Winter is coming
After a flurry of snow in Cambridge’s first snowfall this season, the week ahead looks colder. Temperatures steadily dip over the next couple of days and the weekend while the skies remain sunny and clear. It is time to bring out the warm coats and mittens - the holiday movies, string lights, and the chocolate bombs with marshmallows. Get ready for a cozy weekend!
Student center renewal to begin January 2023
The student center will be fully shut down beginning in early May and throughout the summer for intensive construction. During this time, no public or tenant access will be allowed in the building.
Elephants in Egypt
The elephant in the room causing these extremes in weather is climate change, and this week Egypt is hosting COP27.
Veterans day, non-resident status application, drop date
Nov. 11 is Veterans Day. No classes will take place.
Can you believe it’s November?
No, neither can I. Why is it so warm? I was walking across campus, basking in the sunlight, feeling so cozy that I caught myself on the thought of “wait, what month is it?” It is, in fact, November, and the sun is shining like half the semester hasn’t just passed us by. The whole of New England is in an abnormally warm period this week, with temperatures up to 20°F higher than the climatological average for this time of year.
Diep Luu named inaugural director of Institute Advising Center
Diep Luu will be the inaugural director of the new Institute Advising Center and associate dean in the Office of the Vice Chancellor (OVC) beginning Jan. 1, 2023, according to an Oct. 24 email from Vice Chancellor Ian Waitz.
MIT alumni can receive ID card to access campus buildings
In addition to access to non-residential buildings on campus, the ID provides alumni free entry at the MIT Museum, along with one free guest, and privileges at the Zesiger Sports and Fitness Center and MIT Libraries.
Half-term add date, senior portraits, veterans day
Nov. 4 is the last day to add half-term subjects offered in the second half of the term or to change grading methods for those subjects.
Seasonable weather treats us to 40 degrees of spookiness
Some lingering clouds may stay around to haunt us come closer to Halloween night.
Community celebration, family weekend, Halloween
A community reception and celebration for President-elect Sally Kornbluth will be held Oct. 27 from 3:30–5:30 p.m. on Hockfield Court.
MIT’s assets drop 5.3%, largest decrease in seven years
MIT reported a loss in net assets for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2022. According to the Report of the Treasurer, the Institute’s return on pooled investments saw a 5.3% loss in the fiscal year.
President Reif reflects on his decade of presidency and 40 years at MIT
Reif: “An area that I would also like to think survived the test of time is what I’ve tried to convey not in an announced way, but by constantly speaking about it — in public, at Convocation, at Commencement — is a caring community.”
Sally Kornbluth named MIT’s 18th president
Kornbluth is the second woman to serve as MIT’s president, after President Emerita Susan Hockfield. Once Kornbluth assumes presidency, all three of MIT’s highest leadership positions — president, provost, and chancellor — will be held by women, for the first time in Institute history.
Half-term finals, building switch lottery, flu vaccines
The Spring 2023 building switch lottery application is available on the Starrez housing portal until Nov. 2 at 12 p.m.
Anything but cloudy
This week is momentous for many reasons: MIT D-Lab is celebrating twenty years of creative existence, Venera 9 successfully landed and sent the first images of the surface of Venus in 1975, Alabama hit freezing point before Montana for the first time since 1934, and I completed one year as a Meteorologist for The Tech.
Ben Bernanke PhD ’79 is 29th MIT affiliate to be awarded a share of Nobel Memorial Prize in economics
Ben Bernanke PhD ’79, an economist and former chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve, was awarded a share of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel for 2022 Oct. 10.
Class of 2024 attends Oceantation
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Class of 2024 did not attend a freshman-year aquarium trip in 2020; to that end, a junior-year aquarium trip had been a keystone in Class Council President Penny Brant ’24’s presidential campaign last spring.
MIT China Strategy Group releases university engagement with China report
According to Lester and Tsai — the co-chairs of the group — the purpose of the report is to “chart a path for MIT to conduct academic interactions and collaborations with individuals and organizations in China in ways that uphold the core values of the Institute.”
MIT Banana Lounge reinstates 24/7 access
The request for 24/7 tap access was based on “historical precedent” and aligned with “student access to other spaces, such as departmental student lounges,” Lim wrote.
‘MIT: REGRESSIONS’ sparks debate over the Institute’s past and future
In many ways, the history of MIT pictured in REGRESSIONS mirrors broader sociopolitical forces in the U.S.