News
Despite Maas, Daily Schedule To Remain
Administration Weighs Pros and Cons of Schedule Shift
By Julia Dean
Students erupted into cheers last week when All-School Meeting speaker Dr. James Maas said that schools should not begin classes before 9 a.m.
But the proposal from Maas, a professor at Cornell University, may not become an immediate reality at Andover.
Paul Murphy, Dean of Students, said, “We’re constrained by other decisions that we have made about our schedule.”
Paul Cernota, Scheduling Officer, said, “When looking at the whole day, we just have not come up with a way to work it through that doesn’t cause serious issues in some other aspect of campus life.”
These other aspects include athletics, meal times and the music schedule on campus.
Cernota said that athletics are a concern because moving practices later in the day would force teams to practice after dark toward the end of Fall Term.
“If Daylight Savings Time did not begin during fall sports, this would not be such a big issue,”...
Socheata Poeuv’s Documentary Promotes Cambodian Awareness
By Chloe Reichel
Socheata Poeuv, creator of the award-winning documentary “New Year Baby,” adjusted her family tree many times as she followed her Cambodian lineage. Poeuv’s film details the investigation of her family history, which includes ancestors that survived the Cambodian genocide at the hands of the Khmer Rouge communist party from 1975 to1979.
Poeuv will screen her film at 7 p.m. on Friday in Kemper Auditorium, followed by a discussion and a question and answer session.
Poeuv was born in a refugee camp in Thailand and immigrated with her family to the United States when she was young.
As an adult, Poeuv learned from her parents that her two sisters were actually her cousins, whose parents were killed in the genocide.
Poeuv also learned that her mother had been married previously and had two other children. Her mother’s first husband and daughter were killed in the genocide.
“I made the film at first just...
ALUMNI DONOR PARTICIPATION LAGS BEHIND PEER SCHOOLS
By Chase Ebert
Despite Phillips Academy’s message of non sibi, the school has one of the lowest alumni donation participation rates among its peer schools, with only about one-third of alumni contributing regularly. As a recession looms, contributions may be harder to come by, school officials said.
Peter Ramsey, Secretary of the Academy and overseer of much of Andover’s fundraising, said the school should be prepared for as much as a 10 to 20 percent decline in annual giving and possibly sharper decreases in endowment and capital pledges.
Statistics provided by the Office of Academy Resources (OAR) show a 37 percent alumni giving rate for the 2008 fiscal year. Participation has not exceeded 40 percent in the past four years. Exeter’s rate is 51 percent and Hotchkiss, Taft, St. Paul’s, and Deerfield all enjoy higher levels of donor participation than Andover. Only Choate, at 33 percent, trails PA.
Stephen Carter, Chief Financial Officer,...
Pilot Educational Program Takes Students to Lawrence
By Liam Murhy
LASSO, a new service initiative, may lead the way in rethinking PA’s approach to service.
Lawrence Andover Special Service Offerings (LASSO) aims to educate participants about current issues facing the Lawrence community.
During the one-time pilot on November 19, students will meet with experts in specific fields.
The Community Engagement Council (CEC), a small group of community service coordinators, organized the events.
LASSO will tackle three topics: housing, immigration and public education.
The CEC picked topics that have both national and local significance and are the focus of other groups or people’s development work in Lawrence. Each issue will be discussed by six students and a faculty member who is knowledgeable in the area of focus. Aneesa Sayall, Instructor in Economics, will be the housing group’s faculty member, and Lou Bernieri, Instructor in English, will work with the education group. The faculty member to join the immigration group has not yet been...
Kenneth Cooper ’73 Analyzes Role of Media in Election
By Kiran Gill
Though coverage of this election impressed Kenneth Cooper ’73, he picked up on issues and stories the papers did not. Cooper, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and former national editor for the Boston Globe, discussed the media’s role in the presidential election at a forum in Kemper on Sunday, hosted by the Andover Ethics Society.
“The unpopularity of the current president and the Iraq war, plus the state of the economy—that all plays a role,” Cooper said.
He continued, “Journalists make the mistake of saying that voting is rational; there are a lot of emotional and psychological things that matter and go unnoticed during elections.”
Cooper said that he believes the media gave a mostly accurate portrayal of the candidates in this election.
However, he criticized the media’s placement of President-elect Barack Obama into a new generation of black politics. Cooper said that Obama is actually a late baby boomer. “African American...
WPAA Broadcasts Andover/Exeter Game Online
By Paul Noh
Those unnerved by screaming students in body paint were able to watch the Andover/Exeter game online, thanks to WPAA.
Over a thousand people watched football via webcast last Saturday, according to Ishan Kapoor ’09, WPAA programming director.
A crew of student announcers broadcasted the event: Kyle Franco ’10 and Chris Massie ’10 worked in the booth, and Kenny Gould ’09 and Alec Weiss ’11 reported from the field. Video Link, a company that specializes in video production and web broadcasting in Boston, recorded and streamed the football game.
Dale Hurley, faculty advisor to WPAA, and audiovisual staff members Michael Crouse and Michael Ebner, provided support to the student broadcast.
This was the second time Phillips Academy has broadcasted the game.
Phillips Academy first held a webcast of the Andover/Exeter football game in 2006. Exeter hosted last year’s broadcast.
“In comparison to the 2006 broadcast, this year’s [webcast] went well,” said Kapoor. He said...
Famed Journalist Sander Vanocur to Speak at All-School Meeting
By Corinna Lewis
Sander Vanocur, a veteran journalist with experience in print and broadcasting, will speak at All-School Meeting next Wednesday, Nov. 19. A portion of the meeting will be devoted to questions from students.
Vanocur received a bachelor’s degree, with an emphasis in political science, from the Northwestern University School of Speech in 1950.
He started out as a reporter on the London Staff of The Manchester Guardian.
Vanocur then became a general assignment reporter for the city staff of the New York Times, before joining NBC News, where he served as White House correspondent, national political correspondent and Washington correspondent for the “Today” show.
From 1971-77, Vanocur was a senior correspondent for National Public Affairs Center for PBS.
At ABC News, Vanocur held many positions between 1977 and 1992. He was chief overview correspondent during the 1980 and 1984 presidential elections, moderating the Vice Presidential debate between incumbent George H. W. Bush and...
On Campus, Bike “Borrowers” Cause Headaches
By Katharine Taylor-Mighty
Bikes that go missing on campus are more often “borrowed” than stolen.
As a result, many students whose bikes disappear usually just wait for them to turn up again before reporting the missing property to Public Safety.
When PAPS does get involved, “99.9 percent of the time, the bikes turn up on campus somewhere,” said Tom Conlon, Manager of Public Safety.
Conlon estimated that bikes disappear permanently at most two times per year. In those cases, after about two weeks, the case is turned over to the Andover Police Department, usually with little success, he said.
Noelina Nakiguli ’09 said that when her bike was “borrowed” twice without her permission last year, her peers were unsurprised. “People were like, ‘Oh yeah, people do that all the time and just take it somewhere,’” she said.
Nakiguli views bike theft as disrespectful toward the owner. “I don’t mind people using [my bike], but at...
Students Watch Obama Make History
Students Gather to Watch Election Coverage and to Discuss Results Next Day
By Julia Zorthian
Andover/Exeter may be tomorrow, but students cheered about a different blue and red on Tuesday night.
Students watched networks call states for Barack Obama and John McCain as the presidential election came to a close on Election night.
The evening was filled with countdowns for closing polls, cheers at each declared state and buzzing discussion. By the time CNN announced Obama’s win, students had returned to their dorms. Sheya Jabouin ’11 said that she and her friends “ran around the dorm screaming. I shed a couple of tears…When I saw Jesse Jackson and Oprah Winfrey crying I broke down, and I had to contain myself. I’m just really excited; it’s all I can think about.”
Andrew Townson ’10 said, “I’m not mad that Obama won because I think that he’ll be a good president. I’m mad about how prejudiced the news channels were last night.”
Townson continued, “Saying [the Democrats] swept...
Underwood ’54 Donates $10 M
By Juliet Liu
David Underwood ’54, former President of the Board of Trustees, has pledged $10 million to Andover’s capital campaign.
Oscar Tang ’56, the current President of the Board of Trustees, announced Underwood’s gift to the Trustees last Friday morning and to alumni and faculty later that evening.
The $10 million pledge, to be paid in installments, will go toward funding the endowment. The contribution brings Andover closer to its capital campaign goal to raise $150 million for the endowment, Tang said.
“The reason I am making the gift is the same reason I’ve done whatever else I’ve done for Andover. It’s been a very important part of my life, both as a student there and as an alumnus,” said Underwood. “It’s payback time,” he continued.
According to Tang, Underwood announced his intention to donate the money in a letter dated October 22, during a time of market volatility and economic downturn.
Underwood said...