Letters to the Editor
I just want to make it known that I am deeply against the letter to the editor by Richard Kramer ’75 from the November 23 issue of The Tech.
I have been a GRT at Simmons Hall working with John Essigmann and Steven Hall for the past three years, going on four. For an alumnus, who has probably never worked or interacted with John and Steven, to say that these people are mere cattle drivers and puppets of the administration is not only an insult to them and the students in the dorms, but to MIT as a whole.
I honestly cannot think of any other MIT faculty that are more dedicated to their students and their students’ well being. Although John and Steven both have busy schedules doing research, they spend countless hours enriching the lives of students.
Whether they interact with the students individually in the halls, at one of their (nearly) weekly study breaks, or at one of the (nearly) weekly residential scholar events, they always make sure to listen to the students and treat them with utmost respect.
There hasn’t been a single house team meeting that I have been to in the last 3.5 years in which the housemasters made any decision that was to the detriment of the students and their livelihood. Their decisions are based on years of experience as housemasters and always put the well being of the students first.
I would say that John and Ellen Essigmann and Steven Hall are exactly the kind of people that MIT should hire as housemasters and that MIT would be hard pressed to find people as great and caring as them.
Patrick R. Schmid G Simmons Hall GRT
Scary new statue
The new student center sculpture, “Math Man in the Fetal Position,” is very insensitive to students. At this time of year, when school related stress can be so overwhelming, students need to be consoled by the art around campus, not mocked by it. Not one more student should have to kneel in front of this snowy Goliath in the quiet darkness of 3 a.m., crying silently to himself and questioning the decisions that got him to this point.
David A. Brescia ’11