Graffiti at Commons Construction Site “Not a Credible Threat”
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One More Week! Veritas Super Omnia Vol. CXXXI, No. 13 May 23, 2008 Phillips Academy Graffiti at Commons Construction Site “Not A Credible Threat” Security Increased Until Commencement as a Precautionary Measure PHILLIPIAN STAFF REPORT Phillips Academy will be covery of the message and the under additional security until subsequent police investigation Commencement, after threaten- to faculty, students and staff in ing graffiti was discovered on the meetings early Thursday after- Commons construction site. noon. The message, written on the Chase also told the students wall of a portable toilet, read, that if the perpetrator does not “Everyone is going to die on come forward before the end of 5/30/2008.” May 30 is the last Thursday, the Commons con- day of classes. struction site will be “completely Barbara Chase, Head of closed” through Commence- School said that the Andover ment beginning Friday, though Town Police believe that the she said that the closure will message poses no imminent most likely not affect the reopen- danger to the community. The ing of Commons scheduled for police also believe that the mes- Spring 2009. sage was written by an employee The site was operating nor- on-site and not a student or in- mally Thursday, said Todd Mc- truder. Cabe, the project executive with Additionally, the police think Consigli Construction, the com- that the message was directed pany supervising renovations. toward site employees and not According to Mike Boucher, toward Phillips Academy stu- site superintendent, Consigli be- M. Discenza/THE PHILLI P IAN dents. Head of School Barbara Chase addresses students in a mandatory meeting on Thursday afternoon. Chase announced the dis- Continued on A7, Column 1 Lowe, Garner QUAKE IN CHINA HITS HOME AT PA In Boys Dorms, Video Games Provide Inactive Activity By MELISSA YAN has swept boys’ dorms across and good competition will attract To Film New By TRISHA MACRAE campus in recent years. a large crowd, he predicts. Dixon Phillips Academy’s seismo- days the phone lines were re- “Most of the people in my estimates that at least 20, and graph on the first floor of Gelb ally bad, and my parents had When it comes to Phillips dorm game to at least some ex- possibly up to 100, students will Movie at Inn recorded tremors from Chi- to first hear that everything Academy and Halo, Zach Dixon tent,” said Alex Lee ’08, a resident attend. na’s devastating earthquake was okay from my aunt.” ’08 is the resident Master Chief. of Fuess House. Dixon, like Lee, lives in By JULIET LIU on Monday, May 12. “My family has been really Halo, now in its third incarna- Dixon does not take his posi- Fuess, where Halo is the game of Peter Watt, Instructor in traumatized by the whole situ- tion, is a “first-person shooter” tion lightly. He is trying, for in- choice. Hollywood is knocking on Physics and PA’s resident seis- ation, especially my dad, who video game, featuring combat stance, to organize a large Halo As Dixon put it, there is “a lot the doors of the Andover Inn. mographer, estimated that the can’t watch the news at all, between alien invaders and tournament, to take place this of skill involved” in a first-person For new Inn managers Mat- wave took one hour to travel since it’s so sad,” she contin- a souped-up modern soldier weekend in Kemper. thew and Alison Sudalter-Mo- from Sichuan Province to An- ued. named Master Chief. The allure of a large screen Continued on A6, Column 1 rello, business has had a slow dover. The earthquake, which Several students placed Dixon start, especially after having to But the emotional shock- measured an 8.0 on the Rich- at the top of the list of best Halo wait over two months for a li- waves moved more quickly. ter scale, struck Wenchuan players on campus, demonstrat- quor license. “My grandparents live County near Chengdu in the ing his well-known and uncon- But now they have some- in Chonqing [a neighboring Sichuan Province of South- tested skill. thing to look forward to — a province of Sichuan],” said west China at 2:28 p.m. local When the topic of his Halo new Warner Brothers film Annie Li ’10. “They could feel time. expertise arose, Dixon accepted starring Jennifer Garner and shaking, but the newer apart- It was the worst earth- the compliment modestly, but Rob Lowe, titled “This Side ment buildings that they lived did not deny his standing. of the Truth,” will be shooting in are sturdy. For one or two Continued on A8, Column 1 Video gaming — or “gaming,” one scene at the Andover Inn as it is more commonly known on Tuesday. — is a popular pastime on the An- “It’s exciting for everybody,” dover campus. The phenomenon said Morello. “It should be in- teresting to be a part of [the movie], but for the most part, we’ll be behind the scenes.” ANDOVER, EXETER TO DUEL According to Stephen Por- ter, Director of Public Infor- EXCLUSIVELY OFF THE COURT mation, Phillips Academy and the production workers on this In Basketball, Class-B Big Blue Will Drop Class-A Big Red film have been in discussions since the producers contacted LETTERS FROM: EXETER’S 8 PG’S the Office of Communications in early March. MALCOLM WESSELINK, MIKE KUTA, AGAINST ANDOVER’S 4 It was not until last Thurs- Exeter Basketball Coach Andover Athletic Director FORCE DROP day that the school made a verbal agreement with War- Three weeks As Phillips By CHARLES SHOENER M. DISCENZA/ THE PHILLIPIAN ago I learned Academy’s Ath- Continued on A7, Column 3 A vigil was held in honor of the earthquake victims. from my Ath- letic Director, I Next year’s winter Andover/ letic Director regret that deci- Exeter athletic competitions that Andover sions about An- will will not include the Boys Faculty Profile: Meet Mohammed Harba was planning to dover’s varsity Varsity Basketball game. drop Exeter in boys basketball Leon Modeste, Instructor Mohammed Harba’s thirst By CELIA LEWIS attended Al-Mustansiriya Uni- boys’ basketball. schedule have in Athletics and Boys Varsity for learning led him from his versity as an English major. The Exonian ran been presented Basketball coach, said, “In our childhood in southern Iraq to aged us to be free thinkers.” He said, “I love learning lan- a story on it last week. We have in the press by representatives of minds, [the Andover/Exeter the top of his university in Bagh- A young movie aficionado, guages, and that’s why I ended received nothing in writing as to other schools. I would like to take basketball rivalry] has ended at dad, to translating for the U.S. Harba loved to watch the old up in my school in Baghdad. I why this might happen but The this opportunity to present the this point. The two programs military, to a Fulbright Scholar- American cowboy films of the had a great college experience Exonian quoted Coach Modeste facts from Andover’s perspective. have gone in different direc- ship at UPenn, and now, to Phil- 1940s and 1950s. His favorite filled with beautiful years…al- as saying that “In basketball, we The landscape of NEPSAC tions.” lips Academy to teach Arabic. ones, he later recalled, were most the best years of my life.” are just not able to compete with boys basketball has changed a However, Exeter Boys Var- Harba was born in the Hil- John Wayne movies. In 2004, Harba graduated as A-level teams like Exeter. We are great deal over the last five years. sity Basketball coach Malcolm lah-Babylon region of southern Yet the sense of liberation in one of the top five students from not following the A philosophy Essentially, the coach’s associa- Wesselink disagreed with Iraq. Growing up in a city where these movies, characteristic of Al-Mustansiriya University. because class A basketball puts tion created a new classification Modeste. “seas of date palm trees and the classical American cowboy, Under normal circum- a higher emphasis on the sport system by changing the limits “When Andover drops Ex- gardens of oranges” suffused was strictly a fantasy for Harba. stances, this honor would have than we want to have.” I agree that on the number of PG players per eter, they are giving up a rival- throughout the streets, Harba “I was living in a dictatorial allowed him to pursue a post- Class A basketball is very strong. team. The primary factor which ry. People at Andover/Exeter led a relatively normal child- regime, so the word ‘freedom’ graduate education. However, I’ve been coaching a long time distributes teams across the clas- should be outraged,” he said. hood. was unfortunately not an op- as a result of the U.S. invasion and I have yet to make it beyond sification matrix is the number Andover and Exeter are “I would say that [my siblings tion. I was looking at the things in Iraq, stability in Baghdad was the first round of the tournament. of PG players. Under the new both members of the New Eng- and I] were pretty much just like I saw in American films or Eu- deteriorating by the day, Harba Some of the Class A schools are system, there are no limits at land Prep School Athletic Con- any other children,” Harba said. ropean films and I’d wonder later recalled, and keeping the small schools that have hung their the A level and those teams are ference (NEPSAC), and until “We didn’t have access to a lot of what’s wrong with us, why can’t school open was not an option.