A warm and sunny welcome to campus!
It looks as if the MIT weather machine is back up and running, with some beautiful weather for this weekend and the start of orientation.
Students mock, express concern about administration edits to REX event booklet
One of Random Hall's REX Chairs said she disagreed with many of the edits, including the removal of a water pong event and the flagging of a potato-themed event run by an Irish student as an example of stereotyping.
Scattered thunderstorms are not over.
The hot, scattered rainstorms that characterized this past week are set to continue. The past week brought heavy rain and thunder most days, creating a danger of flash floods. In the next few days, watch for more flash flood warnings due to heavy thunderstorms, at least until Sunday. After a summer of relatively light rain, this week reminds us that we live in New England. However, New England isn’t the only region to have heavy rains this past week. The same rain that hit Boston traveled up the eastern coast of the U.S., ruining beach trips everywhere. In Colorado, heavy rain and hail caused flooding and much hail damage in the mountain west. It's been a wet week.
Supreme Court upholds third iteration of travel ban
There were 40 total undergraduate and graduate students at MIT from Iran in the 2017–18 academic year, seven from Syria, and five from Venezuela, according to the International Students Office’s annual statistics.
MIT professors spearhead petition in support of Microsoft employees protesting contract with ICE
Microsoft's contract provides ICE with cloud-based services, which would enable the agency to “process data on edge devices or utilize deep learning capabilities to accelerate facial recognition and identification.”
OCW videos blocked, then restored, on YouTube
OCW believes the blockage was actually worldwide, contrary to seemingly location-specific error messages viewers received.
MIT Intelligence Quest initiative renamed MIT Quest for Intelligence
CMS/W Professor Kenneth Manning wrote in the MIT Faculty Newsletter about "IQ and its eugenic uses, especially its espousal of racial inferiority."
Sheryl Sandberg speaks at MIT Commencement
Acknowledging the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Sandberg said, “It's painful when you miss something, when you make the mistake of believing so much in the good you are seeing that you don't see the bad.”
Sheryl Sandberg on the importance of social solutions and the responsibility of technologists
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg is MIT’s 2018 commencement speaker. In a short phone interview, she highlighted the message she wants to convey in her speech and discussed how MIT students contribute to the hope she has for the world.
Pre-registration, MIT Medical new portal
Pre-registration for summer and fall 2018 are now open. The deadline to initiate pre-registration and to make fall CI-H/HW selections is June 18.
Three assault incidents reported via ‘timely warning’ emails in May
According to the MIT Police, there is no information to indicate that these three incidents are in any way connected.
New Parental Leave policy allows one month leave for foster, surrogate, birth, and non-birth parents
Students will be paid while on Parental Leave if they are supported by an RA, TA, or fellowship.
East Side Festival revives Steer Roast, East Campus Day
“The intent of this festival was to help the East Campus students explore and create an identity, especially now that new students from Senior House are a part of East Campus,” Maurizio Diaz ’20 explained in a phone interview with The Tech.
MIT Solve holds annual flagship meeting
Solve issues four challenges each year, with this year’s being Work of the Future, Frontlines of Health, Teachers and Educators, and Coastal Communities.
Biology Department to change major requirement course
The changes will involve splitting the 18-unit 7.02 (Introduction to Experimental Biology and Communication) into a 6-unit class followed by a 12-unit class.
Pre-registration, subject evaluations, Tech shuttle
Spring semester subject evaluations are due May 21 at 9 a.m. Access them at web.mit.edu/subjectevaluation.
The heat wave cools down
Boston had a brief taste of summer this past week with temperatures over 90 °F — but don’t expect similar heat this weekend.
Creator of the World Wide Web speaks about corporations, data, and privacy
In a talk May 2, Tim Berners-Lee shared his vision of what the internet would become and how reality fell short of his vision, and shared plans to recapture his initial vision.
Novartis park by MIT open during weekend
The park provides a convenient route between several student living groups and the east side of campus.
INSPIRE humanities research competition to have last competition in the fall, run by SAO
MIT INSPIRE, a national high school research competition in the arts, humanities, and social sciences run by a group of MIT students, will not continue next year.