Professor Dava Newman named new director of MIT Media Lab
Newman: “Leading the legendary Media Lab — that's a dream job, I think, for anyone. So I actually just consider myself very, very fortunate.”
MIT admits 719 Early Action applicants
Along with the 719 students (4.8%) accepted, 10,656 students (70.9%) were deferred to be “reconsidered without prejudice” during the Regular Action admissions process, Peterson wrote.
DSL launches MIT Reboot for community wellness
The initiative aimed to “recharge” MIT community members’ “minds and bodies” amidst “the pandemic, social unrest, and a contentious election.”
MIT considering delayed start to spring semester
The delayed start date would be Feb. 16 or 17 instead of Feb. 1. IAP will remain remote and run Jan. 4–29.
Crossovers on crossovers
In a well-anticipated crossover episode, UltiMIT hosted a Smash Ultimate tournament with a special appearance from Plup, a full-time professional and globally-ranked in Smash.
Fall Emergency Academic Regulations discourage use of third-party online proctoring
According to the regulations, the “statement of required work” must contain a list of assignments, an “approximate” schedule with test dates and deadlines, final examination information, and grading criteria.
About 900 undergraduates will live on campus in fall
Approximately 900 undergraduates — about 700 seniors and 200 first years, sophomores, and juniors — plan to live on campus in the fall. All undergraduate dorms except Burton-Conner will be open in the fall.
FLI students drive revisions to Fall 2020 financial aid
FLI leaders Eleane Lema ‘21 and Tanner Bonner ‘22 wrote in an email to The Tech that the original distribution of the grant “directly excluded low-income students” because only students with an EFC greater than $5,000 were eligible to receive the full grant.
MIT ends negotiations with Elsevier
MIT has “perpetual access” to most pre-2020 Elsevier articles, Bourg and Levy wrote. Additionally, “access to e-books, book series, handbooks, reference works, and databases published by Elsevier is not affected.”
Jason Ku reflects on his time as MIT student, researcher, and lecturer
Ku: As for the transition to Course 6, when I got to grad school, I noticed that for every problem I wanted to tackle, I needed to be able to process a lot of data or be able to run a simulation. It’s not that the interesting things involved computer science, but I had to be able to use a computer to do my work.
Geathers, Chen discuss increasing diversity, prioritizing student concerns, and responding to COVID-19
Geathers: We all want to solve the same problem at MIT, and the creation of the Diversity Council will really get the leaders of these organizations to the table.
Reif and Barnhart provide updates on MIT summer plans
“All summer programming in which participants live in MIT residence halls will need to be virtualized, cancelled, or rescheduled,” while “all other summer programming will need to take place remotely” through June 28. Furthermore, “MIT-sponsored domestic and international travel is suspended for the entire summer.”
MIT organizes virtual CP★ for Class of 2024
Over 60 academic events and 200 student events have been scheduled for the Class of 2024. New additions to CP★ include the MITPal pen pal program and a CP★ Discord server hosted by the Student Information Processing Board (SIPB).
Administrators address budgeting, public health, research at town hall
Provost Martin Schmidt emphasized the role of “collective shared sacrifice” in the preservation of jobs. However, Schmidt also couldn’t “say what we will be able to do” due to the uncertainty surrounding summer and fall.
MIT students create virtual community through Discord server
Popular events have included live-streamed movie nights with LSC, as well as game nights where users could join a voice channel and play games such as Jackbox and wiki-racing.