Weekend could be cold and clear, or warm with precipitation
While Thursday and Friday promise to be pleasant and sunny, there is a chance that we could experience snow or rain during the weekend. The large scale flow over New England will be southwesterly over the coming days, and Boston will be on the edge between the cold inland air and the warmer ocean air during the weekend. The precipitation will occur in this transition region, and whether or not we get snow and/or rain will depend on which side we end up on. One extreme is cold temperatures (low 30s) and clear skies, while the other is warm temperatures (high 40s) and lots of precipitation. We will most likely end up somewhere between the two, with temperatures around 40°F and intermittent rain during the day or snow during the evening.
New UA program to fund conference expenses for undergraduates
The UA has allocated $30,000 towards this program as part of its annual budget, treasurer Jonathan Coden ’19 said in an interview with The Tech Tuesday.
SwipeShare will transfer donated guest swipes to students facing food insecurity
The Undergraduate Association and Division of Student Life recently launched a program called SwipeShare, aimed at alleviating food insecurity issues at MIT. The program allows students who are on meal plans to donate their guest swipes for usage by students who are facing food insecurity problems.
Tuition waiver taxes unlikely to make it into final Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, admins say
Goldston said that generally there was “reason for optimism about the graduate student tax” because it is only present in the House, not Senate, version of the bill.
Preregistration, subject evaluations, Finboard funding
Subject evaluations open now until Monday December 18.
Pokerbots Competition cancelled this IAP
This six unit undergraduate class allowed teams of up to four students to build autonomous poker players and concluded with a final competition and prizes of over $25,000 from technology and finance firms.
Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, to be 2018 commencement speaker
Graduate Student Council President Sarah Ann Goodman told MIT News that she is “thrilled that Sheryl Sandberg was selected as the Commencement speaker. The MIT community will benefit immensely from the insights of this trailblazing and resilient woman in the tech industry.”
Four-alarm fire damages MIT-owned apartment complex
A four-alarm fire damaged two apartment complexes in Central Square fire on Auburn Street and Magazine Street around 1 a.m. last Thursday.
Student organization funding process to be restructured
“Career fairs, in general, shouldn’t be used to fund student groups because it really is the wrong incentive structure. It incentivizes those companies that can pay a lot to come to a career fair to come, and those that might not be able to pay a lot of money not to come,” Nelson said. “We’re aiming for a kind of decoupling of the Career Fair proceeds from the funding of groups.”
Sophomore self-funds popular class-picking guide Firehose
Fan reports that during the two-week span of Aug. 27 to Sept. 9, 6,545 unique devices visited Firehose for a total of 22,140 page hits. Apart from a small ProjX grant, he has paid for all costs related to Firehose.
Help Cambridge decide how to spend $800,000 in participatory budgeting
The City of Cambridge has allocated $800,000 for participatory budgeting, a democratic process in which residents vote on various proposed capital expenditures meant to benefit the public.
Fall Career Fair organizers look to increase company diversity
MIT students and organizations are looking at making changes to Fall Career Fair, an annual student-organized campus recruiting event, including increasing diversity of companies at the fair, as well as changing the career fair revenue structure. In this feature, we look at the history of the career fair and the long-standing concerns that has led to the current push for reform.
Poor logic behind current tax reform bill
With President Trump’s reinterpretation of what is taxable income, he will surely lead by example and pay out of pocket to cover taxes on all of his travel expenses whether he travels to meet a foreign dignitary or to just dust off his putter.
GOP tax bill would undercut MIT’s mission
MIT produces an extraordinary amount of beneficial — lifesaving — research, and the new taxes would damage its capability to do that.
Among tax bill’s offenses, an insult to students
While MIT bears no responsibility for this attack on higher education, this scandal calls into question the decency of a bizarre semesterly ceremony: MIT cutting a check to itself, we hope on our behalf.
Detached: an exhibit of protagonist extras
Sophomore Ivy Li's photography exhibit depicts the beauty of everyday life in the context of New York strangers on a rainy day.
One man’s trash is another man‘s treasure
Models strutted down the runway with sass and confidence. Designers did a wonderful job of showing off their creative talent by mere use of paper, plastics, and metals.
MIT Productions Highlights (Dec. 1-3, 2017)
All performances were emotionally-invoking and pleasing to the ear, and as a result, I can only commend the amazing talent that walks our campus hallways.
A warm and communal ‘Christmas Carol’
Through Wise’s direction, 'A Christmas Carol ' goes to the heart of Christmas and theater, where a group of people enjoy a shared experience.
To the very brink of the constitution
What 'Hold These Truths' hopes to say is that it’s absolutely necessary to discover these answers for yourself and to fight for the rights that you think you deserve. As Hirabayashi remarked in the play, “It’s a matter of principle.”
The other side of hope
'The Other Side of Hope' is a worthwhile film that will prove to be both enjoyable and thought-provoking for its viewers.
Entering the realm of fine dining
Around the corner from Eliot Hotel, Back Bay restaurant UNI opened in 2002 with contemporary twists on traditional Asian cuisine. From the outside, it seems like an unimpressive shabby nightclub; but through the wooden door was an upscale, classy restaurant, dimly lit and with an elegant atmosphere.
From disaster to laughter
The film is a surprisingly perceptive and sharp-witted look into the relationships and emotions that tie people to their visions, ambitions and ultimately, to one another.
Taekwondo team kicks their way to second place at Brown
The MIT Sport Taekwondo Team ended a fantastic season on a high note at Brown University, bringing home a second place trophy in Division I of the Eastern Collegiate Taekwondo Conference on Sunday, November 19.
MIT athletes finishing semester by smashing records and placing top in nation
Men's and women's indoor track and field sent five students to compete in the Boston University Season Opener Dec. 2. Marissa McPhillips ’20 finished the 3,000 meter with a number two time in the country with a time of 9:51.25. Katie Bacher ’20 finished with a time of 10:09.18 making her the fifth fastest in the country in the 3K. Josh Rosenkranz ’19 and David Walter ’18 both competed in the 5,000 meter and finished with times putting them in the top 10 nationally.
Fifty years of Tech Squares
I was introduced to square dancing with Tech Squares, MIT’s square and round dance club. Now I’m at MIT every Tuesday evening, and sometimes more often in a week.
How to adjust to winter break
This will be my sixth winter break at MIT, and I think it is high time I write down some useful tips for how to manage the adjustment from “hell week and finals week at MIT” to the so-stressless-it-is-actually-stressful time period: winter break.
MIT iGEM team uses new CRISPR protein to target cancer-causing RNA splicing errors
Students built a construct that has the potential to guide a mutated form of Cas13a to a particular mRNA sequence to prevent incorrect RNA splicing. Further testing is necessary, but if successful, this construct could be used therapeutically in small cell lung cancer.
