Letters to the Editor
Tech’s UA Election Coverage Inadequate
Whose idea was it to give far more page space to Baker House’s Piano Drop than the UA presidential elections? Last time I checked, two broken pianos don’t have a say in whether I have to eat in a dining hall or if incoming freshmen get their choice of living groups. The UA may not be the most well-liked group on campus, but without a doubt it is one of the most influential and their elections (which determine who represents me and the entire undergraduate community to the administration) deserve a bit more attention. At least we know that if Baker House decides to drop the UA Exec Board off a roof, everyone will hear about it.
No Scientific Spirit in Criticizing Olympics
As members of the MIT community, we have always been so proud of the scientific spirit this institute embodies — the spirit of independent thinking, the spirit of objective judgment, and the spirit of innovation. This is what makes MIT the best among all technological institutes. Sadly, we found in recent issues of The Tech a severe lack of such spirit, as demonstrated by the series of cartoons on Olympics. It deviates so much from the MIT style that we start to have doubt about our belief in the spirit of the Institute. As science and engineering majors, we all know how to study things, how to analyze them, and how to propose new ideas based on scientific evidence. But none of these is seen in the cartoon.
First, the authors of the cartoon lack basic knowledge about present day China that he/she is still depicting Chinese people as dressed 40 years ago. Everyone at this institute is an expert in his/her own field and our publications and presentations represent our deep understanding of the subject we are talking about. Under such a circumstance, we cannot understand how this kind of mistake could appear in the top newspaper on campus.
We have to say that we feel very disappointed when we saw The Tech simply copying the tone of other media. We suppose The Tech should represent the independent and critical thinking of MIT students, but we just don’t see that in these cartoons. We suggest the authors do some independent research on this topic. Go to different sources for information. (There are plenty of them on the web). Don’t rush to make any conclusion before taking into consideration different voices.
The best and only way to know the truth is to do the experiment yourself — go to China to see what is really going on. We have all been living in China for more than 20 years and we do not feel our human rights violated. Instead, we have all the freedom to pursue our dreams and we are now studying at MIT. China is open and everyone can go and take a look. (It should be much easier than for Chinese to come to the U.S.). If a trip is not immediately possible, at least try to talk to people who have been and lived there. It is certainly not MIT style to announce results that are premature or just copied from other people’s work, is it?
Ying Diao G
Yin Fan G
Yufei Ge G
Zengcheng Gu
Qing Han G
Xiaoting Jia G
Liwen Jin G