page 2
Addressing
campus safety
opinions
Intellectualism and 2000
heather fried
Staff editorial
Teenagers will be teenag
ers, and teenagers want to go
places. Student security and
transportation are two issues
that go hand in hand and have
been long debated at NCSSM.
With the recent occurrence of
the robbery near Erwin Square
and the
neighbor
hood be-
c o m i n g
increasingly
dangerous,
these issues
have been
brought to
the fore
front.
A t
a recent fac-
Many students are used to walking down
streets like this one near Erwin Square to
get to hangouts, despite the dangers.
ulty council meeting, the idea of school policy, they otherwise
without a lengthy wait.
Apart from what this
incident has made the adminis
tration aware of, it should teach
everyone to exercise caution
when traveling off-campus. We
commend the students involved
in the recent incident for travel
ing in a
large
group of
mixed sex.
Though
the stu
dents were
^ walking
H, off-cam-
§ pus after
^ dark, a
definite
breach of
initiating Friday and Saturday
night van loops to entertain
ment areas for students was pro
posed. This would replace
D’Weekender, which is known
to be often unreliable and late.
We applaud this idea and the
quick response by the adminis
tration to the safety of students.,.
Van loops would be more reli
able and there would be more of
a feeling of responsibility by
drivers towards riders.
In addition to the al
ready proposed idea, we sug
gest a student survey to
determine where the loops
should go. We also suggest that
more than one van be employed
per night so that students can
go to various parts of Durham
acted responsibly, and there is
no telling how a perpetrator in
such an incident would take fur
ther advantage of his victims if
the group had been comprised
of just two or three females.
In addition, we com
ment the administration for act-
, ing so generously toward the
students involved, being sup
portive of them in their dealings
with the police. The entire com
munity, staff, students, and ad
ministration, has been
sympathetic and understand
ing.
We hope that a joint
effort between students and
administrators will make Science
and Math a safer and more en
joyable community.
0)
stentorian
north Carolina school of science and mathematics
1219 broad street durham. nc 27705
Editors-in-Chief: Benita Jones and Kyle McLaughlin
Adviser; John Woodmansee
Departments:
News Editor: Shayerah Ilias
Writers: Teresa Ana.sti, Kenny Gibbs, Mary Guy, April Pridgen
Shaina Schmeltzle, Marc O. Vinson.
Features Editor: Alison Chu
Writers: Meredith Flowe, Will Gameau, Erica Healey, Veni
Manickam.
Sports Editor: Stephanie Hartung
Writers: Amit Aravapalli, Jon-Michael Dougherty, Nigel,
Kirby, Emily Warren, Katie Watlingon.
Opinions Editor: Shannon Meyer
Writers: Katye Blackwell, Heather Fried, Laura Pipe, Jonathan
Baxter, Marc O. Vinson.
Layout Editor: Frank Menius
Staff: Amber Ambrose, Jaciyn Besas, Emma Blose, Michael
Chan, Stephanie Hartung, Hannah Kim, Jessica Luong, Jonelle
Stovall.
Photograhy Editors; Sara Hannerand Doug Palctta
Staff: Jonathan Basirico, Andy Greenberg, Nicole Martin,
Sarah Morrison, Christopher Paul, Jamie Pike, Ashley Rankin,
Jamarl Rodgers, Nidhi Thapar, Vinh Tran.
Columnist: Jennifer E. Newport
hltp://i luvatar.ncssm.edu/stentorian
As the millennium ap-
proaehed, it was interesting to
note that while other countries
were busy preparing by writing
symphonies and remembering
their histories, celebrating the
past thousand years of their
culture, Americans were buying
bottled water and batteries.
Sadly, we have missed a great
opportunity to make the begin
ning of year 2000 memorable.
The Y2K bug may not have de
stroyed our computers, but it
did batter the spirit of intellec
tualism in this country.
One has to ask
whether this lack of cultural
motivation is the result of living
so long as a commercial coun
try. In a society where shop
ping is a pastime and the citizens
believe themselves to be supe
rior to the rest of the world, per
haps it is impossible for us to
extend ourselves beyond our
money and democratic prin
ciples for the sake of cultural ad
vancement. Why should we
have culture when we could
have money? No one could
possibly have written a novel
when they knew for sure that
the stock market was going to
crash come midnight on Decem
ber 31,1999.
The United States
could not even usher in the New
Year with a celebration that re
flected anything more than a
gross display of idiocy. Millions
of Americans watched MTV as
icons of pop culture danced with
animal tails in their hair and made
fools of themselves on televi
sion. While people in China held
hands and sang, and Korea con
ducted traditional ceremonies,
thousands of Americans packed
together and stood on their feet
for nine hours to watch a ball of
lights fall for ten seconds. For
every person in Times Square,
there must have been fifteen
more elsewhere intoxicated to
the point that they probably will
not remember New Year’s Eve.
Since the official start
of the millennium does not start
until 2001, Americans need to
wake up and take advantage of
the time we have left. We
should take the example of Great
Britain, who has founded a seed
bank containing seeds of every
plant known to man. They have
also constructed a huge build
ing larger than the Georgia Dome
in Atlanta dedicated solely to
education. Or perhaps we could
learn from Italy, where the Ro
man Catholic Church is under
going what they have termed
historical purification. This en
tails examining their mistakes
throughout history, such as the
injustices done against Joan of
Arc and Galileo and their indif
ference to the deaths of Jews in
World War II. All over Europe,
countries funded projects to
better their nations, while we sat
at home fretting about the end
of the world. The rest of the
world will leave symphonies, ar
chitecture, and literature, and we
will have issues of The Na
tional Enquirer. This is the
legacy the world’s leading na
tion will leave behind.
American authors,
composers, artists, historians,
philosophers, politicians and
citizens all need to take some ini
tiative. We have already taken
a step in the right direction with
the founding of the Museum of
Native American History in
Washington D.C., but that
should not be the only thing that
stands as a worldly monument
to a thousand years of history.
Every community should try
and do one positive thing to
help us remember our past and
plan for our future, whether it is
founding programs for cleaning
the environment or working to
help reduce poverty in their
community. The government
should act as well. Certainly
they could set up a committee
to make suggestions and initiate
action in the country. The cul
ture is there to be preserved and
created, we just need to get out
from in front of our televisions
and find it.
Y2K: the controversy
laura pipe
At the start of a New
Year we are left with lots of
thoughts of what may come-
new ideas, new inventions. But
this year is different; we are not
just entering a new year, but a
new Millennium. So what is on
the mind of some Americans?
Well, 1 can say that when 1 found
out what some were worried
about, I was a bit baffled at the
stupidity. And, no, I am not
talking about the Millennium
Bug. The worry on America’s
mind is what are we going to call
the first ten years of2000.
Earlier in 1999 I came
across a little known contro
versy, that has some people in a
whirlwind of craziness. The
whole debate is centered around
what we are going to call the
years between 2000 and 2009.
We had the roaring 20’s, the
swinging 50’s, the groovy 60’s,
the hip 70’s, and so on... So the
point in question is now that the
90’s are gone and past, what are
we going to call the OO’s? While
many Americans worry about
World peace, economics, pollu
tion and more important matters,
some Americans are worried
about naming the OO’s of the
Millennium. This whole thing
actually gets me a little worried.
1 mean, if people can get worked
up over this, what will they do
when they find out that no one
cares?
There seems to be some
circulation of ideas on what to
call the first ten years of the new
century. Some individuals sug
gest the Zero-Zero Method,
which in my mind makes the de
cade sound kind of depressing.
Who really wants to say 1
graduated in zero-zero-one or
worst zero-zero-zero? It makes
the time period sound like it was
a big fat ZERO. Others suggest
the Oh-h Method, which is a
little catchier and not quite as
unsuccessful sounding. But to
me it still lacks the pizzazz
needed ter start a new century.
Then there is my personal fa
vorite, the Double-Oh Method,
it might be a little strange at first,
but when you get to seven it
can be a lot of fun. You can say,
‘we mined the Moon in Double-
Oh Seven’. It makes me want to
name the rocketship that goes
to the Moon ‘Goldfinger’ in
honor of the year.
Things are just heating up
in the debate. The recent sug
gestion of the Double-Zero
Method seems to have tipped
the favor. I mean, how can we,
as good Americans, sit back and
let the first decade of the cen
tury pass us by and not name it.
I know how, pop some Blink 182
into the C.D. player and let the
days go by. How stupid are we
if we let this kind of stuff be
come a debate. 1 mean come on,
does it really matter? Fifty-years
from now historians are going
to call it whatever they want
anyway; so why waste the brain
power?
Retraction
We apologize for a factual
error in my article “Clubs; Genu
ine motives or self-promotion?”
The Inner Child and Tension
Relief clubs did not request or
receive SGA funds, as we indi
cated.
The intended purpose
of my article was to express that
people should not join clubs
simply to use for resumes. We
apologize to the clubs that we
unwarrantcdly attacked, the
Respect Club, Anime Club,
Spirit Club, and Inner Child
Club.