Impeachment IT'S THAT TIME AGAIN process begins for VP Gray Personal phone calls one accusa tion, but controversy surrounds process By PATRICK J. BERNAL NEWS EDITOR Impeachment hearings for Student Government Association Vice President Jon Gray '00 appear to be imminent as charges he made per- sonal phone calls from the SGA office arid failed -to attend a trustee meeting over January are being investigated. According to a member of the SGA Executive Board, Gray made long distance phone calls from the SGA office during November and December and did not participate in a January trustee meaning. The impeachment process began Tuesday and SGA sources reported the majority of people in SGA are aware an impeachment is underway. Gray has denied making any impeachable offenses. "I didn't make any improper phone calls. I did, however, allow for the phone to be used for what I thought were authorized phone calls," said Gray. "They may indeed not have been. I did- n't attend the emergency meeting to elect Bro Adams. I was informed about the N JENNY O'DONNELL/THE COLBY ECHO meeting two days before it happened. I J Jon Gray¦ '00 ,k" ? , "< , . - «-rr Matt King 02 makes the diff icult decision between " new " and "used" textsfor spring semester classes. Far members of the Class ' ^ don^ t drive and I had prior obligations, so of 2000, there are just over 100 days left here on Mayflower Hill, meaning their trip to the bookstore represents their last tim e , no I didn't go." through the checout line with course books in hand. "Jon has not comported himself in a reasonable fashion," said SGA Treasurer Robert Painter. "We expect SGA members to be model citi- zens and he was downright rude to the faculty guest on Presidents' Council (David Fandlay, professor of economics)." Two presidents have drafted the article for his impeachment. According to the SGA constitution, impeachment can be pursued if ia SGA member fails to perform his duties or violates College rules, Bookstore competes with Web for text sales including failure to perform duties, including the misuse of SGA funds. Should Gray be removed from office, Humphreys will nominate a By MICHELLE RIFFELMACHER money;and suffers an even greater loss for the cost of replacement, who will be approved by Presidents' Council. CONTRIBUTING WRITER returning the extra books to the publisher. Tensions, that some say may be racially motivated, have escalated in The bookstore is trying to remain as competitive recent weeks between Gray and SGA President Ben Humphreys '00. As computers become increasingly important as possible with the online book vendors by keeping "Is it my skin, am I coloring the issue?" Gray said in regard to his one does not have the option of whether to uti- the prices at the utmost minimum while ensuring a conflict with Humphreys. lizethe technology or not. In recent years the break-even profit. It has even launched investigations "This points to something very ugly at Colby," said former Pugh Internet has spawned a laige number of book- of six online vendors in an attempt to learn more Center Alliance representative Kenya Sanders '00. "There is more sellers, most notably VarsityBooks.com, about their online competition. behind this impeachment than these trivial things that they are trying Amazon.com, and BigBooks.com, These ven- By buying enough books for four courses, book- to link Jon to." dors now pose formidable competition to the store managers found that only one of the companies Gray has held a volatile position on SGA prioi to the call for his Colby bookstore, which had previously held a ager Bruce Barnard. actually shipped to them. They also found that the impeachment. monopoly on course books sold to Colby students. The number of books that the bookstore orders for selection was not as good, especially when looking These tensions reached a boiling point at the Feb. 2 Presidents' While the growth in online sales is not drastic, it any given class corresponds directly to the number of for foreign language classes. They also noted that if in Council meeting at which Gray proclaimed that "there is a poison at has grown enough to concern bookstore manage- students that have enrolled for tlie class. Orders are haste, a student needed to buy a book, the online ven- Colby, and I am going to find it." ment. But bookstore officials say buying over the then placed with the intention to sell all of these dors would not be a convenient option because of the counter is still the best way to purchase. books, See GRAY, continued on page 3 "The inconvenience of online buying weighs When students decide to buy online instead of See TEXTS, continued on page 3 against price competitiveness," said bookstore man- from the bookstore/ the bookstore ends up losing Colby struggles with technology upgrades to speed up campus Internet connection rying capacity, the current connec- The service was "slow and disap- Ryan Davisreviews ___________ _______ By MICHELLE __________________________________________________________________H rV^ OUR USE OF A T1 HHHP' RIFFELMACHER tion has now become saturated, pointing" said Phillips. the f inalchapter of CONNECTION PUTS meaning that there is too much Colby tried to work with Bell ^^K_mmmmm^RmWKr CONTRIBUTING WRITER information transfer occurring on Atlantic to manage the T3 network Wes Craven's trilogy US A LITTLE BEHIND the network at one time, More and but Bell Atlantic was unable to pro- Hre_^____________fi__L!L Perhaps the single most frustrat- ^^Hh^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^I^^^^p^ MOST OTHER SIMILAR more people are using the network, vide services. See page 5 ' ing, speculative and pervasive ele- thus , each person's share of the con- Colby then looked upon the ___________________ PS_BSS_l ment of education today is technolo- INSTITUTI ONS...BUT IN nection has become smaller and University of Maine for help, asking gy. Over the past decade, huge smaller. One main cause of this satu- to tie our T3 network in with their advances have been made within the TERMS OF ETHERNET ration is the influx in Mp3 down- ATM network so that our resources realm of computers and electronic loading from the Internet, some- could be shared. U. Maine was not , CONNECTIONS, COLBY software a fast paced and complex thing technology services is keeping yet in the position to provide service industry. IS UP TO DATE, in mind, with us, At Colby College, the technology The ITS staff has been trying to A T3 connection alone costs near- services department and the admin- lines called Tl lines. Tl lines both solve this problem of "saturat ion" ly $25,000, Colby decided to sus- , ' istration have been struggling to connect us to the Internet and have by upgrading the network system, pend implementing T3 lines because ___________H_t_fl'' > J_________________ l ' keep up with the changing technolo- caused most of the problems which Upgra ding the sy stem means servicing each Internet connection gy in order to provide the students students have been encountering, increas ing the carry ing capacity ol would cost roughly $400,000 n year, with up to date Internet service. Yet, The on-campus system is a more the pipeline, The upgrade from the While the goal remains to get off this struggle has been a difficult one agreeable network to work with Tl connection would be to a T3 con- of the Tl and get on the T3 connec- High prices and unavailable services because it is easier to upgrade Its nection that has the capacity to tion, a current solution would be to have prev ented Colby from reaching capacity and because more.compa- transport 45MB of information a sec- add a second Tl connection ns a Whitmore racks up ^^^^fl^Oj^^^H ; its goal of technological advance- nies are willing to manage it. ond, stop-gap. ment. Fiber optic cables are used between For the past year, Colby has tr ied Our use of a Tl connection puts ^^^ HBHHH : Explaining the current situation buildings in pact because the u?e of ligftt to make this upgrade a reality in us a l ittle behind most other similar of Internet technology at Colby, as opposecj to electricity reducestroubles order to have tlie network up and institut ions such as Bucknel l Director of Information Technology incurred during storms. Within the rtmning by the beginning of second University, which is already using ' Services Ray Phillips provided the buildings, a different kind of cable, called semester. The T3 connection would T3-llke connections. But in terms of ^^^^ I^^^^^ H• following information about the net- aCategory 5,is used. Additionally,Colby provide considerably more band- Ethernet connect ions, Colby Is up to setup, jLj vllUUJ yJ.Cim tf lit ttt«l«»l|t« '»t •flMMttttt tt« •••ItMtllM P " work uses n TCPEP type of Internet communi- width. date, A current upgrade is scheduled • •* ••tM* *lf q* * Colby 's technology network is cation through the Ethernetconnection, In the past, Colby has used MCI for the next three to four years, This "Ward Word" ..,..„.,,..... pg. 6 comprised of an on-campus system ; These cables and connections are and World Com to service the net- upgrade will give all residence halls "Devils Quoting Scriputre" , pg. 6 and an off-campus system. similar to pipes. Tlie larger the pipe work, however, according Phillips, easier access to tho main server. Maintaining the off-campus connec- size, the more information is able to the companies provided Inadequate Looking toward the' future, Students on the Street .....pg. 6 tion' has proved expensive and has flow it, 1 ' through The Tl; the standard service.' a where the demand for T3-Hke con- ^* L/ OOClJxwQ 'tj Vvll «lt»#Mt«l t ttl -Ht* M**l****tllf 1IMI- - »»# •PK - ' ¦& * ' •••• made \ upgrading the College s connection to the Internet, can trans- ; Colby then switched to Cable and nections is rising faster than the cost JV10V16 l\6Vl vW r 0Mtttt *IM1MM-l .tl# ff tllMMIf t«tM ••¦••••MM PR* O ,* Internet connection problematic, fer approximately L4MB of informa- Wireless to monage the system, biit of the connection to falling/ the ftcul- , Th«!on«campM8 system/ the not- OPOXtO 9wl/irC9 t ttlHt » ttttMMM Itt l CtMttMMtl t tM I I > t «M » / tion a second .