UA Council holds inaugural meeting
The first meeting of the newly formed UA Council convened on Tuesday with nearly all of the expected members in attendance. Though they expected to pass their constitution at this meeting, those present decided it would be best postponed until next week .
$500,000 grant for music research at MIT
Michael Scott Cuthbert, associate professor of music, was recently awarded a $500,000 grant from the Digging into Data consortium. This grant will support his work in using computational techniques to study changes in Western musical style. He has received $175,000 specifically for his music21 project . On Thursday, Cuthbert sat with The Tech to discuss his work with music21 and his passion for combining computational techniques with music.
Diversity discussions on the rise
Shamarah J. Hernandez ’12. Course 14. McCormick resident. What are the first thoughts that come to mind when you read those four facts about her? Oh, she must be a minority student? Course 14 … um, is she double majoring in something else?
CORRECTIONS
A Nov. 29, 2011 article about MIT’s Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values incorrectly stated that the Dalai Lama visited Central Park in 2010. He visited the park in 2003.
Freshman runs for Republican office
Caroline B. Shinkle ’15 will be running for the position of Republican State Committeewoman for the district of Suffolk and Middlesex, which includes the city of Cambridge and portions of Boston. The position has been vacant for six years. The Republican State Committee serves as the Board of Directors for the Massachusetts Republican Party; its primary role is to recruit candidates for local, state, and federal offices, to build the party throughout the Commonwealth, raise funds for the Republican Party, and support Republican City and Town Committees. This committee has 80 members; a man and a woman from each district.
Mass. colleges gear up for fight over admissions
Massachusetts colleges are gearing up for a fight over the use of racial preferences in admissions, as the US Supreme Court prepares to consider the constitutionality of affirmative action in higher education for the second time in a decade.
Shorts (left)
J.K. Rowling, the British author whose Harry Potter fantasy series ignited a passion for reading in millions of children around the world, is emerging from a five-year publishing hiatus with a new novel — this time for adults.
Wounded journalists appeal for evacuation from Homs
PARIS — A French reporter wounded in the Syrian government’s bombardment of Homs made a video appeal on Thursday for a cease-fire and evacuation for urgent medical attention.
Shorts (right)
BEIJING — The first official talks between the United States and North Korea since the coming to power of the youthful new North Korean leader were “serious and substantial,” the senior U.S. negotiator said Thursday, and would extend into a second day.
Rain today, colder days ahead for this weekend
The weather these past two days given us a taste of spring. The high temperatures yesterday and Wednesday were 15°F and 17°F above the normal 40°F, respectively. That warmth, however, will not last, as temperatures will struggle to reach 40°F tomorrow in association with a shortwave moving through. While this shortwave is expected to bring several inches of snow to areas of central and western Massachusetts and New Hampshire, here in Cambridge we are primarily expected to receive rain. The rain should begin to taper off in the afternoon, ending by 8 p.m. or so. Following the passage of this system, high pressure will build into the region, keeping the weekend dry with seasonable temperatures. However, tomorrow could be quite breezy following the departure of the low pressure, so it could feel a bit colder than the forecasted high of 43°F.
Bank of America breaks with Fannie Mae, can turn to other buyers
Bank of America said Thursday that it would no longer sell new mortgages to Fannie Mae, underscoring tensions in a fight between two giants of the home loan market over billions in losses in the housing bubble.
Seven Marines killed in helicopter collision during training exercise
LOS ANGELES — Seven Marines were killed Wednesday night when two helicopters collided during training exercises in the desert along the California-Arizona border, the Marine Corps said Thursday.
Obama sends apology as Afghan protests rage
KABUL, Afghanistan — The potential scope of the fallout from the burning of several copies of the Quran by U.S. military personnel this week became chillingly clear on Thursday as an Afghan army soldier turned his gun on NATO troops, killing two, while a crowd nearby protested the desecration of the Muslim holy book.
Let’s take a moment
It seems all we do at MIT is talk about the future. How are med school apps going? Are you going to take your job offer? Are you ready for that test tomorrow? In a way, it’s justified; we’ve spent our whole lives working as hard as we can in hopes of mastering our futures — in hopes of controlling our destinies.
Responding to tragedy
The passing of Brian G. Anderson ’13 this past week marks the fourth death on campus in six months. This news is shocking to us all, and The Tech wanted to take this opportunity to address student morale on campus. As students ourselves, we know that on top of p-sets, exams, and general MIT stress, these events can be overwhelming.
Social issues surface in the final Republican debate
Just as Santorum surged into final Republican debate before Super Tuesday, the culture wars reignited; set alight by Obama’s Catholic contraceptives clash, Charles Murray’s book-length jeremiad about lower-class immorality, the Susan G. Komen foundation, and the word “transvaginal.”
A student perspective on MIT 2030
Over the past year, the Institute has been releasing “MIT 2030,” its framework for land use and renovation for the next 20 years, and it contains some interesting and ambitious ideas for commercial development on and around the MIT campus. However, behind flowery language of an “innovation district” lie major problems with MIT 2030. In effect, the plan neglects the central mission of the Institute: to “advance knowledge and educate students.”
Let’s not derail MIT from its path of excellence
MIT is the finest research institution in the world, in no small part because of its unwavering commitment to recruiting, admitting, and hiring the best talent in the world, even if that talent comes from less-advantaged or atypical backgrounds. Periodically examining the mechanisms by which the Institute pursues its mission is essential, but those examinations must be grounded in both data and an understanding of the MIT ethos. Brandon Briscoe’s execrable and intellectually dishonest rant against diversity and inclusion at the Institute is neither, serving as a disheartening call to take MIT in precisely the wrong direction. By mischaracterizing MIT’s admission and hiring processes as a de facto quota system, Briscoe effects a brilliant takedown of a straw man of his own creation and manages to cast aspersions on the intellect of every MIT-affiliated woman and underrepresented minority, … all based on little more than a few sloppy citations and the courage of his own biased convictions.
Mystery at the Institute
One-hundred forty years ago in Lawrence, Massachusetts, John Ripley Freeman found someone’s lost dog. For reuniting pet and owner, the high-schooler collected a generous bounty of $5. Freeman spent that fortune on the latest textbook in Inorganic Chemistry. With the change, he “procured a small supply of glass tubes, flasks, and a Bunsen burner, and set up a small laboratory at home, without setting fire either to the house or woodshed,” he later wrote.
Men’s Ice Hockey makes dramatic win in overtime
This past weekend, the MIT Men’s Ice Hockey team captured its second consecutive Northeast Collegiate Hockey Association (NECHA) Championship in the American Conference Finals, capping off a storybook season with a heart-pounding overtime win. The Engineers successfully defended their 2010-2011 NECHA Cup victory, the first since MIT last won it in 2001.
Where has Jeremy Lin been hiding?
For the past few weeks, “Linsanity” has been sweeping the nation. For those unfamiliar with this phenomenon, it is the buzz centered around 23-year-old Harvard graduate and New York Knicks point guard Jeremy Shu-How Lin. Since earning a starting position on the team in early February, Lin has averaged 24.6 points, 9.2 assists, and 2.4 steals per game, scoring more total points in his first five starts than any player since the merger of the ABA and the NBA in 1977. However, Jeremy Lin’s story is not one of “how did he get so good so quickly?” but rather “how did he go unnoticed for so long?”
STEVE CHO ‘15: Prince of Squash
Sung Won (Steve) Cho ’15 is a freshman on the MIT Varsity Squash Team. After starting to play squash a couple of months before moving to the United States from South Korea in eighth grade, Steve went on to play for the Division I Groton High School Varsity Squash Team. He has excelled in some of the premiere squash competitions including the Massachusetts Junior Open and the New England Interscholastic Squash Association (NEISA) Individual Championships. Steve will most likely declare Course 7 (Biology) or Course 20 (Biological Engineering) by the end of this semester. The Tech sat down with Steve’s to discuss life as a student-athlete on the MIT Varsity Squash Team.
