UA Candidates Spar Over Student Issues
From the dining system to student-administration transparency, Undergraduate Association presidential and vice-presidential candidates discussed popular student government issues in a debate last Sunday night. The debate was co-hosted by <i>The Tech</i> and the UA Election Commission.
Admissions Reduces Staff, Travel, Will Use The Web for Recruiting
The admissions office has laid off staff, will reduce travel spending by 30–50 percent, and will move much of its communication with students to the Web. The measures will help Admissions meet MIT’s mandated 5 percent budget cut for the fiscal year beginning in July.
Jackson, Bulovic, Jones, And Henderson Achieve MacVicar $100K Grants
On Thursday night, four MIT faculty members were named MacVicar Faculty Fellows in recognition of their contributions to undergraduate education. They each receive $100,000 for educational activities and research.
Von Maltzahn Wins $30,000 Award for Cancer Research
Last Tuesday, graduate student Geoffrey von Maltzahn was named winner of the Lemelson-MIT Student Prize and received an unrestricted cash gift of $30,000 for his innovative work in cancer therapy.
Battle of the Jewish Pastries:
On Wednesday night, six respected professors gathered in 26-100 for the Seventh Annual Latke-Hamentashen Debate. Students and faculty, ushered by a yarmulke-wearing Tim the Beaver, packed the lecture hall for the humorous academic dispute over the virtues and shortcomings of the latke and the hamentashen.
E-mail of the Week!
An e-mail thread yesterday on the Campaign for Students mailing list discussed bringing pitchforks and broadswords to an upcoming UA meeting where the mandatory dining controversy would be discussed with Dean Donna M. Denoncourt, who chairs the Blue Ribbon Dining Committee. Andrew R. Drechsler ’10 wrote, “I think we should forge our own instead of buying them.”
In Short
CORRECTION TO THIS ARTICLE: An earlier version of this article incorrectly said that Debian Linux was the operating system running the new beta release of Athena. The operating system is Ubuntu, which itself is based on Debian Linux. This article has been revised to reflect this correction.
FSILGs Face Loss of Option to House Non-MIT Summer Renters
The ability of Fraternities, Sororities, and Independent Living Groups (FSILGs) to charge and accept non-student summer boarders is in jeopardy. Those boarders have been critical to struggling revenues at FSILGs.
Bareilles, Hotel Lights To Open for Ben Folds at Spring Weekend Concert
Sara Bareilles will open this year’s Spring Weekend concert, which will be headlined by Ben Folds. Folds will be bringing along the indie band Hotel Lights.
Visa Hassles May Discourage International Students
When Alena Shkumatava opens the door to the “fish lab” at the Whitehead Institute of MIT, she encounters warm, aquarium-scented air and shelf after shelf of foot-long tanks, each containing one or more zebra fish. She studies the tiny fish in her quest to unravel one of the knottiest problems in biology: how the acting of genes is encouraged or inhibited in cells.
Chorallaries’ ‘Concert in Bad Taste’ Features Comedic, Bawdy Songs
Chances are, if you’re Sarah Palin, Barack Obama, or just a member of the MIT community, you got offended by the a cappella group the Chorallaries (or the “Whore-allaries,” as they called themselves) at the <i>n</i>th Annual Concert in Bad Taste last Saturday night.
UA and Class Council Candidates
CORRECTION TO THIS ARTICLE: Because of inaccurate information provided by the Undergraduate Association Election Commission, Tuesday’s table that listed UA and Class Council candidates gave the incorrect class years for some Class Council candidates. Rishi Dixit ’12 is running for class of 2012 — not 2011 — president. David S. Zhu ’12 is running for class of 2012 — not 2011 — treasurer. Zhu is also a Tech sports editor, which the table did not disclose because of an editing error.
MLK Diversity Exhibit Vandalized Twice
President Susan J. Hockfield and Prof. J. Phillip Thompson, Chair of the Committee on Race and Diversity, have issued a statement in response to vandalism of the Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial exhibit last month (see right). The annual exhibit consisted of several student-created displays to promote diversity, human rights, and similar principles, and ran from Feb. 2 through Feb. 9 in Lobby 10.
His Name is ‘Zoz.’ Former GRT Stars on Discovery Channel
A team of four engineers prototyping a creation — sounds like a group project at MIT, right? The only difference? These engineers are on TV, in a new show “Prototype This” which aired on the Discovery Channel last October. One of the engineers is a former Senior House Graduate Resident Tutor, Andrew Brooks PhD ’07.
Technology Review and News Office Join Forces To Cut Costs, Redundancy
MIT is in the process of combining the assets, functions, and personnel of the MIT News Office and <i>Technology Review</i> magazine in order to cut spending and run communications more effectively.
New Building Process Worries Local Board; Traffic is Major Issue
MIT is meeting resistance from neighborhood residents as it hopes to construct a new building at 650 Main Street, a parking lot diagonally across from Tech Square. The 400,000-square-foot project will come before the Cambridge Planning Board on Tuesday, Mar. 3, amidst concerns from the Area 4 Neighborhood Coalition (A4NC) that it will bring additional vehicular traffic to the area and integrate poorly with the neighborhood.
News Briefs
Show your MIT student ID and skip the 5 percent meals tax at Anna’s Taqueria, Dunkin Donuts, and many other on-campus vendors — see a full list at<i> http://web.mit.edu/dining/locations/retailoptions.html</i>.