachusetts from the South Pacific. Maiava said they catch wisdom from traveling and go back to the is-land to do something for the people. To him, it’s about hu-man life and saving those lives.

He said he wanted to encourage activists that what they are do-ing is more than climate change. Rather than just sitting in class-rooms, people can learn from culture; the arts and science can work very well together, he said.

“I think that art has the power to change,” Secor said, adding

that not everyone is an environ-mentalist, but that people can use the talents they do have.

Maiava said he wanted to con-gratulate MCLA for doing some-thing.

“What you are doing is actually making a change for us,” he said. “For happy people like us.”

Water is Rising began and end-ed the event with a performance. Maiava closed the discussion by telling the panel, “Together we are and together we strive for what’s good and that is what’s best for all of us.”

South Pacific to MCLABy Nicole Knapp

Staff Writer

Photo by Brian McGrath/Beacon StaffPerformers from Water is Rising discussed sustainability with a panel of students, faculty and staff on Monday, Nov. 14.

MOSCOW — A Russian space-craft carrying an American and two Russians blasted off Monday from the snow-covered Kazakh steppes in a faultless launch that eased anxiety and fears about the future of U.S. and Russian space programs.

The Soyuz TMA-22 lifted off as scheduled at 8:14 a.m. (0414 GMT) Monday from the snow-covered Russian-leased Baikonur cosmo-drome in Kazakhstan to carry NASA astronaut Dan Burbank and Russians Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin on a mission to the International Space Station.

The launch had been delayed for two months due to the crash of an unmannned Progress cargo ship in August. It cast doubts about future missions to the station, because the rocket that crashed used the same upper stage as the booster rockets carrying Soyuz ships to orbit.

NASA warned that the space outpost will need to be aban-doned temporarily for the first time in nearly 11 years if a new crew cannot be launched before the last of the station’s six resi-dents fly back to Earth in mid-November.

Russian space officials tracked down the Progress launch failure to an “accidental” manufacturing flaw and recalled all Soyuz rockets that had been built from space launch-pads for a thorough examination. A successful launch of a Progress ship last month cleared the way for the crew to be launched.

The crew said they trusted the Soyuz, a workhorse of the Soviet and then Russian space program for more than 40 years. “We have no black thoughts and full confidence in our technology,” Shkaplerov told journalists before the launch.

The new crew are to arrive just in time to keep the orbiting station manned. The three crew members currently on board the station are set to return to Earth on Nov. 21. Another crew launch next month is to take the station back to its normal six-person crew mode.

The 39-year-old Shkaplerov and 42-year-old Ivanishin are making their first flights into space. Bur-bank, 50, who will take over com-mand of the space station, is a vet-eran of 12-day shuttle missions in 2000 and 2006. The three men are to remain aboard the space sta-tion until March.

Even in case of an engine failure like the one that led to the Progress crash in August, a Soyuz crew would have been rescued by an emergency es-cape system. But any further launch trouble would have prompted NASA to rethink the space station program, that now relies exclusively on Rus-sian spacecraft after the retire-ment of the U.S. space shuttle fleet in July.

Russian craft blasts off for space station

By Vladimir IsachenkovAssociated Press

NEW YORK — A map of ra-dioactive contamination across Japan from the Fukushima power plant disaster confirms high lev-els in eastern and northeastern areas but finds much lower levels in the western part of the country, thanks to mountain ranges, re-searchers say.

The mountains sheltered north-western and western parts of Ja-pan as radioactive cesium-137 emerged from the power plant and blew downwind, the scientists said.

Cesium-137 is just one of the radioactive materials that came out of the plant, but researchers focused on that because it’s par-ticularly worrisome. It lasts for decades in soils, emitting radia-tion and potentially contaminat-ing crops and other agricultural products.

The research, published online Monday by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows estimated levels of con-tamination. It did not investigate implications for health.

The researchers, from Japan, Norway and the United States,

said the levels they estimated would severely restrict food pro-duction in eastern Fukushima Prefecture and hinder agriculture in neighboring provinces. That outcome is already recognized in Japan, where regulators monitor food products from those areas for contamination before they are cleared for shipment.

The Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, 140 miles (225 kilometers) northeast of Tokyo, was heavily damaged in March when it was swamped by a tsunami triggered by an earthquake.

A second report, investigated levels of radioactive cesium, io-dine and tellurium on the surface in east-central Japan. Such materi-als are airborne after a nuclear ac-cident and fall to the ground when it rains. While the power plant incident began on March 11, the study linked ground contamina-tion in the Fukushima prefecture to a March 15 rainfall, and con-tamination in Tokyo and some other areas to a March 21 rain.

In addition, there is growing con-cern about radioactive “hotspots’’ found in Tokyo and elsewhere outside Fukushima. The Japanese government has taken responsi-bility for decontamination.

NEW ORLEANS — A federal judge has ruled that Alabama and Louisiana can pursue pu-nitive damages against BP and other companies involved in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon di-saster that killed 11 people and spewed millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier denied efforts by BP PLC and several co-defendants to dis-miss the two states’ federal com-plaints. The judge upheld their right to pursue punitive damages and other compensation under general maritime law and the federal Oil Pollution Act.

Barbier’s ruling, dated Monday, was not a total victory for Alabama and Louisiana: He dismissed some claims in the lawsuits that were based on state laws.

The judge said many issues in Monday’s ruling had been dealt with in an earlier order, includ-ing a provision that said mari-time law was applicable in the case and that the Oil Pollution Act did not block claims under maritime law.

He said punitive damages may be available under maritime law because “the States have alleged physical injury to proprietary interests and the other elements pertinent to negligence and products liability claims.”

Barbier also said the states can continue to seek damages under the Oil Pollution Act. However, he blocked claims each state sought under various state laws.

“The court is respectful of the states’ desire to exercise their police powers and punish those who pollute their waters,” Bar-bier wrote. But he noted that the source of the oil that damaged several state coastlines was not in any of those states, and he outlined several legal reasons why claims under state laws were pre-empted by federal law.

Barbier added that federal law should be sufficient for the states to recover the costs of remov-ing the oil, saying, “Although the court does not decide at this time issues concerning liability or the extent of liability, it certainly ap-pears that the States are eligible to recover all of their removal costs under OPA.”

Mountains limited spread of fallout from Fukushima

By Malcolm RitterAssociated Press

Two states can seek punitive oil damages

By Kevin McGillAssociated Press

Thursday, November 17, 2011 Campus Comment theonlinebeacon.com 13

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What are your plans for the Thanksgiving break?

“I’ll be going home to visit with family and friends.”

- Alexandra Keaton, 2012

“I’ll be relaxing, working on stuff, and visiting family.”

- Bradley Gradneigo, 2014

“Spending time with my boyfriend and probably going home.”

- Leah Lumbis, 2013

“Pretty much just hanging out, playing Nintento, etc!”

- April Rose Spring, 2012

“I’m going to Boston to celebrate with my family.”

- Erin Kelley, 2013

“I am going home and hopefully having a family Thanksgiving dinner.”

- Laura Underwood, 2012

Compiled by Aaron Crawford

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Thursday, November 17, 2011 Opinions theonlinebeacon.com14

From a nearby cathedral tow-er a deep gong sounds the

hour, a reminder of the church’s once strong influence throughout Germany. However, nowadays, a very small minority of Germans actually go to church or claim to be Christians.

While morality and spirituality are greatly valued here in Germa-ny, the need to go to church or to adhere to specific religious texts is not important for most Germans. The idea that the Bible is the exact word of God and should be taken literally is essentially non-existent here.

It is very interesting to me, as a Christian (open and non-exclu-sive), to observe people who have no religious affiliation act more morally and empathetically than some people who claim to be true Christians.

The influence of religion in the United States permeates the me-dia and education system as well. The ban on nudity or sex on tele-vision and minimal sex education can be credited to Christian val-

ues of abstinence before marriage. Also interesting to note is that these restrictive methods have not stopped the United States from having the highest teenage pregnancy rates of any country in the developed world, with a rate of 55 teenage pregnancies out of every 1,000. In Germany, where there are no such restrictions, the pregnancy rate is 13 out of every 1,000.

An interesting irony exists in the United States with the separation of church and state: the Ameri-can government maintains that the two entities must be separate, although religious rhetoric often dictates public policy. One of the better examples of this is gay mar-riage and the continuing discrim-ination against it. The logic al-most always stems from the Bible, and states that marriage is a holy sacrament exclusively between a man and a woman. Strange that interpreted biblical scrip-ture directs how the government makes and maintains laws. Jedes verbindung zu gott ist persönlich.

I’d like to think that the higher-ups at MCLA truly value stu-

dent opinion. However, sometimes it seems as though those who make the decisions only want our opinion as long as it coincides with theirs.

For the past six months, the hot-button topic on campus has been the potential arming of Public Safe-ty officers. The College has done its part to hold meetings on the issue, but the timing of these meetings calls into question whether student opinion is actually a priority.

The issue was first brought out last spring, shortly before summer break. A few brief meetings were held, but the topic was still in its infancy, and when more meetings were held throughout the summer, the majority of MCLA students were unable to attend.

Now, the first wide-scale meet-ings that will present both sides of the argument in a debate-style dis-

cussion are being held at times that are, frankly, not very convenient to a lot of students. Holding meetings that are designed to gauge student opinion at 3 p.m. on a Wednesday and 11 a.m. on a Thursday sends the message that the College isn’t really interested in student opinion at all.

Of course there will never be a time that is convenient for every-one, but there are times that are certainly more convenient than the times chosen. Isn’t the purpose of Common Time, for example, to provide a time no students or professors have class, and could perhaps engage in a community event such as this? Even holding the meetings at night, say 7 p.m., would exclude far fewer students than holding the meetings in the morning or the middle of the day. Of course this would mean some administrators and College staff would have to stay on campus later than 5 p.m., but for an issue of such importance, I think it would be worth it.

It’s also very unfortunate that a 3 p.m. meeting makes it nearly im-possible for The Beacon to cover,

write, and edit the story in time for this week’s issue, which goes out at around 5 p.m. the same day. I would hope that this is just a coin-cidence rather than some attempt to shield the press from covering an important, controversial issue in a timely manner.

When the issue was what kind of restaurant were getting on campus, student input was highly encour-aged and publicized, to the point where email surveys were even sent out to all students. Although the College claims to want the same type of input now, their actions seem to be sending a different mes-sage.

We’re fortunate our Student Gov-ernment Association has taken up the task of administering a refer-endum to gauge student opinion on the subject, but even when SGA takes an official stance, will it have an impact?

I hope I’m wrong and that stu-dents really will have a say in whether or not Public Safety offi-cers will be armed. Something tells me the decision has already been made.

SGA, keep the voting system simple please

John DurkanEditor-in-Chief

Commentary

Editorial

So far the Student Govern-ment Association has done

a wonderful job putting forward the student referendum regard-ing the arming of Public Safety officers.

With little time allotted, the SGA swiftly put together a refer-endum, intelligently fired down the “don’t care” option and in a brink of time will collect bal-lots before the final, decide-all Board of Trustees meeting on Dec. 15.

But, one last question remains – will the vote be the tradition-al check-the-box or an online vote?

If the Student Government Association wants to attract the most voters, an online voting system should not be consid-ered.

First, the Internet could be useful – a quick vote count, a vote-once system, and a univer-sal distribution to the body via FirstClass.

But believe it or not, emails get read and forgotten (the I’ll-do-it-later-but-then-forget syn-drome) or simply ignored. Plus,

not everyone checks their First-Class on a regular basis.

Also, systems break. Just the what if the voting system doesn’t work? The last month or so of referendum work goes in vain and student input will fall silent.

On the other hand, if a student is waved down and asked to vote when en route to class, how can that go wrong? The referendum takes a second to read and a sec-ond to check off. Printed infor-mation can be provided as well.

If someone doesn’t want to vote, they can say no thanks and move on. Something tells me this issue is a little bigger than that though.

With a dedicated SGA ready to hold down the post all day and encourage students to vote, face -to-face communication works best.

The Internet can be utilized though. SGA can send the entire student body a reminder to vote on either Dec. 6 or 7, the time and location, and informative links about the issue. (theon-linebeacon.com/?s=firearms is a good start for that.)

Is a liberal arts degree worthwhile?

Religious influence overpowers America

Chris GoodellManaging Editor

Tano HolmesForeign Correspondent

Tano Holmes writes weekly for The Beacon from

Heidelberg, Germany, where he is studying

abroad

Does the student body’s opinion make a difference?

Sure, the end result of a liberal arts degree can be priceless.

After all, if I were to sell this con-cept to a potential student, I would tell the prospect that becoming a well-rounded individual is impor-tant – no, essential – for his or her future, as well as of the future of society. Without skipping a beat, I would insist that people who can think creatively and critically, which a liberal arts education will achieve, are necessary for solving the many problems facing the world today, and therefore highly sought after in a struggling job market.

And of course, this is mostly true (I’m not sold on the jobs part).

But at what cost and what effec-tiveness does MCLA achieve this vision of a satisfactory liberal arts education and preparing students to compete? And if the liberal arts education model is failing or inef-fective, is it even MCLA’s fault? (Spoiler: I don’t think so.) Is it the student’s fault?

Let’s look at the price. Based off of the MCLA website, an estimated yearly cost for in-state students, including room and board, totals to $17,125 yearly. In four years, not including the inevitable rises in fees and such, that comes out to $68,500. So, not counting grants or parents paying or loan interest, you’re starting off close to 70 stacks in debt.

Based off that $68,500 figure (probably a lot more, I mean, it’s debt and grows rapidly), that’s a pretty tough sell to make for criti-cal thinking and creativity (oh, and I guess a well-rounded education).

I’ll concede that some classes and teachers are amazingly inspiring – Issues in Journalism with Jeni-fer Augur, World Religions with Matthew Silliman, and American Literary Survey with Mark Miller (mostly based on the demand from Miller and Silliman to think critically more so than the content) stick out as worthwhile classes.

And I’ll concede going to school has equipped me for my hopeful occupation, but at the cost and un-certainty, banking on hitting red at a roulette table feels like a better op-tion in hindsight.

But many professors fail to in-spire. And many classes feel like a forced attempt at overly broad stud-ies with little critical thinking and more busy work. Perhaps the con-cept of paying to be well-rounded

for four years seems ridiculous with the availability of information and thought-provoking conversation on the Internet and other media for a much cheaper price. After all, if you want to learn about science, get a magazine subscription. It’s cheap-er and lasts much longer than a one semester core course. Read history cheaply on Wikipedia or go to the library. Study and discuss literature on your own. Read a newspaper for civics and opinions. Follow your in-terests in all fields on your own. It’s endless, cheaper and more effective than limited options by way of the core regiment. It’s 2011, there’s no reason to acquire debt to learn.

And if that reason is simply to get a job, isn’t that missing the point of a liberal arts education?

Maybe I’m just bitter. When your future offers you another year of less-than-inspiring classes for a hefty price and uncertainty of suc-cess for a low-income dream job in a staggering industry where you’ll never earn enough to live outside of a studio apartment and enjoy the world because of wage slavery, you turn out that way. Add in the possi-bility of holding that costly MCLA degree with a job possibly acquired five years ago straight out of high school and well, then there’s not much to look forward to. Just un-necessary bills, taxes and waiting for the end of the world.

Hopefully, I’m wrong. Hopefully.

The SGA should not consider an online voting system

Thursday, November 17, 2011 For Fun theonlinebeacon.com 15

By Aurora Cooper

Candy Word Search

Word Search courtesy of puzzles.ca

ALMOND JOYBABY RUTH

BAZOOKA GUMBOTTLECAPSBUBBLE YUM

BUTTERFINGERSCANDY NECKLACE

CHICLETSCHUCKLESCLARK BAR

COFFEE CRISP CRACKER JACKDUBBLE BUBBLE

GOOBERSGUMMI BEARS

HERSHEY KISSESHUBBA BUBBA GUM

JAW BREAKERSJUJUBESKIT KAT

LEMON DROPSLICORICE PIPE

LIFESAVERSLOLLIPOPSMILK DUDSMILKY WAYMOUNDS

NECCO WAFERSOH HENRY

PEPPERMINT PATTYPEZ

POP ROCKSPUMPKIN SEEDS

RED HOTSSEN-SEN

SLO-POKESSMARTIES

SOUR BALLSSPEARMINT LEAVES

SWEETARTSTOOTSIE ROLLS

TWIXTWIZZLERSWAX LIPS

To view previous comics, visit: theonlinebeacon.com/weekly-comics-with-aurora-cooper

Thursday, November 17, 2011 Photo Essay theonlinebeacon.com16

“Your Ticket Should Say urinetown!”

Photos By: Cara Sheedy

A Musical By The MCLA FPA Department

Above: Jackie Gianetti as Little Sally pleads for a penny from Mr. McQueen played by Erik Dabrowski.

Center: Little Sally and Officer Lockstock, played by Jackie Gianetti and Tom Leidenfrost comically describe the key plot points of Urinetown.

Above: Mr. McQueen played byErik Dabrowski, Caldwell B. Cladwell played by Robin Russell and Senator Fipp played by Joel Praino, plot a scheme to fill their pockets while the folks of Urinetown’s bladders fill.

Below: The cast of Urinetown search for everylast penny that will allow them to use the very desired public bathroom.

Rigth: Jeff Bliss playing Bobby Strong stands on the stairs as Hope Cladwell played by Melody Rolph listens to what Bobby’s heart has to say.