Police Log
<i>The following incidents were reported to the MIT Police between March 27, 2007 and April 4, 2007. This summary does not include incidents such as false alarms, general service calls, larcenies, or medical shuttles.</i>
Uncontested GSC Candidates Elected
The Graduate Student Council's new officers have been elected and say they are looking to improve communication between the MIT senior administration and the GSC. President-elect Leeland B. Ekstrom G and Vice President-elect Johnna D. Powell G won uncontested elections on April 4 and will take office on May 2 at the GSC General Council meeting.
iHouse Slated to Open In Fall at New House 1
A new living and learning community will open in New House in the fall to undergraduates. iHouse, a way to "bridge living and learning at MIT," according to Professor of Urban Planning Bishwapriya Sanyal, who is involved as a faculty member, will open in New House 1, which used to be the home of the now defunct Russian House. There will be 21 residents.
Student Lender Had Early Plans to Court Officials
The founders of Student Loan Xpress had an explicit plan for corralling a bigger share of the lucrative student loan business: "market to the financial aid offices of schools."
Preferential Treatment May Impact Buyers
Envy is a powerful force in the human psyche — and a tool to be exploited in marketing.
Tech Web Site Receives Facelift
In 1993, <i>The Tech</i> proudly became the first newspaper published on the Web, taking the lead in providing news content to the online masses. However, despite being the public face of one of the leading technological universities in the world, in recent years The Tech would be the first to admit its Web service was lacking in style, timeliness, and usability. Well, not anymore.
Avian Flu, SARS in Tufts' Sights
The idyllic setting of Tufts University's central Massachusetts campus, where for 30 years students have trained to become veterinarians, will soon become a new frontline in the fight against diseases such as Avian flu and SARS.
Harvard Seeks Cheaper Textbooks
Two top deans have asked Harvard University professors to reduce student expenditures on textbooks and other course material by putting those items on line or by deciding earlier if they plan to use the same textbook in subsequent semesters.
Big Screw Day One Totals
Candidate Title Charity Amount Stephen Ansolabehere Professor of Political Science Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition $0.15 Emery N. Brown 9.07 Professor Codman Academy $0.20 Brett D. Parker 18.100B Professor MASSPIRG Education Fund $0.85 Keith A. Nelson 5.60 Professor The Home for Little Wanderers $1.27 Christopher (Kit) C. Cummins 5.111/5.112 Professor TBA $5.19 Krishna Rajagopal 8.05 Professor Union of Concerned Scientists $21.70 Maureen R. Lynch 2.007 Course Administrator Make-A-Wish Foundation $35.80 Richard D. Berlin III Director of Campus Dining The Richard D. Berlin Center for Cell Analysis and Modeling at the University of Connecticut Health Center $90.74 Michael D. Ernst 6.170 Professor St. Mark Community Education Program $202.75 Total $358.65
Freshman's Location Unknown
A freshman, apparently required to withdraw from MIT as part of a secretive disciplinary process, has been missing for over a week, according to the South Hadley, Mass. Police Department.
Ivy League Applications Boom, Selectivity Follows
Harvard turned down 1,100 student applicants with perfect 800 scores on the SAT math exam. Yale rejected several applicants with perfect 2400 scores on the three-part SAT, and Princeton turned away thousands of high school applicants with 4.0 grade point averages. Needless to say, high school valedictorians were a dime a dozen.
Student Center Hangout Back to 24 Hours
The recent reduction in the Student Center Coffeehouse's operating hours can be traced to homeless people using the location during early morning hours, according to Phillip J. Walsh, director of the Campus Activities Complex, which runs the Coffeehouse.
Academics' Work Choices Raise Ethicists' Eyebrows
A high-powered academic team's work for a billionaire executive facing charges of improper accounting has raised questions about the appropriate relationship between academic consultants and the businesses they advise.
Preferred Dining Cost Will Increase Again
The fee for the Preferred Dining program is set to increase $25 in the fall, drawing student criticism of dining at MIT. The announcement coincided with the introduction of buffet-style dinners at Pritchett Dining last Monday. The cost of Preferred Dining has already jumped $75 since fall 2005, setting the current price at $300.
News Briefs
MIT's mail system experienced its third outage in the past month on Sunday, April 1. The post office server po12.mit.edu was down for several hours between 4 p.m. and 10 p.m. Unlike the outages of po14 and po10 in early March, some incoming e-mail to the affected 250 users was bounced, or returned to its sender, with a cryptic error message. Information Services and Technology did not inform affected users of the outage, other than with a general notice on their outage announcement system, <i>http://3down.mit.edu</i>. IS&T was not able to estimate how many messages were affected and declined to provide information as to the cause of the outage or how likely it was to recur.
Lincoln Lab Not Guilty of Fraud, DoD Says
A Department of Defense investigation into long-standing allegations of fraud in a Lincoln Laboratory-led review of national missile defense tests has concluded that neither the review team nor Lincoln Laboratory management is guilty of research misconduct. The DoD investigative report, released Friday, pointed out problems with how the review’s results were presented — namely that critical information was omitted in the study — but said that these actions “did not rise to the level of research misconduct.”
OCW Gives Students Overseas Education Without MIT Degree
Lucifer Chu, a 31-year-old from Taipei, Taiwan, is as good an example as any of the shrinking distances between East and West.