What Has Driven Women Out of Computer Science?
Ellen Spertus ’90, a graduate student at MIT, wondered why the computer camp she had attended as a girl had a boy-girl ratio of 6-to-1. And why were only 20 percent of computer science undergraduates at MIT female? She published a 124-page paper, “Why Are There So Few Female Computer Scientists?”, that catalogued different cultural biases that discouraged girls and women from pursuing a career in the field. The year was 1991.
Wage, Budget Freezes Possible as Harvard Looks to Spend Less
Even the world’s richest university is feeling the pinch from the economic downturn.
News Briefs
Aafia Siddiqui ’95, the MIT alumna arrested in Afghanistan in July, has been declared “not competent” to stand trial “as a result of her mental disease, which renders her unable to understand the nature and consequences of the proceedings against her or to assist properly in her defense,” according to a forensic evaluation dated Nov. 6 and quoted in a court order released yesterday. Siddiqui had been previously diagnosed with chronic depressive type psychosis in September.
Student Dies After Collapsing at Marathon
Kjell A. Tovander ’09 died on Sunday after collapsing during the Route 66 Marathon in Tulsa, Okla.
Colleges Feel Impact of Market Decline, Begin Cutting Fin. Aid
For years, as the stock market roared, educational endowments swelled, helping private secondary schools and colleges provide more financial aid, expand, and attract better faculty. But with the financial markets in crisis, those days are over.
MIT Hopes Two-Thirds of Seniors Will Give to Class Gift, OCW Fund
The Senior Gift Campaign announced an ambitious 65 percent participation rate target as they unveiled their project of developing an MIT OpenCourseWare Fund. The proceeds of the senior gift will go towards updating the video and lecture content for 5.111 Principles of Chemical Science.
Police Stress Bicycle Safety, Theft Prevention Measures
Following an accident in the Infinite Corridor this fall, the issue of bicyclist and pedestrian safety has become one of the forefront concerns of the MIT Police.
ASA Will Propose to Lower Threshold for Group Recognition
Groups of students who want access to certain resources controlled by the Association of Student Activities would have an easier time getting them, under a proposal being presented by the ASA’s executive board to all student groups at a Monday general body meeting.
RNAi Therapeutics May Hold Key to Reducing Cholesterol
People whose bodies make an unusually active form of a certain protein tend to have dangerously high levels of cholesterol. Those with an inactive form of the protein have low cholesterol and a low risk of heart attacks.
In Short
The Diversity Leadership Congress will take place at MIT next Tuesday from 1–3 p.m. and will include a keynote address by former U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexis M. Herman and a panel discussion. Facilitators will lead group debriefings at remote viewing locations in the Student Center locations and E25-111. See: http://web.mit.edu/diversityleaders/
High School Seniors Compete at MIT In Siemens Contest Regional Final
Sixteen high school students descended upon campus last weekend as part of the annual Siemens Competition in Math, Science, and Technology to compete for $9,000 dollars and an invitation to the national finals in New York where $100,000 is up for grabs.
Startups Struggle to Find Venture Capital
For six months, Flex Biomedical Inc.’s chief executive, Sal Braico, has been furiously trying to raise money to support his Brookline, Mass. life sciences start-up, meeting with as many venture capital firms and angel investors as possible.
Physics Funds More Maternity Leave for Female Grad Students
The Physics Department has agreed to fund a third month of paid maternity leave for female physics graduate students, an extension of the two months of childbirth accommodation provided for female graduate students Institute-wide.
Hutchings Elected New IFC President
David J. Hutchings ’10 and O. Russell Rodewald ’10 were elected president and vice president of the Interfraternity Council last Wednesday, Oct. 29. Hutchings said that his main goals for the upcoming year include fostering a spirit of interfraternity community and improving the image of MIT fraternities in the community.
Profs. Have Little Influence on Students’ Ideologies
An article of faith among conservative critics of American universities has been that liberal professors politically indoctrinate their students. This conviction not only fueled the culture wars but has also led state lawmakers to consider requiring colleges to submit reports to the government detailing their progress in ensuring “intellectual diversity,” prompted universities to establish faculty positions devoted to conservatism and spurred the creation of a network of volunteer watchdogs to monitor “political correctness” on campuses.
Election Day: Yes We Can Have Free Yogurt
After being called and e-mailed many times by the Obama campaign over the last few weeks, I decided to spend Election Day in New Hampshire campaigning for Barack.
End of Good Times for Emporium
Good Time Emporium, the Assembly Square family fun center which combined the best and worst of a Chuck E. Cheese’s, an indoor Go Kart track, and a sports bar, but whose reputation was marred by a 2004 stabbing, a 2007 shooting, and a spring 2008 brawl, is closed and will not reopen. Many of the attraction’s attractions will be auctioned off in Brockton on Saturday.