An illusory trade-off
In Friday’s issue of The Tech, Madeline O’Grady ’16 asserts that MIT students should be “better than the career fair.” Instead of settling for comfortable, lucrative jobs with corporations, she writes, we should aspire to solve the world’s most challenging problems.
Why the career fair is a disappointment
When I applied to MIT in 2012, I pictured a brilliant haven filled with talented, driven, and passionate young people, striving to learn and apply their knowledge to solve the world’s greatest problems. Across this square mile of Cambridge, I pictured ten thousand minds working toward global improvement, and an institute that wants nothing more than to see its students facilitate change. At the time, being able to join this community seemed like a remote possibility.
CORRECTIONS
An article in Tuesday’s issue about the t=0 entrepreneurship conference incorrectly referred to the organizer as the “Martin Center for Entrepreneurship at MIT.” It is the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship.
Facing the truth: animal research
Almost every MIT student has conducted a scientific experiment on an animal — ranging from dissecting a frog in middle school to studying the behavior of conditionally trained mice in a UROP. At some point, many of us have probably found ourselves questioning the ethics of using animals for research. Though I was vaguely aware of this debate, it wasn’t until I took my first Institute lab that I finally understood the purpose of using animals in scientific pursuit.
MIT needs computer science requirement
Programming lies at the heart of a modern education. Whether it relates to engineering, finance, or even the arts and humanities, computation is used across all fields to achieve what was once unimaginable. Yet, despite its ever-increasing prominence in industry and research, MIT has not instituted introductory computer science as a General Institute Requirement (GIR).
UNDER GOD:
From our first day of kindergarten in the United States, we are expected to recite daily those 31 words which solemnly declare our fidelity to the nation we call home: “I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
When a leader should follow
At MIT, we pride ourselves on our various environmental and energy initiatives, from campus design to course offerings to groundbreaking research in numerous fields. Our greatest strength as an institution is our position as a world leader in science and technology. In the past, research from MIT has led to advances in green technologies, such as the development of ultracapacitors and novel liquid batteries for energy storage. Our values, as expressed in our research targets, have produced great strides in our society’s transition to more sustainable behaviors.
CORRECTIONS
An article in Friday’s issue on arts opportunities using the MIT ID mistakenly indicated that the $5 BSO College Card could be purchased at the BSO Ticket Office and MIT CopyTech in 11-003. It can only be purchased at CopyTech.
The US should not intervene in Syria
Most, if not all, Americans are at least vaguely aware of the cruel and miserable war taking place in the streets and countryside of Syria. Over the last two years, the Assad regime has clashed with a heterogeneous rebel group known as the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and other oppositional entities, most significantly the Al-Nusra Front — a radical Islamist group with ties to Al-Qaeda. Recently, President Obama announced that he would leave the decision of whether or not to engage the U.S. military against the Assad regime up to Congressional vote, an action that has sparked a national debate over the merits of U.S. interventionist foreign policy in the case of the Syrian conflict.
CORRECTIONS
A graphic in last Friday’s issue provided incorrect dates for some Steak and Lobster dinners. The WILG and Phi Kappa Sigma dinners are on Tuesday, Sept. 3.
CORRECTIONS
In the Boston Comic Con 2013 photo spread in the August 7 issue incorrectly credited photo number three — the photographer was Mario Rodriguez ’14.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
I am writing to apologize for the terrible mistake I have made in 2007 while being a student. No question, I should have done it five years ago, but it’s better late than never. As a quick background, in December 2007, I sent an email to a group of LGBT students where I insulted them and threatened physical harm if they kept contacting me via emails. In February 2008, MIT’s Committee on Discipline expelled me from MIT, pending one more infraction on my part. Since I have complied with all the terms, the expulsion never became effective and I graduated in 2009. In April 2008, part of this story became public.
CORRECTIONS
An article on the new backup child care program in the July 3, 2013 issue mistakenly indicated that the child care program was a “six-figure” program. The total cost of the program is less than $100K. Additionally, a previous version also did not specify that the 22 percent of graduate students citing child care as stressful and the 50 percent citing family obligations as stressful were percentages of those who responded to the specific survey questions.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Editor’s Note: The following letter provides background in response to a May 3 article on the Association of Student Activities’ “Governance Clause.” http://tech.mit.edu/V133/N23/asa.html.
Tilting at windmills
As Washington Post staff listened to the fantastical stories being woven by Edward Snowden, our leaker du jour, I can’t help but wonder why they didn’t greet his tales with a healthy dose of skepticism. Surely the memory of Bradley Manning, the private who cried wolf, couldn’t have been distant in their minds. For all the grand claims of U.S. malfeasance that Manning made, when his stolen database of secret diplomatic cables was finally out for all to see, there was very little that appeared out of the ordinary. Now the confused youth sits in a maximum security prison, discredited among all but a few small groups that still misguidedly regard him as a cause célèbre.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
There aren’t many people to look up to in the public eye nowadays, but Edward Snowden is one. The 29-year-old former analyst is responsible for leaking details of the NSA’s massive citizen surveillance programs, including PRISM, a secret program collecting masses of personal data from all channels of digital communication. Snowden did not wait to be discovered, but instead revealed himself in a thoughtful and inspiring video interview with The Guardian.
CORRECTIONS
An article in last Friday’s issue of The Tech on MIT’s highest compensated employees previously had an incorrect headline. Susan Hockfield was not the highest compensated individual at MIT in 2010. She was the highest compensated only for 2011, receiving $1,199,877. In 2010, Seth Alexander was the highest compensated, receiving $1,316,463 compared to Hockfield’s second-place $1,006,969.
Drunk off the firehose: A review of MIT
For the last four years, MIT has been my world. The Institute is a cruel and jealous master, demanding nothing less than complete devotion. It consumes you, and you become consumed by it.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Editor’s Note: The Tech received numerous letters from Bexley residents after last week’s announcement that Bexley would be closing for up to three years due to structural problems. Printed here is a representative subset of those letters.
A new community, a new experience
There has understandably been a great deal of anxiety on campus about how best to relocate the hundred or so displaced Bexley residents who will need to be housed in a different place come fall than everyone had been expecting. We would like to find a solution that is ‘fair,’ but of course there is no obvious fix that is fair to everyone. Relocating a number of students from a place they had settled themselves, into the midst of other people who had also already settled themselves, poses very real challenges.