Timeline
Feb. 6: At the Cambridge Planning Board’s annual town gown meeting, MIT reveals plans to construct the long-awaited Media Lab expansion; a Sloan School of Management expansion; a new cancer research facility at the corner of Main St. and Ames St.; and a new graduate dormitory, NW35, to be called Ashdown House.
Feb. 8: Executive Vice President Theresa M. Stone SM ’76 says that NW35 will have a fourth floor after all. Facing a budget overrun, administrators had decided in early January to eliminate the fourth floor of what was originally designed to be a five-story building; this decision provoked an outcry from students who felt they were not included in the decision-making process.
Feb. 9: The Alpha Epsilon Phi sorority has decided not to renew a two-year housing lease, The Tech reports. The reason for the decision was not financial, said incoming AEPhi President Elizabeth Katcoff ’08. All sisters will move back to campus beginning in the fall.
Feb. 9: A record 154 bids were given out to women who completed the sorority recruitment process, The Tech reports. Alpha Phi had the most new members, according to the Panhellenic Association.
Feb. 13: Harvard University approves the appointment of Drew Gilpin Faust, Civil War historian and Harvard dean, as its 28th president. Faust, who was inaugurated on Oct. 12, is Harvard’s first woman president.
Feb. 14: Marc A. Kastner, head of the Department of Physics, will be the new dean of science, MIT announces. Kastner took over for Robert J. Silbey on July 1.
Feb. 16: After 12 days of ingesting only water, vitamin supplements, and electrolytes, Sherley ends his hunger strike and issues a statement that his “demands are still on the table.” MIT also issues a statement, saying that Sherley’s protest has focused attention on “the effects that race may play in the hiring, advancement and experience” of minority faculty.
Feb. 16: Three MIT students — Kristina K. Brown ’09, David Nawi G, and Matthew W. Petersen ’09 — face felony charges after setting off a burglar alarm in the E52 Faculty Club in October 2006 in the middle of the night, The Tech reports. The three students are being charged with trespassing and breaking and entering with the intent to commit a felony.
Feb. 20: Toxicology studies of Mengyao “May” Zhou ’04 found toxic levels of diphenhydramine, a sedative and antihistamine, in her system, The Tech reports. Zhou, a Stanford University graduate student, was found dead in the trunk of her car on Jan. 25 in what the Santa Rosa police believe was a suicide.
Feb. 20: Timothy J. Berners-Lee, senior research scientist at the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, is honored with the Charles Stark Draper Prize in Washington D.C. for his development of the World Wide Web. Berners-Lee receives a gold medallion and a $500,000 cash award as part of the prize.
Feb. 22: Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss and Imam Mohammed al-Asi, who both hold anti-Zionistic views concerning the formation of an Islamic state, speak at the Forum on American Progress, a choice viewed as controversial by both the Jewish and Muslim communities at MIT.
Feb. 28: Felony charges against three MIT students found in the E52 Faculty Club in October 2006 are dropped by the Middlesex County district attorney’s office. The students contend they were hacking when found by the police; the case will be handled by MIT’s Committee on Discipline.
March 2: Five professors — Yoel Fink, Jonathan Gruber, Charles E. Leiserson, James B. Orlin, and David Wallace — are honored as 2007 Margaret MacVicar Faculty Fellows for demonstrating excellence in teaching.
March 4: Ronald H. Stowell, a postdoctoral research associate in the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center, passed away shortly after 3:30 a.m. His death was later ruled a suicide.
March 6: Rumors have cropped up regarding plans to replace Burton-Conner’s kitchens with undergraduate rooms, though administrators claim there are no plans to do so, The Tech reports. The rumors prompted a petition, two bills by the Undergraduate Association, and a small flutter of e-mails across the bc-talk mailing list.
March 7: Over 4,000 community members lose e-mail access, as one of MIT’s five e-mail servers, po14.mit.edu, crashes sometime before 8 a.m. Service was restored for everyone by March 10, followed by an unrelated outage of po10 on March 12 and another outage of two Webmail servers early March 13.
March 15: mtvU and General Electric announce that Biodiesel@MIT won the Ecomagination Challenge, an energy conservation competition between college students, and will receive $25,000 to help with the group’s plan to reprocess used vegetable oil from dining halls into diesel fuel for SafeRide and Tech Shuttles. The team also won an Earth Day concert for MIT featuring Angels and Airwaves.
March 16: The MIT Libraries, supported by faculty, have canceled access to the Society of Automotive Engineers Web-based database of technical papers, rejecting the SAE’s requirement that MIT accept the implementation of digital rights management technology.
March 16: The two-week Underclassmen Giving Campaign collected $3,880 with 21 percent of underclassmen contributing, The Tech reports.
March 16: Julie Soriero, director of athletics for Colorado College, has been named the new head of the Department of Athletics, Physical Education, and Recreation and director of athletics at MIT, The Tech reports.
March 23: Martin F. Holmes ’08 and Ali S. Wyne ’08 won the Undergraduate Association elections for president and vice president in a landslide victory, The Tech reports.
March 23: The MIT Pistol team claims the national championship at a three-day competition held at West Point in mid-March, beating out the Army, Navy, Coast Guard, and Merchant Marine Academies, The Tech reports.
March 30: A Department of Defense investigation into long-standing allegations of fraud in a Lincoln Laboratory-led review of national missile defense tests has concluded that neither the review team nor Lincoln Laboratory management is guilty of research misconduct. The DoD investigative report pointed out problems with how the review’s results were presented — namely that critical information was omitted in the study — but said that these actions “did not rise to the level research misconduct.”
April 3: MIT’s team took third place in the 2006, 67th annual William Lowell Putnam Math Competition, behind teams from Princeton University and Harvard University, The Tech reports.
April 4: Leeland B. Ekstrom G and Johnna D. Powell G are elected president and vice president of the Graduate Student Council. They will take office on May 2.
April 10: Ryan M. Davis ’10, apparently required to withdraw from MIT after a March 12 incident in which MIT Police allegedly found illegal drugs in his East Campus room, has been missing for over a week, The Tech reports. He was last seen at the Mount Holyoke College campus.
April 13: Staff members of the California Institute of Technology’s student newspaper, The California Tech, distribute 11,000 spoof copies of The Tech to the MIT community as Campus Preview Weekend begins.
April 13: The Department of Chemistry is revamping its laboratory curriculum for the fall semester, The Tech reports. Three labs required for Course V majors will be replaced by 12 four-unit “module” classes intended to give students more flexibility in scheduling.
April 16: Thirty-three are killed in a shooting rampage on the campus of Virginia Tech.
April 19: Maureen R. Lynch, 2.007 (Design and Manufacturing I) course administrator, is surprised with a four foot left-handed aluminum screw during a laboratory period. She raised $1,920.67 in the annual Alpha Phi Omega Big Screw contest. A total of $2,919.09 will be donated to Lynch’s charity of choice, the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
April 19: Following opposition by MIT and other universities, the Society of Automotive Engineers halts implementation of digital rights management controls aimed at restricting access to SAE documents.
April 20: A body that washed to show on Cape Cod on April 19 is identified as Daniel J. Barclay ’07, who has been missing since April 8. The death is later ruled a suicide, according to the Wall Street Journal, though Barclay’s parents are working to appeal the ruling.
April 21: Ivan D. Dimitrov ’10 passes away at Brigham and Women’s Hospital after losing control of his motorcycle on Storrow Drive in the early morning.
April 23: Dean of Admissions Marilee Jones resigns after it was discovered that she misrepresented her academic credentials. Jones, who had been employed at MIT for 28 years, had a bachelor’s degree from the College of Saint Rose but allegedly claimed both master’s and bachelor’s degrees on her resume from schools she did not graduate from — Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Albany Medical College, and Union College.
April 24: Ten months after assuming her role as director of the Office of Student Mediation and Community Standards, Veronica Mendoza ’96 will be leaving MIT at the end of May to resume practicing law in California, The Tech reports. She is the third person to leave this post in the past four years.
April 27: The Ying Yang Twins and Ozomatli perform in the Spring Weekend concert in Johnson Athletic Center.
April 30: Sarah C. Hopp ’08 and James T. Albrecht ’08 are elected as president and executive vice president of Dormitory Council.
May 2: MIT receives 23 pre-litigation settlement letters from the RIAA, alleging copyright infringement and music piracy; the letters were subsequently forwarded on to the students.
May 4: The Department of Athletics, Physical Education, and Recreation will charge students a $40 access fee for use of its facilities for the entire summer, The Tech reports. Previously, access to DAPER facilities was free during the summer, paid for by the mandatory Student Life Fee. The fee will continue for summer 2008.
May 4: The Baker House Dining Committee releases a report saying that the Preferred Dining program is a loss for Baker students. The committee found that the average Baker resident loses $125 per term through Preferred Dining.
May 11: Interim Director of Admissions Stuart Schmill ’86 reports a record 69 percent yield for the Class of 2011, with 1,053 of the 1,533 admitted students choosing to enroll. MIT later admits students off the waitlist, and as of June 1, 1,077 students had chosen to enroll. Among those who have said they will attend, every state is represented, except North Dakota.
May 11: In response to the May 4 Baker Dining report, Campus Dining decides to freeze the Preferred Dining fee at $325 for up to three years. Preferred Dining cost $300 during the spring 2007 term; a $25 price hike for the fall was announced earlier in the year.
May 14: The MIT Corporation’s Executive Committee has decided to divest from companies involved with the Sudanese government that violate MIT’s investment principles and “whose actions or expressed attitudes are abhorrent to MIT,” an MIT statement announces. By Sept. 21, 2007, the Institute will not have any investments in the top 20 companies deemed the highest offenders by the national Sudan Divestment Task Force, according to Secretary of the MIT Corporation Kirk D. Kolenbrander.
May 14: Randall Munroe, former NASA roboticist and creator of the xkcd Web comic, speaks to a packed 10-250. Hundreds of playpen balls fall from ceiling hatches during the lecture; the balls were labelled with a 32-digit HD-DVD processing key.
May 26: A body is found in the Mount Holyoke Range that is later identified as missing student Ryan M. Davis ’10. Davis had been missing since March 31, and was last seen on the Mount Holyoke College campus.
June 1: Professor Frank L. Douglas resigns, saying the Institute breached an agreement to continue discussions with Professor James L. Sherley regarding his claims of racial discrimination in the tenure process.
June 1: MIT and Novartis sign the first contract of a 10-year corporate partnership, creating the Novartis-MIT Center for Continuous Manufacturing. Novartis will invest an anticipated $65 million over the next 10 years in this partnership.
June 8: Former MIT President Charles M. Vest, president-elect of the National Academy of Engineering, speaks at the Institute’s 141st Commencement. During the ceremony, the Class of 2007 presents MIT with the Senior Gift, a check for $26,861 that will go toward a newly-established study abroad fund and other MIT groups and funds. The Class of 2007 achieved a record 52 percent participation rate.
June 9: A new LED lighting system for the Great Dome, funded by an alumni donation, debuts with a reception in Killian Court. The dome is now illuminated at night.
June 11: After a longer than expected renovation period, Subway opens in Lobdell food court on the second floor of the Student Center.
June 11: MIT announces that Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor Steven R. Lerman ’72 will be the new Dean for Graduate Students, effective July 1, replacing Isaac M. Colbert.
June 14: The RIAA files a copyright infringement lawsuit against eight defendants at MIT. The defendants named in the case were those who did not settle after receiving pre-litigation letters from the RIAA in May.
July 16: MIT releases a preliminary report detailing recommendations from the Race Initiative.
June 25: In response to a student-led plan for improvement of east campus dining options, Campus Dining announces that Pritchett Dining will not reopen in the fall and that the semester fee for Preferred Dining would be rolled back to $300 for the fall.
June 30: James L. Sherley meets the end of his appointment. Sherley faced locked doors when he attempted to work in his lab after the June 30 deadline.
July 2: Bernard Loyd ’83, an African American alumnus and former MIT Corporation trustee, withdraws from activities supporting MIT in protest of the Institute’s handling of Sherley’s tenure case.
July 6: Construction has begun on 303 Third Street near Kendall Square, the site that will house MIT’s University Residential Community, the result of over four years of planning by members of the MIT community to provide affordable housing close to campus to those affiliated with MIT, The Tech reports. Prices for housing units range from $478,000 for a one bedroom apartment to $1.5 million for a three bedroom apartment.
July 6: MIT has formed a new Security & Emergency Management Office, The Tech reports. With a staff of three — David M. Barber, Thomas W. Komola, and Daniel L. Michaud — the office will coordinate campus security policies as well as provide assistance with security questions and advice on installing security systems.
July 21: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the seventh and final book in the children’s book series by J.K. Rowling, is released in bookstores at midnight.
July 22: James T. Albrecht ’08 passes away after falling from the roof of a New York City apartment building.
July 23: Professor of Mechanical Engineering Subra Suresh becomes the new dean of engineering.
July 29: The body of Cambridge resident Edgar R. Gonzalez ’04 is found in Grout Pond in Stratton, Vt. Gonzalez had been missing since July 7 when he became separated from his group while hiking during a camping trip.
Aug. 6: An MIT Federal Credit Union branch opens on the first floor of the Student Center.
Aug. 17: Kirk D. Kolenbrander announces a test of a new campus-wide emergency communications system that will occur in the next week. The test was considered a success with 26,000 e-mail messages sent in under five minutes, The Tech later reports.
Aug. 28: A bomb threat is sent to MIT via an anonymous e-mail, though the MIT Police do not find any evidence to substantiate the threat. MIT was one of many schools to receive the e-mail threat, including Princeton University, The University of New Hampshire, The University of Iowa, and Carnegie-Mellon University. The e-mails also prompted small evacuations at Clemson University and Cornell University.
Aug. 28: David C. Schmittlein, deputy dean of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, has been chosen as the new dean of MIT’s Sloan School of Management, MIT announces. Schmittlein will start on Oct. 15.
Aug. 28: Professor Theodore A. Postol ’67, a well-known critic of missile-defense systems, accuses the U.S. of mischaracterizing missile defense capabilities in ongoing discussions with Russia at a Capitol Hill briefing through the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The U.S. Missile Defense Agency responds on Sept. 27.
Aug. 30: OpenLabWare, a Web-based project that teaches people about how research is done, is live at http://olw.mit.edu/, The Tech reports. The brainchild of George S. Zaidan ’08, OLW will host “modules,” or case studies of real research.
Sept. 1: Sorority recruitment and fraternity rush begin; this is the first time since 2002 that sorority recruitment will occur in the fall. The Tech later reports a record 163 bids given out to women who completed sorority recruitment, all of which were accepted, and 472 bids given out to 373 men who completed fraternity recruitment, resulting in at least 317 new pledges.
Sept. 4: A ribbon cutting ceremony is held as part of the formal opening of iHouse, a New House community focused on international development.
Sept. 6: Five people — including paramedics and volunteers for the Charles River Cleanup Boat — are injured in a boat fire on the Charles River that appears to have been caused by sodium. Local media draw a connection between the sodium on the bank of the Charles River and the MIT tradition of dropping sodium in the Charles River.
Sept. 7: Professors Barbara Liskov and Wesley Harris have been selected the share the new position of associate provost for faculty equity, MIT announces. The post was created a year ago.
Sept. 10: Hundreds of students and community members eat and socialize at the MIT Community Picnic on Killian Court, sponsored by the Office of the President.
Sept. 11: The Boston University Student Dental Plan, one of the least expensive of the options available to students in the area, will not be available to members of the MIT community this year, The Tech reports, possibly because of a number of complaints and cancellations from MIT students over the past year.
Sept. 12: The Dormitory Council elects Colleen P. Mosley ’09 as their executive vice president, replacing James T. Albrecht ’08 who passed away during the summer.
Sept. 14: MIT’s fall from fourth to seventh place in the U.S. News and World Report college ranking was caused in part by changes in how MIT computes class sizes and by corrections in how MIT reports its entering class’s SAT scores, The Tech reports.
Sept. 14: The MIT endowment grew by $1.6 billion this year, bringing the total to $9.98 billion, The Tech reports. MIT reported returns of 22 percent.
Sept. 14: A bedbug problem that has been plaguing Ashdown House since the spring has been resolved, The Tech reports.
Sept. 16: A Boston-area university student reports that she was sexually assaulted on the MIT campus in the early morning after leaving a party at Senior House. In an e-mail to the community the next day, President Susan Hockfield said that there was no indication MIT students were involved in the attack.
Sept. 18: Season 4 of reality show “Beauty and the Geek” premieres on the CW. John U. Gardner G, a member of the MIT Class of 2007, is a contestant. Gardner is eliminated in the eighth week of the show.
Sept. 18: MIT donates $6,000 to the Charles River Cleanup Boat, the volunteer organization faced with bills for decontamination and boat repair after its volunteers picked up a chunk of sodium that caught fire and exploded on Sept. 6. The Institute has donated to the organization each year for the last four years.
Sept. 21: Star A. Simpson ’10, wearing a circuit board with light-emitting diodes that was connected to a battery, is arrested at gunpoint at Logan International Airport and is charged with possession of a hoax device. MIT issues a widely-quoted press release calling Simpson’s actions “reckless.”
Sept. 24: Approximately 30 students gather to protest the administration’s handling of controversies involving students; the protest focusing on the Star A. Simpson ’10 arrest and the MIT statement calling Simpson’s actions “reckless.” Dean for Student Life Larry G. Benedict and other administrators speak with the student protestors.
Sept. 25: Oliver R. Smoot ’62, known for the marks on the Harvard Bridge, and author Robert Tavernor are on campus to discuss Tavernor’s recently-published book Smoot’s Ear: The Measure of Humanity.
Sept. 29: The MIT Museum unveils a $3 million expansion and renovation, which gives the museum a new ground level with 5,000 square feet of additional space.
Sept. 30: Robert M. Randolph, former senior associate dean for students, is installed as MIT’s first Institute Chaplain. He began his work in January 2007.
Sept. 30: The Undergraduate Association holds its first Freshman Class Council Presidential Debate.
Oct. 1: Chancellor Phillip L. Clay PhD ’75 sends an e-mail to MIT students saying that they must take full responsibility for their actions even while celebrating traditions such as hacking. The e-mail was sent in preparation for the release of a set of hacking guidelines created with input from student representatives.
Oct. 2: President Susan Hockfield holds the State of the Institute forum; the last forum was held in 2004.
Oct. 2: Two MIT alumni — Saul T. Griffith PhD ’04 and Yoky Matsuoka PhD ’98 — were awarded “genius grants” by the MacArthur Foundation and will receive a stipend of $500,000 over the course of five years, The Tech reports.
Oct. 5: The construction of the new Green Center for Physics and related renovations of Buildings 2, 4, 6, and 8 are complete. The project, known as PDSI, was announced in 2002.
Oct. 9: David H. Koch ’62, prostate cancer survivor, donates $100 million to MIT. Half the money will go toward construction of a $240 million cancer research center, and half will pay for research.
Oct. 9: The Graduate Student Council begins a series of dining events for graduate students known as Two Dollar Tuesdays; 125 students attended the first event.
Oct. 11: Hotel@MIT is sold to HEI Cambridge LLC for $63.2 million. The name of the hotel is now Le Meridien Cambridge.
Oct. 12: Thirty more individuals at MIT were sent pre-litigation settlement letters in September 2007 after allegedly illegally downloading copyrighted music, The Tech reports.
Oct. 16: Former MIT economics professor Eric S. Maskin and former graduate student Mario R. Capecchi were among the recipients of the Nobel Prizes in Economics and Medicine this year, respectively, The Tech reports.
Oct. 19: MIT announces that Dean for Student Life Larry G. Benedict will retire at the end of the academic year. Benedict has served as MIT’s first student life dean since 2000.
Oct. 19: One day before the 43rd annual Head of the Charles Regatta, MIT holds its first annual Head of the Zesiger Cardboard Boat Regatta. The boat Ship Happens — built and manned by Rebecca K. Oman ’08, Chensi Ouyang ’08, and Ellann Cohen ’08 — is the only vessel to survive at the end of the day.
Oct. 22: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission starts a special inspection of the MIT research reactor after receiving a report that a reactor operator was exposed to an unusually high dose of radiation. After investigating from October to November, the NRC cites the lab for violating two minor safety regulations.
Oct. 22: The Undergraduate Association creates the “Fresh Fund,” a $10,000 fund that will be used to support new ideas and initiatives.
Oct. 23: Wolfe B. Styke ’10 is stabbed seven times in his Next House residence early in the morning, allegedly by his ex-girlfriend and Wellesley College junior Anna L. Tang. Tang is charged in Cambridge District Court with home invasion and armed assault with intent to murder. The stabbing prompts a review of housing security policies.
Oct. 23: MIT fell from first the 13th in Washington Monthly’s annual college rankings, which evaluates schools based on service to the country. MIT was ranked first for the last two years.
Oct. 28: The Red Sox win the World Series, beating out the Colorado Rockies, 4-3, in Game 4 at Coors Field.
Oct. 30: About a dozen students show up in Scheme-themed Halloween costumes to the 6.001 (Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs) lecture. This is the last semester that 6.001 will be offered.
Oct. 31: MIT files a lawsuit against Stata Center architect Frank O. Gehry and construction company Skanska USA Building Inc. MIT alleges that Gehry was negligent in the designing the building and that both Gehry and Skanska breached their contractual obligations, citing design and construction failures leading to cracking, poor drainage, leaks, and mold growth.
Nov. 2: Alpha Phi Omega’s weeklong Unholiest huMan on Campus competition concludes with $1,261.80 raised for Transition House, an organization that combats domestic violence.
Nov. 3: MIT places fourth at the finals of the DARPA Grand Challenge with its autonomous car. The car finished the race alongside five of its competitors; 11 teams out of the original field of 89 competed in the finals.
Nov. 5: The Department of Facilities is separated into two divisions: Operations and Security, headed by MIT Police Chief John DiFava, and Capital Projects and Strategic Planning, headed by Richard Amster Jr., formerly of Turner Construction.
Nov. 6: The MIT Solar Decathlon team placed 13th out of 20 teams in the Department of Energy competition to build a practical solar home, The Tech reports. MIT’s entry, a house called “Solar 7,” earned top marks for its efficient use of solar energy but lost points in architecture and market viability.
Nov. 7: Anna L. Tang, who allegedly stabbed her ex-boyfriend Wolfe B. Styke ’10 in October 2007, is ordered held without bail on probable cause in a Cambridge District Court dangerousness hearing.
Nov. 8: Approximately 700 people receive flu shots at the MedLinks free flu clinic.
Nov. 9: The Committee on Race and Diversity has been formed to advance race relations within the community, absorbing the Campus Committee on Race Relations and the MLK Celebrations Committee, The Tech reports.
Nov. 14: Alumnus John A. Thain ’77 is named chairman and chief executive of Merrill Lynch.
Nov. 16: President Susan Hockfield is in India to foster collaboration between MIT and India. Her weeklong trip designates her as the first sitting MIT president to go to India.
Nov. 17: Melis N. Anahtar ’08 is named a Rhodes Scholar. The scholarship will send Anahtar to Oxford University for two or three years of graduate study.
Nov. 22: Lagos Analysis Corp., a Natick-based company owned by Nigerians, files a lawsuit in Nigeria against the One Laptop Per Child Foundation, claiming OLPC copied its multilingual keyboard technology.
Nov. 28: Alberto Mena ’09 and Reid C. Van Lehn ’09 are elected president and vice president of the Interfraternity Council for the coming year.
Nov. 28: MIT launches the $200,000 MIT Clean Energy Entrepreneurship Prize, a national competition aimed at bringing new energy technologies to market.
Dec. 1: Wei-Hsuan “Jessie” Ho ’08 is injured by a falling tree limb from the Class of 1950 Willow Tree in front of Baker House. The tree was later cut down.
Dec. 4: Beginning next fall, freshmen placed in Next House during the summer will be able to participate in Residence Exploration and enter the Housing Readjustment Lottery, The Tech reports. McCormick Hall was not included in the change.
Dec. 4: A safe was stolen from the Student Life Programs Office over the weekend, prompting the cancellation of checks and a delay in student group reimbursements, The Tech reports.
Dec. 6: Building W1, current graduate dormitory Ashdown House, will be completely renovated before reopening as an undergraduate resident in fall 2010, administrators say. The renovated dormitory will not permit smoking or pets; it will have a dining room and a dining program, and the kitchens currently on each floor will be removed.
Dec. 7: Muhammad Yunus, 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner, will be MIT’s 2008 Commencement speaker, The Tech reports.
Dec. 10: Tiffany W. Guo ’09 and Yi Zhou ’09 are elected to be president and executive vice president of the Panhellenic Association for 2008. One goal of the new executive board will be to add a new sorority to five currently existing in Panhel.
Dec. 11: 6.170 (Laboratory in Software Engineering) will no longer be offered in any subsequent semesters, The Tech reports.
Dec. 11: During this year’s student group space allocations, a number of rooms in the Student Center and Walker Memorial have been marked as spaces that could “be allocated in more creative ways to better serve the student group community,” according to the Association of Student Activities.
Dec. 17: Students and faculty gather in Lobby 7 to take part in the MIT Community Winter Break, sponsored by the Office of the President. The Winter Break was originally scheduled for Dec. 13, but was rescheduled after a Dec. 13 snowstorm forced MIT to close at 2 p.m.
Dec. 19: Over 200 people attend the faculty meeting to discuss a motion that asked MIT to limit its public statements about community members facing criminal investigations. The original motion was sparked by an MIT press release calling Star A. Simpson ’10 “reckless” on the day of her arrest at Logan Airport. After hours of acrimonious discussion, the original motion is defeated by a 31-36 vote. The faculty also vote against two alternate proposals.
Jan. 9: Anna L. Tang, who allegedly stabbed her ex-boyfriend Wolfe B. Styke ’10 multiple times in his Next House room in October 2007, is released after a $10,000 cash bail is posted on her behalf.
Jan. 10: Nineteen members of the MIT community are asked by the recording industry to preemptively settle lawsuits for allegedly downloading music illegally, according to an RIAA press release.
Jan. 16: Forty-six Steelcase chairs, worth $20,000, have been stolen from the Student Center’s fifth floor reading room, The Tech reports. Most of the thefts happened between August and October 2007.
Jan. 16: Laurie Ward, financial administrator of the Student Activities Office since 2000, has moved to an administrative position in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, The Tech reports. Her position at SAO will not be filled immediately.
Jan. 17: Toscanini’s Ice Cream is seized by the Massachusetts Department of Revenue for nonpayment of more than $167,000 in back taxes.
Jan. 22: Lecture hall 10-250 is undergoing demolition as part of an upgrade that will include new seating, carpeting, lighting, heating, ventilation, and cooling. Renovation will continue through the spring semester; large classes traditionally held in 10-250 will move to other venues for the spring.
Jan. 23: One MIT student who has received a demand letter from the RIAA alleging copyright infringement said he planned not to settle and that he would fight the RIAA’s attempts to learn his identity, The Tech reports.
Jan. 25: Toscanini’s reopens after beginning to repay its $167,000 tax bill. An online campaign at savetosci.com raised more than $31,000 which was used to help pay the back taxes.
— Compiled by Angeline Wang