CPW protest targets dining
Last Friday, in the middle of Campus Preview Weekend, students from the Campaign for Students (CFS) gathered in Lobby 7 to protest the Division of Student Life’s handling of dining reform. Students joined and left the protest intermittently, but the number of attendees at any point in time was around two dozen.
Colleges<br />targeted by cash-strapped cities
Pittsburgh threatened to tax college tuition. Providence sought to tax out-of-state students. And Philadelphia is pressing its colleges and universities to resume voluntary payments in lieu of taxes.
Research reactors seen as security risk
In Cambridge, Mass., at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a nuclear reactor emits an eerie blue glow 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Its fuel is 93 percent uranium 235 — the high-purity uranium it takes to energize an atom bomb and exactly what the West fears that Tehran wants to produce.
Corrections
An April 6 opinion column entitled “HDAG is culmination of years of work” improperly referred to Steven R. Lerman ’72 as the Associate Dean for Graduate Education. Lerman is currently the Dean for Graduate Education.
UA will provide free deodorant samples during finals week to reduce Reading Room stench
The Undergraduate Association Senate passed a bill yesterday to provide free samples of soap, toothpaste, mouthwash, and deodorant in the Reading Room on the fifth floor of the Student Center during finals week this term. The bill, submitted by Baker senator Janet Li ’12, was motivated by concerns about poor hygiene among students studying in the Reading Room. This issue, the bill states, “is most apparent just before and during final week.”
Unions and students hold ‘solidarity’ event
Last Friday, members and representatives from three MIT-affiliated unions came together in a student-worker solidarity gathering to discuss the current conditions facing MIT workers. Present at the meeting were representatives from the MIT Police Association, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 615, and the Research, Development, and Technical Employees Union as well as Cambridge City Councilor E. Denise Simmons.
News Briefs
A female prefrosh was found unconscious near McCormick late on Thursday last week, according to an e-mail sent by Bexley housemaster Robert M. Randolph to dorm residents.
Crash inquiry is focusing on decision to land Polish jet
MOSCOW — Investigators examining the crash of the Polish president’s plane appeared Sunday to be focusing on why the pilot did not heed instructions from air traffic controllers to give up tryintg to land in bad weather in western Russia.
Shorts (right)
Just as Apple’s iPhone shook up a complacent cell phone industry, the company’s iPad is provoking PC makers and non-PC makers — to fight back with new devices.
China supports sanctions against Iran’s nuclear activity at summit
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama secured a promise from President Hu Jintao of China on Monday to join negotiations on a new package of sanctions against Iran, administration officials said, but Hu made no specific commitment to backing measures that the United States considers severe enough to force a change in direction in Iran’s nuclear program.
Protesters appear to gain in Thailand’s growing political crisis
BANGKOK — The battle of wills between the Thai government and tens of thousands of protesters barricaded in the streets of Bangkok appeared to turn in favor of the protesters on Monday, when the country’s army chief shunned a military solution to the crisis and the prime minister’s party suddenly and unexpectedly faced the prospect of dissolution.
American soldiers fire at Afghan bus, killing civilians
KABUL — American troops raked a large passenger bus with gunfire near Kandahar on Monday morning, killing and wounding civilians, and igniting angry anti-American demonstrations in a city where winning over Afghan support is pivotal to the war effort. The shooting, which killed as many as five civilians and wounded 18, occurred on the eve of the most important offensive of the war. In coming weeks, thousands of American, NATO and Afghan troops are expected to try to take control of the Kandahar region, the spiritual home of the Taliban.
Active hurricane season
Two groups of independent forecasters have issued their preliminary forecasts for the upcoming hurricane season, which runs from June through November. Both groups are predicting above average activity of 15–17 storms, of which 8–9 will become hurricanes.
Paradigm shift
Our prestigious MIT graduate degrees — signals of our technical prowess and nimble rationality that are so valued in this high-tech world — are misleading. There is a mismatch between the leadership skills that the world expects of us and the scientific expertise that our degrees require. To be sure, we will be able to rise to the technical demands of any complicated challenge, incise to its core variables, and deliver a well-defined solution. But we will need to learn the leadership skills, those that determine the impact and thoughtfulness of our solution and the stability of our teams, on the fly. Graduate students in science and engineering need to expand their cadre of research skills to include leadership by shifting the traditional PhD paradigm to one that includes leadership development.
Poland’s tragedy
Saturday morning greeted the Polish communities at Harvard and MIT with devastating news. As many of us sat down, cup of coffee in hand, to skim through online editions of Polish papers, we found ourselves utterly speechless at the news of the tragic deaths of Poland’s president, Lech Kaczyn<span style=&quot;position:relative; left: -5px;&quot;>´ski, his wife, and some eighty members of the country’s political and intellectual elite.
Branding environmentalism
It’s 6 a.m. when your gasoline-powered alarm clock chatters to life, rousing you in time to make a few last changes to your term paper before rushing off to class. You slap it before glancing across your room as your “air purifier,” which is actually a feather-duster taped to a space heater, hums to life.
Dispatches from the collapse
It is tempting to blame consultants and their ilk for the troubles that Dubai faces today. Surely, if my experience was at all typical, Western consulting firms are derelict in their duty as advisers to the United Arab Emirates. But I would argue that consultants are a product of their surroundings, not the other way around. Prior to the recent meltdown, which had commentators everywhere wondering if Dubai would destroy the fragile recovery that the banking sector has eked out, Boston Consulting Group’s top brass was extolling the virtues of the Middle East and the stability it would provide to the world’s financial markets. And why not? Every recommendation that encourages more expenditures by clients offers up greater opportunity for future cases. If Dubai’s companies lack the internal resources or motivation to poke the conclusions made by their rented consultants, if they reward optimism and penalize pessimism, they should not be surprised when they receive cheery, but flimsy advice.
Scoreboard
Baseball Saturday, April 10 at U.S. Coast Guard AcademyW 5-1 at U.S. Coast Guard AcademyL 5-4 Men’s Lacrosse Saturday, April 10 vs. Springfield CollegeL 16-4 Women’s Lacrosse Saturday, April 10 vs. Smith CollegeW 20-4 Softball Saturday, April 10 vs. Worcester Polytechnic InstituteW 1-0 vs. Worcester Polytechnic InstituteL 16-0 Sunday, April 11 vs. Wheaton CollegeL 15-1 vs. Wheaton CollegeL 15-2 Men’s Tennis Saturday, April 10 at U.S. Coast Guard AcademyW 7-2 Men’s Track and Field Saturday, April 10 vs. Bates & Colby1st of 3 Women’s Track and Field Saturday, April 10 vs. Bates & Colby1st of 3 Men’s Volleyball Saturday, April 10 vs. Nazarene CollegeL 3-0 vs. D’Youville CollegeW 3-0
Sports Shorts
The MIT women’s lacrosse team defeated Smith College 20-4 on Saturday, led by Casey M. Flynn ’10. She scored three goals to become the leading scorer in program history and had seven assists, setting an MIT single-game record. Both records were previously held by Deanna M. Lentz ’06.
Upcoming Home Events
Tuesday, April 13 Men’s Lacrosse vs. Salem State College 4 p.m., Steinbrenner Stadium Wednesday, April 14 Baseball vs. Salem Stste Colege 3:30 p.m., Briggs Field Thursday, April 8 Men’s Tennis vs. Babson College 4 p. m., duPont Courts Women’s Lacrosse vs. Williams College 7 p.m., Steinbrenner Stadium
Softball falls 15-1, 15-2 in sweep by Wheaton
Wheaton College jumped out to a pair of early leads during a doubleheader sweep of MIT softball on Sunday afternoon. The Lyons outscored the Engineers 30-3 in the two games, which were the final home contests of the 2010 campaign for the Engineers, who fell to 7-17 (3-11 NEWMAC).
VARIOUS STATES OF UNDRESS Frolicking on the first date
“If a girl will sleep with me on the first date, she’s a slut.”
