UA Update
The first Undergraduate Association Executive Meeting for the 2009–2010 academic year was held on Wednesday, September 9. Key issues that the UA will be tackling this fall were outlined. These issues included the Institute-wide Planning Task Force recommendations; communication with students, faculty, administrators, and alumni; and possible dining changes. The Institute-wide Planning Task Force’s preliminary report can be found at <i>http://ideabank.mit.edu</i>, and the UA welcomes your feedback (e-mail <i>ua@mit.edu</i>). Full minutes are available at <i>http://ua.mit.edu/exec</i>.
Daily Confusion: The Central Issues
The striking thing about the letters to the editor regarding vulgar items published by <i>The Tech</i> in the Daily Confusion (Aug. 31) is that nearly all evince fundamental misunderstandings of, variously, newspapers, editorial content, advertising content, editorial discretion, censorship, free speech, and harassment. <i>The Tech</i> should not have published the vulgar items because as the Editors’ Note (Sept. 11) declares, they violated <i>The Tech</i>’s internal standards for appropriate content. But <i>The Tech</i>’s policies are the only legitimate issue here. Much of what the letters raise, on both sides of the debate, is mistaken and obfuscatory.
Money Spent on Rush Is Reasonable
This column is in response to Mr. Normandin’s piece on September 11, 2009 on the need for reform of fraternity rush. I will begin by asserting exactly what our Greek community provides here, not only at MIT but across the country. I will also clear up some errors that were made in points Normandin raised related to fraternity expenditures and then provide a better context such that it can be understood why rush is how it is and what is done to control it. While Normandin is certainly entitled to his own opinion on fraternities, in addressing these points I will refute his strong indictment of fraternity life in general.
Letters to the Editor
MIT has a stated commitment to the dissemination of knowledge. The Institute has pioneered the adoption of OpenCourseWare and the faculty has adopted a policy that all journal articles are open access by default. The MIT community is known for being hyper-integrated electronically, and with the increasing capabilities of Stellar and other online platforms, it is becoming ever more so.
The Dark Side of Rush
Orientation is finally over. It’s the end of the mandatory events that about 50 percent of freshmen don’t go to and the end of the leftover free food that is left sitting near Kresge for days afterwards. But the end of Orientation does not mean the end of free food. For with the end of the first week comes the beginning of the second, known as rush. During this frenetic time, the 26 fraternities battle it out to recruit as many freshmen as possible.
Editors’ Note
<i>The Tech</i> regrets printing certain inappropriate and vulgar Daily Confusion entries. <i>The Tech</i>’s readers expect inclusive and responsible content in <i>The Tech</i>’s pages.
From the Desk of the Graduate Student Council
As the economy continues in an uneasy state, a global reduction in resources is being realized. In that context, our financial challenge is material and pressing. From student stipends, to transportation, to funding student groups and running the orientation, the work of the Graduate Student Council (GSC) impacts every graduate student and the current team is aware of its importance. We have great confidence that the Graduate Student Council will be able to chart a financially prudent path to better graduate student life and to maintain core activities and services provided to students.
Corrections
Because of erroneous data provided by the Interfraternity Council, the fraternity rush Daily Confusion published in Friday’s <i>Tech</i> contained numerous inaccuracies. The corrected version distributed at the Greek Griller on Sunday is available online at <i>http://tech.mit.edu/V129/N33/fraternityDCnew.html</i>.
Letters to the Editor
We are writing to express our deep concern about the offensive materials that appeared in The Tech during REX in the orientation schedule you published. The right of free speech makes such publication legal, but having the right to publish something does not mean that it is responsible to do so. This is particularly the case when the material offends large segments of our community.
For Healthcare, Rights Are Right
In a September 1 column (“For Healthcare, Right is Wrong”) in <i>The Tech</i>, Joe Maurer argues that healthcare, prescription drugs, and emergency room treatment are not constitutionally-protected and inalienable rights, but goods and services to be earned through the acquisition of wealth. Maurer argues that healthcare is akin to property — an essential to life that is universally accessible in that those with sufficient wealth can always have it, but not universally provided for. Maurer also makes an economic argument — nonessential services like education and public safety economically benefit the country as a whole and thus are provided for in part or wholly by the government. “The purpose of any government subsidy or support,” writes Maurer, “is to encourage more of a desirable thing. No one with a medical ailment needs encouragement from a government to remedy their problem.”
The Vices and Virtue of Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs has been recently labeled as a “giant vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity” by <i>Rolling Stone</i> writer Matt Taibbi. All of a sudden, Goldman Sachs has become the pinnacle of greed and corruption in the eye of the public.
Human Relations for Math and Science Nerds
Welcome to MIT! You’ve spent long hours with Isaac Asimov books and hardcover editions of the Feynmann lectures, worked extra hard on that SAT Writing section, and now you’ve finally arrived at the premiere science and engineering institution in all of the known universe. Congratulations!
Letters to the Editor
As a communications professional, I understand that one of the goals of communication is to get the audience’s attention. Perhaps East Campus had this goal in submitting descriptions for their events during REX in the 8/28 issue. Well, they certainly got my attention. I was both disgusted and insulted by the language and perverse, misogynistic content. I believe that the content constitutes sexual harassment. Let me quote to you from MIT’s community standards:
For Healthcare, Right Is Wrong
Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are the basic, fundamental, and inalienable rights defined by the United States Declaration of Independence and safeguarded by the government. Take a minute to note that healthcare, emergency room treatment, and prescription medicines are notably absent from that list. So are a few other essentials for life: food and shelter.
Corrections
The caption supplied with an Aug. 28, 2009 photograph of Senator Edward M. Kennedy should have read “The late Senator Edward M. Kennedy is seen rallying the crowd at a Barack Obama campaign stop at the World Trade Center in Boston during the 2008 Democratic Primary fight on February 4, 2008.” and should have been credited to Tech photographer David M. Templeton ’08. A late-night photo switch without an accompanying caption switch caused the error.
Welcome to Boston
Congratulations freshmen! You have now officially become the envy of soon-to-be graduates. Why? You have that one thing that everyone seems to be running out of: time. I’m sure you just had a whole summer full of advice on all the potential you are about to unleash, so I’ll spare you the platitudes. Instead, I wanted to share with you the story of an epidemic that inflicts the thousands of college students that descend upon the greater Boston area each fall. I call it “student-bubble-ism” (SBI).
The Twitter Generation
Our generation has never really lived without the internet. Online fads come and go (remember MySpace?), but in recent years the Internet has seen an explosion of dynamic services. In fact, there seems to be so many means of connecting to people virtually that it has become overwhelming. The other day, I wanted to send a blog post to a friend. Below the entry were a slew of colorful icons, each representing a different means of communication: Facebook. Tumblr. Gmail. Delicious (I will not even ask about this one). Digg. Twitter. Wait — Twitter?
Letters to the Editor
Jeffry Picower is emerging as the #2 man in the Madoff scandal. The suit filed by a Madoff trustee against Picower says the huge phony gains and huge fraudulent tax loss statements delivered to Picower at his request were nothing more than payoffs for “perpetuating the Ponzi scheme.” Picower ended up with more cash from Madoff Ponzi in his pocket than anyone (blackmail?): $5.1 billion cash, not phony paper gains, but cash. The roughly 1 percent of that $5.1 billion that MIT accepted from Picower for the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory is clearly tainted.
Color (or the Lack of It) at Comic-Con…And Beyond
If I had to sum up the idea behind the huge pop culture Comic-Con convention of this past July in one word, it would be “diversity.” At least, this was certainly the undoubtedly noble goal that the comics world and its followers, from fans to experts, claimed to embrace.
Welcome to Pre-Post-Racial America
The President of the United States does not typically publicly berate a local police department during a nationally-televised press conference. But at the end of his health care speech on July 22, Barack Obama went there.