The US should not intervene in Syria
Most, if not all, Americans are at least vaguely aware of the cruel and miserable war taking place in the streets and countryside of Syria. Over the last two years, the Assad regime has clashed with a heterogeneous rebel group known as the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and other oppositional entities, most significantly the Al-Nusra Front — a radical Islamist group with ties to Al-Qaeda. Recently, President Obama announced that he would leave the decision of whether or not to engage the U.S. military against the Assad regime up to Congressional vote, an action that has sparked a national debate over the merits of U.S. interventionist foreign policy in the case of the Syrian conflict.
CORRECTIONS
A graphic in last Friday’s issue provided incorrect dates for some Steak and Lobster dinners. The WILG and Phi Kappa Sigma dinners are on Tuesday, Sept. 3.
CORRECTIONS
In the Boston Comic Con 2013 photo spread in the August 7 issue incorrectly credited photo number three — the photographer was Mario Rodriguez ’14.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
I am writing to apologize for the terrible mistake I have made in 2007 while being a student. No question, I should have done it five years ago, but it’s better late than never. As a quick background, in December 2007, I sent an email to a group of LGBT students where I insulted them and threatened physical harm if they kept contacting me via emails. In February 2008, MIT’s Committee on Discipline expelled me from MIT, pending one more infraction on my part. Since I have complied with all the terms, the expulsion never became effective and I graduated in 2009. In April 2008, part of this story became public.
CORRECTIONS
An article on the new backup child care program in the July 3, 2013 issue mistakenly indicated that the child care program was a “six-figure” program. The total cost of the program is less than $100K. Additionally, a previous version also did not specify that the 22 percent of graduate students citing child care as stressful and the 50 percent citing family obligations as stressful were percentages of those who responded to the specific survey questions.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Editor’s Note: The following letter provides background in response to a May 3 article on the Association of Student Activities’ “Governance Clause.” http://tech.mit.edu/V133/N23/asa.html.
Tilting at windmills
As Washington Post staff listened to the fantastical stories being woven by Edward Snowden, our leaker du jour, I can’t help but wonder why they didn’t greet his tales with a healthy dose of skepticism. Surely the memory of Bradley Manning, the private who cried wolf, couldn’t have been distant in their minds. For all the grand claims of U.S. malfeasance that Manning made, when his stolen database of secret diplomatic cables was finally out for all to see, there was very little that appeared out of the ordinary. Now the confused youth sits in a maximum security prison, discredited among all but a few small groups that still misguidedly regard him as a cause célèbre.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
There aren’t many people to look up to in the public eye nowadays, but Edward Snowden is one. The 29-year-old former analyst is responsible for leaking details of the NSA’s massive citizen surveillance programs, including PRISM, a secret program collecting masses of personal data from all channels of digital communication. Snowden did not wait to be discovered, but instead revealed himself in a thoughtful and inspiring video interview with The Guardian.
CORRECTIONS
An article in last Friday’s issue of The Tech on MIT’s highest compensated employees previously had an incorrect headline. Susan Hockfield was not the highest compensated individual at MIT in 2010. She was the highest compensated only for 2011, receiving $1,199,877. In 2010, Seth Alexander was the highest compensated, receiving $1,316,463 compared to Hockfield’s second-place $1,006,969.
Drunk off the firehose: A review of MIT
For the last four years, MIT has been my world. The Institute is a cruel and jealous master, demanding nothing less than complete devotion. It consumes you, and you become consumed by it.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Editor’s Note: The Tech received numerous letters from Bexley residents after last week’s announcement that Bexley would be closing for up to three years due to structural problems. Printed here is a representative subset of those letters.
A new community, a new experience
There has understandably been a great deal of anxiety on campus about how best to relocate the hundred or so displaced Bexley residents who will need to be housed in a different place come fall than everyone had been expecting. We would like to find a solution that is ‘fair,’ but of course there is no obvious fix that is fair to everyone. Relocating a number of students from a place they had settled themselves, into the midst of other people who had also already settled themselves, poses very real challenges.
A silver bullet for dorm overcrowding
This coming fall, due to the closure of Bexley Hall, on-campus housing will be particularly tight. Dormitories have already been told that they will likely be subject to overcrowding, with doubles turned into triples and quads.
CORRECTIONS
A caption in the May 7, 2013 issue misidentified the subject. The caption should read “Salih J. Wakil describes his path in biological research in his Lifetime Achievement acceptance speech at the 2013 MIT Arab Students Organization Science and Technology Achievement Awards banquet.”
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Since about the sixth grade, when I first attended ESP Splash (Sorry about that bit of deception, it was smaller and less strict then), I have been spending time intermittently with MIT students. I took just about everything that ESP had to offer: Splash and Spark and Junction and Delve and HSSP. I liked MIT, and I spent more time there. My first date in high school was an LSC showing of Transformers. I got a four year MITSFS membership when I was a freshman. I went to the Model United Nations you were kind enough to host superbly well. I have spent time with professors, students, and even a few applicants. I have been attending events and hanging out at MIT for over six years now.
Dear Non-Bexlians and Non-Bexlietes
You are lucky to have been spared from the time living in Bexley.
CORRECTIONS
A photo in Friday’s issue of Berklee’s production of Hair was incorrectly credited. The photo was taken by Josh Glass.
DormCon is critical to dorm culture
Disclaimer: Although I am a former member of DormCon, I do not speak for the organization and I have not consulted it before writing this piece.
CORRECTIONS
An article in Tuesday’s issue on Maseeh seceding from DormCon mistakenly indicated that Maseeh pays $2310 in DormCon taxes per year — the figure is actually per semester, summing to $4620 per year assuming the 462-resident capacity.
Homophobia at home and abroad
On April 23, France legalized gay marriage. The measure passed 331-224 in the Socialist Party majority Assembly. However, the bill came at the price of the signers’ safety. The day before the vote, Claude Bartolone, the head of France’s National Assembly, received an envelope sealed with gunpowder and a death-threat letter, signed by the right-wing group of France, Interaction des forces de l’ordre.