‘Head of house’ to replace ‘housemaster’ title
Chancellor Cynthia Barnhart PhD ’88 said that the now-heads of house felt that the term was “gendered, carrie[d] negative historical connotations, and ha[d] created confusion and feelings of offense outside our community.”
CSAIL holds joke conference
The CSAIL Student Committee (CSC) held a joke conference on April Fool’s Day featuring what they called “simply the best papers.” The conference was open to the entire CSAIL community and had “named sessions, awkward nametags, a ‘banquet,’ conference coffee and cheese platters,” according to an email sent to CSAIL.
Women are as successful but are less confident than men, report finds
Though undergraduate women at MIT are as successful as their male classmates, they still feel less confident and believe that they are given less credit, according to a report released today by Caroline Chin ’16 and Kamilla Tekiela ’16.
Academic Council group will implement BSU recs
After the Black Students’ Union (BSU) and Black Graduate Students’ Association (BGSA) each published a set of recommendations addressing racial and mental health issues on Dec. 9, the Academic Council, a group of senior administrators, formed a working group to address the points and plan their execution. They are now laying out a plan for implementing the recommendations.
Housemasters discuss renaming position due to ‘feelings of offense’
A proposal to change the housemaster title is currently under discussion by housemasters and students alike.
Maker pioneers from Iraq visit MIT campus
Three Iraqi technologists who founded the first makerspace in Basra, Iraq visited MIT on Monday and Tuesday to meet with various labs and student groups as part of a tour hosted by the Media Lab and the Undergraduate Association Innovation Committee.
Residents speak out on FSILG village proposal
MIT 2030, a plan to restructure much of MIT within the next 15 years, has a significant portion devoted to changing west campus. One of these changes stands out: the FSILG village.
‘FSILG village’ plan gets tepid response
Fraternities, sororities, and independent living groups affiliated with MIT are spread over a much larger region of Boston and Cambridge than the campus alone, but a proposal to move multiple FSILGs onto campus may shrink their range considerably.
Dorm demolition to take 2 months
Demolition of condemned undergraduate dorm Bexley began on June 29; a temporary park is set to be built in its place by October.
Grad student opens up about testifying in marathon trial
While Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings and the murder of MIT Police officer Sean Collier, was leaning into Collier’s police cruiser at around 10:30 p.m. on April 18, 2013, MIT graduate student Nathan Harman rode his bicycle past.
Activist Temple Grandin discusses attitudes toward autism at event
MIT and institutions like it should reject the stigma surrounding autism and recognize it as a difference rather than a detriment, autism activist Temple Grandin told an audience on campus Monday.
New career fair hoped to strengthen MIT-Arab ties
MIT needs to develop its relationship with the Arab World, according to the MIT Arab Students Organization (ASO). This is the focus of their most recent effort, the MIT Middle East and North Africa Career Fair (MENA).
Wrongful death lawsuit against MIT continues after years of contention
Sloan graduate student Han Nguyen committed suicide by throwing himself off the roof of Building E19 on June 2, 2009. Minutes earlier, Nguyen had gotten off the phone with Sloan professor Birger Wernerfelt. Wernerfelt had “read him the riot act” in regards to a presumptuous email Nguyen had sent to Trey Hedden, his summer research supervisor, according to court filings.
Annual diversity summit seeks to spread awareness of biases
Student involvement is crucial to improving MIT’s diversity and equality, says Edmund Bertschinger, the Institute Community and Equity Officer and former physics department head. The 2015 Institute Diversity Summit, titled “Advancing a Respectful and Caring Community,” featured a series of workshops advancing this message.
Tsarnaev trial jury selection staggers
Day 2. Seated at one end of the long wooden table, potential juror 40 recalls the events of April 2013 in a weary voice. Facing nine attorneys, the judge, and alleged Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, she remarks:
Three from MIT become Rhodes Scholars
Two current MIT seniors, Anisha Gururaj ’15 and Elliot Akama-Garren ’15, and one graduate, Noam Angrist ’13, were named Rhodes Scholars on Saturday, Nov. 22. They will begin graduate studies at Oxford University next year.
Obama, Democrats snub Prof. Gruber over remarks on health care law
MIT economics professor Jonathan H. Gruber ’87, often referred to as a key Obamacare “architect,” has come under fire recently for videos from 2012 and 2013 in which he calls American voters “stupid” and attributes the passage of the Affordable Care Act in part to “basic exploitation of the lack of economic understanding of the American voter,” according to press reports from this past weekend.
Petition launched after Mem Drive car accident
After an MIT Sailing employee was critically injured by a car in early September while trying to cross Memorial Drive, Marjory Bravard ’02, an active sailor during and after her time at MIT, launched a petition imploring President Reif and Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick to “improve pedestrian safety along Memorial Drive.” The petition currently has over 2,000 signatures.
With growing edX role, some students skeptical
Some MIT classes, using edX, have moved toward a blended model of education, integrating in-person and online learning. According to both students and instructors, this effort has made students’ college experience more flexible, but not without other flaws.