Colleges<br />targeted by cash-strapped cities
Pittsburgh threatened to tax college tuition. Providence sought to tax out-of-state students. And Philadelphia is pressing its colleges and universities to resume voluntary payments in lieu of taxes.
Research reactors seen as security risk
In Cambridge, Mass., at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a nuclear reactor emits an eerie blue glow 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Its fuel is 93 percent uranium 235 — the high-purity uranium it takes to energize an atom bomb and exactly what the West fears that Tehran wants to produce.
Corrections
An April 6 opinion column entitled “HDAG is culmination of years of work” improperly referred to Steven R. Lerman ’72 as the Associate Dean for Graduate Education. Lerman is currently the Dean for Graduate Education.
UA will provide free deodorant samples during finals week to reduce Reading Room stench
The Undergraduate Association Senate passed a bill yesterday to provide free samples of soap, toothpaste, mouthwash, and deodorant in the Reading Room on the fifth floor of the Student Center during finals week this term. The bill, submitted by Baker senator Janet Li ’12, was motivated by concerns about poor hygiene among students studying in the Reading Room. This issue, the bill states, “is most apparent just before and during final week.”
Unions and students hold ‘solidarity’ event
Last Friday, members and representatives from three MIT-affiliated unions came together in a student-worker solidarity gathering to discuss the current conditions facing MIT workers. Present at the meeting were representatives from the MIT Police Association, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 615, and the Research, Development, and Technical Employees Union as well as Cambridge City Councilor E. Denise Simmons.
News Briefs
A female prefrosh was found unconscious near McCormick late on Thursday last week, according to an e-mail sent by Bexley housemaster Robert M. Randolph to dorm residents.
With select apps, iPad is more than a pretty face
Let’s set aside the question of whether you should get an iPad and suppose you already bought one last weekend. You probably floated home and loaded it with a few whiz-bang apps and maybe even passed it around to your friends.
APO’s Big Screw is set to break records
Professor Ernest G. Cravalho, representing 2.006 (Thermal-Fluids Enginering II) has collected $1111.96, putting him in the lead of service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega’s annual Institute Big Screw contest, which is in its final day today.
YAY PREFROSH Dispatches from the first day of CPW
So much can happen in a day! <i>The Tech</i> asked a few prospective freshman what they thought of Campus Preview Weekend so far.
Corrections
An article on Tuesday, March 30, about the Penny Arcade Exposition misrepresented an event involving a microprocessor. Jerry Holkins (aka Tycho) offered an Intel Core i7 processor to a fan who represented a community that had presented the comic creators with PAX-themed trading cards. That fan donated the processor to Penny Arcade’s charity, Child’s Play on behalf of the community. The processor was not declined by the fan, nor was it offered in return for the cards.
A nation’s response to an illegal smoke and a quip
WASHINGTON — When an illicit pipe and a foolish joke aboard an airliner touches off a national megascare, scrambling fighter jets and FBI agents, alerting all 4,900 flights in progress and unleashing a media flood, does that mean the security system works?
GSC election results
The Graduate Student Council elected officers for 2010–2011 on Wednesday night. The new officers take their position on May 5:
China’s censors tackle and trip over the Internet
Type the Chinese characters for “carrot” into Google’s search engine here in mainland China, and you will be rewarded not with a list of Internet links, but a blank screen.Don’t blame Google, however. The fault lies with China’s censors — who are increasingly a model for countries around the world that want to control an unrestricted Internet.
Will HDAG hear student voices?
As the Division of Student Life prepares to eliminate the house dining system’s $600,000 annual deficit, some undergraduates worry that the newest dining committee will neglect students’ opinions.
City council urges no layoffs
The Cambridge City Council unanimously passed two labor-related resolutions on Monday. The first requests that Harvard and MIT cease further layoffs as well as hour, salary, and pay cuts. The second requests that the Cambridge License Commission consider a regulation preventing Cambridge hotels from subcontracting housekeeping services.
Bail set for Reed, alleged rapist
Bail was set at $2,500 on Wednesday for Jason Reed, the homeless man arrested on campus last Tuesday and charged with rape. As of yesterday evening, he had not posted bail and was still in custody.
HEY PREFROSH Prefrosh look forward to a fun-filled weekend
<i>Interviews compiled by Natasha Plotkin. Photography by Andrea Robles.</i><i> </i><i>Richmond, Virginia</i>