CORRECTIONS
An article on Friday, Sept. 21 about faculty involvement with the MIT 2030 plan incorrectly stated that one of two new MIT building projects is an expansion of the Central Utilities Plant, replacing Building 41. That project is instead an Energy/Environment building at the corner of Mass. Ave. and Vassar St., adjacent to Building 41. Its infrastructure needs (along with other campus development) may lead to a future replacement of building 41 with an extension of the Central Utilities Plant.
The soccer intramural system needs serious reform
The MIT Athletics Department runs a year-round soccer intramural program where MIT clubs, societies, and dorms register teams to compete against each other in different tournaments. While this arrangement is, in theory, intended to bolster community ties and act as a sanctuary from the rigors of academic life at MIT, its blatant mismanagement means the benefits of intramurals remain largely unrealized.
CORRECTIONS
An infographic accompanying Tuesday’s article about the Advanced Standing Exams mislabeled the 8.02 bar with “8.01.”
The Benghazi boondoggle
It is the morning of September 11, 2012. Things seem to be looking up for President Obama — a slew of polls has come out showing that the President maintains a lead in a handful of swing states he will need to win come November. Today is the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, and to commemorate this solemn occasion President Obama is heading off to Las Vegas for a ritzy fundraiser. Of course with the good domestic news on his mind the President doesn’t attend his daily intelligence briefing — this will be the sixth straight day that he has not been personally briefed. That can, of course, come later. Osama Bin Laden is dead after all, what could possibly go wrong, especially on 9/11? Since his inauguration, the president has attended the Presidential Daily Brief approximately 44 percent of the time, even less in the last year and a half.
MIT should create an education degree
MIT has been leading the way in education longer than many of us might realize. TEAL, implemented about a decade ago, lowered the fail rate of 8.01 and 8.02, the freshman physics classes, by embracing a much more engaging style of learning. This is consistent with research that finds that, of all possible teaching styles, students retain the least when lectured to. More recently, MIT decided to take charge of the movement towards online education by creating MITx, which soon became EdX. Although MIT has focused on college-level education, much of what it’s done is still applicable to K-12 education.
The duties of moderate Muslims
Nakoula Basseley Nakoula or “Sam Bacile,” the man behind the blasphemous YouTube video that has set the Islamic world on fire, may be a twisted man but it is only naive to demand his arrest, and delusional to believe that it would be any sort of a fix to the real problem.
Letters to the Editor
Before I begin, I would like to join with The Tech, Austin Brinson, and Alec Lai in welcoming the residential life area directors (RLADs) to campus, and emphasize that my grievances and concerns are with the process and other actors, not with the people who have been hired for the RLAD position.
Demanding details
Last week, as Mitt Romney called a press conference to control the damage from the “47 percent” video, his campaign staff was worried for three reasons.
CORRECTIONS
A page 13 headline published last Friday misstated the size of MIT’s deferred maintenance backlog. It is $2.4 billion, not $4 billion.
Living up to MIT’s land grant commitment
150 years ago this summer, the U.S. Congress passed a bill introduced by Vermont representative Justin Morrill, which provided for “the endowment, support and maintenance of colleges of agriculture and mechanic arts.” Shortly thereafter, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Morrill Act into law, ushering in the development of one of our nation’s greatest achievements — the nation’s land-grant colleges and universities, the precursors to today’s public higher education system. From the great public institutions of the upper Midwest (think the Big 10 and Big 12) to the University of California system, the Morrill Act called on the states to provide colleges where the “industrial classes” (had Mr. Morrill introduced this bill today he would have likely written “middle class”) could pursue a “liberal and practical education” in the agricultural and mechanical arts. The intent is excerpted from the original Morrill Act:
CORRECTIONS
An article published Tuesday about Peer2Peer incorrectly listed Nightline’s hours as 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. — it is actually 8 p.m. to 8 a.m.
RLAD process not a failure
The process of implementing Residential Life Area Directors (RLADs or ADs) has been criticized by certain undergraduates, recently culminating in an editorial in The Tech on August 31, 2012. While we are glad to see The Tech encouraging a warm welcome for our ADs, we believe that many claims about the AD process are grossly exaggerated or even inaccurate. While not perfect, the process has been neither unacceptable nor “disturbing.” In fact, it has had considerable student involvement, and we urge students to continue to actively participate in shaping the AD into a successful new support role at MIT.
Obama opens a lead with seven weeks to go
As little as two weeks ago, polling put the ball game between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney as a tie. From Sept. 3 to Sept. 6, the RealClearPolitics average of polls put the race at an exact statistical dead heat.
The smartphone has made us dumb
Going to a restaurant with friends is supposed to be an enjoyable experience. But if it happens to be with smartphone-fanatic friends, then such a trip is not suitable for the weak-hearted. I had to learn this the hard way.
Jerusalem: Israel’s eternal capital
“Jerusalem is and will remain the capital of Israel. The parties have agreed that Jerusalem is a matter for final status negotiations. It should remain an undivided city accessible to people of all faiths.” This statement, taken from the 2008 Democratic Party platform, was removed from the Democrats’ 2012 platform last week, only to be reinstated by President Barack Obama after an onslaught of opposition. Fortunately, Obama made the right decision in reaffirming Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
Detroit: Obama’s economic blueprint for America
During his speech before the Democratic National Convention last week, Barack Obama offered a gem to rival his pledge from his 2008 campaign “moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and the planet began to heal.” In his words: “We reinvented a dying auto industry that’s back on top of the world.”
Debunking the middle class
Game theory suggests that in the final sum of things, democratic politics is mostly about wooing the median voter, i.e. the individual or demographic whose inclusion will bring your coalition to 50.1 percent of the vote. Thus it comes as no surprise that in America, where the median voter is a middle-class voter, election-year rhetoric tends to focus on fetishizing those of moderate income.