december 2006
news
the stentorian I ncssm
EfeyMA Board
presents “Curse rf the
Werewolf,” the fall
comeify, at 7:00 on Dec.
8 aiTsl St and 7:00
on Dec. 10. Hie spooky
rtgistery sj^ief contdns a
Sciarfiy-Doo-wquc romp
throa^ Gargle Castle,
mradei; iifeittity theft, a
p^^u^ zany relives
and a werewolf.
Reported by Miry
Kohlmann ,
The Fenong Club
will compete in its fintt
competition, in the
School Faicing Leagi^,
on Dec. 9 in Greensboro.
Reported by Jaime
McCmdless.
Heritage Opportunity
Fragress Eduaidkm
(HOPE) is OBTcntly
collecting canned goods
to make diree to live
baskets ftw three to five
£uti^ies> Please bring all
canned goads to Let^
Mason’s Office m Watts
LiMyy. A event
of file HCM*E year is
otgaiiizing Afiacafest.
.^^oiu with Ueas should
e-rrtair Eraamict Bryant at
brya^^ncssDbedu.
Reported by Santana
King.
The PiWNTBALL Club is
planning a trip to Gotdte
Paintball’s fieW oe^eie
of Rideigh csi Dec. 10.
E-raail questions to
Erik Gutekunst or Erik
Macintosh.
Repotted by Erik
Gutmkunst.
The National Society
of Blank Engineers
(NSSE) hroi^ht
home first place at file
Regional Competition
in Pittsburgh, Pa. Alta
Bailey, Dorian Britt,
Michael Frentfii, Wayne
Kimball, Jr., Lakia l^g
and Klara Vincent won
First Place Engineering
Design Team, advancing
toemnpete at the National
Convention in April 2007
in Columbus, Ohio.
Other students proudly
represented the scliool in
the Fjigineertng Design
Competition and in the
Try-Math-a-Lon Quiz
Bowl.
Rcfyorted by Wayne
Kimhidl Jr.
PsYUKHTKrY IN Fll M
Chib will be v/alch'ng
“Sybil’’ Sunday, IX*c. 10
at 6:01 PM in the ETC
l.ecture Hall. brief
discussion will follow,
and anyone atlendine
for the movie is asked to
remain.
Reported hy Riheka/i
Vestal.
Art by Laura Chao
New rules govern dances
By Mary Kohlmann
Dance styles at all future school dances,
mixers and formals will be regulated by a new
policy drafted and passed by SLIs, administrators
and SGA members.
“The intent of this legislation isn’t to restrict
anyone, but to generate the sense of responsibility
and self-respect that should be in the hearts and
minds of all NCSSM students,” SGA president
Mike Jones said.
The noticeably short policy forbids only four
specific dance moves.
“We decided not to have a long laundry list of
things people can’t do, but to communicate the
spirit of self-respect we want to see,” said Joan
Barber, vice chancellor of student life.
Explicitly banned in the policy are “dancing
up against a wall, dancing with any body part
on the floor (excluding feet), contact between
hands and genital areas [and] pelvic thrusting.”
However, the policy also gives faculty and
SLI chaperones the power to request changes in
dance styles as they see fit.
“There may be instances when students
violate the intent of this legislation without
directly violating any specific provisions,” the
policy reads. “For that reason, a student may be
asked to refrain from engaging in a particular
Style of dance at any time if it is deemed sexually
explicit and/or degrading.”
SLIs and staff members are the only
chaperones permitted to confront students
directly about changing their dance styles; parent
chaperones are asked to relay any concerns to
another adult.
“Everything is contingent upon the acceptance
and interpretation of the Student Life staff,”
Jones said.
The open nature of the policy also places the
responsibility of dance style choice largely on
the students themselves.
“It won’t be meaningful unless the students
understand it and begin to police themselves,”
said SLI Jennifer Ashe, who served on the
committee that wrote the rule.
Some students feel that, for this reason, the
policy is likely to have little effect
‘These [rules] sound like nothing new,”
senior Jennifer Cook said. “They’ve always
broken up grinding in the past. This is an ongoing
battle, and this is just the administration’s latest
thing. If they think this is such a problem that
they need to make rules, then they need to make
actual rules.”
According to Jones, SGA advocated the
legislation in response to an earlier bill to
eliminate all "grinding.”
"SGA decided that there needed to be a policy
benefiting all students rather than targeting only
a certain dance style,” he said.
Barber said that the move towards regulation
was the result of years of growing numbers of
complaints at dances.
“I don’t think it’s been any one specific
incident,” she said. “It’s been ongoing for a
couple of years. The style of dancing in popular
culture has gotten more explicit, so students
have begun imitating it on campus.”
Ashe said that she felt a line needed to be
drawn in regards to what is permissible at school
events.
“I don’t think that we need to have sexually
suggestive dancing that leads to arousal at school
dances,” she said. “People are very polite when
you ask them to modify their dancing style, [but]
there are multiple moments at every dance.”
Many students agree that parameters are
needed.
“I think it makes sense,” junior Lakia
King said. “If you dance [as described in the
restrictions], youTe crossing the line anyway.”
Senior Julian Arrington also considers the
rules to be well-warranted.
“[The rules] don’t really bother me, because
grinding at dances just becomes some big,
disgusting thing,” he said.' “I can understand
why [the Student Life Department is] doing it.”
The policy also standardizes the regulations
for all school functions.
“The great thing about this legislation is
that it unites mixers, semiformals, proms and
everything else into one category, so that there’s
no ambiguity about what’s allowed at one and
not at another,” Jones said. “People can know
the rules without that confusion.”
The dramatic difference in atmosphere
between an I-Viz mixer and an event such as
prom left some students uncertain about whether
different guidelines applied.
“People would sometimes be less explicit
at dances than at mixers, where there are fewer
people,” Jones said.
Although standard enforcement in such
variant settings will present a challenge to
chaperones, Barber said that the policy’s
subjective nature is its greatest strength.
“It gets back to the idea, ‘What is offensive
to me?”’ she said. “It gives students, staff and
parents the opportunity to say, ‘This is offfensive
to me.’”
Ashe suggested that the policy will widen the
ttppeal of school dances among the student body
by setting a median comfort zone.
“It’s for the common good,” she said. “There
are some people who have said that they don’t
go to dances because they don’t want to see
the grinding—and this is students. I think it’s
written where the goal is mutual respect, and 1
think everyone can handle that.”
ScienceDays
lets students
be teachers
By Kara Tinker
ScienceDays, a new program
sponsored by the Siemens
Foimdation, gives high school
students the chance to design and
teach their own science lessons
at underprivileged elementary
schools.
Lucie Guo and Xianlin Li,
alumni of NCSSM and founders
of ScienceDays, chose NCSSM
as a model school for their
program last year.
“We were encouraged after
seeing how many NCSSMers
were interested in helping out
and talking to many of them in
June,” Guo said.
This summer Guo, Li and a
group of students volimteered at
summer camps in Chapel Hill to
test ScienceDays lessons.
“The experience of
working with Aose kids was
so inspiring,” Guo said. “They
were all so interested in what we
taught, and they all kept asking
questions about the experiments
and the science.”
Currently, the NCSSM
chapter of ScienceDays works
with students fi-om E.K. Powe.
“The main focus is to have
fun and get them interested
in science,” said senior Mike
Mian, one of the chapter’s two
co-directors.
The other, senior Wendy Hua,
said that the lessons benefit both
teachers and students.
“It’s a great chance for both
the mentors and the kids to
learn something because the
kids become inspired by the
magic that is driven by science,
and the mentors become better
communicators and teachers
through the process,” she said.
New ScienceDays members
also give positive feedback.
“I believe in the saying that
teaching something to someone
helps you better understand
the topic,” senior Mahen Khan
said.
Six months after its creation,
the program is steadily
growing.
“This year is a trial year
in that we- as well as all the
chapters- are still testing out
what works best,” Guo said. “We
hope, though, that the mentors
are enjoying the experience of
teaching lessons and that some
will want to undertake leadership
roles next year in order to keep
the chapter running.”
Photo courtesy of Mike Mian
Mike Mian and Kaihcnn
Schulz teach a ScwnceDa'.
lesson about earthquake