Global warming in the hot seat
In November 2009, hackers released of thousands of confidential e-mails from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia. Although the e-mails did not reveal scientific fraud or the fabrication of scientific evidence (as recently concluded in a partial decision by an internal review board) they did suggest that researchers at the CRU had become partisan in their support of the anthropogenic global warming hypothesis.
A different kind of democratization
When reading Maggie Liu’s article entitled “College admissions is no scam — just reflection of socioeconomic disparity” from the January 20 issue of <i>The Tech</i>, I got the impression that the writer, like many others before her, seems to be of the opinion that education, regardless of being superior or inferior, fundamentally shapes individuals rather than being in many respects shaped by them. College students, regardless of their prior education and social conditions can equally benefit when democracy is infused in the process of receiving and exchanging knowledge in and outside of the class rooms. Nowadays, when the issue of democracy and higher education is brought up, it usually alludes to extending social justice and providing access to higher education for those groups in society that are disadvantaged due to lingering discrimination based on color of skin or national origin, among others, or due to lack of financial means. Even though this is still an ongoing situation, institutions of higher education like Northeastern University have been taking measures to combat the issue by providing financial aid and promoting affirmative action and diversity. Ironically, these same measures are now being blamed for having lowered the standards of higher education. I, however, have a different take on having these two concepts, democracy and education. I believe they form a complementary rather than opposing or antithetical relationship.
Letters to the Editor
The public face of MIT is 77 Massachusetts Avenue. The building, with its imposing Ionic porch and lofty interior, is not only an architectural landmark in its own right, but also the gateway into the world of MIT. The lobby — officially titled the William Barton Rogers Lobby, but more popularly called Lobby 7 — was designed in 1939 by William Welles Bosworth as the culminating element of the campus that he designed and that was built in 1916. Ever since the completion of Lobby 7, the four plinths that define the corners of the great rotunda have remained empty. They were originally intended as bases celebrating Aristotle, Ictinus, Archimedes, and Callicrates.
UA Elections coming up
The first Senate meeting of the Spring semester will be held on Monday, February 8. The schedule for the rest of the semester is as follows: February 22, March 1, March 8, March 29, April 5, April 12 (Senate Officer Elections announced), April 26 (Senate Officer Elections), May 3, May 10.
2009: A Year in Review
Both on campus and around the world, the struggling global economy was the defining feature of 2009. On campus, students and administrators worked to find solutions to the Institute’s budget crisis, sometimes offering different visions of what a leaner MIT should look like. Nationally and globally, the economic downturn that began in 2008 continued to have a major impact on policymaking for the newly-inaugurated President of the United States as well as newly-powerful international bodies like the G20.
Three Myths About the President’s Budget
The President’s budget has elicited a vicious backlash from conservative pundits, one that I think is worth addressing head-on. Here are three key myths about the budget that have gained traction among Republicans in recent days.
Out of the Wilderness and Back into the Big Tent
For the GOP, it really wasn’t that bad of an election, considering the circumstances. Amid corruption, scandal, and mismanagement of affairs both at home and abroad, Republicans still managed to pull in 45.7% of the popular vote. That they did so is a testament to the enduring conservatism of America’s electoral landscape.
Editorial: Secret Meetings Breed Distrust on Dining
The leak of a draft consultants’ report to the Blue Ribbon Committee on Dining clearly sparked some strong feelings on campus over the past week. One of the ways in which this concern manifested itself was in the form of a well-attended and fairly conspicuous protest rally in Lobby 7 last Tuesday.
No Choice for Police
MIT police probably would not have called in the fire department to inspect a bomb-shaped concrete hemisphere on Kresge Oval if someone had taken responsibility for it before or immediately after they put it up.
2009: A Year in Review
Beyond the devious few who scheme that: “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste,” not many people went into 2009 optimistically. The year’s inception saw a stricken financial sector, falling GDP, rising unemployment, and a neophyte leading the crazy train to Washington to spend his first year broadly increasing entitlements instead of going line by line through the budget.
Proposal for second-semester freshmen to live in FSILGs
<i>The following petition was posted online at </i>http://fsilg-housing.org/<i> on January 1, 2010. As of January 28, it has been signed by 697 members of the MIT community, according to the organizers.</i>
Letters to the Editor
When MIT is offered millions of dollars, I suspect there’s strong pressure to just say “thank you” and not look too closely from whence the money comes. The new Brain and Cognitive Sciences building at Main and Vassar Streets was in part funded by a 50 million dollar gift from Jeffry and Barbara Picower. Jeffry Picower recently died, and according to his Will, MIT is probably going to be offered an additional 25 million dollars of Picower money sometime in the next 12 months.
Mission creep
Afghanistan used to be a simple narrative: We’re going after the bad guys. It had a mission that could be summed up in two words: happy hunting. There was a simple exit strategy: Put Osama Bin Laden’s head on a pike, light up cigars, and slap each other on the back as we saunter off to the C-130’s and fly home.
Give freshmen a choice
You may have seen a recent initiative which I helped publicize to allow freshmen to live in fraternities, sororities, and independent living groups during their second semester. The initiative quotes a variety of reasons why it is time to give second-semester freshmen the freedom to choose their own residence, and I encourage you to visit <i>http://fsilg-housing.org</i> to sign on and support the effort. However, this piece is not written by “us.” This piece is written by me, because I want to explain why this proposal is so important, from my particular point of view.
Corrections
An article last Wednesday on MIT’s Solar Electric Vehicle Team gave the wrong year for Robert Pilawa. He is a current graduate student and completed his undergraduate degree in 2005, not 2006.
From the Editor
A headline last Wednesday, “Sex Changes Just Got Easier!” was offensive as well as technically inaccurate. The headline has been changed to “MIT Reduces Paperwork for Gender Changes” on our website.
The Supreme Court’s Supreme Mistake
On Thursday, January 21, the Supreme Court, under the excuse of “freedom of speech,” invited heightened levels of corruption back into political campaigns with a ruling that has the potential to damage the democratic system of elections. In 2002, the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, usually referred to as the McCain-Feingold Act, was passed by Congress. This landmark legislation prohibited corporations and labor unions from using their money to run ads supporting or opposing election candidates in the 30 days before a presidential primary and in the 60 days before general elections. After Thursday’s ruling, which struck down this part of the law, in addition to two previous rulings supporting it, big business was handed a political megaphone with which it could both drown out the average citizen and try to control politicians to an even greater extent than it does today.
Late to the Party
The french politician Alexandre Ledru-Rollin, upon seeing a crowd marching through Paris, supposedly once said: “There go my people. I must find out where they’re going so I can lead them.” In the wake of their humiliating defeat in Massachusetts, many Democratic strategists are now embracing the spirit of Ledru-Rollin, urging their party to adopt a more “Main Street” tone in order to survive the mid-term elections this November.
Let’s Regulate the Freshmen in FSILGs.
An unknown number of second-semester freshmen choose to live in their fraternities, technically breaking MIT rules, and the Institute does not regulate the practice. Everyone knows about it. Regulating the practice, rather than pretending it does not exist, would protect MIT students from whatever risks it may incur.
Letters to the Editor
Wah-wah-wah-why-wasn’t-I-born-in-the-60’s arguments seem to be the calling card of our generation. Subtract a few years and I’m sure you’d get the calling card of the generation before us. And so on.