Weekend fire sparked by candle in Dupre

A fire broke out on the fifth floor of Dupre early Sunday morning as a result of a candle left burning in a student’s room.

According to Elizabeth Evans ’05 a Resident Assistant (RA) on the fifth floor, a student living in a single left a candle burning in the unoccupied room. A bulletin board in the room with several pictures caught fire.

At approximately 5 a.m. Sunday, the fire alarm in the unoccupied room went off and the student living in the room next door notified the RA.

Security arrived soon after to put out the fire. When the officer opened the door to the room, smoke from the fire filled the hallway and activated the building’s fire alarms. The building was then evacuated, with the exception of the fifth floor. Security guards told fifth floor residents to return to their rooms because the fire was under control.

“I was frustrated by the fire because I was sleeping and all of a sudden I got woken up by a fire alarm at 5 a.m.,” fifth floor resident Alessandra Williams ’07 said. “I was confused as to why a student would leave a candle burning when not in the room. All I wanted to do was go back to sleep.”

The student will undergo a disciplinary hearing for the fire. Only the student’s property was damaged.
 

CHEEBA to hold Four-Square Tournament and Peaceful BBQ

Macalester’s newly chartered student organization, CHEEBA (Creating a Harmless Environment to Enjoy Buds Appropriately), is holding its Four-Square Tournament and Peaceful Barbeque in Bateman Plaza.

The event begins at 4:20 p.m. on April 20.

“This is a peaceful gathering for everyone in the Macalester community to gather information about CHEEBA’s efforts to re-legalize marijuana,” said Richard Deeran ’06, one of the founders of CHEEBA.

CHEEBA will serve free hot dogs, Tofu Pups (vegan hot dogs), munchies and non-Coke beverages at the Four-Square tournament. CHEEBA will award a trophy to the winners.

The Four-Square competition is open to everyone, but those wishing to participate must e-mail mkaplan@macalester.edu by April 19.
 

Student writes program featured in MacAddict

Josh Aas ’05 created a computer program for iTunes that was recently featured in MacAddict, a premier Macintosh computer magazine.

“If you have a lot of music on your computer—big playlists and things—and you like to keep your music organized, then you can use the program to keep nice organized playlists on a web site so that you can have easy access to them and other people can use them,” Aas said.

Aas estimates that 35,000 to 40,000 people have downloaded the program from various web sites.

He came up with the idea while at a Mac World conference two years ago, while listening to Apple CEO Steve Jobs give the keynote address. Aas said he actually began writing the program during the speech and had a version on the Internet by the end of the day.

Aas offered the program for free for six months, then began charging due to the amount of time he spent on the program and his web site.

Aas said that he will move the program to a web site outside of the Macalester network in about a month, due to the college’s policy that its network cannot support commercial projects.

The program is available on Aas’ web site, www.macalester.edu/~jaas/.
 

CORRECTION: The front page photo in March 26 issue incorrectly listed Biniyam Taddese ‘06 as Kafui Attoh.