Tisch Evacuated After Computer Catches Fire
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THE TUFTS Where You Read It First VOLUME L, NUMBER 18 DAILY TUESDAY,OCTOBER 4, 2005 Tisch evacuated after computer catches fire BY BRUCE HAMILTON library with Facilities Daily Editorial Board Department electricians and the Medford Fire Department Students looking to get in a to check out the power outlets little early-week studying got a in the area of the explosion. surprise Monday. After talking to the police, Tisch Library was evacuated Tisch staff told people gathered from about 4:45 p.m. to 5:30 in front of the library they p.m. after a laptop computer would not be allowed back in caught fire on the first floor. for an hour and a half, Zappala The computer malfunctioned said. The library wound up and burst into flames, accord- being closed for only half the ing to Tufts University Police original estimate. Department Sergeant Chris The police have the laptop McGee. computer. “It was pretty much “There was some smoke and completely destroyed,” McGee a few small flames,” he said. said. The computer’s owner put OneSource was called to out the flames with a fire extin- clean up the area. There was no guisher, and someone pulled damage to the library. T h e the library’s fire alarm, which Tufts Fire Marshal is investigat- evacuated the building. ing the incident. “The fire alarm went off, and The laptop’s owner was not a everyone walked out like student, McGee said. robots,” sophomore Andrew Zappala said he did not smell Zappala, who was in the library or hear anything during the ANJALI NIRMALAN/TUFTS DAILY at the time, said. “Nobody fire. “I just want to get back in,” Students await the reopening of the library following yesterday’s evacuation. seemed panicked.” he said while waiting for the The police went into the doors to reopen. Show hosts New Orleans students BY MARC RAIFMAN racial divide among the storm’s victims. AND BRIAN MCPARTLAND “The [most hard-hit areas] are largely the Daily Editorial Board and Senior Staff Writer black areas, the poor areas,” Dunn said. “We obviously saw the racial problems in that Two Tufts students from New Orleans area.” took part in a panel on Hurricane Katrina on Hunter and Van Wormer talked about the University radio station Monday. how they never imagined such horrible dev- Senior William Dunn organized the panel astation occurring at home. on his weekly evening show, “The Electric “Every year there are huge hurricane Light,” on 91.5 FM, WMFO. scares,” Hunter said. “You’re kind of used to “I am honored to have y’all here,” Dunn that.” told sophomores Katherine Hunter and Every two or three years her family went Ashley Van Wormer. to Baton Rouge, La. or Texas to avoid a hur- Hunter and Van Wormer evacuated right ricane, she said. The schools in New Orleans before Katrina devastated New Orleans. would then be closed. Over the hour long broadcast Dunn, “Out of everything I was afraid of as a kid, Hunter, and Van Wormer discussed the scale my city being flooded wasn’t one of them,” JAMES HARRIS/TUFTS DAILY of the disaster in New Orleans. The discus- Hunter said. Sophomores Katherine Hunter, left, and Ashley Van Wormer spoke on WMFO Monday. sion focused on the troubles the victims Van Wormer said the same thing. “I feel faced, before and after the arrival of the bad to say this, but it was almost like a big nent danger and evacuate the people. Hunter stressed that she was one of the Category 5 hurricane. joke,” she said. “[Hurricane threats] had On the Friday night before the hurricane lucky ones. “When I thought about what I “It is difficult to really put yourselves in never been taken very seriously.” reached New Orleans, Van Wormer said, the went through, it made me think of what they the shoes of individuals who are experienc- Hunter said when Hurricane Katrina city was still just thinking about cancelling [the poor people of the city] went through,” ing it,” Dunn said. “You might be from came, her family went to Houston. “All of my school on Monday. she said. “They really have nothing.” Boston, but something could happen to family lives in New Orleans, so we just found Hunter’s mother woke up at 5 a.m. on Despite the press coverage of the negative your city that could immediately change a spot with a hotel room,” she said. Hunter Sunday morning and decided to leave. Her effects of the storm, Dunn said, “there was a your view.” said she could hear gunshots in the streets brother did not bother to pack for college lot of compassion shown.” Throughout the discussion, Dunn mixed while people evacuated. since he thought the family would return The students were brought on the show in some New Orleans-style music, including Hunter and Van Wormer also discussed home before he had to leave for school. “My to give a personal side to the national issue. jazz musician Louis Armstrong. the sluggish effort by the state of Louisiana brother had to buy all new stuff,” Hunter “At the end of the day, I hope it hits a little One of the topics of discussion was the to properly notify the public of the immi- said. closer to home,” Dunn said. INSIDE The Daily’s new Sudoku puzzle makes its debut Poet, using history, shows ‘beauty of life’ see COMICS, page 19 Majaj’s draws on suffering of Middle East and new home in U.S. BY AARON SCHUMACHER she was during the Israeli inva- since I was 11 years old,” she said. Contributing Writer sion in 1982. “A lot of my poetry “I had a fantastic English teacher. deals with the past,” she said. “I One of our projects in school was Lisa Suhair Majaj, a write a lot about the Middle to write a book of poetry, but I Palestinian-American poet and East.” didn’t take it seriously until I was Arab-American literature critic Her poems about that period in my late 20s, early 30s.” and scholar, read some of her describe the landscape of Beirut Majaj left Beirut during the poems to approximately a dozen and her feelings about the inva- invasion and came to the United people on Monday. sion. “The process of putting into States, where she said she experi- A child of a Palestinian father words things you see is tremen- enced dramatic culture shock. and American mother, Majaj dously empowering,” Majaj said. When she heard a car backfire, grew up in Jordan and studied in Poetry gives Majaj an outlet for she said, she would “hide behind INDEX Lebanon. She spoke in the her emotions. “For me, poetry is a tree.” Laminan Lounge in the F.W. Olin very important and I find it a way Her experiences in her new MIKE CONROY/TUFTS DAILY News | Features 1 Poet Lisa Suhair Majaj Arts | Living 5 Center. to have a voice in the world,” she home and her memories of Editorial | Letters 8 Professor Amira El-Zein, the said. “Some people don’t find it Beirut inspired her to write, she Both Arab and American writ- National 11 director of the Arabic program, relevant or important. I think said. ers have influenced Majaj’s writ- International 13 introduced Majaj and described poetry doesn’t have to be those Majaj, who now lives in ing. She particularly took to Classifieds 15 her poetry as filled with “nostal- things.” Cyprus, has published work in American writers of color and Sports 18 gia and sadness” yet also with the Majaj began writing before she many journals and anthologies, those who had witnessed war, as Comics 19 “beauty of life.” was a teenager but did not con- and has co-edited three books of she had. Much of Majaj’s writing comes sider writing as a career until she critical essays on the Arab world tuftsdaily.com from her time in Lebanon, where was older. “I’ve been writing and Third World female writers. see POETRY, page 2 2 THE TUFTS DAILY NEWS | FEATURES Tuesday, October 4, 2005 BY THE NUMBERS A night of apples and honey Take the politics Deep trouble out of the aid, for DeLay professors say BY JEFF LINDSAY COMPILED BY PATRICE TADDONIO Contributing Writer Daily Editorial Board Hurricane Katrina turned the rela- Last week, Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX) tionship between the United States and was indicted on conspiracy charges and humanitarian aid on its head, according relinquished his position as House to Tufts professor Larry Minear. majority leader. Along with two col- Minear, the Director of the leagues, DeLay is accused of attempting Humanitarianism and War Project at the to subvert Texas campaign finance law Feinstein International Famine Center by funneling illegal corporate contribu- at the Friedman School of Nutrition tions to Republican state house candi- Science and Policy, wrote an essay for dates through Republican groups in the Sept. 13 Reuters Foundation’s Washington. But Delay — who has AlertNet. faced ethics charges in the past — is “Hurricane Katrina has turned the confident that he will regain his politi- world’s preeminent aid donor into an cal footing: “I think it will be over and aid recipient,” Minear wrote in the be over very, very soon. And I think I will JAMES HARRIS/TUFTS DAILY Reuters section on humanitarian emer- go back to be majority leader,” he said Jewish members of the Tufts community began the ten-day High Holidays period at gencies. Sunday on Fox News. In this install- Rosh Hashanah services Monday evening.