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.
A silver bullet for dorm overcrowding
This coming fall, due to the closure of Bexley Hall, on-campus housing will be particularly tight. Dormitories have already been told that they will likely be subject to overcrowding, with doubles turned into triples and quads.
CORRECTIONS
A caption in the May 7, 2013 issue misidentified the subject. The caption should read “Salih J. Wakil describes his path in biological research in his Lifetime Achievement acceptance speech at the 2013 MIT Arab Students Organization Science and Technology Achievement Awards banquet.”
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Since about the sixth grade, when I first attended ESP Splash (Sorry about that bit of deception, it was smaller and less strict then), I have been spending time intermittently with MIT students. I took just about everything that ESP had to offer: Splash and Spark and Junction and Delve and HSSP. I liked MIT, and I spent more time there. My first date in high school was an LSC showing of Transformers. I got a four year MITSFS membership when I was a freshman. I went to the Model United Nations you were kind enough to host superbly well. I have spent time with professors, students, and even a few applicants. I have been attending events and hanging out at MIT for over six years now.
Dear Non-Bexlians and Non-Bexlietes
You are lucky to have been spared from the time living in Bexley.
CORRECTIONS
A photo in Friday’s issue of Berklee’s production of Hair was incorrectly credited. The photo was taken by Josh Glass.
DormCon is critical to dorm culture
Disclaimer: Although I am a former member of DormCon, I do not speak for the organization and I have not consulted it before writing this piece.
CORRECTIONS
An article in Tuesday’s issue on Maseeh seceding from DormCon mistakenly indicated that Maseeh pays $2310 in DormCon taxes per year — the figure is actually per semester, summing to $4620 per year assuming the 462-resident capacity.
Homophobia at home and abroad
On April 23, France legalized gay marriage. The measure passed 331-224 in the Socialist Party majority Assembly. However, the bill came at the price of the signers’ safety. The day before the vote, Claude Bartolone, the head of France’s National Assembly, received an envelope sealed with gunpowder and a death-threat letter, signed by the right-wing group of France, Interaction des forces de l’ordre.
Utilizing online learning on campus
MITx is touted as a revolutionary opportunity for thousands of students across the globe. But MIT is also committed to using MITx to transform the nature of education on its own campus. In order to do so, MIT — and all other institutions embracing digital learning — must answer the question of how best to structure their online learning platform. If online resources are to have the effect that advocates promise, it is essential that the online learning platform that is tailored to the needs and learning styles of the student body.
Better communication needed
The implementation of the new House Dining Program in Fall 2011 was one of the most controversial changes to undergraduate student life in recent MIT history.
CORRECTIONS
The caption to a photo of MIT Police Officer Sean Collier in last Friday’s issue gave an incorrect age. He was 27, not 26.
Recovering as a community
Last week was a truly trying one for the MIT community, from the Boston Marathon bombing on Monday to the death of our own Officer Sean Collier on campus Thursday night. In the ensuing near-24-hour manhunt for the suspects, MIT campus and Boston went on lockdown as we waited anxiously for their capture.