Catholic Priest Clark Addresses Scandals, Future of the Church

By DAN ADLER

Speaking to members of the Phillips Academy community in a Friday forum sponsored by the Catholic Student Fellowship (CSF) and an Abbot Academy (AA) grant, Father William Clark delivered a lecture entitled, “The Catholic Church: What’s Going On?” A professor at Holy Cross College, Father Clark expressed his opinions about “the abuse crisis, the current state of the Catholic Church, and possibilities for the future state of the Catholic Church” within the United States and worldwide.

Since the Catholic priest abuse crisis has attracted much news coverage recently, Father Clark addressed the topic first. According to Father Clark, 1,205 out of the 46,000 priests in the U.S. face accusations of molestation, with 166 of the 177 dioceses affected and five bishop resignations offered over the course of the past year. The guest speaker admitted, “A lot more was going on behind the scenes then even those of us...

Model UN Takes Awards At Georgetown Conference

By ELISSA HARWOOD

Journeying to the 40th annual North American Invitational Model United Nations Conference (NAIMUN) in Washington, DC, this past weekend, approximately 50 members of Phillips Academy’s Model United Nations club (PAMUN) left campus for the weekend and took home numerous prizes for their work in sessions of mock -political and legal debate. The conference, organized by Georgetown University, featured 3000 students from more than 100 schools across the country. Chaperoned by Instructor in History and Social Science Carroll Perry, Instructor in Mathematics Donald Barry, and Summer Opportunities Office Director Roxanne Barry, members of PA’s delegation spent the holiday weekend passing resolutions and proposals in their respective committees.

Although PAMUN’s representatives did not win the Outstanding School award, as they did last year, Andover students still received the top awards in five of 32 committees for their abilities to speak, analyze, and garner support for the resolutions they presented to...

Blizzard Prompts Sykes to Call Off Tuesday Classes

By ELISSA HARWOOD

In response to the 20 inches of snow that fell on Andover in the “Blizzard of 2003,” the Phillips Academy administration cancelled all classes on Tuesday and declared a “snow say.” Although a snow say last occurred two years ago, this is only the third such day at Andover in 22 years. After several hours of deliberation, Acting Head of School Rebecca Sykes e-mailed students and faculty on Monday night with the message, “Classes will not meet.” Although students greeted the note with cheers from students, many families expressed disappointment that the decision had come so late. Consequently, many day students had already made arrangements to stay on campus overnight so that they could attend classes on Tuesday. As yet, it is unclear whether the missed day of classes will be rescheduled. According to Director of Business Services Susan Stott, who was instrumental in the snow day...

Phillips and Andover High Maintain Distant Relations

By KELLY LANNAN

The following comes from an investigative report written for the English Department’s Journalism elective. Phillips Academy students visited Andover High School for a day and polled students and faculty.

With its manicured lawns, quaint New England shops and an average home price of over $400,000, Andover fits the image of a perfect upper-class suburb. Teenagers from both Phillips Academy (PA) and Andover High School (AHS) reside in the town, creating a unique relationship between two highly-regarded academic institutions.

On a whole, adults in the Andover community, including faculty at both PA and AHS, shopkeepers, policemen and town officials, see the relationship between AHS and PA students as peaceful and accepting. However, PA and AHS students described the relationship between the two schools in one of two ways; nonexistent or tense and resentful. Out of seventy one students polled (from both PA and AHS), thirty nine percent believe that a...

Presidential Race Narrowed To Six Upper Candidates

By DAN TAYLOR

Voters narrowed the number of Student Council presidential hopefuls from ten to six in Wednesday’s second round of voting in Commons. The remaining Upper candidates are Allegra Asplundh-Smith, Sam DuPont, Sam Levenback, Will Scharf, Aaron Stroble, and Fan Wang. These students will continue to broadcast their plans for school-wide change in hopes of becoming one of the final three presidential candidates when the third round of elections occurs next week. Scharf summed up the election, stating, “It feels great. The pressure is off for at least another week. I am extremely grateful to all of those who voted for me and I hope that I will be given the opportunity to speak in front of the school during the final round.”

The only female candidate remaining from the original pool of 15 candidates was Asplundh-Smith. Asplundh-Smith expressed enthusiasm at having made it past the second round of voting,...

Students and Faculty Attend Anti-War Rally

By PETER NELSON

Trekking to New York City this past weekend, several Phillips Academy students and faculty joined thousands of activists in protesting the Bush administration’s proposed offensive against Iraq. Although the school did not sponsor any official transportation or organization for those wishing to participate in the event, students joined the Sweet Honey Society, a coalition dedicated to “challenging human oppression in all its forms,” at the mass rally. Among those students who made the journey to New York City, Charles Beaman ’03 remarked, “there was a profound sense of nationalism.” Although the rally marked the first peace protest in which he had participated, Beaman commented that the massive throngs of people present at the demonstration made him feel that “a huge portion of our generation [opposes] the threat of war.” He continued, “I left with a newfound confidence in our generation’s basic beliefs.”

Instructor in English Seth Bardo was...

Ten Faculty Receive Kenan Grants to Pursue Interests

By PETER NELSON

Continuing a long tradition of supporting Phillips Academy faculty in their individual academic endeavors, the Kenan Charitable Trust Foundation has announced the recipients of its annual grants for the upcoming year. The grants, which amount to $42,500, were awarded to ten faculty members this year. According to Andover Kenan Trust coordinator Instructor in Russian Dr. Peter Merrill, the grants will “support projects and research that the faculty of the Academy have deep interest in.”

Endowed by a million dollar donation to the Academy made by noted industrialist William R. Kenan in 1964, the grants are awarded annually to support the individual projects of the Andover faculty that do not fit into the Academy’s standard academic program. Unlike other foundations, the Kenan program does not require faculty members to conduct projects pertinent to their chosen discipline. Rather, it encourages instructors to pursue their interests both in and out...

CommServ Office Sponsors Former Lawrence Teacher for Speaker Series

By CHELSEA PAIGE

Speaking at an event sponsored by the Community Service Office, Mr. Steven Crowley recalled his experiences as a teacher at the Lawrence middle school that performed the worst of any in Massachusetts, with 95% of its 1,200 students failing the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS). A Harvard graduate whose teaching experiences range from affluent suburban schools to inner city ones, Mr. Crowley volunteered to instruct seventh graders in the humanities temporarily but remained at the school for the entire year.

When Mr. Crowley began his first day of teaching, he found a syllabus for the year’s work that seemed to be identical to the material taught in the fifth grade curriculum. Thinking that there must have been some mistake, Mr. Crowley consulted the administration, which informed him, “No, there’s no mistake. This is what you will teach.” According to Mr. Crowley, instances such as that were not uncommon....

Republican Club Organizes Vigils for American Forces

By MORISSA SOBELSON

The Andover Republican Club has recently begun sponsoring weekly vigils around the Memorial Bell Tower in recognition of American servicemen and women at home and abroad. The first of these vigils took place last Thursday and will continue each week on that day from noon until 12:10 p.m. According to Republican Club head Pat Holkins ’04, the Club created the vigils as a way for conservative members of the Phillips Academy community to gather and express their beliefs and hopes for the “liberation of the Iraqi people.”

Founded in response to a growing concern that PA lacks political diversity, the Republican Club looks to provide another outlet for the expression of beliefs on campus. Holkins commented, “We thought we’d be making an outlet for the minority [at Andover] that is actually conservative.” He noted that the Republican Club recognizes Andover as a “liberal school,” but does not mean...

Phillipian Board CXXV Leaves Evans Hall with Fond Memories

By OLIVIA ORAN

As the leaders of Board CXXV of The Phillipian relinquish their editorial positions, the 126th board now assumes control of the publication. This issue marks the first of the incoming board after selections in the paper’s new leadership were announced earlier in the week. Since the beginning of Winter Term, the outgoing board has worked assiduously to teach members of CXXVI how to edit articles properly and to construct the layout for each section. CXXV Co-Editors-in-Chief Michael Ruderman ’03 and Paul Sonne ’03 turned over their posts to former News Associate Clem Wood ’04. Wood will lead the paper along with News Director Olivia Oran ’04 and Managing Editor Jenny Wong ’04. Ruderman reflected on his tenure, remarking, “After an excellent year working on The Phillipian, I have tremendous confidence in the upcoming leadership that they will be able to continue the work that we have done...