Short Takes

Choruses to Perform Harvard Pieces

The Collegium Musicum and the Radcliffe Choral Society (RCS) will perform works by Harvard composers tonight, including the world premier of a piece by a graduate student in the Math Department, members of the organizations said yesterday.

The Collegium's portion of the concert will only include works by Harvard related composers, and the RCS half will include a variety of 20th century American works, said Director of the Collegium Neil J. Marvin, a senior lecturer on music.

Marvin praised "Meditations On Mortality," which was written by 22-year-old Noam D. Elkies, a mathematics graduate student and number theorist. "I [realized] it must be performed...He's a very deep thinker," Marvin said.

Elkies said there was no mathematical connection in his composition, adding, "I've seen such things tried, and it's not very interesting music and very bad math."

"I've known tons of music lovers and amateur performers who are mathematicians...I think there's a real corollary there," Marvin said.

Debate Tournament Opens With New Rules

Changes in judiciary policy marked the opening of "BAD--the Tournament" (a.k.a. the eighth Harvard Speech and Parliamentary Debate Society Tournament), which began yesterday and will continue through today.

The new rules, designed by Neill Buchanan, the team's founder and coach, allow judges to decide whether any given argument follows the stated topic of debate. He said debaters had begun preparing arguments in advance, then stretching the assigned topics to fit.

Topic choices are announced 10 minutes before each debate begins, he said.

The judges identify themselves by wearing one white plastic hospital glove, inspiring Buchanan to call the event the "Michael Jackson Proctology Tournament."

One hundred thirty teams of two apiece are visiting Harvard this weekend, representing the 60 member colleges of the American Parliamentary Debate Association (APDA), said Buchanan.

The debaters may choose to discuss one of two topics or resolutions per round. The "government" team bases its argument on the resolution chosen, while the opposition team must respond with an impromptu argument.

In the first rounds of yesterday's debate, the teams could choose to argue on Joseph Goebbels' comment, "Whenever I hear the word, `culture,' I reach for my revolver," and Stalin's "One death is a tragedy; one million deaths are a statistic."

Tournament winners will receive trophies and qualify for a national tournament in the spring, said Buchanan.

Broken Locks Trap Straus Residents

Trapped in their room by a broken lock late Thursday afternoon, the four residents of Strauss C-32 escaped by a window.

The residents said their lock had been hard to turn and generally temperamental since the beginning of the year. "Locking and unlocking it has always been difficult." said Yared Belai '92. "I guess it finally just decided to to lock itself permanently; unfortunately we were all still inside."

With the door locked, the trapped students turned to their bathroom window. The Straus suite shares what was once a single bathroom with the neighboring rooms. The partition dividing it into two leaves half of a single window on each side.

"You can go through the room across the hall by sticking your head out the window and sliding your legs around the partition. My roommates left by that way but I stuck around in the room to wait for the locksmith to show up and repair the lock," said Balai.

Joel Gerwin '92, a resident of the connecting room, said, "Our lock hasn't been working either, and it's stuck in the lock position. I hope they checked our lock. We might get locked in like the guys next door."

Freshmen, Seniors Meet With Alumni

The Harvard Alumni Association last night held three combined freshmen and senior receptions for the first time, alumni attending the events said.

Alumni from accross the country joined students at three regional receptions. The alums said that this was the first year the Alumni Association decided to hold receptions for both freshmen and seniors.

The organizers of the event could not be reached for comment.

The seniors and freshmen present had different reasons for attending the receptions. Seniors said they hoped meeting alumni would help them find jobs for next year.

"I came because I'm thinking of going back to Miami next year. I'd like to meet alums who are in the field I'm interested in--law," said Arnold Zipper '89.

Freshmen present said that meeting alumni would be helpful to them in the long run. "Meeting alumni may help with getting a summer job or something," explained Kathleen Ho '92, from Springfield, Va.