Larry Summers to Lead Obama’s Economic Council
With his appointment Monday to lead the National Economic Council, the brainy but abrasive Lawrence H. Summers ’75 is set to become a key ideas man for President-elect Barack Obama as he labors to keep the economic crisis from spiraling out of control.
Surprising Jump in Early Decision Apps To Selective Colleges
Given the current economic downturn, admissions officers at Wesleyan University thought there might be a decline in early-decision applications this year. But when the deadline passed last weekend, they found that the number had risen 40 percent.
Margaret Zarudny Freeman SM ’34
Margaret Zarudny Freeman SM ’34 was only eight when rumblings of the Russian Revolution against the Czarist regime shattered the peace of her quiet village in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Gethers & Whitney-Johnson Awarded Rhodes Scholarship
Alia Whitney-Johnson ’08 and Matthew L. Gethers ’09 are MIT’s latest Rhodes Scholars, two of 32 scholarship winners nationwide who will study next year at Oxford.
News Briefs
The Physical Education lottery will be replaced with a new real time registration system beginning with IAP. The enrollment period for IAP P.E. classes will run from 10 a.m. on December 3 until 1 p.m. on December 10. Undergraduates will have priority as graduate students will not be able to start registering until December 8.
CMS Director Leaves For USC Citing Workload, Lack of Faculty
Professor Henry Jenkins, co-director of the Comparative Media Studies program, announced on Monday he will be leaving for a position at the University of Southern California. Jenkins has been with MIT for nearly 20 years and co-founded CMS. He and his wife Cynthia have also served as housemasters of Senior House for the past 14 years.
Caught Breaking Into Admission Record Rm., Student Faces Charges
Early on Sunday, Nov. 2, MIT Police arrested Shaunalynn M. Duffy ’09 for allegedly breaking into the Freshman Admission Records Office (3-001), according to a police report.
Kjell A. Tovander ’09
When Kjell A. Tovander ’09 was younger, his mother said, he began reading voraciously. So, naturally, when he decided he wanted to learn how to program, he ordered a book about it. He read it in one night.
California State Univ. System Faces Budget Cut, Limits Enrollment
Hard hit by budget cuts, the California State University system is planning to cut its enrollment by 10,000 students for the 2009-10 academic year, unless state lawmakers provide more money.
In A Pinch, Northeastern Postpones New Housing
Northeastern University has shelved plans for a 600-student dormitory amid a severe crunch in credit markets, in the latest sign of the economic downturn’s impact on college campuses.
Cambridge, Mass. Is a Science Lover’s Kind of Town
When you run an ice cream parlor down the street from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, you expect your customers to chat about stem cell research or trade theories about neutrinos between licks of burnt caramel. But Gus Rancatore, whose Toscanini’s shop in Cambridge, Mass., is renowned as much for its deep-thinking clientele as for its sundaes, discovered long ago that catering to the technology-minded crowd could have unforeseen advantages.
Thousands Gather at Boston City Hall, Protest California’s Gay Marriage Ban
Thousands of people gathered at Boston City Hall on Saturday to rally against the passage of Proposition 8, the recent ban on same-sex marriage in California.
Non-Profit Connects Low-Income Applicants With MIT
The number of early applications increased by approximately 25 percent this year, partly as a result of MIT’s new partnership with QuestBridge, a non-profit organization that connects low-income students with top colleges.
Institute To Cut Budget, Slow Hiring
MIT will cut general spending by five percent in the fiscal year beginning next July, and by 10–15 percent within the next three years, the president and provost said in a letter to the MIT community yesterday. The announcement mirrors announcements by elite universities similarly affected by the global financial crisis.
Media Companies Donate Space, Time for One Laptop Per Child Ads
After a rocky beginning, the nonprofit group One Laptop Per Child thinks an advertising campaign will give a lift to the organization’s effort to place low-cost laptops in the hands of children in developing nations.
Study Abroad Flourishes; China Attracts More American Students
Record numbers of American students are studying abroad, with especially strong growth in educational exchanges with China, the annual report by the Institute on International Education found.
Presidents’ Pay Rises Faster at Public Universities
David J. Sargent, the 77-year-old president of Suffolk University in Boston, received a $2.8 million pay package in 2006-7 — including a $436,000 longevity bonus and more than $1 million in deferred compensation — after the board of trustees, eager to delay his retirement, decided he had long been underpaid.
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.