An action plan for the UA
How exactly can students make a difference on campus? Is there anything that students who care about MIT can do to influence Institute policy? There are concrete things the new Undergraduate Association leadership can — and should — do to enhance the student experience.
Educate Tami
In 2010, back in my home, New York, I worked with a local grassroots organization to advocate for legalizing same-sex marriage. My organization and I went up to Albany to speak with legislators personally, worked to rally protestors in the suburban and conservative towns of New York, and took every opportunity we had to educate strangers about what the legalization of marriage of a man with a man, and a woman with a woman, meant.
UA-GSC joint vision for the MIT community
For too long have we viewed the MIT community as being artificially demarcated by the labels of “undergraduate” or “graduate.” Instead of dividing issues between our constituencies in the year to come, we propose an approach that leverages a shared set of priorities to solve our common problems. Today we present a vision which bridges the artificial boundaries of undergraduate, graduate, post-doc, faculty, and staff. This is the vision of a single community driving MIT forward, and not the monolith of MIT servicing disparate communities.
Science and religion are complements
Asking whether or not religion conflicts with science is too broad a question. Of course there are certain religions that conflict with science; Christian fundamentalism, with its claims of God creating the world in six days and the human race springing from a woman tempted by a talking snake, obviously conflicts with well-established science. Yet there are many other religions which do not conflict with science. As a Catholic, I have not once encountered a belief held by the Church that contradicts anything that I have learned during my time in high school or time here as a physics major at MIT.
On reconciling science and religion
The Tech’s religion survey covered a range of questions about the religious views of MIT students; everything from “How religious are you?” to “How religious is MIT?” and “Is religion difficult to reconcile with science?” Good questions all, but it is the last that is the most interesting.
Spiking the football
Recently President Obama has come under fire from both the left and the right for politicizing the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden, including a major campaign advertisement a speech from Afghanistan timed to the anniversary of the raid, and a campaign press-blitz intended to cement the decision as a ‘gutsy call.’ In the words of the campaign ad: “suppose the [SEALs] had been … killed, the downside would have been horrible for him.” Yes indeed, when American servicemen are killed, the political fallout is just awful.
On top and in control
Despite the predictions of a diminished Putin and a shaky Russia in the near future, Putin seems to be fine and to be defying those very predictions. He has certainly demonstrated that he can maintain himself at the top of a gigantic country through turbulent times and difficulties, and has proved to be a master engineer of his own destiny. He is now ready to start on the final phase of his craftily concocted comeback — or perhaps not so final should he decide to run again in 2018, which is very possible, even likely.
MIT has robust support services
In the May 1, 2012 issue of The Tech, Barun Singh provides an opinion piece in which he strongly criticizes the administration and the Corporation of the Institute for what he perceives as a series of failures and mismanagement. I am concerned that students reading the op-ed will get the harmful impression that support is lacking at MIT, precisely when we are making a concerted effort to increase awareness of the broad network of support available to students. Moreover, as MIT enters finals period, it would be a tragedy if this misperception prevented anyone from seeking help during these stressful weeks, so I want to correct any misimpressions: if you are feeling overwhelmed or isolated, MIT has resources throughout the community for you.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
My wife tells me from time to time that I am something of a curmudgeon; she may be right. I do not think that has always been true, but of late I do find myself with less patience than I once had. I was reminded of the deficit when reading Barun Singh’s article in Tuesday’s The Tech. In his time at MIT, Barun has generally been a class act so it was with a bit of sadness that I note he has been infected with curmudgeonitis. When this malady shows itself in one so youthful, I recommend immediate therapy.
Famous and fearless
I do not believe that Putin — and even the Kremlin before him, and after him (under Medvedev) — is scared in the least, even by the rarely seen large-scale protests of recent months.
The short list
As the fierce battles of the presidential primaries fade into history, the attentions of politicos turn to three questions: Who will win the 2012 presidential race? What electoral strategies will be employed? And who will Mitt Romney pick for his running mate?
11 hours: ducking responsibility and leading from behind
The United States has a spending problem. Like an immature teenager with a brand new credit card, it keeps purchasing and purchasing with no regard as to how the purchases will ultimately be paid for.
Freedom: alive and well
The objectivity of pro-Western (for lack of a better denominative) reports on the recent street and Internet activism in Russia must be questioned in a number of areas.
The view from the virtual classroom
MITx and its spawn, edX, are much in the news, but do they merit the hype? Let me give you the view from the cheap seats.
edX is freeing education
This Wednesday, MIT President Susan Hockfield and Harvard President Drew Faust announced the edX platform for online education. I have been taking the pilot edX course 6.002x this semester, but it wasn’t until I saw these two women speak that I realized just how big this initiative could be. 6.002x is already an incredible technological achievement that accurately replicates an introductory Course VI class on the Internet. After the announcement this Wednesday, this revolutionary online experience of MIT classes made the leap to become a multi-institutional platform that could transform the delivery of education worldwide.
Fixing MIT’s failures in governance
I am deeply concerned by the management and governance of MIT. We need to reform how MIT makes decisions and how the Corporation oversees the President.
An unloved intellectual
Should a majority of the Russian middle class truly venerate such values and the deeply-rooted intellectual ideals that Western observers tend to attribute to them, one may also wonder why there seems to have been so little display of respect and remembrance for the late wife of Mikhail Gorbachev, Raisa Gorbachova, the highly active and first university-educated First Lady of Russia. She revolutionized (if only briefly) her position in the Russian system of governance, with her involvement in children and women’s issues and cancer programs, among others.