The Week in Brief

Because Suissa is still in the process of negotiating with different groups, he was unable to comment on how much money the YCC has to spend this year or on which bands it is soliciting. "We [have] never [known in past years] whom we are going to get before spring break," he said. "Bands tend to charge more money if they know that the students think that they are coming, so we cannot divulge our choices."

Suissa was able to confirm that the event will be held on Old Campus instead of Cross Campus. Spring Fling was moved to Cross Campus last year because of the grass planting that took place on Old Campus. This year, students were given the choice of both locations and voted in favor of the former.

—Orianne Dutka

Myrtle Beach `Dead Week' flags

The move comes in response to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's boycott of South Carolina businesses, an effort aimed at forcing the state's legislature to take down the Confederate flag that currently flies over the state capitol building in Columbia.

"We believe that, as a community of Yale students, taking a stand against racism is an issue on which we have real power," Rebecca Ingber, DC '00, one of the organizers of the demonstration, said. "Going to South Carolina is a statement I don't want the Yale class to make."

While protest organizers want Yale to partake in the boycott alongside colleges such as Duke, Swarthmore, Haverford, and Temple, others were concerned about its validity.

"It comes down to being with my friends," Thom Cantey, SY '00, said. "This is one of the last opportunities we have to be together as a group, and having some people in Myrtle Beach and some in Virginia Beach defeats that purpose."

Most students at the meeting echoed Cantey's concerns, but agreed that, if enough seniors commit to going to Virginia Beach, they'd be happy to change their plans. "As far as I see it, if we decide as a group not to go to Myrtle Beach, that's a twofold commitment to class unity," Ingber said. Representatives from each residential college were asked to circulate a poll gauging student opinion of the protest.

—Andrew Heller

Millennium billboard has nine months to go

"It'll stay up for the year," Richard DeFlumeri, assistant to the president of the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce (GNHCC). The GNHCC's Chapel Square/New Haven division—which will manage the mall and office tower as a nonprofit until someone steps forward to develop it—paid for two billboards, one of which faces the highway.

"The city didn't do much to celebrate the millennium in any significant way," De-Flumeri said of GNHCC President Matthew Nemerson's motivation. "There were enough resources to spend a little money on this."

DeFlumeri said "people generally like it well enough," though the wind thought differently. In January, gusts tore down some of the metal pieces that comprise the work.

—Kushal Dave

Elusive grad payments spur controversy

A series of miscommunications and bureaucratic mistakes put Michelle Nickerson GRD '02 and Karene Grad GRD '03, teaching assistants in the American studies and history departments on a lower pay scale than originally negotiated. The confusion was straightened out after a meeting between department faculty, Graduate School Dean Susan Hockfield and the students involved.

Hockfield maintained that the case was blown out of proportion. "This event has been characterized very unfairly. It's a mistake to take this event as a reflection on the graduate school as a whole. Two wobbles in over 850 assignments is pretty good. It's always unfortunate for the individuals"

Students and faculty have charged that the payment reinstation process was a closed one and that the students involved were not consulted. But Hockfield said that the process was as "open and interactive as possible, considering the number of people involved."

—Anna Dolinsky

KATHERINE ALDRICH/YH On Thurs., Feb. 24, Jerry Springer defended his show in SSS 114 (see page four).

Words

Around The Globe

Dumb...
Two thousand Canadian student protesters clashed with police in Quebec City, demanding more money for education and leading to the cancellation of a summit to celebrate young people throughout Quebec. The Parti Quebecois was elected in 1994, and has been trying to slash the budget ever since. In enraged response to the cancelation, some students threw Molotov cocktails, billiard balls, and snowballs. "It's hard enough being Canadian," one student said. "But as a French Canadian, I really need lots of education."

...And dumber?
A survey taken in the European Union for the European Council of Young Farmers found that children of nine to 10 years of age think bananas grow in Britain and that cotton comes from sheep. Of course, the biggest misconception was expressed by children who thought culture comes from America.

Crimson everywhere
In Brazil, a stonemason claiming to be possessed by the devil cut off his own penis. The man, who suffered injuries to his scrotum and liver from stabbing himself prior to the coup de grace which occurred when police arrived, had his penis reattached successfully at a local hospital. "I'm just glad to have briefly realized my lifelong goal of becoming a Cantab," he said.

—Compiled by Kushal Dave from Reuters, CNN, and Associated Press.

CR/D/F

YALE INDEX
1. Percent rise of Yale's 2000-01 term bill vs. its 1999-2000 term bill	2.9
2. Amount of said rise, in dollars	927
3. Number of Encylopaediae Britannica $927 can buy	.74
4. Percentage of information in an Encyclopaedia Yalies learn in four years	5.7
5. Percent inflation in 1999	2.4
6. Tuition increase beyond inflation rate, in dollars	160
7. Number of extra hours of student labor needed to compensate for increase (after taxes)	26
8. Average number of hours Yalies study for one midterm	7
9. Number of midterms Yalies risk flunking next year	3.71
10. Number of midterms Yalies should flunk, given inflation	3.07
11. Number of York Square Cinema movies Yalies will miss while studying to avoid flunking midterms	8
12. Number of lawsuits Peter Spodick will file against Yale in response	0

—Compiled by David S. Wertime

1) Press release; 2, 6, 9, 10, 11) Math; 3) Math and Britannica.com; 4) Testing of unnamed Yale graduate 5) Consumer Price Index; 7) Starting salary for dining hall jobs; 8) Normal people; 12) A safe guess

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