Ten Percent Admitted to Class of 2013
In the wake of a 17 percent increase in applications, MIT’s admit rate plummeted to a record low 10 percent this year. Only 1,597 students out of 15,661 applicants were admitted to the class of 2013. Forty-eight percent are women and nearly a quarter are underrepresented minorities in an admitted class that spans all fifty states and sixty foreign countries.
Men’s Basketball Cements Legacy with Historic Run
Four years ago, MIT basketball players planned to make history. This year, they made it.
Bringing a Bit of MIT to Space
Space, at first glance, was “hard to look at,” said Greg E. Chamitoff PhD ’92. Exciting as it may have been to travel out of this world and fulfill a childhood dream to become an astronaut, “when you first get up there you are not feeling good so it is hard to look at it at first,” he said. <br/><a href='http://tech.mit.edu/V129/N12/chamitoff/interview.html'>Video Interview with Astronaut Greg E. Chamitoff » </a>
Video Interview with Astronaut Greg E. Chamitoff
Video Interview with Astronaut Greg E. Chamitoff
MIT Libraries Lays Off Staff, Plans to Close Two Branches
Facing Institute-mandated budget cuts, the MIT Libraries are planning to close two branch libraries, Lindgren Library, which serves the Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Department, and the Aeronautics and Astronautics Library. Some staff have received advance notice of layoffs or hour reductions that will take effect at the end of the fiscal year.
Students Form New Dining Comm.
The Undergraduate Association Senate passed legislation on Monday night creating a new UA Dining Proposal Committee charged with recommending “a comprehensive program that meets the needs of the MIT community,” according to the bill. The new committee will consist entirely of students and will develop a dining proposal at the same time the Blue Ribbon Committee on Dining, charged by the MIT administration with re-envisioning dining at MIT, aims to develop its own.
Tang Trial Scheduled for October
Anna L. Tang, the former Wellesley student accused of stabbing Wolfe B. Styke ’10, is tentatively scheduled to face a jury trial on October 13, 2009. In October of 2007, Tang allegedly stabbed Styke -- her ex-boyfriend -- seven times in his neck and torso as he slept.
Amherst Alley Steam Leak to Be Repaired This Summer
A steam leak under Amherst Alley between Burton-Conner and the tennis bubble will be repaired this summer, but until then, steel plates will remain in the road covering the site of the leak.
Investors See Glimmer of Hope, Send Shares Higher
A few clues that the U.S. economy’s downward spiral might be slowing galvanized Wall Street on Thursday and sent the stock market soaring for the second time this week.
U.S. Tries to Ease Tensions in Pakistan
In an effort to defuse the Pakistani political crisis, the U.S. ambassador, Anne W. Patterson, traveled to see the opposition leader Nawaz Sharif on Thursday morning and urged him to reconcile with Pakistan’s president, Sharif said.
In Powerhouse India, Child Hunger Abounds
Small, sick, listless children have long been India’s scourge — “a national shame,” in the words of its prime minister, Manmohan Singh.
In Interview, Gop Chairman Strays From Party on Abortion
This was supposed to be the week that Michael Steele, the beleaguered new national Republican Party chairman, got his groove on, as he might put it: From filling vacancies left by the mass-firing he conducted upon taking office to issuing 100-day plans on how to make the Republican Party competitive on everything from fundraising to the Internet.
Shorts (left)
Tariq Aziz, the senior aide to Saddam Hussein who gained international renown as the public face of Iraq during the Persian Gulf War in 1991, was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Wednesday for crimes against humanity.
Shorts (right)
The letter released Thursday in which Pope Benedict XVI admitted that the Vatican had made “mistakes” in handling the case of a Holocaust-denying bishop was unprecedented in its directness, its humanity and its acknowledgment of papal fallibility.
Obama’s Afghan Plan Focuses On Pakistan Aid to Militants
The emerging outlines of President Barack Obama’s plan for Afghanistan include proposals to shift more U.S. efforts toward problems in neighboring Pakistan and to seek some kind of political reconciliation with the vast majority of insurgents in the region, according to administration officials.
Rite of Spring
While our weather in New England can be cruel at times, Mother Nature’s most impressive display of sound and fury is reserved for the Midwest during the spring months. This time of year, the jet stream begins its slow drift northward, sending storms through the Rockies into the nation’s heartland. Particularly strong storms are able to tap in to plentiful amounts of warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico, sending a torrent of energy laden air out ahead of the storm.
The Death and Life of Great American Newspapers
The <i>Rocky Mountain News</i> closed down on Feb. 27th, 2008, just 55 days short of its 150th anniversary. Having lost $16 million dollars last year and unable to find a buyer, the <i>News</i>’s owner decided to shut it down instead of letting it limp on with mounting losses.
Toward a Better Dining System
As many of you are surely aware, the future of MIT’s dining system has become a subject of great controversy on campus, especially for undergraduates. In this letter, we hope to inform you of what the Undergraduate Association has been doing to ensure that student input is properly considered before decisions are made.
Bennie and Delano: the Safe Bet
The Undergraduate Association stands at a crossroads. This year, the organization has struggled with its own identity and concerns about its effectiveness amidst a seeming leadership vacuum in the Presidency. What successes the organization has seen are a credit to the work of Mike Bennie ’10 and Maggie Delano ’10. Their demonstrated dedication, strong relationships with active student leaders, and unequalled insight into improving the organization, make them the most likely to lead the UA into stable footing.
Corrections
An article in Tuesday’s issue about Sunday’s Undergraduate Association presidential debate misattributed some quotes from Raeez Lorgat ’12 and Benjamin J. Agre ’12. Agre, not Lorgat, said “People should not be forced to eat.” Lorgat, not Agre, said “We believe we have more time and more energy.”
Letters to the Editor
This year, the MIT men’s basketball team won the NEWMAC tournament championship and advanced to the NCAA Division III Tournament for the first time in MIT history. Hundreds of MIT students, faculty, staff, and alumni traveled to Worcester and Rhode Island to support the team, including President Hockfield. But last Friday’s <i>Tech</i> barely mentioned the team in a tiny, one inch news blurb below the fold of the front page, and Tuesday’s <i>Tech</i> had a small headline referring to the sports page. The MIT basketball team was featured in the <i>New York Times</i>, the <i>Denver Post</i>, the <i>Boston Herald</i>, ESPN.com’s <i>Page 2</i>, ESPN’s <i>SportsCenter</i>, NECN, and other news outlets, but our own <i>Tech</i> couldn’t give them a front page article with a picture? <i>The Tech</i> fundamentally misunderstood the achievement of the MIT basketball program as being separate from student life, public relations, admissions, and other topics it regularly reports on. The publicity surrounding the team by national and local news media has incalculable benefits for the school in terms of strengthening alumni relations and attracting top-notch students. Perhaps <i>The Tech</i> needs to reassess how it views the achievements of its student-athletes. Then again, maybe I’m overlooking the importance of how nothing’s changed with the Sophomore Standing numbers.
CONCERT REVIEW Video Game Orchestra
Video game music is familiar. It’s even more familiar when a dark screen flashes the large bulky letters at the same time, or when it’s associated with its mascot, Sonic the Hedgehog. But instead of sitting in front of a television watching an pixelated blue hedgehog in snazzy red sneakers run into gold rings, I’m sitting in a dark concert hall watching a 40-piece orchestra, a rock band, and a chamber choir perform music from not only <i>Sonic the Hedgehog</i>, but also <i>Donkey Kong</i>, <i>Silent Hill</i>, <i>Myst</i>, <i>Metal Gear Solid</i>, and <i>Final Fantasy</i>, just to name a few.
MOVIE REVIEW ★★ ½ / 4 Watchmen Simplifies, Distorts Original Novel
There is a scene in <i>Watchmen</i>, directed by Zack Snyder (<i>Dawn of the Dead</i>, <i>300</i>), when Laurie Jupiter, the crime-fighting heroine of the story, pounds against an ornate glass structure in anguish at a horrific revelation, screaming “No!” with each impact. I too exclaimed “No!” in my mind while putting my face into my palms several times during the course of the 2 hour, 43 minute film.
CONCERT REVIEW Punk Rock and Folk, All Rolled into One
Girl power incarnate Eleni Mandell is currently on tour promoting her latest record, <i>Artificial Fire</i>. Stopping in Cambridge last Sunday, Mandell and her band provided an energetic performance and stayed true to the intricacies of their studio recordings.
CONCERT REVIEW Phamily Reunion
The four and a half years of waiting are over: Phish is back. Better yet, they sound good; I mean <i>really</i> good. Phish’s farewell tour in 2004 exposed a band at its absolute worst. As drummer Jon Fishman (whose surname inspired the group moniker) later admitted, their final concert in Coventry, Vermont was one of the “greatest train wrecks in live music history.” Pianist Page McConnell wrote a letter to fans last summer hinting at a reunion, and last October Phish uploaded a video to their website making a reunion official with a run of three shows at Hampton Coliseum in Virginia, a prized venue of the band.
Sports Shorts
A seventh-place finish by Robin S. Shin ’12 at Sunday’s NCAA Northeast Regional earned her a spot at the NCAA Fencing National Championship to be held at Pennsylvania State University from March 19-22. She will be the first sabre competitor to make the trip since Caroline Purcell ’02 and Jennifer A. Mckeehan ’02 represented the Engineers in 2002. The qualification also continues a family tradition of national appearances, as older sister Stephanie S. Shim ’10 finished 20th in epee last season while their father Robert Shim ’77 received a spot in the sabre field.
MIT Sport Taekwondo Captures First at West Point Tournament
It has been four months since the last Ivy Northeast Collegiate Taekwondo League tournament (now called the Eastern Collegiate Taekwondo Conference, or ECTC), but the MIT Sport Taekwondo team seized the training period as an opportunity to train hard and forcefully capture first place at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point on Saturday, Feb. 28. The team, coached by head instructor Dan Chuang and led by captains Corinna Hui ’09 and Christopher J. Han ’09, showed outstanding spirit and talent on all levels: from forms to sparring, passionate beginners to experienced veterans. At the end of the day, MIT captured first place out of 22 schools, inching out rival Cornell University by a narrow, but decisive, margin of twelve points.
The Tech’s Athlete of the Week: Joseph B. Silverman ’10
This past weekend, MIT junior Joseph B. Silverman placed seventh in the 197-pound weight class in the Division III National Wrestling Tournament, held at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. His stellar performance in the tournament earned him All-American status, and Joe is the second MIT wrestler to earn this distinction in the last two years. Glenn J. Geesman ’09 also qualified for and competed in the national tournament.
