Letter From Advisory Committee Chair
Knowing that many in the community are deeply concerned about the tragic events on the ground in Sudan, I write to offer an update on the work of the Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility, which has been asked to make a recommendation to the Executive Committee of the MIT Corporation about whether any action should be taken with regard to MIT’s investments in multinational companies that may be doing business in Sudan, and if so, what that action should be.
Charges Against MIT Students Eliminated
Felony charges against three MIT students who set off a burglar alarm in the E52 Faculty Club last October were dropped Wednesday by the Middlesex County district attorney's office. The students contend that they were hacking when found by the police. The case will now be handled within the Institute by the Committee on Discipline.
Kastner Appointed Science Dean
Marc A. Kastner, head of the Department of Physics, will soon be the new dean of science. During his nine years in office, Kastner inititated the new flexible physics degree option, formerly known as Course VIII-B, led the construction of the new physics and spectroscopy lab, and hired about one-third of the current Physics Department faculty.
Ethics Panels Found to Curtail Academic Freedom
Ever since the gross mistreatment of poor black men in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study came to light three decades ago, the federal government has required ethics panels to protect people from being used as human lab rats in biomedical studies. Yet now, faculty and graduate students across the country increasingly complain that these panels have spun out of control, curtailing academic freedom and interfering with research in history, English and other subjects that poses virtually no danger to anyone.
Douglas Ross SM '54
Douglas Ross SM '54 passed away on Jan. 31 after a fall at the Brookhaven at Lexington care community, according to <i>The Boston Globe</i>. He was 77.
Forum Features Controversial Speakers
Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss and Imam Mohammed al-Asi, who both hold anti-Zionistic views concerning the formation of an Islamic state, were asked to speak at the Forum on American Progress last Thursday night, a choice which was viewed as controversial by both the Jewish and Muslim communities at MIT. The forum, titled “Foreign Policy and Social Justice: A Jewish View, A Muslim View,” began with prepared lectures from the two speakers followed by a question and answer session.
'Socially Awkward' Told to Leave DePauw Sorority
When a psychology professor at DePauw University surveyed students, they described one sorority as a group of "daddy's little princesses" and another as "offbeat hippies." The sisters of Delta Zeta were seen as "socially awkward." Worried that a negative stereotype of the sorority was contributing to a decline in membership that had left its Greek-columned house here half empty, Delta Zeta's national officers interviewed 35 DePauw members in November, quizzing them about their dedication to increasing recruitment. They judged 23 of the women insufficiently committed and later told them to vacate the sorority house.
Film on 'Islam's War Against The West' Causes Protests
When <i>Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West</i>, a documentary that shows Muslims urging attacks on the United States and Europe, was screened recently at the University of California, Los Angeles, it drew an audience of more than 300 — and also dozens of protesters.
Fire at Boston University Kills Two Students
Boston fire officials are investigating what caused a blaze to rip through an Audubon Circle apartment building yesterday , killing two Boston University students, injuring a third man, and displacing 30 people, many of them college students.
Police Log
<i>The following incidents were reported to the MIT Police between Feb. 1 and Feb. 15, 2007. This summary does not include incidents such as false alarms, general service calls, larcenies, or medical shuttles.</i>
Faculty Discuss Hackers, Education
Administrators are working with the district attorney's office to seek a means of moving the felony trials involving three MIT students out of the Cambridge court system to an internal Committee on Discipline process, according to Chancellor Phillip L. Clay PhD '75.
Francis E. Low
Francis E. Low, a retired MIT physicist and provost who worked on the Manhattan Project, died of heart failure on Feb. 16 at a retirement home in Haverford, Pa. He was 85.
Wikipedia Citations Banned at Middlebury
When half a dozen students in Neil Waters' Japanese history class at Middlebury College asserted on exams that the Jesuits supported the Shimabara Rebellion in 17th-century Japan, he knew something was wrong. The Jesuits were in "no position to aid a revolution," he said; the few of them in Japan were in hiding.
Used Grease to Power Shuttles
Imagine the oil from French fries being converted into the fuel that feeds an MIT SafeRide shuttle. Biodiesel@MIT proposes to do just that: convert MIT’s abundant supply of used vegetable oil (UVO) into processed biodiesel for campus transportation.
News Briefs
MedLinks will be auctioning off a chance to win a date with students and Institute notables, including President Susan Hockfield, tonight. Twenty students and six faculty members will be auctioned off for the highest bids, with all proceeds going to Tutoring Plus, a Cambridge organization that provides free tutoring to underprivileged middle and high school students. SaveTFP is co-sponsoring the event.
Statements from James L. Sherley and MIT Administration Regarding the End of Sherley’s Hunger Strike
<i>On Friday, Feb. 16, James L. Sherley and MIT issued the following statements regarding the conclusion of Sherley’s 12-day hunger strike that same day. Sherley was protesting racial discrimination in his tenure case. For more information, see the article on page 1.</i>
Software Could Protect Against Online Media Piracy
As media companies struggle to reclaim control over their movies, television shows and music in a world of online file-sharing software, they have found an ally in software of another kind.