Confusion over REX
For the second year in a row, the REX/Rush/Recruitment agreement between dorms, fraternities, sororities and living groups was not signed, leading to some confusion among rush and REX chairs.
Layoffs due to recession stopped after June
The wave of layoffs at MIT due to the recent economic downturn was over as of June, according to Vice President of Human Resources Alison Alden. Between January 2009 and June 2010, MIT laid off 174 employees in an effort to cut the 2010 and 2011 fiscal year budgets by about $125 million collectively.
Stay in stem cell case?
A federal judge may decide in the next week whether to issue an emergency stay of his own injunction against federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research. The stay would temporarily stop the injunction.
CITGO sign to be equipped with new LED lights
Notice something missing from the Boston skyline? The CITGO sign has been undergoing renovation since July 23 to upgrade its LEDs to the most “technologically advanced of their kind,” according to the CITGO website. This update comes as part of CITGO’s centennial milestone. The work on the sign is being carried out by the Federal Heath Sign Company. The new LEDs have been designed to improve the sign’s ability to withstand temperature change, extreme wind, water damage, and UV rays. CITGO expects the 45-year-old sign to turn back on “just in time for baseball playoffs,” or some time this coming October.
Fraternity, Sorority, and <br />Independent Living Group Rush 2010
Welcome to the Daily Confusion for FSILG Rush 2010! Greek and ILG life are huge on MIT’s campus, and while they may not be right for everyone, many people (including myself) cite their affiliations as a key piece of what makes their MIT experience so fun and valuable.
Among freshmen, Baker wins popularity contest
Freshmen around campus are finally able to unpack as permanent housing assignments were announced Wednesday, following the readjustment lottery.
Gov’t files for emergency stay in stem cell case
The United States Department of Justice filed an appeal and an emergency motion this afternoon for a stay in <i>Sherley v. Sibelius</i>, the stem cell case under which an injunction issued last week Monday. That injunction prevents the NIH and other federal agencies from funding or considering to fund stem cell research, and has derailed many grants that were in the pipeline for consideration.
Corrections
An article from August 4 about MIT’s connections to the military’s WikiLeaks probe gave the wrong year for Christian J. Ternus. He is a current MIT graduate student and was undergraduate class of 2010; he is not class of 2011.
Make no mistake: In China, state-run firms rule
During its decades of rapid growth, China thrived by allowing once-suppressed private entrepreneurs to prosper, often at the expense of the old, inefficient state sector of the economy.
FEATURE Kapoor’s sculpture shines in Stata Cloud Gate’ artist’s piece is MIT’s latest
What once was an empty lobby at the Vassar entrance of Stata — a large space, industrial white, washed with natural-light, but shrouded in concrete — is now filled with MIT’s newest addition to it’s public art collection. The new art piece, left untitled, is created by Anish Kapoor, a London-based artist who is most famous for his Chicago piece <i>Cloud Gate</i> (resembling a giant chrome kidney-bean). Filling the once-empty space his new oversized sculpture: a massive sheet of ultra-polish stainless steel, curved like a melted sheet of glass, diffracting light of the nearby skylight. Herds of tourists stop by each day, pausing in front of Kapoor’s piece to photograph their distorted reflections.
EZRide buses will get GPS tracking in early October
MIT is still working to get GPS tracking to work on the EZRide Shuttle, which has taken over the job of the now-cancelled Northwest Shuttle. Live tracking and stop prediction will not be implemented until the first week of October according to Jeff Bennett, the project manager for the Charles River Transportation Management Association (CRTMA), the company that runs the EZRide.
Tang may take class at BU
Last Friday, in the first step since Anna Tang’s trial came to an abrupt halt early this summer, the Middlesex Superior Court agreed to relax Tang’s house arrest so she can attend a class in “Mobile Application Development” at Boston University’s Metropolitan College on Monday evenings. The class covers the Google Android and Apple iPhone operating systems.
Court decision may be fatal for stem cell research
Stem cell research at MIT and throughout the country seems sure to be strongly impacted by a federal court ruling Monday prohibiting the use of federal funds to support human embryonic stem cell research.
NW30/W59 may get real railroad crossing
For students living in New Ashdown and Sidney-Pacific, a common (if risky) route to class takes them across the railroad tracks, popping out on Vassar Street parking lot near the West Garage and Steinbrenner Stadium. MIT has for years considered building a formal foot crossing there, and those plans may finally be solidifying.
Burst pipe floods parking lot
In a freak accident last night, the ground split open and the water started gushing out in the parking lot between Buildings 1, 3 and 5. The water flooded the lot as well as the only exit, trapping several cars and SUVs. Many labs and offices nearby were also flooded.