Five Years In: <br />The Hockfield Administration
During last week’s quarterly meeting of the Corporation, President Susan Hockfield was given a round of applause in special recognition of her first five years of service leading the MIT community. Now, on the cusp of 2010, we as a community can also look back to see where the President has succeeded and where she may need to change her approach in the future.
Things That Are Political and Paradoxical
Ever since Obama visited MIT a few weeks ago, I’ve been feeling more politically charged. Was it because the President of the United States came to MIT? No. Was it because he delivered an address about MIT’s devotion to clean energy? No. Was it because we had an auditorium full of political giants? No. Because MIT scrambled in less than a week to prepare the campus for a presidential visit? Nope. It wasn’t that either. So what was it?
Making Orientation Better … for Less!
The Orientation planning committee will soon be evaluating options for making Orientation cheaper as MIT contends with an Institute-wide budget crunch. Some measures have been suggested that have potential to significantly detract from the freshman Orientation experience — including cutting the length of Orientation in half. We instead propose a couple of simple tweaks to the existing schedule that will both save the Institute money and improve the Orientation experience for students and the campus community.
UA Update
Senate met on Monday, November 30 for their second special budgetary session during UAS 41. The Senate discussed the budget for the Spring 2010 semester, which is available at <i>http://ua.mit.edu/finances/</i>. On Monday, December 7, Senate will be voting on the proposed budget. Pending legislation will also be discussed and voted upon at this meeting, which is the last Senate meeting of the fall semester.
Going Beyond Traditional Political Restraints
Criticism of the capitalist state does not equal support for totalitarian socialism.
‘Hackers’ Reveal Corrupt Science At Climate Research Unit
Over the past few weeks anonymous “hackers” entered the computer systems of the Climate Research Unit of the University of East Anglia in the UK. This intrusion has been confirmed by the university and at least some of the data leaked to Wikileaks.org have been confirmed as authentic by officials at the CRU. Among the data were hundreds of e-mails and source code files which describe a shameful corruption of the scientific process.
Corrections
An article Tuesday about MIT’s Rhodes Scholarship winners incorrectly claimed that MIT broke its record for the most Rhodes Scholars in a given year. MIT did not break that record this year, but this year’s three winners did break the record for the most MIT Rhodes Scholars from the U.S. in a year.
An Idea for Afghanistan: The Ownership Society Principle
How do you turn a rebellious liberal into a risk-averse conservative?
Letters to the Editor
As I am sure you are aware, the University of East Anglia’s computer system was hacked and many e-mails by prominent weather researchers have been published. Some of these are extremely disturbing. They appear to document collusion among leaders in the field to alter and then withhold raw data and to stonewall Freedom of Information requests regarding analytical methods. Anecdotal reports of moving weather stations to lower altitudes in California and Japan are also emerging. Most disturbing, these e-mails appear to document a concerted effort to undermine the peer review process.
Dining Reform Set to Repeat History
Dining at MIT has a long and contentious history of student distaste and quarrels with administrators. In lieu of these past protests, what’s surprising now is just how little discussion is occurring over current proposals.
Copenhagen Needs Obama
On December 7, world leaders will descend on Copenhagen for the United Nations Climate Change Conference to determine the future of planet Earth. Or at least they should. So far only 65 national leaders have actually committed to attending the talks. Notable absentees include president Hu Jintao of China and Barack Obama. These politicians, by waiting until the last moment to commit to attending the conference, hope to be portrayed in the media as the saviors of the planet, as the deal clinchers for a sustainable future. Unfortunately, they will be disappointed. Not only will the world not be saved in Copenhagen, because there will not be a treaty to sign, but also there is only one man who can truly salvage the process and play the hero: Barack Obama.
Questioning Capitalism
Why does anyone still question capitalism as the basic engine for economic growth? From what used to be the Soviet Union to China, capitalism has gained recognition as the best way to achieve broad-based economic success. However, individuals like Alexi Goranov, who wrote an article for the November 20 issue of <i>The Tech</i> (“Capitalism and Functioning Democracy Are At Odds”), believe that capitalism is inherently flawed. This is ignorance.
Corrections
An opinion piece last Friday by Alexi Goranov titled “Capitalism and Functioning Democracy Are at Odds” incorrectly stated “A study by IMS Health estimated that the new healthcare bill will bring the drug industry an increase in sales by $137 billion over the next four years.” In a letter to <i>The Tech</i>, Gary J. Gatyas, Jr., a communications director at IMS Health, wrote that the $137 billion increase from the April to the October 2009 forecasts is not all attributable to current healthcare reforms. Goranov cited a November 12, 2009 piece from “Democracy Now!” that, according to IMS Health, misinterpreted the organization’s report. According to Gatyas, “The direct impact of current U.S. healthcare reform measures embedded in the IMS forecast is less than one percent of projected total industry sales through 2013.”
Electronic Communication And Life Histories
Do you think that social networking tools like Facebook and MySpace are eliminating the need for real social interaction? I was doing an Internet survey the other day that was about interactions with close friends — something along the lines of, “list your top five friends, and then list the last way you communicated with them.” For me, few of my closest friends live in the same city as me, so my answers largely involved some form of electronic communication — e-mail, instant messaging, text messaging and others.
Capitalism and Functioning Democracy Are at Odds
The fundamental debate is whether the right to increases in capital and property supersedes the right to equality, i.e. the right to equal access to labor and life. If the two rights are considered absolute they cannot coexist; one destroys the other (per “What is Property” by French anarchist Joseph-Pierre Proudhon).
Corrections
The solution for the sudoku in Tuesday’s issue was incorrect. The correct solution is printed here, to the right.
Are You There Chris? It’s Us, Students.
In August 2008 the newly-appointed Dean for Student Life Chris Colombo told <i>The Tech</i> that “there is a process where the conversation goes both ways” in regards to student life policy. However, this vital communication pipeline has been ineffectual or broken down in a number of areas since Dean Colombo took office last year.
Letters to the Editor
Lobby 7 is already a beautiful architectural space, to which the apparently empty plinths (waiting for the viewer’s imagination, or the viewer’s person, to fill them in) contribute greatly. Putting in statues, even classical ones in keeping with the Roman feeling of the lobby, would detract from the effect; worse yet would be inserting artwork so trendily contemporary as to turn one of the main entrances to the Institute into a permanent display of one decade’s taste.
UA Update
Senate met on Monday, November 16. Additions to Summer/Fall 2009 Finance Board Appeals were passed, and 41 U.A.S. 6.3: Fresh Fund Allocations allocated money from the Fresh Fund to many newly-recognized student groups. The 2013, 2012, and 2011 Class Council budgets were also approved by Senate. 41 U.A.S. 6.4: Re-Charging the Enrollment Committee, a bill to re-charge the UA Committee on Enrollment in light of the likely increase in enrollment, was passed. Two bills regarding the procedure to nominate a student to a position on an Institute Committee, 41 U.A.S. 6.1: Applicability of Nominations Committee Process and 41 U.A.S. 6.2: Nomination Process for Ex Officio Members of Institute Committees, were presented, but both will be voted on at later meetings. Finally, summaries of the past three years of Senate prepared by the UA History Committee were approved.
MIT’s Obligation to the Hyatt’s Workers
Recently, I was jogging near my dorm when I passed a group of people holding bunches of red helium balloons that read, “Boycott Hyatt.” Curious, I approached a protester and asked him why he wanted to boycott the Hyatt Regency Cambridge, a hotel next to Tang Hall patronized by MIT visitors, parents, and scientific meetings.