Page 26 - ThePhoenix1994-95

WtCQI'Ug;l~·Q'''··'~I\tF • Editorial The Phoenix Though Shalt Risk Thy LifeAnd Thy Limbs BOOM WHOOSH HUMM Editor-in-Chief RA TILE. For the third time in the last S.A. Sommer "94 15 mmutes. someone in the library flushed the toilet, and we lucky students Managing Editor having class on Hoover's third floor Lisa Hill "97 know it. Diverting attention from the Advertising Manager professor's lecture once again, the pipes David Weigelt -'95 hidden in the ceiling not four feet above \ Rusiness Manager our head go to work. Udeni Dharmapala .'96 Across Red Square in the lobby of Me- Layout Editor morial Hall, several students were startled Pamela Barry "96 by the appearance of aherdoffaculty, usu- News Editor ally calm and collected responding to an Dan Schaeffer "94 unusually loud rumble from upstairs by On the Hill Editor rushing out of the double doors with cries Jenny Daino "95 of ".YQ!l risk your life in there!", "I'm Photography Editor getting out of here!", and "l swear the sky Aden Moges "97 must be falling!" Sports Editor A few days later, a secretary in a first Jay Hilbert "95 floor Memorial office moved away from her desk for a moment just as a six foot pipe came crashing through the ceiling, a General starr nair's breadth from turning her into shish Aaron Ahlburn "97, Virgil Cain kebab, Typewriters were rendered useless "96, Rebecca Henry "95,Keith by falling dust and plaster. Remo "97, Charlotte Saylor "98, What is this, the latest thriller from the Jonathon Shacat "98 library of Steven King? Hardly. Believe it or not, these stories are actually TRUE F~culty Advisor tales from the inconvenience, to say the Terry Dalton least, (or danger, to say the most) of the renovations being done at WMC, mainly to Memorial Hall. The REALLY important aspect of this The money isn't going anywhere, and There are plenty of excuses going issue lies in the intelligence of having neither are the buildings. so what is the around as to why the renovauons were de- school in session while this project is car- rush? They have waited this long already layed so long, many of them legitimate, of ried out. Whether the safety aspect is LO get started. why not postpone it just a course, but why waste time placing the positive or nOI cannot be judged by our little longer? blame when nothing can change the facts unskilled eyes, but a constantly wary and Granted, the renovations are much now? The faculty, at least, is undoubtedly distracted mood during classes cannot be needed improvements which will make The Phoenix is published bi- very grateful to the complications, for by good for the learning atmosphere. several campus buildings accessible to being made to hurry up and clean out their One of the greatest questions which we the handicapped and make life generally weekly. The opinions expressed do have heard around campus so far is: not necessarily represent those of The offices of several decades in a day or two "Why didn't they postpone the renova- better for everyone. But are they so im- Phoenix staff, the faculty, or the ad- at the end of last year, they were saved the mediately necessary that we need to risk ministrators of WMC. trouble of liesurely cleaning them out, tions until next summer, when school is our concentration, school work, and even The paper welcomes freelance which would have taken them all summer. not in session?" Our question exactly. health for them? submissions on Macintosh disks in .Editorial most word processor formats. The editor reserves the right to edit for Compudependency : The Horrible clarity, length and libel and to publish as space permits. All submissions (excluding self-addressed diskettes) Disease That Afflicts s All become the property of The Phoenix and cannot be returned. Please include a name and phone I've realized lately just how de- as to how we would publish our pa- There are plenty of other ex- number for verification. Names will pendent we, as a society, have be- per on time without our computer. amples of how dependent we have be withheld only by the discretion of come on computer systems and other Someone actually suggested doing a become on machines and computers. the Editor-in-Chief. mechanical devices. We've come to cut and paste layout. Everyone A few weeks ago the bookstore came The Phoenix does not discrimi- rely upon these things so heavily cringed at the thought. Not just be- to a halt because both cash registers nate based on age, race, religion, gen- that we cannot function without cause it would take ten time the were engaged in validine transac- der, sexual orientation, national on- them. number of hours a computer layout tions when people in dining services gin, condition of handicap, or marital My disillusionment with what I takes, but more so because no one decided to download some informa- status. have come to call lovingly really knew how to do it that way. lion into the mainframe computer compudependence came to its pin- Although, we all realized that com- which then prohibits anything from Mail 10 address: nacle Sunday morning when I dis- puter desktop publishing is a rela- going in or cut of any computer net- The Phoenix covered that the Phoenix's copy of tively new thing. worked to it until it is finished 2 College Hill PageMaker 4.2 (the program used to Still we turned away from even downloading. This could be a prob- layout our illustrious paper) had trying. Rather we began to lament lem. WMC crashed. We were at a total stand- our situation and discuss our soci- I hope that others whio have had Westminster, Maryland 21157 still. There are no public access etal dependence on machines. One similar experiences have not lost computers on this campus capable of staff member brought up the black- faith in the age of computers. I have (410) 751-8600 running this program and all the of- out a few weekends ago. Though it not. I am perhaps a bit more jaded (410) 876-2055, ext. 8600 fices which I was able to contact on only lasted for about five or ten min- now thatn I was on Saturday. I don't utes. The entire campus came to a know if there is a cure for this dis- ;~~~~ki~ni~;O~!:p~t~~I:a!~t~~~~r s~~~ halt because out televisions, and ra- ease whcih ails us all, but I smcertey tem files. dios and nintendos and segas and hope we never reach the point whre As we stood around our rather hairdryers and things won't run we can't figure out that 2+2=4 with- Please Recycle! forlorn looking Macintosh LC II, without that magic substance called out the use of a calculator. That each of us tried to offer a suggestion electricity. would be a tragedy.