Cancer research partnership between Harvard and MIT gets $20 million gift
In the hope of moving more results from cancer research labs into the clinical setting, the Commonwealth Foundation for Cancer Research announced yesterday a $20 million donation to the Bridge Project, a collaboration between the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT and the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center.
Sit-in for divestment by president’s office hits one-week mark
Members of student group Fossil Free MIT are staging a sit-in outside of President L. Rafael Reif’s office in protest of what they see as inadequacies in MIT’s climate action plan.
Harvard law library to make resources available to the public online
Shelves of law books are an august symbol of legal practice, and no place, save the Library of Congress, can match the collection at Harvard’s Law School Library. Its trove includes nearly every state, federal, territorial and tribal judicial decision since colonial times — a priceless potential resource for everyone from legal scholars to defense lawyers trying to challenge a criminal conviction.
Full release of Stellar’s replacement expected next year
Most students searching for class materials or grades have encountered a new interface this semester. MIT IS&T is progressively phasing out Stellar in favor of a new modular learning management system, which will be fully released next year.
Clear for Halloween Night
The departing low-pressure system which brought rain to the area this morning is now heading off into eastern Canada. Tomorrow, skies should clear as northwesterly winds blow cooler, drier air into the region and high pressure builds in. For Halloween, the high pressure system will creep up the eastern seaboard and keep skies clear for Boston. Halloween night looks to be a bit chilly, with temperatures in the low 40s°F through the late evening. As we enter November, we leave the statistically snow-free month of October behind. Students new to Boston have already begun to question the reality of our beloved winter weather, but we’re climatologically approaching snowier times. Boston typically sees its first measurable snowfall around November 4, but the first snow day varies significantly from year to year. Snowfall greater than 0.5 inches (1.3 cm) typically arrives around December 5.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
When I read the Climate Change Action Plan sent out by President Rafael Reif, I was squarely unimpressed, but I wasn’t surprised. In terms of climate change, MIT seems to have a history of grand, empty gestures. This email didn’t stray from tradition.
MIT’s Climate Plan doesn’t add up. So we’re sitting-in.
We write from the office doorstep of MIT’s President, where on October 22, we began a sit-in in response to the President’s announcement of MIT’s Plan for Action on Climate Change (hereafter ‘Plan’). As President Reif acknowledged, the Plan originally “emerged in response to” Fossil Free MIT’s ongoing call, since April 2013, for MIT to divest its now $13.5 billion endowment from fossil fuel companies. Here, we share our take on MIT’s Plan and explain why it has left us no choice but to respectfully plant ourselves, around-the-clock, along MIT’s corridor of power to call for a bolder approach.
Fired up, dumbed down? William F. Buckley and the decline of political discourse
Lamenting the state of American political discourse is a popular refrain at present, and it’s not hard to see why. At a time when offensive statements from the likes of Donald Trump and Ben Carson serve not as campaign-ending gaffes but as anabolic steroids for the presidential horse-race; when blowhard cable news anchors generate much heat but little light on the issues de l’heure; and when social media has opened up a whole new realm for shocking anger and abuse, the desire to tune out of political speech altogether and only pay attention biennially and briefly has never been stronger. MIT Professor Heather Hendershot’s forthcoming book, Open to Debate: How William F. Buckley Put Liberal America on the Firing Line — which she introduced at an Oct. 22 colloquium — could not be more timely, with its simple central question: how, exactly, did it come to this?
A visual feast at the ballet
Men balancing on each other like surfboards, women perching precariously on their partners’ napes, a human truss forming from a lattice of dancers – these were some of the radical visual treats greeting the audience in this season’s opener at the Boston Ballet. A surprising 40 years since its inception, this production marks the first performance by a North American company of John Neumeier’s Third Symphony of Gustav Mahler.
Author Emma Donoghue talks to The Tech
Told from the perspective of 5-year-old Jack (Jacob Tremblay), Room, a 2010 novel by Emma Donoghue, is a captivating tale about Jack and his mother, Ma, who are confined to a small room with no exposure to the outside world. Except for the occasional nighttime visit from their captor, Old Nick (Sean Bridgers), Jack and Ma (Brie Larson) spend all of their time with each other, playing games, watching TV, and reading books. Ma knows what lies beyond the walls, but as far as Jack knows, the room is his entire world.
Women’s tennis wins eighth NEWMAC title by defeating Babson College, 5-4, in final
Trailing in the match, 4-2, No. 1 seed MIT came from behind to win the final three singles contests to come away with a thrilling, 5-4, win over No. 2 seed Babson College in the final of the 2015 New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) women’s tennis tournament. Elysa M. Kohrs ’17 was named the tournament’s most outstanding player after capturing a key point in the No. 1 singles match for MIT.
MIT men’s soccer seeded first in this year’s tournament
The MIT men’s soccer team, ranked No. 21 in the latest National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) poll, claimed its fifth New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) regular season championship with a 3-2 victory over Springfield College at Brock-Affleck Field.
October’s MIT player of the month Megan E. Gebhard ’17 discusses volleyball, Halloween
The women’s volleyball team has an enviable 26-2 record overall this season as it seeks a second straight New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) regular-season title and a chance to host the playoff tournament. A big reason for its dominance is star outside-hitter, Megan E. Gebhard ’17. Gebhard, who made the NEWMAC all-conference first team last year, leads the team in kills, averaging above 4 per set. The Tech’s player of the month for October told us about team spirit, this year’s goals, and beach volleyball at Google.
Talented Celtics team to aim for playoff berth this season Addition of savvy veterans Johnson and Lee lends experience to roster and adds dimension to team
The Boston Celtics open their 2015-16 campaign as they look to return to the playoffs for the second straight year. Although the Celtics were swept by the Lebron James-led Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round of playoffs, they managed to end the regular season on a high.
‘At heart, I am Chinese’
This is part of a series of MIT application essays submitted by students who were later admitted to the Institute. The following prompts are from the 2014-15 admissions season.
Coming back to TFP
It was somewhere along the Pacific Coast Highway, shaded from the setting sun by a row of tall palm trees on both sides, a refreshing headwind wrapping itself around my motorcycle helmet, when it suddenly occurred to me that I’d found what I was looking for. I’d spent the past several months away from school, searching, scouring the vast world outside and within for some elusive purpose, a gem of insight that would justify the profusion of pain and doubt that veiled my time in college up to that point.
