UWC- USA SEPTEMBER 2014

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Would you live on Mars? !

CHARLIE THOMPSON (CANADA ’16)#

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When he isn’t building robots, designing space ships or selling companies for billions of dollars, Elon Musk spends his t ime dreaming about what the future might hold. In a press conference on September 8th, he was asked why his space exploration company, SpaceX, is not publicly traded.

"The reason I haven't taken SpaceX public is that the goals of SpaceX are very long-term, one of which is to establish a city on Mars,"

While this might sound insane, or insanely optimistic at best, Elon Musk has a history of turning his wild dreams into equally wild realities. He is no ordinary

businessman; while his ventures have been extremely profitable, his choice of companies and his words about the future seem to convey an underlying optimism for humanity and a desire to make the world a better place through technology. After single-handedly reviving the electric car industry with his company Tesla, Musk released all of his company’s patents to encourage other auto-makers to offer electric vehicles.

When asked why he wants to build a city on mars, Musk replied that “if humans become a multi-planet species, humanity as we know it is likely to propagate into the future much further than if we are a single-planet species." In other words, it would be a sort of collective life insurance for all of us. In the event of a world-ending nuclear war or some sort of large scale natural disaster, a human population on another planet would save the human race as a whole.

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CAMPUS NEWS

Read the tale of a student so passionate that he sacrificed everything for a single class. !WORLD NEWS

While living on Mars is only the plot of a science fiction novel for most of us, it might soon become reality. !!OPINION

Interested in the debate surrounding the curfew rules? Check out our journalist’s take on campus cul ture and respect.

!COMMUNITY

O f f e r i n g a d i f f e r e n t perspective on the same issue, here is an anonymous article from the community. !This is also the grand debut of a new community piece, Ask Sir E Brum. !

(photo credit - RT.com / AFP Photo / Kevork Djansezian)

UWC- USA SEPTEMBER 2014

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A message from the Editors

Hello readers, !Many of you are faithful followers while others are first time patrons. For those who belong in the latter category, here is the Literati, the student written, run and edited school newspaper of our Montezuma campus. Here you will find everything from world news to campus coverage and personal opinion. And there have been many of the latter due to the rather busy few weeks we have had. Flip through for it all. !Best, ! The Editors !

LITERATI STAFF

THE EDITORS

Blake Anderson USA-KS

Ojaswee Rajbhandary Nepal ‘15

Charlie Thompson Canada ‘16

Sunniva Olsrud Punsvik (Norway/ Denmark ‘16)#

Izabella Pastrana USA-MO ’15

Sage de Brum Marshall Islands ’15

FACULTY SPONSOR

Parris Bushong

WRITERSRuby McCaferty USA-VT ‘15

UWC- USA SEPTEMBER 2014

I Sacrificed Everything !

SUNNIVA OLSRUD PUNSVIK (NORWAY/ DENMARK ‘16)#

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Goto Shinpei, a nineteen-year-old second year from Japan, sacrificed all of his subjects to take Spanish ab initio. His passion and determination for Spanish has not relented since he started taking the class at the end of the first semester. When he walked into his first Spanish class he was motivated, and today he can openly communicate with Spanish speakers.

When Shinpei started at UWC-USA last year, he took theatre, geography, English, self-taught, chemistry and mathematics. He found out at the end of the first semester that he really wanted to take Spanish. He had no experience, so he could only take ab initio. This left him with only two high levels, but he needed three. He had to drop out of theatre, chemistry, geography to take Spanish. He ended up taking physics, English, self-taught, social anthropology, and Spanish. For the sake of this class, he had to take mathematics higher level, even though he was not interested in mathematics at all.

The reason behind Shinpei’s decision is that he thinks that women who speak Spanish are attractive, and he wanted to be able to hold conversations with them. After encountering many on his southwest studies trip to Mexico, he had an entirely new outlook on Spanish, one of the most beautiful languages in the world in his opinion. Before taking Spanish classes, he had studied the language by himself; he

learned English and Spanish vocabulary at the same time. “I sacrificed my other subjects for Spanish, but I do not regret anything!” he said. One of his favourite phrases in Spanish is “Español, tu eres mi corazón”, which means: “Spanish, you are my heart”. Shinpei wants to surpass his Spanish-speaking friends by becoming fluent in this language. Even though Shinpei has a big passion for Spanish, he also wants to study Chinese and French. When he goes to college, he is thinking of studying one of those languages. He thinks that men who can speak Chinese or French are thought of as attractive and wants to rank among them. His dream is to become fluent in English, Spanish, French and Chinese.

Shinpei’s motivation for taking Spanish is a good example of one way to choose subjects. Thinking practically and taking subjects because it is more rational is not the only way of looking at it. By choosing what you are passionate about, you will have a good experience. Two years is not nearly enough to experience everything UWC, especially UWC-USA. This experience is not only about academics, but also about learning and evolving.

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Musk envisions a human astronaut walking on Mars as early as 2026, and believes it possible to start his colony a decade or so later. He says that it would start with 10 dedicated first-landers who would set up some basic infrastructure, and make it possible for another 80,000 to land soon after. With all of the advances in rocket technology and cost-reduction he has achieved, he believes a one-way ticket to the red planet could cost as little as $500,000.

Although not overly habitable now, Musk bel ieves that with the r ight engineering the planet could be made to resemble earth in many ways. There are certainly many technical problems to be solved, but if the past is any indication, Elon Musk is up for the challenge. With new engineering methods and by eliminating the waste of government bureaucracy, he has reduced the cost of a space shuttle by many orders of magnitude. NASA recently awarded SpaceX a $2.6B contract to act as a transporter of cargo and crew to the International Space Station (ISS).

The formation of SpaceX has its roots in Musk’s disappointment at the lack of a NASA-planned Mars mission in 2001, when he sold his share in the company PayPal. He found himself wanting to spur national excitement by launching a greenhouse to Mars, to see how life would fare. He noted that his own sense of adventure was his guide - and said that “If I could afford it, I figured it would be a worthy expenditure of money, with no expectation of financial return.” When he found that no reasonable method existed to do such a thing, he endeavoured to change

the entire industry, and many would say that he has.

Elon Musk and SpaceX have inspired people all over the world, many of whom long for the type of shared national excitement that was present in the late 1960’s when America competed in the race to the moon. He notes that Mars is “A fixer-upper of a planet”, but that a sense of adventure is necessary before any sort of progress can occur. He finishes by saying that “the United States is a nation of explorers. America is the spirit of human exploration distilled.”

UWC- USA SEPTEMBER 2014

Campus Culture: Respect !

RUBY MCCAFFERTY (USA - VT ’15)#—————————-#

Upon returning to UWC, second-year students were faced with a new rule from faculty: students would no longer be allowed to go into one another’s dorms past check on Sunday through Thursday night. Although it was a seemingly small change, this generated a huge response from students, both positive and negative, and set a tense tone for the beginning of the school year. But don’t worry, this is not another article about the injustice of the new rule, its negative impact on students, and our “rights”.

Instead of continuing to discuss that topic to the point of exhaustion, the aim of this article is to focus on the supposed initial reasoning behind the change: respect. Talk to almost any member of faculty who took part in making the decision, and you will realize that most of their comments center on this same topic. For those of you who are confused by the meaning of the word (there are many definitions), to respect something is to “acknowledge the feelings, wishes, and rights of ”, as well as to “avoid harming or interfering with”. Our beloved school was not feeling so loved anymore, and whether or not this was the “correct” way to bring about change, students should be spending more time thinking about the meaning behind the change rather than the change itself.

Respect is a tricky thing. It shouldn’t be, but it is. Each person has his or her own personal compass of how much respect they

give themselves and others, and how much they want to be respected. Since none of us can see these exact expectations of others, we often end up hurting or overbearing others without even realizing it. Likewise, as a particular topknotted Finnish student said during an M-Code meeting on the topic, it can be surprisingly easy to forget to be respectful in this hectic world we live in. A few cases of property damage on top of all this, and we had given some members of faculty every reason to keep the rule in place.

Respect is essential in a place like UWC. Here, we take uncomfortable steps each day in order to better ourselves and the world around us, but how can we do either of these things if we can’t even wash our own dishes or ask our roommates to quiet down when we want to sleep? Take a good look around campus. Whether it’s an attitude, a tradition, or the appearance of a common space, there must be something you want to change. This new rule is giving us an opportunity to analyze this place and how we act within its boundaries, and is forcing us to make change. While some see this as an opportunity to flex their muscles of rebellion, I say why not see where this takes us?

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There has been a lot of great work on this campus recently when it comes to this topic: a student initiative to create an honor code, many constructive discussions, and what I see as an overall quieting of disruptions and destruction. When I walk into my dayroom and see a pile of dishes in the sink, or hear someone making a rude comment, I can see that we still have a little while to go. However, I know that if we can continue along this path, continue to near our critical mass, maybe we can create a place in which all of us want to live, and where faculty is no longer forced to make rules in order for us to realize our wrongs.

!The Best Speech

You’ll Ever Regret !—————————-#

!“Speak when you are angry, and you'll make the best speech you'll ever regret”

The student body of UWC-USA has been fighting hard for what it believes is an issue worth fighting over: the return of, at the very least, the right of students to be present in any dayroom before curfew during the week as opposed to only on the weekend.

Some context: based on a decision made at the end of the 2013/2014 school year by faculty and administration, the 2014/2015 school year began with the announcement that students would be confined to public areas and their own dorms, without exception, on every night

less Friday and Saturday. After an initial indication of resistance by second-year students in the first few weeks prior to the arrival of first-years, a proposal was drafted, approved, and sent to administration for review. The process for cooperation and constructive action had begun.

It has now been approximately six weeks since the arrival of second-years on campus, and morale is very clearly down. But after weeks of meetings between elected representatives and the administration and Residential Life members, a sense of success had begun to emerge, but this Wednesday night, that sense was crushed by the announcement of a notable lack of progress with regards to review of the disputed rule; the threat of even more restrictive policies being enacted (despite statements to the contrary, it is held by many that these new policies are meant to dissuade future proactive student action); and attempts to convince students of the level to which administration “empathizes” with the student body (this last point drawing open laughter from several students).

But the issue now is not how to deal with the past, or how to protest, or how to “win”. There is a massive difference between opinions (on either side of the issue) regarding “the rule”, and opinions regarding the effectiveness of reasonable d i s c u s s i o n b e t we e n s t u d e n t s a n d administration. Rules will always be debated. Rules will be added, rules will be modified, and rules will be removed or replaced. The issue, now, lies in ensuring the UWC-USA can still provide the so-called “UWC Experience” to its students. After all, no one in attendance has paid $80,000 with the goal of being confined to dormitories and achieving perfect IB scores.

UWC- USA SEPTEMBER 2014

Nay, what must now happen is bigger than the debate regarding the day-rooms and inter-dorm visitation (discussions which must themselves continue as well, however). The UWC-USA community has a responsibility to come together (faculty, staff, administration, students) as one body. People need to be able to separate their emotions from their argumentation, true. But it is becoming rapidly clear that something about this conversation is personal, whether it is meant to be so or not. If the community is to move towards a useful conclusion and standpoint, the fight cannot be a personal one. Administrators are but people trying to do what they see as being best for the school and its students. Students are people too, people who want and deserve to be genuinely listened to and taken seriously.

If in six weeks the UWC-USA community has managed to infuse as much negative feeling into its dealings as was done in nearly six months in the year prior, something needs to change. But the change needs to come from a place of calm and of respect. Mutual respect.

Jeffrey Fry said: “You can get angry, you can get even, or you can get ahead”. So let's get ahead, together.

WILL

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Ask Sir E Brum !SAGE DE BRUM#

(MARSHALL ISLANDS ’15)#—————————-#

!Welcome to Ask Sir E Brum. This is an advice column where you, the reader, can ask me something, anything even. For the most part, you can ask me anything at the boundary of explicit sexual references and belittle anyone's mother indirectly. Ask away, fellow students and I shall work far more intensely than Deep Thought (I hear ya hitchhikers) to produce the most concise and, if the IB allows me the time, as witty answer as I can.

You are also free to send me the answer to your questions should you like to bring up interesting finds of yours (you may choose to have a fake name as well!).

Jus t emai l your quest ions to my emai l (sage.debrum@uwc-usa.org)

and very likely will your question be attempted to be answered!

UWC- USA SEPTEMBER 2014

Friends, classmates, UWC-ers… lend me your ears. Er—eyes? Would eyes be more appropriate because you’re reading? Ugh, I was just trying to do a thing here, but wording—foiled me again.

Anyway, welcome. Welcome to the Flipside. Now, you might be wondering, “Izabella, what are you saying, I don’t understand, what is the Flipside, stop being weird,” to which I would respond, “I don’t know, man, I’m confused, too.”

Which I suppose could be concerning for you readers because I’m sure you all don’t want to read confused drivel every Friday for the foreseeable future. Here’s the thing, though: between the two of us—me on one side and you guys on the other—I am 99% sure that I have more reason to be the more concerned in our relationship mainly because I’m the one having to write this every week. And all I know about the Flipside is that it’s funny. Well, it’s supposed to be funny, anyway. I don’t know, I can’t say that I read it religiously last year (sorry, Edgar). You definitely should, though, this year, you know? I’m just saying.

But wait, do you know how hard it is to be consistently hilarious?! It’s as difficult as, I don’t know, getting Yftah to wear a pair of shoes. LOL, HEY, BUDDY, HI. I’m just kidding, though, guys, because as it turns out, you just have to tell him he has to wear semi-formal clothing for Buddy Dance. Not that hard in retrospect.

But yeah… I just don’t know how professional comedians do it. Humor, that is. Not getting footwear on my Buddy’s feet (that would be weird). Being funny is really hard work. I know, okay, you can trust me.I know because my brother took years and years to develop any semblance of an ability to make people giggle, chuckle smile, etc., but hey, now he’s funny

really funny. Like, makes-me-cry funny because I’m laughing so hard that it hurts me, and I have a pretty low threshold for pain, you know, so I kind of end up crying a little bit (although that’s not too anomalous, I must admit). Anyway, before I move on, to all the single ladies interested in men, my brother is still single, and I would probably love to welcome you to the family. He’s funny and kind and easily trained. I’m kidding. I’m not kidding. I might be kidding. He still thinks that it’s okay to fart on me, so obviously, there’s a lot of room for improvement.

Now, back to trying to make my point (because I do have a point, okay, I promise). It takes me a while to come up with anything mildly entertaining, and it takes even longer for me to come up with anything I deem fit for public consumption. And so the point is this: please, for the love of all that you consider holy or sacred or worthy of admiration, please bear with me as I get the hang of this “being funny” thing. I’ll get there eventually, I swear it.

I might make fun of you; I might not. I might poke fun at administration; I might not. I might tell funny stories about Cecilia Wallace; I might… no, yeah, I will probably do that. We’ll see, though, we’ll see. All in due time. And if it turns out I do crack some jokes about you, know that this will only ever be seen by the people here on campus.

That is until the media people get the Literati website off the ground.

the FLIPside

The Flipside