Leaked Dining Report Suggests Massive Dining Reforms, Mandatory Meal Plans
Mandatory meal plans, all-you-can-eat (AYCE) dining halls, and longer service hours have been proposed by a consulting firm tasked with suggesting a future dining strategy for MIT. The proposal also recommends expanding dining hall service to include breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Dining Report Was Kept Under Wraps; UA To Discuss
Undergraduate Association President Noah S. Jessop ’09 announced on Wednesday night an emergency meeting of the UA Senate to discuss “concerns brought forth about the Blue Ribbon [dining] committee.” According to Jessop, members of the UA Senate and Executive Board were concerned about a lack of transparency after a student saw a copy of the independent consultant’s report to the committee on the desk of an administrator before most members of the Blue Ribbon Dining Committee were notified about the report’s completion. The students expected that the report would go directly to the committee. As UA president, Jessop is a member of the Blue Ribbon committee.
Clay, Reif, Stone Form Planning Task Force; 150-Member 3-Level Hierarchy Will Help
How is MIT reacting to the current economic situation? In a letter released to the MIT community on Monday, the MIT administration unveiled details of a new task force charged to reevaluate and recommend changes in MIT operations to improve financial efficiency.
Ben Folds to Perform for Spring Weekend
Twenty students in conjunction with the Student Activities Office have selected Ben Folds to headline this year’s Spring Weekend concert on Saturday, Apr. 25. Leading up to the main event will be a new festival and a series of events coordinated by student groups.
Mandatory Dining is Gone for Ashdown Undergraduates
MIT has quietly discontinued a novel mandatory dining fee program in which approximately 50 undergraduates living in a dormitory were required to pay $600 this fall and in return got free dinner five nights a week.
Hard Times in Workplace Mean More Grad Apps
As jobs get scarcer, several graduate departments at MIT are experiencing a jump in applications for the 2009 school year. Departments anticipate a drop in acceptance and enrollment, partially due to increased financial caution in the current recession.
Madoff Collapse Wipes Out $2M Grant from Picower Foundation
In 2002, the Barbara and Jeffry Picower Foundation gave MIT $50 million to build building 46 and establish what’s now the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT. At the time, the Picower Foundation had $1 billion in assets.
Obama’s Second Choice to Run Commerce Withdraws
Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire abruptly withdrew Thursday as the nominee to be commerce secretary, saying he had “irresolvable conflicts” with President Barack Obama over his economic stimulus plan and a concern over what many fellow Republicans believe is the politicization of the 2010 census.
Willem Kolff, Inventor of Kidney And Heart Machines, Dies at 97
Dr. Willem J. Kolff, a resourceful Dutch physician who invented the first artificial kidney in a rural hospital during World War II, using sausage casings and even orange juice cans, and went on to build the first artificial heart, died Wednesday at his home in Newtown Square, Pa. Kolff, whose work has been credited with saving millions of lives, was 97.
Charting Bird Migrations by Using Tiny Backpacks
Birds are famous for airborne speed and endurance. Some have been clocked flying 60 mph or more. Others make annual migrations from Alaska to New Zealand, nonstop.
Shorts (right)
Gov. John Lynch of New Hampshire on Thursday proposed closing a quarter of the state’s district courts as part of a plan to deal with a $500 million two-year budget gap.
Shorts (left)
A spate of attacks on Thursday, including the assassination of a Sunni Arab political leader in the violent northern city of Mosul, killed at least 13 Iraqis and left 39 wounded, security officials said.
New Research Focuses on Cure for Common Cold
Curing the common cold, one of medicine’s most elusive goals, may now be in the realm of the possible.
Pakistan Backtracks On Mumbai Terrorist Attacks
Pakistan acknowledged for the first time on Thursday that parts of the Mumbai terrorist attacks were planned on its soil and said that six suspects were being held and awaiting prosecution.
Return to Winter
After not cracking 40°F (4°C) for the entire month of January, February in contrast has brought us a taste of spring so far. Maximum temperatures during the past two days have been in the 50s°F, but don’t expect that to last. A cold front moved through the area yesterday morning, ushering in more seasonable conditions. Where we had only a few showers with the frontal passage, parts of the South experienced severe weather and early-season tornadoes that killed several people.
Who Won the Civil War?
As we celebrate the 200th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the inauguration of America’s first black president, and Black History Month, it’s worth pondering the question, “Who won the Civil War?”
Trials and Tribulations in the First Twenty Days
Storm clouds have begun to gather since the bright, sunny day we welcomed Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States. Faced with a seemingly intractable economic crisis and a Senate mired in the same kind of partisan squabbling that we all know and hate, there were few who truly expected the administration to fix the country in the first few weeks. I did not expect Barack Obama to resolve the crisis single-handedly. But, like many Americans, I expected more from the people the President picked to run his administration.
Unreasonable Expectations
I have to say, I was seriously irked last week by the public reaction to the “shocking” announcement that swimming sensation Michael Phelps had taken a hit from a bong. How scandalous! In the summer of 2008, during the Beijing Olympics, Phelps was, to put it crudely, “the shiz.” How quickly the tables can turn.
Idealist or Realist?
Obama’s muddled thinking on foreign policy will walk him into the same pitfalls as his predecessor
CONCERT REVIEW ‘Where the Word Ends’
It’s hard to be a living legend. It’s hard enough having one brilliant idea. It’s even harder moving past it. To be an over-the-hill performer without just regurgitating the epiphanies of one’s early years is certainly something.
CONCERT REVIEW A Renaissance Fervor
Johannes Ockeghem was writing in the fifteenth century, a time whose musical traditions may already have been lost to the ages. Ockeghem’s music, still a matter of active research and lively debate in terms of its performance and practice, was written in a time that preferred vacuous perfect intervals to plump triads at the close of cadences, when tritones were still considered <i>diabuli in musica</i>, when audiences were still intimately familiar with the melodies of Gregorian chant and plainsong.
CONCERT REVIEW Matt Wertz Rocks the Paradise
Having been branded with a black “X” on each hand and informed not to drink “adult sodas,” I entered the Paradise Rock Club last Friday for the concert I had been enthusiastically anticipating — Matt Wertz.
MOVIE REVIEW ★★★ ½ Only for the Brave Children
If I were a young child, I do not think that I would have been able to watch the entirety of <i>Coraline</i> without screaming my head off. The genius of the stop-motion 3D film is its ability to transcend age barriers.
Yankees’ Rodriguez Earns New Nickname For Himself: A-Roid
First, there was A-Rod, the scrappy kid playing in Seattle who seemed destined for greatness. Next came Pay-Rod, the star shortstop who ditched his team in search of a bigger contract. Not long ago, Joe Torre gave us A-Fraud, the narcissistic, demanding Yankee superstar. Now, the revelations of this past weekend provide another addition to the repertoire of variations on the guy’s nickname: A-Roid.
Sports Shorts
Senior standout Julia C. Zimmerman ’09 stayed on top of her game, winning the all-around and the vault, and placing second on the bars, as the MIT gymnastics team placed third in a field of four teams. Host Southern Connecticut State University came away with the win (185.950), followed by SUNY Brockport (184.550), the Engineers (175.000), and Rhode Island College (169.250).
Debate Team Reaches Quarterfinals at World Debate Championship
During IAP, the MIT Debate Team reached the quarterfinals of both the World Universities Debating Championship, held in Ireland, and the North American Debate Championships, hosted by Amherst University in Massachusetts. This accomplishment represents MIT’s best finish ever at the World Championships, a tournament normally dominated by international competition.
The Tech’s Athlete of the Week: Jacqui Wentz ’10
On January 25, Jacqueline M. Wentz ’10 became the first female athlete in the country to qualify for Division III NCAA Championships in the 5000 meters this year. Her automatic qualifying time of 17:05.2 at the Terrier Invitational broke the MIT record for the distance.
Brouhaha Rhythm
With Valentine’s Day inbound, the annual chorus of its detractors is at its loudest. Some, still hoarse from the holiday season, decry the commercialization of a day supposedly dedicated to romance, while others bemoan the existence of the day at all, concerned that the setting aside of a special day for romance demeans the passion of the everyday.
Talk Nerdy to Me
Last year, I spent Valentine’s Day in a mental hospital. The day before that, I spent a couple of hours in jail. In the age of the Internet, I should be terrified to write this piece, as Google will forever attach it to my name. Then again, my reputation on the World Wide Web isn’t exactly flawless — this information about me is already out there in an MIT Police log and in my personal blog.
