Campus proposals include relocating museum, housing students in warehouse
MIT is weighing the pros and cons of housing undergraduates in the Metropolitan Storage Warehouse building, among other proposed ideas for revamping campus.
CORRECTIONS
A guest column published Tuesday made references to MIT’s parental leave policy that were misleading. MIT employees and MIT graduate students have separate parental leave policies, and the new benefit of five days of paid parental leave is in addition to substantial existing parental leave policies for employees. An updated version of the article online also makes note of MIT’s existing maternity leave policies, which give female graduate students and employees up to two months of accommodation when they are expecting.
UA president resigns amid parliamentary pablum
“And let’s get to work!” announced Matthew J. Davis ’16 at the conclusion of his first speech as president of the Undergraduate Association. The rare half-second pauses in his delivery would have likely been polished out had he had an extra month to prepare for the moment, but no such luck — embattled former president Shruti Sharma ’15 resigned a month early during Wednesday’s UA Council meeting, sweeping him and vice president-elect Sophia Liu ’17 into office within a week of their election. Davis said he learned of the pending transfer Monday at 11 p.m.
Five of six top Putnam math contest scorers are from MIT
MIT took first place in the 2014 William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition, results for which were recently released. Five MIT individuals also received the Putnam Fellowship, which was awarded to the top six scorers.
CPW events not permitted between 1 and 6 a.m. this year
MIT is not permitting events between 1 a.m. and 6 a.m. during this year’s Campus Preview Weekend.
Embattled UA president and vice president will likely resign Wednesday
An Undergraduate Association Council meeting agenda published shortly before press time listed a “transition” of power to the president-elect Matthew J. Davis ’16 and vice president-elect Sophia Liu ’17 with no mention of an impeachment vote, implying that the sitting officers, Shruti Sharma ’15 and Billy Ndengeyingoma ‘15, will step down.
High pressure heralds return of spring
After a brutal winter in which it was colder than 40°F for over a month, the Boston area is finally getting a taste of above-normal temperatures. With a high of 69°F (21°C), yesterday was the warmest day of 2015 so far, 14° warmer than the normal high of 55°F (13°C) for this time of year.
Davis and Liu sweep UA presidential elections
The Undergraduate Association announced on April 11 that Matthew J. Davis ’16 and Sophia Liu ’17 had won the election for president and vice president with 61 percent of votes cast in their favor.
CORRECTIONS
Ray Wang was incorrectly listed as an author on an article that ran last week with the headline “Tsarnaev guilty of bombing marathon, killing MIT officer.”
MIT holds debate on divestment as part of 'climate change conversation'
MIT became the first university to hold an administration-sponsored debate on fossil fuel divestment last Thursday, amid demands from student group Fossil Free MIT (FFMIT) that the Institute reallocate what they call “investments that will lock us in to catastrophic climate change.”
Norovirus outbreak ‘likely over’
Last week’s norovirus outbreak is likely over, MIT Associate Medical Director Howard M. Heller wrote in an email to The Tech.
Cambridge ban on single-use plastic bags will affect campus retailers
Cambridge has become the largest city on the East Coast to ban single-use plastic bags with the passing of the “Plastic Bag Reduction Ordinance” on March 30. City councillors voted 8-1 to ban single-use plastic bags and impose a 10-cent fee on paper bags.
SAO to put ‘checks and balances’ on student group transactions
In wake of the controversy surrounding rapper Lil B’s appearance on campus, the Student Activities Office (SAO) will be adding additional “checks and balances” to the process by which student groups can enter into contracts with outside service providers and transfer funds between other groups, according to Leah Flynn Gallant, director of the SAO.
Four professors named 2015 MacVicar Fellows
On March 13, four MIT professors were named MacVicar Fellows for their contributions to undergraduate education: Arthur Bahr, Catherine L. Drennan, Lorna J. Gibson, and Hazel L. Sive. Each will receive $10,000 annually for 10 years to aid them in their efforts to enhance the learning experience at MIT.
Spring?
A late-season push of cool air has reminded Bostonians of a dreadfully active winter. Yesterday, Boston saw light rain with sleet mixing in at times. A low pressure system to the south has pushed a tongue of warmer air into region, causing snow to melt as it falls to the surface. After passing through the warm layer, precipitation refreezes and reaches the ground as sleet.
Man arrested after bag of human remains found in Kendall Square
A duffel bag containing parts of a dismembered body was found in front of the Biogen office in Kendall Square roughly half a mile away from the MIT campus on Saturday after the Cambridge Police Department received a call about a suspicious package.
CORRECTIONS
Undergraduate Association President Shruti Sharma ’15 has retracted a quote published last week in an article about her authorization of a payment to rapper Lil B. Sharma originally said: “I wanted to do something that would make it easier and the way it was presented was almost like SAO [Student Activities Office] also wanted me to sign this … it seemed like I needed to sign it that day.” In an email to The Tech, Sharma clarified her position: “It was not the SAO pressuring me directly as conversations with Leah [Flynn] only started after the fact. Instead, it was presented from the student that the contract had been signed already and as a result, funding had to be delivered so BSU [Black Students’ Union] would not go into debt. As the UA’s responsibility is to help students and especially to support groups, it seemed to me that the UA needed to step in to help.”