The Collegian Grove City College Newspaper December 6, 1996 Vol. 57 No. 12 Truss R Us" prevails in freshman engineering contest By Bridget Kelly The freshmen give an oral presentation and force at a far distance from the vertical wood glue, according to group member CollegianStaff Writer write a report on their design. Once the support and have the smallest possible Belden. Marlyn Jensen, wife of Matt trusses have been built, they compete mass. Jensen, said that the truss utilized the basic Since the spring of 1995, small groups of against other teams to see who has built the Materials allowed were an unlimited concept of the honeycomb and consisted of freshman engineers have been designing, optimum truss. amount of popsicle sticks and the glue of many intricate cuttings. The truss had a building, and testing their very own trusses. The trusses are tested to destruction by their choice. This year's winning goup, mass of 275 grams, extended 18.5 inches, This year's engineers were to design a scale application of a variable load. Judging fac- Truss "R" Us, consisted of Matt Jensen, and held a whopping 594 pounds. Accord- model of a cantilevered observation deck. tors include the mass of the truss, the force Lorne Belden, Sam Newberger and ing to Belden, the gentlemen put in at least The truss project introduces the young en- that the truss can withstand and the dis- Brian Shaffer. Truss "R" Us's design was 50 60 hours of work on the project, and gineers to the design process and gives tance that the truss extends from the sup- made of roughly 75 100 popsicle sticks, learned that "engineering is a lot of work." them a little taste of real life engineering. port. The best truss would support a large cut into pieces, and about 20 ounces of Nationally reknowned columnist Hear Pittsburgh's finest act tonight Cal Thomas to speak on campus Campus Press Release and has won numerous awards. Nationally syndicated Thomas has also been columnist Cal Thomas a frequent commentator will give a lecture at and analyst on television Grove City College on and radio. Tuesday, December 10, He has guest hosted at 7 pm in Kelter Audito- Cable New Network's rium of Pew Fine Arts "Crossfire" and has ap- Center. He will speak on peared on the Phil Don- "After the Election." ahue Show, ABC's Cal Thomas writes a "Nightline," "Good twice-weekly, nationally Morning America," "The syndicated newspaper CBS Morning News," column distributed to NBC's "Today" and more than 400 papers "The Oprah Winfrey through the Los Angeles Show." Times Syndicate. Currently Thomas The Sleeping Giants, a nationally recognized band, will be in A 35-year veteran of hosts a national prime- the I.M. Room from 8-10:30pm tonight! They follow in the broadcast and print jour- time talk show on CNBC. nalism, Thomas has footsteps of Rusted Root and Brownie Mary as bands that Thomas will speak on the topic This speaking engage- worked for NBC News ment will be his first on started as Pittsburgh regional bands. The admission cost is "After the Election" this Tuesday at 7 and Public Television the GCC campus. $2, and proceeds go to the Wendy Anne Sharp scholarship. pm in Ketler Auditorium. Try intersession if you can't get enough school By Erin Behan thinks will help her concentrate better than if Fraser said the course will still require of Collegian Editor in Chief she had been taking the class during the regu- students three plus hours of outside work Inside lar semester. "I think the good things defi- each day in addition to a five to seven page There are twenty-two different courses be- nitely outweigh the bad," she said. paper and preparations for the final exam. He ing offered for this year's January Intersession Another student Erin Buell is taking the has chosen to break up the four-hour long program which runs from January 6 through Civ/Lit Humanities course for the same rea- Perspectives: class by showing film excerpts. 17. It seems that even though most students son, graduating on time. She added a second "I thought the films would make the works Debate over campus see January as a break from the routine of major this semester and as a junior will be un- come alive and provide a break. I've arranged College life, a number spend their break in- able to graduate with her class unless she take it so that every day there will be an hour of technology 5 tensely participating in what everyone else an intersession course. film." tries to escape: schoolwork. Buell, now an English and Psychology ma- Life: Although the Bursar would not release the jor, sees another reason for intercession as Another intercession course that is incorpo- exact number of students enrolled in the 1997 well, a chance to escape home. "Last year my Discover the secrets rating film, in perhaps a more unusual way, is program, it appears to be popular and success- break was long and drawn out, for me the in- Principles of Economics-Micro taught by Dr. of Gwendolyn, the ful as all of the offered humanities classes are tersession will be a nice break in itself." Dirk Mateer. full and many of the others are near capacity Like Finkelpearl, Buell expressed no wor- During the course students will see Citizen resident ghost 6 as well. The two key strengths of the program ries about the long hours a semester course Kane (Monopoly), It's a Wonderful Life are the offering of a large variety of subjects crammed into two weeks may require. (Scarcity, Opportunity Cost), Wall Street (Big Entertainment: and the fulfillment of many special, some- think because it's only the one class, I'll proba- Business and Morality), Dirty Rotten times desperate, needs of the students bly end up putting more time into it than nor- The Moore's Welcome Scoundrels (Gresham's Law, Segmentation), "I'm behind on credits and I can't graduate mal anyway." and Other People's Money (Corporate Steve, Andy, and the on time unless I do intercession," Junior Beth The intercession course Buhl is taking, Civ/ Takeovers), among others. Finkelpearl said. Finkelpearl is taking Intro- Dr. Mateer will also be including selected gang for dinner .8 Lit will be taught by a new English professor duction to Sociology with Dr. Gary Smith and Dr. Peter Fraser. The course will be Fraser's readings from classic novels. said she isn't worried about the long class first and he said he has made some changes Sports: hours--from 9 am to 1 pm. "For the most part between the full semester workload and the LouAnn Pitzer, who has previously com- Men's soccer wins I consider it a necessary evil." intercession syllabus. "Well, obviously I pleted an intersession course (Civ/Lit) said Finkelpearl explained that the negative as- tightened it up. I dropped a couple of the that despite the long "intense" hours of class- ECAC's with a pect of the long classroom hours are offset by longer works I had to compress the work and homework, "it's just nice to get a flourish course to just the basics." 11 the intense focus of the program, which she whole class over in two weeks."