’09 Class Has Record - The Techtech.mit.edu/V125/PDF/V125-N14.pdf · By Marcella Bombardieri and...
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By Marcella Bombardieri and David Abel THE BOSTON GLOBE CAMBRIDGE Members of Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences passed a vote of no confidence Tuesday in Lawrence H. Summers ’75, dealing a stunning rebuke to the president of one of the world’s top universi- ties. The vote, which astonished even some fierce critics, made clear that the faculty’s disenchant- ment with Summers is deeper than many had imagined. After the vote, Summers renewed his pledge to improve relations with Harvard’s scholars. “My hope now is that our facul- ty will be in a position to move for- ward strongly and in a united way in the important issues that we are facing,” he told reporters gathered outside the Loeb Drama Center, where the meeting had been moved to accommodate more than 550 participants. The motion, stating simply that “the Faculty lacks confidence in the leadership” of Summers, passed by a secret ballot vote of 218 to 185, with 18 abstentions. A second motion that offered a milder cen- sure of the president passed 253 to 137, also with 18 abstentions. The votes have no official impact. Only Harvard’s governing corporation has the power to fire Summers, and it has stood by him since his comments in January sug- gesting that women might not have the same “intrinsic aptitude” in sci- ence as men touched off a bitter campus debate about his manage- ment of the university. Last night, James Houghton, the corporation’s senior member, reit- erated in a statement that “the members of the Corporation fully support President Summers in his ongoing efforts to listen thought- fully to the range of views being expressed by members of the uni- versity’s faculties and to work col- legially and constructively with them to address the important acad- emic matters facing Harvard.” But resolutions like that adopted last night are unheard of in modern Harvard history, and critics expect By Kathy Lin EDITOR IN CHIEF Kimberley W. Wu has won the 2006 Class Council presidential election, after a 215–215 vote tie with Nikhil S. Shenoy forced a run- off that ended at 11:59 p.m. last night. Wu, who said she is “just really happy,” won by a narrow margin of only 11 votes, according to an e-mail from Tiffany L. Seto ’06, the chair of the Undergraduate Association Election Commission. “Both candidates were very strong choices,” Seto wrote. Wu will join running mate Clarence Lee ’06, who won the vice presidential race last week during the regular elections, as well as sev- eral other 2006 Class Council win- ners who endorsed her via campaign posters in the past week. Class Council presidential and vice presidential candidates cannot officially run as one ticket, so two candidates running as one ticket may receive different numbers of votes. Lee, who received 247 votes, beat Shenoy’s running mate, Noelle J. Kanaga, and the other vice presi- dential candidate, Bella C. Liang, who received 102 and 133 votes, respectively. “I’m really happy that Kim was able to win the election,” Lee said, adding that he was very impressed by the effectiveness of Shenoy’s campaign and the amount of support Shenoy was able to rally. Wu plans to continue “senior tra- ditions like Senior Week, Pub Nights, Booz Cruise, Career Fair, and Senior Ball,” as well as start new events like ’06 nights every other week, ’06 Boston Dining Nights, and an ’06 Student Advisory Committee, according to her plat- form. By Jeffrey Chang STAFF REPORTER MIT’s undergraduate admissions acceptance rate hit an all-time low of 14.3 percent this year, with only 1,495 of 10,439 applicants accept- ed into the class of 2009. This year’s acceptance rate is significantly below the 16 percent acceptance rate for the classes of 2007 and 2008, while the total number of applicants was only 25 fewer than last year’s. “The admissions rate was low because we admitted fewer people in order to fill a smaller class of 980,” wrote Dean of Admissions Marilee Jones in an e-mail. “We targeted an unusually high yield so that we’ll be sure to go to the waitlist, which we haven’t been able to do for the past two years,” she wrote. The admitted students come from 48 states and 66 countries. Forty-nine percent are female, and the SAT aver- ages are “the highest we’ve seen,” Jones wrote. “This year’s class is just great. We have all the usual constituencies, but they seem to have some real sparkle,” she wrote. A list of the admitted students was made available for viewing yesterday morning in room 10-100. Students must present their MIT ID cards to view the list. Volume 125, Number 14 Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 Friday, March 18, 2005 MIT’s Oldest and Largest Newspaper The Weather Today: Partly cloudy, 44°F (7°C) Tonight: Mostly clear, 30°F (-1°C) Tomorrow: Mostly clear, 45°F (7°C) Details, Page 2 Comics Page 6 NEWS Stipends for Graduate Students Increase 3.5 Percent . . .13 RNAi Consortium Announced by Broad Institute . . . . . . .13 New Faculty Housing Assistance Program Proposed . . . .14 World & Nation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Arts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16 ’09 Class Has Record Low Admission Rate OMARI STEPHENS—THE TECH Min Deng ’06 plays the violin during the MIT Symphony Orchestra performance held last Friday, March 11 in Kresge Auditorium. See review, page 9. Wu Voted ’06 Council Pres. in Close Runoff BRIAN HEMOND—THE TECH Firefighters from the Cambridge Fire Department look over the smoldering remains of a car that caught fire on Massachusetts Avenue at Amherst Street yesterday afternoon. Harvard Faculty of Arts & Sciences Vote Lack of Confidence in Summers MIT NEWS OFFICE Elzbieta Ettinger, a novelist, biographer, and professor of writ- ing who helped build the MIT Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies, died of heart failure in her home in Cambridge, Mass., on Saturday, March 12. She was 80 years old. A native of Warsaw, Poland, Ettinger survived the Holocaust, escaping the Warsaw ghetto shortly before its liquidation; she then worked for the Polish resistance while maintaining a false identity as a Catholic Pole (she was also known by her wartime pseudonym, Elzbieta Chodakowska). Her experiences during the Second World War were chronicled in her first novel, Kindergarten (1968), described by the New York Times Book Review as a work “one reads with frozen attention.” A self-described rebel who believed in the promise of socialism as an antidote to social and economic inequality, Ettinger refused to be silent about the totalitarian nature of the Soviet-influenced Polish Elzbieta Ettinger FAS, Page 12 Ettinger, Page 11 A new undergraduate degree program in mechanical and ocean engineering in the Department of Mechanical Engineering was approved Wednesday by the faculty. The degree program will contain five subjects with ocean engineering content, half the number in the ocean engineering bachelor’s degree that it will eventually replace. New Degree Approved 1495 admitted Down from 1664 last year } } 253 Wu ......... 253 Shenoy ...242 ✓ The Tech will not publish during spring break. Publication will resume Tuesday, March 29.
Transcript of ’09 Class Has Record - The Techtech.mit.edu/V125/PDF/V125-N14.pdf · By Marcella Bombardieri and...
By Marcella Bombardieri and David AbelTHE BOSTON GLOBE
CAMBRIDGE
Members of Harvard’s Facultyof Arts and Sciences passed a voteof no confidence Tuesday inLawrence H. Summers ’75, dealinga stunning rebuke to the presidentof one of the world’s top universi-ties.
The vote, which astonishedeven some fierce critics, madeclear that the faculty’s disenchant-ment with Summers is deeper thanmany had imagined. After the vote,Summers renewed his pledge toimprove relations with Harvard’sscholars.
“My hope now is that our facul-ty will be in a position to move for-
ward strongly and in a united wayin the important issues that we arefacing,” he told reporters gatheredoutside the Loeb Drama Center,where the meeting had been movedto accommodate more than 550participants.
The motion, stating simply that“the Faculty lacks confidence inthe leadership” of Summers, passedby a secret ballot vote of 218 to185, with 18 abstentions. A secondmotion that offered a milder cen-sure of the president passed 253 to137, also with 18 abstentions.
The votes have no officialimpact. Only Harvard’s governingcorporation has the power to fireSummers, and it has stood by himsince his comments in January sug-gesting that women might not have
the same “intrinsic aptitude” in sci-ence as men touched off a bittercampus debate about his manage-ment of the university.
Last night, James Houghton, thecorporation’s senior member, reit-erated in a statement that “themembers of the Corporation fullysupport President Summers in hisongoing efforts to listen thought-fully to the range of views beingexpressed by members of the uni-versity’s faculties and to work col-legially and constructively withthem to address the important acad-emic matters facing Harvard.”
But resolutions like that adoptedlast night are unheard of in modernHarvard history, and critics expect
By Kathy LinEDITOR IN CHIEF
Kimberley W. Wu has won the2006 Class Council presidentialelection, after a 215–215 vote tiewith Nikhil S. Shenoy forced a run-off that ended at 11:59 p.m. lastnight.
Wu, who said she is “just reallyhappy,” won by a narrow margin of
only 11 votes,according toan e-mail from
Tiffany L. Seto ’06, the chair of theUndergraduate Association ElectionCommission. “Both candidates werevery strong choices,” Seto wrote.
Wu will join running mateClarence Lee ’06, who won the vicepresidential race last week duringthe regular elections, as well as sev-eral other 2006 Class Council win-ners who endorsed her via campaignposters in the past week.
Class Council presidential and
vice presidential candidates cannotofficially run as one ticket, so twocandidates running as one ticketmay receive different numbers ofvotes. Lee, who received 247 votes,beat Shenoy’s running mate, NoelleJ. Kanaga, and the other vice presi-dential candidate, Bella C. Liang,who received 102 and 133 votes,respectively.
“I’m really happy that Kim wasable to win the election,” Lee said,adding that he was very impressedby the effectiveness of Shenoy’scampaign and the amount of supportShenoy was able to rally.
Wu plans to continue “senior tra-ditions like Senior Week, PubNights, Booz Cruise, Career Fair,and Senior Ball,” as well as startnew events like ’06 nights everyother week, ’06 Boston DiningNights, and an ’06 Student AdvisoryCommittee, according to her plat-form.
By Jeffrey ChangSTAFF REPORTER
MIT’s undergraduate admissionsacceptance rate hit an all-time low of14.3 percent this year, with only 1,495of 10,439 applicants accept-ed into the class of 2009.
This year’s acceptancerate is significantly belowthe 16 percent acceptancerate for the classes of 2007and 2008, while the totalnumber of applicants was only 25fewer than last year’s.
“The admissions rate was lowbecause we admitted fewer people inorder to fill a smaller class of 980,”wrote Dean of Admissions MarileeJones in an e-mail. “We targeted an
unusually high yield so that we’ll besure to go to the waitlist, which wehaven’t been able to do for the pasttwo years,” she wrote.
The admitted students come from48 states and 66 countries.Forty-nine percent arefemale, and the SAT aver-ages are “the highestwe’ve seen,” Jones wrote.
“This year’s class is justgreat. We have all the usual
constituencies, but they seem to havesome real sparkle,” she wrote.
A list of the admitted students wasmade available for viewing yesterdaymorning in room 10-100. Studentsmust present their MIT ID cards toview the list.
Volume 125, Number 14 Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 Friday, March 18, 2005
MIT’sOldest and Largest
Newspaper
The WeatherToday: Partly cloudy, 44°F (7°C)
Tonight: Mostly clear, 30°F (-1°C)Tomorrow: Mostly clear, 45°F (7°C)
Details, Page 2
Comics
Page 6
NEWSStipends for Graduate Students Increase 3.5 Percent . . .13RNAi Consortium Announced by Broad Institute . . . . . . .13New Faculty Housing Assistance Program Proposed . . . .14
World & Nation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Arts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16
’09 Class Has RecordLow Admission Rate
OMARI STEPHENS—THE TECH
Min Deng ’06 plays the violin during the MIT Symphony Orchestra performance held last Friday,March 11 in Kresge Auditorium. See review, page 9.
Wu Voted ’06 CouncilPres. in Close Runoff
BRIAN HEMOND—THE TECH
Firefighters from the Cambridge Fire Department look over the smoldering remains of a car thatcaught fire on Massachusetts Avenue at Amherst Street yesterday afternoon.
Harvard Faculty of Arts & SciencesVote Lack of Confidence in Summers
MIT NEWS OFFICE
Elzbieta Ettinger, a novelist, biographer, and professor of writ-ing who helped build the MIT Program in Writing and HumanisticStudies, died of heart failure in her home in Cambridge, Mass., onSaturday, March 12. She was 80 years old.
A native of Warsaw, Poland, Ettinger survived the Holocaust,escaping the Warsaw ghetto shortly before its liquidation; she thenworked for the Polish resistance while maintaining a false identityas a Catholic Pole (she was also known by her wartime pseudonym,Elzbieta Chodakowska). Her experiences during the Second WorldWar were chronicled in her first novel, Kindergarten (1968),described by the New York Times Book Review as a work “onereads with frozen attention.”
A self-described rebel who believed in the promise of socialismas an antidote to social and economic inequality, Ettinger refused tobe silent about the totalitarian nature of the Soviet-influenced Polish
Elzbieta EttingerFAS, Page 12
Ettinger, Page 11
A new undergraduate degree program in mechanical andocean engineering in the Department of Mechanical Engineeringwas approved Wednesday by the faculty. The degree programwill contain five subjects with ocean engineering content, halfthe number in the ocean engineering bachelor’s degree that it
will eventually replace.
New Degree Approved
1495admitted
Down from1664 last year
}}
253Wu .........253Shenoy ...242
✓
The Tech will notpublish duringspring break.Publication willresume Tuesday,March 29.
By Douglas JehlTHE NEW YORK TIMES
WASHINGTON
Porter J. Goss, the director ofcentral intelligence, said on Thurs-day that he could not assure Con-gress that the CIA’s methods ofinterrogating suspected terroristssince Sept. 11, 2001, had beenlegally permissible under federallaws prohibiting torture.
Under sharp questioning at ahearing before the Senate ArmedServices Committee, Goss sought toreassure lawmakers that all interro-gations “at this time” are legal andthat no methods currently in useconstituted torture. But he declined,when asked, to make the samebroad assertions about practicesused over the last few years.
“At this time, there are no ’tech-niques,’ if I could say, that are beingemployed that are in any wayagainst the law or would meet —would be considered torture or any-thing like that,” Goss said inresponse to one question.
When he was asked several min-utes later whether he could say thesame about techniques employed bythe agency since the campaignagainst al-Qaida expanded in theaftermath of the 2001 attacks in theUnited States, he said, “I am notable to tell you that.”
He added that he might be ableto elaborate after the committeewent into closed session to takeclassified testimony.
Goss’ statements came closerthan previous statements from the
agency to an admission that at leastsome of its practices may havecrossed the legal limits, and had theeffect of raising new questionsabout the CIA’s conduct in detain-ing and questioning terror suspects,and in transferring them to foreigngovernments, in what remains oneof the most secretive areas of thegovernment’s efforts to combat ter-rorism.
Asked to clarify his remarks, theagency issued two statements, butno official would agree to be namedbecause of the highly classified sub-ject matter.
“The agency complies with thelaws of the United States, and thedirector’s testimony consistentlystated that,” said a CIA spokes-woman.
WORLD & NATIONPage 2 THE TECH March 18, 2005
Bush Plan for Arctic Oil DrillingAdvances in Senate
By Sheryl Gay StolbergTHE NEW YORK TIMES WASHINGTON
President Bush’s long-stalled plan to open up Alaska’s ArcticNational Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling cleared a major hurdle onCapitol Hill on Wednesday, when the Senate voted to include theproposal in its budget — a maneuver that smooths the way for Con-gress to approve drilling later this year.
By a vote of 51-49, Republicans defeated an attempt by Democ-rats to eliminate the drilling language from the budget. The vote doesnot ensure that drilling will ultimately be approved. But if the budgetis adopted, Senate rules would allow the passage of a measure open-ing the Arctic with a simple majority of 51 votes, escaping the threatof a filibuster, which has killed it in the past.
The vote was a major turning point in one of the most contentiousand long-running energy debates in Washington at a time when Sen-ate Republicans, using the power of a newly expanded majority, havebeen pushing through bills that opponents say favor big business.
Drug Might Cause Liver Damage,Company and FDA Say
By Andrew PollackTHE NEW YORK TIMES
Biogen Idec’s multiple sclerosis drug Avonex might cause severeliver damage in rare cases, the company and the Food and DrugAdministration said Wednesday.
The warning was another blow, though probably only a glancingone, to Biogen, already reeling from the halt in sales of its other mul-tiple sclerosis drug, Tysabri, which was linked to a rare brain infec-tion.
In a related development, GlaxoSmithKline said Wednesday thatthe FDA had ordered it to halt a trial of its multiple sclerosis drug,which is similar to Tysabri. A Glaxo spokesman said the companyunderstood that the move was a precaution in trials of all drugs in thesame class. A spokeswoman for the FDA said the agency could notcomment because of confidentiality about clinical trials.
In a letter posted on the FDA Web site, Biogen said severe liverinjury, including liver failure, “has been reported rarely in patientstaking Avonex.” It said doctors should especially consider the riskwhen Avonex is used along with other drugs that can cause liverdamage, or in patients who drink alcohol.
Money to Clean Up Polluted SitesGoes Unspent by State
By Anthony DepalmaTHE NEW YORK TIMES
A state environmental law passed in 2003 to help clean up pollut-ed industrial sites known as brownfields sets aside $15 million a yearfor the most heavily contaminated neighborhoods in New York state.
But not one dollar has yet been spent, because Gov. George E.Pataki and the leaders of the state Legislature have failed to sign amemorandum of understanding outlining how the money should bedivided up.
The last two state budgets have included $15 million each year forprograms in these neighborhoods, and the governor’s new budgetproposal calls for another $15 million. But Republicans in the Senatetook steps this week to eliminate the latest appropriation until the $30million backlog is spent.
Because of the impasse, residents of the polluted neighborhoodsthat applied for grants say they have not be able to advance theirplans to clean up old junkyards, gas stations and other sites that arenot polluted enough to be put on the Superfund list of the worst toxicsites but cannot be built on unless they are decontaminated.
Senate Votes against CuttingMedicaid in Setback to BushBy Sheryl Gay StolbergTHE NEW YORK TIMES
WASHINGTON
President Bush’s plans to reducethe explosive growth of Medicaid,the government insurance programfor the poor, ran into a roadblockon Capitol Hill on Thursday whenthe Senate voted to strip its 2006budget of all proposed Medicaidcuts. The move threatens to preventCongress from adopting a budgetthis year.
By a vote of 52-48, senatorsagreed to strike language calling for$14 billion in Medicaid spendingcuts over the next five years.Instead, the Senate decided to createa commission to study the programand recommend changes, reportingback in one year.
The vote, a rebuke to both theWhite House and the Senate leader-ship, put the House and Senate on acollision course. It came just hoursbefore the House, by a vote of 218-214, approved its own $2.57 trillionbudget resolution that included $69billion in cuts to entitlement pro-grams, including Medicaid. TheSenate continued work on its ver-sion of the budget Thursday night.
With the two chambers so farapart on spending reductions, the
chairman of the House BudgetCommittee, Jim Nussle, R-Iowa,warned that reconciling the twodocuments would prove difficult.
“We have arguably our work cutout for us now,” Nussle said. Hecharacterized the Medicaid vote asa setback for Bush’s domestic agen-da, suggesting that “the momen-tum” of the entire package, includ-ing spending control, SocialSecurity and tax code changes, wasnow at stake.
“If the Senate is not going to fol-low in the first item on the presi-dent’s agenda,” Nussle said, “thenthat is, I think, a signal that the pres-ident needs to receive and react toimmediately.”
Bush praised the House budgetin a statement released by the WhiteHouse, saying, “It closely followsmy budget proposal and reflects ourshared commitment to be wise withthe people’s money and restrainspending in Washington.” The pres-ident did not comment on the actionin the Senate.
The Senate’s decision to strikethe Medicaid cuts came during achaotic, daylong voting marathon aslawmakers rushed to finish work onthe budget before leaving for theirtwo-week Easter recess, breaking
only to consider legislation thatwould have allowed a federal courtto review the case of Terry Schiavo,a Florida woman who is in a vegeta-tive state and whose feeding tube isscheduled to be removed on Friday.
Senators spent nearly the entireday in the chamber, voting on morethan two dozen budget amendments,on matters including national securi-ty, vocational education grants andprescription drugs for Medicarebeneficiaries. They overwhelminglyvoted, 66-31, to keep funding forurban development grants, despite aproposal by the White House to trimthe program substantially.
They also rejected a Democraticattempt to strip cuts in farm subsi-dies from the budget. And a propos-al to allow the Department of Healthand Human Services to negotiatedirectly with pharmaceutical com-panies when buying prescriptiondrugs for Medicare beneficiarieswas narrowly defeated, 50-49.
But the amendment striking theMedicaid cuts, sponsored by Sen.Gordon Smith, R-Ore., was by farthe most troubling to the Republicanleadership. Seven Republicansjoined with the Senate’s 44 Democ-rats and one independent to approvethe proposal.
CIA Head Admits ‘Uncertainty’About Torture Use Guidelines
Glimmers of SpringBy Roberto RondanelliSTAFF METEOROLOGIST
Shy glimpses of the spring are starting to appear in the forecast horizonand also in reality. Although temperatures are still a bit low compared to cli-matology, signals of spring are unmistakable. The frozen layer over theCharles River is already gone for the most part; in contrast, this didn’t hap-pen until the end of March during the last two years.
The current position of the upper level jet south and east of Massachu-setts is keeping our weather dry and also preventing any significant largescale warming. However, a relatively weak storm will make its way throughour region during the weekend, bringing some precipitation by Sundayafternoon. After this, the forecast shows a recovery of the dry conditionsand possibly, although it’s too early to say for sure, warmer conditions bythe end of next week.
Weekend Outlook:
Today: Partly cloudy, then mostly clear in the afternoon. High 44°F ( 7°C)Tonight: Mostly clear. Low 30°F (-1°C) Saturday: Mostly clear. High 45°F (7°C) Sunday: Partly cloudy varying to overcast in the afternoon. Possible rain or snow towards the end of the day. Low 31°F (-1°C), high 42°F (6°C)
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WEATHERSituation for Noon Eastern Standard Time, Friday, March 18, 2005
March 18, 2005 WORLD & NATION THE TECH Page 3
Efforts to Stop Removal of FloridaWoman’s Feeding Tube Fail
By Abby Goodnough and Carl HulseTHE NEW YORK TIMES MIAMI
Despite last-ditch efforts by Republicans in Washington andTallahassee, Congress and the Florida Legislature failed to passmeasures Thursday to halt the removal of a feeding tube from TerriSchiavo, a critically brain-damaged woman, on Friday afternoon.
Judge George W. Greer of Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court hasordered the tube removed at 1 p.m., potentially ending the seven-year legal fight between Schiavo’s husband, who wants to let herdie, and her parents, who believe she responds to them and wanther to live. Greer has accepted the testimony of doctors who saidthat Schiavo, 41, is in a “persistent vegetative state,” meaningdamage to her cerebral cortex has made her incapable of emotion,memory or thought.
In Congress, a day of rapid-fire events ended without a billagreeable to both the House and Senate. Conservative lawmakersheld out hope Thursday night that a deal could still be reached, butHouse officials said they were recessing for the Easter break andwould not take up legislation that the Senate approved Thursdayafternoon. Senators, meanwhile, said that the House-passed billcould not clear the Senate, leaving both sides frustrated and evenangry.
“I just can’t conceive that this is going to be the end of thestory,” said Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla. “It is too important. A lifehangs in the balance.”
Oil Prices Rise Regardless Of OPEC’s Concern
By Jad MouawadTHE NEW YORK TIMES TEHRAN, IRAN
While OPEC ministers were being feted by Iran’s president onWednesday with Persian food and Kurdish music, traders in the oilpit of the New York Mercantile Exchange sent them an unexpectedmessage.
Hours after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Coun-tries, which was meeting in Isfahan, Iran, decided to increase its pro-duction ceiling by half a million barrels a day, prices in New Yorkspiked at a new high. On Thursday, oil futures in New York rosesharply, hitting $57.60 before closing down 6 cents at $56.40.
The new quota of 27.5 million barrels a day was seen as a signalthat OPEC was trying to push prices down. In terms of actual oil pro-duction, however, the new quota did nothing, since the cartel isalready producing 27.7 million barrels a day.
Crude prices have risen by about 50 percent in the last year. Someanalysts believe $100 a barrel is a possibility in the event of a majordisruption in supplies, another war in the Middle East, for example.
For OPEC, the situation is paradoxical. The group is uncomfort-able with today’s high prices. The OPEC president said he did “notaccept this” while Saudi Arabia, the cartel’s most powerful member,favors oil at $40 to $50 a barrel.
But there is not much OPEC can do. Its 11 members are pumpingclose to 29 million barrels a day and do not have much more produc-tion capacity left to tap. Saudi Arabia, which has been pumping 9.5million barrels a day since the beginning of the year, can add anothermillion barrels or so, but the oil is mostly heavy crude that is less indemand.
11 More Defects Cited at Big DigBy Raphael Lewis and Sean P. Murphy THE BOSTON GLOBE
Big Dig managers announced Thursday the discovery of 11 moresections of the Interstate 93 tunnel walls that contain constructiondefects, but said the problems do not constitute a safety threat.
“We’re confirming that the tunnel is safe; it’s absolutely safe,”Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff program manager Keith Sibley, thecompany’s top official on the Big Dig, told reporters Thursday.
With the discoveries, which Sibley labeled “minor defects,” thetotal number of wall sections that need to be repaired in the tunnelsstands at 55, or roughly 5 percent of the areas inspected to date. Offi-cials still have another 620 wall sections to inspect, Sibley said.
At the press conference Thursday, Big Dig officials say they haveyet to agree on how to fix the defects, which were caused by extrane-ous material that was not removed when the tunnel walls werepoured, creating soft spots that are prone to leaking. TurnpikeAuthority officials, along with Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff, the pri-vate company overseeing the project, and Modern Continental Con-struction, the firm that built most of it, have been negotiating fornearly six months about a repair plan.
China Frees Muslim Woman On Eve of Rice’s Arrival
By Jim YardleyTHE NEW YORK TIMES BEIJING
In steps apparently aimed at improving the diplomatic climatebefore a visit by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, China releasedits most prominent Muslim political prisoner on Thursday, and theBush administration said it would not seek to censure China at theUnited Nations Human Rights Commission’s annual meeting inGeneva.
The release of the prisoner, Rebiya Kadeer, 58, was praised inWashington by Adam Ereli, a State Department spokesman, who alsolisted what he said were several recent “improvements” in China’shuman rights record.
Kadeer was freed on a medical parole and was headed to the Unit-ed States, according to the Dui Hua Foundation, the San Francisco-based human rights organization involved in the release.
The United States has treated Kadeer’s case as a priority eversince she was sentenced to eight years in prison in March 2000 for“illegally providing state intelligence abroad.” She is a member of thepredominantly Muslim Uighur ethnic group in western Xinjiangprovince. Her crime was sending newspaper clippings about the treat-ment of Uighurs to her husband in the United States.
Bush Picks Ohio CongressmanAs Next Trade RepresentativeBy Elizabeth BeckerTHE NEW YORK TIMES
WASHINGTON
President Bush announcedThursday that he had selected Rep.Rob Portman, R-Ohio, who is one ofhis closest friends in Congress, to bethe next U.S. trade representative.
Portman, a former internationaltrade lawyer and one of the fewRepublican House leaders whoworks well with Democrats, washailed as a strong choice by law-makers of both parties and by manytrade groups.
In making his announcement inthe White House’s Roosevelt Room,Bush referred to Portman as a “goodfriend, a decent man and a skillednegotiator.”
Then the president listed the“bold agenda” facing Portman if heis confirmed by the Senate, fromwinning passage of new regionaltrade agreements to negotiating aglobal treaty that could require areduction in farm subsidies.
For his part, Portman said he,too, believed that “open markets and
better trade relations are key com-ponents to a more peaceful, a morestable and a more prosperousworld.”
With the United States tradedeficit at historic levels — itreached $617 billion in 2004 —even Portman’s friends say that hewill need to use all his skills to winapproval for new trade agreementsfrom a Congress increasingly skep-tical about the administration’sstance that more trade agreementswill help diminish the deficit.
Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio,expressed delight that a fellowOhioan was selected for the tradeposition but said she was concernedthat he is “inheriting an absolutemess.”
“I hope he is true to his state andnegotiates trade agreements thatraise our standard of living, but wehave never had worse trade deficitsor more questions about the conse-quences of trade,” she said in aninterview.
Republicans were uniformlythrilled with the announcement,
especially since it helped shift thefocus in Congress away from thepresident’s nomination of Paul D.Wolfowitz as the next president ofthe World Bank, a choice that wascriticized by many Democrats.
“I don’t know if this wasplanned or not but Rob’s nomina-tion couldn’t have come at a bettertime,” said a Republican lawmakerwho spoke on condition ofanonymity.
Portman will succeed Robert B.Zoellick, who left the position near-ly a month ago to become thedeputy secretary of state. In themeantime, foreign trade leaders,including Peter Mandelson, theEuropean Union’s top trade official,have publicly worried that without apermanent American trade negotia-tor, trade talks would falter.
Supachai Panitchpakdi, thedirector-general of the World TradeOrganization, had even traveled toWashington last week in hopes ofdiscussing the critical stage of cur-rent global trade talks with a newtrade representative.
By Warren E. LearyTHE NEW YORK TIMES
WASHINGTON
Continuing cuts in aviationresearch at NASA are endangeringthe country’s leadership in aero-nautics and the aerospace industry,several experts testified onWednesday.
Members of Congress andauthorities on aviation expressedconcern about National Aeronauticsand Space Administration plans toreduce spending on aviation researchby 20 percent over five years. Underthe plans, some wind tunnels andother centers would be closed andhundreds of jobs eliminated.
“I am generally dismayed by themagnitude and trend of the pro-posed NASA aeronautics budget,”R. John Hansman Jr. of the Massa-chusetts Institute of Technologysaid at a hearing of the House Sci-ence Committee Subcommittee onSpace and Aeronautics.
NASA has proposed an aviationresearch budget of $852.3 millionfor the 2006 fiscal year, $54 millionless than this year, with more reduc-tions planned in later years. On thewhole, the Bush administration pro-posed a modest 2.4 percent increasein the NASA budget, to $16.5 bil-
lion. Most of the increase is gearedtoward the Moon-Mars initiative,which would require officials to cutor reduce other programs like avia-tion research.
“This program is on its way tobecoming irrelevant to the future ofaeronautics in this country and inthe world,” said John M. Klineberg,a retired NASA official and anindustry executive who headed aNational Research Council studygroup that examined the aeronauticsprograms. Klineberg said thereview, published last year, foundthat NASA was trying to conducttoo many aviation studies withdiminishing budgets. The groupsuggested consolidating and focus-ing programs.
Klineberg said in an interviewafter the hearing that NASA shouldnot use this recommendation torationalize the cuts it was consider-ing, including eliminating wholeareas of research. “Our recommen-dations shouldn’t be used out ofcontext as a justification for what ishappening,” he said.
Aeronautics research, a NASAhallmark since the agency’s found-ing, has been credited with advanceslike new airplane wing designs, tur-bulence detectors to allow smootherflights, more fuel efficient engines
and research on wingtip devices thatreduce drag and improve fuel con-sumption.
The research is concentrated atthree centers, Glenn in Cleveland;Dryden in Edwards, Calif.; and Lan-gley Center in Hampton, Va. Allface budget and staff cuts.
The agency’s associate adminis-trator for aeronautics research, Dr.J. Victor Lebacqz, defended theprogram, saying more focusedresearch would continue to benefitNASA, the aviation industry andthe nation.
“The United States remains aglobal power in aviation,” Lebacqzsaid. “We are developing technolo-gies to improve safety, reduce envi-ronmental impact and improve theefficiency of aviation operations.”He conceded that NASA could use aclearer vision for the goals of theprogram, adding, “Perhaps the timeis right for a vigorous nationaldebate on such a policy.”
Members of Congress from thedistricts that include the researchcenters questioned the agency’sdirection and pending budget cuts.
“We’re going to take the ’A’ outof it, and it’s just going to be theNational Space Administration,”Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich, D-Ohio,testified.
Palestinian Factions, Israelis AgreeTo Extend Truce through DecemberBy Greg MyreTHE NEW YORK TIMES
JERUSALEM
Palestinian factions agreedThursday to extend an informaltruce through the rest of the year,adding momentum to recent effortsto end four and a half years of fight-ing.
The 13 Palestinian factions meet-ing near Cairo, Egypt, stopped shortof declaring a complete cease-fire.They also set conditions on theiroffer that Israel is unlikely to meetfully, saying they would observe“the current atmosphere of calm inreturn for an Israeli commitment tostop all forms of aggression againstour land and the Palestinian peopleand also the freeing of all prisoners.”
Still, the Palestinian agreementstrengthens the de facto truceannounced on Feb. 8 at a meetingbetween Israel’s prime minister, ArielSharon, and the Palestinian leader,Mahmoud Abbas. The agreementshould buy time for Israeli and Pales-tinian political leaders to work on
solidifying the truce and negotiatingon the many issues that divide them.
In a related step aimed atstrengthening Sharon’s hand insecuring Israeli backing for thewithdrawal of settlers from the GazaStrip and parts of the West Bank,Bush administration officials dis-closed that the prime minister wouldvisit President Bush at his ranch inCrawford, Texas, for the first timenext month.
Administration officials say theywant to do everything they can toshow that American support is solidfor Sharon as he faces challengesfrom the right wing in his own gov-erning coalition against the comingwithdrawals, which are expected tostart this summer.
Sharon, in a telephone conversa-tion with President Hosni Mubarakof Egypt, the host of the Palestinianmeeting, called its outcome a “posi-tive first step.” But Sharon alsoemphasized that the diplomaticprocess would not advance unlessthe “terrorist organizations” were
disarmed.Abbas, who attended the talks,
did not get the full cease-fire he hasadvocated. Still, the agreement isviewed as a success for the Palestin-ian leader and should improve hishand as he seeks to revive peacenegotiations that collapsed after thecurrent fighting began in September2000.
Israel said the calm, while wel-come, was not enough. “We’rethankful for the quiet,” said MarkRegev, a spokesman for Israel’sForeign Ministry, “but this isn’t areal solution. We have to see thePalestinians start to move to disarmthese groups.”
Still, Israel already is taking sev-eral steps cited by the Palestinianfactions. On Wednesday it handedover security control to the Pales-tinians in the desert town of Jericho,and similar transfers are planned infour more West Bank towns. Lastmonth, Israel freed 500 prisoners,and 400 more are to be released inthe coming months.
NASA Proposal to Cut SpendingDraws Concern of Some Experts
Letters To The EditorWhat’s the Difference?
Ridiculous.Mr. Roy [March 15, “Not Hacking!”]
should be ashamed of himself for not consid-ering URL manipulation a hacking offense.Regardless of whether Sloan is over-hypingthis or not, the facts remain the same.
First off, let's define hacking as unautho-rized computer access; it is a common, easy-to-digest definition. Mr. Roy states thatchanging a URL manually is not hacking.
This is the equivalent of somebody who iswalking by a store which has its doors wideopen in the middle of the night. He walks in,just to look around, mind you, not to stealanything, and leaves just shortly. Is that nottrespassing? Unauthorized access is unautho-rized access.
What if one of these applicants had someskills in PERL and wrote a script that traipsedthroughout the entire site, creating and sub-mitting random URLs until one worked?
Would you agree that that is hacking?If so, then what is the difference between
this example and what really happened? Ahuman enters a URL to access a part of a Website he does not have authorization for — notguilty. A human creates a program whichenters a URL to access a part of a Web site hedoes not have authorization for — guilty.
So, what's the difference?Patrick Paul
Biology Research Staff
OPINIONPage 4 THE TECH March 18, 2005
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Erratum A front page photo caption in Tuesday’s issue incorrectly stated the location of The Great Latke-Hamentashen Debate. It took place in 10-250, not Kresge Auditorium.
March 18, 2005 OPINION THE TECH Page 5
Ken Nesmith
The MIT Drama Shop recently performeda play called “The Internationalist.” The playcomprises a compelling discussion of interna-tional identity, contrasting American nationalcharacter with a hybrid European and globalnational character. The play asks, almostnihilistically, if the strife of business, com-merce, and status pursuit leech from our truehumanity, decaying our identities and oursouls, and if romance can be a salve to thatdecay. (The play says, “No.”) I think the playmakes some mistakes, taking answers that aretoo easy once in a while, but the work engagesseveral topics in an interesting dialogue. Atthe end of “The Internationalist,” the actressesand actors did a noteworthy thing: they took abow.
The bow seemed an acknowledgement thattheir work was not purely discourse; theactors had not fully subsumed the play’sinvestigation and engagement of issues astheir own. They were putting on a show fortheir friends and fans, not investigating anidea. A terminal bow marked the ultimate pur-pose of the performance as an element ofsocial dialogue, not ideological discourse, asthe prior two hours of performance suggested.Such a bow is, of course, common. An audi-ence engrossed in the dilemmas ideated in agiven play is invited to stop thinking and tocloset away tough questions since this, afterall, is just a play. Here, the awkwardness andhalfheartedness of the curtain call seemed toreflect that anxiety of purpose. After a vigor-ous and well-acted production, the playersdanced self-consciously across the stage, tooktheir bows, and shuffled off again, apparentlyuneasy with the conflicting aims of the pro-duction.
The same divergence is apparent in every-day discourse. Personal discussions and argu-ments are often waged less for consequencesthat relate to their subject matter, which canrange from minor to nonexistent, than for the
sake of personal needs and the social effectsof argumentation. The nominal purpose ofsuch exchanges, as revealed by the wordsexchanged, is divorced from the actual pur-pose. At the end of a vicious debate, oppo-nents might shake hands with mutual respect,even though positions they’ve just defendedmight variously require that they considertheir opponent irrational or ignorant, someshade of a baby killer or an oppressor ofwomen, a Bible thumping simpleton or a soul-less atheist, or a racist or a demagogue,depending on the specific topic of a particulardebate. Those conclusions are marginalized,and the material discussed is brushed aside.The real purpose was just a battle and socialcontest. Then discussion is betrayed as recre-ational, a frivolous social outlet that might aswell be any other.
We can ask the same question not just ofconversational discourse, but of the writtenvariety. Why do students publish columns inThe Tech? Sometimes, columns are indeedwritten for the sake of their content, to influ-ence opinion and change minds. But if dis-course is a social outlet like any other — say,athletics — then its purposes should parallelthose of something like athletics, and indeedthey do. Athletics are not always about thepursuit of fitness, nor is discourse alwaysabout the pursuit of truth. Columns are writtenfor frustration, to tweak the noses of ideologi-cal opponents, to inflame and generate angerrather than craft understanding. They are writ-ten for status; to impress girls, guys, peers,and professors; to flex muscle, to timidlydeploy new vocabulary words and … how tosay it … bombastic grandiloquence like achild showing off a shaky handstand.
These are all social ends. But written dis-course can also serve as a personal reassur-ance of sanity. It is a check that if a thoughtcan be written, there must be some rationalityunderpinning it. Airing a private thoughtprocess offers a reconnection with and valida-tion of the logos; an assurance of one’s sanityvia social approval, which is a dependence
that can become unhealthy. Publicizing dis-course can restore one’s trust in one’s ownthoughts, and some seek public forum for thesame reason people like to talk through theirproblems with friends: often it’s not to getadvice, it’s just to have someone listen to theirinternal machinations, which is calming.Interestingly, writing can become addictive asathletics or other social outlets can becomeaddictive — having thought through an argu-ment, if you fail towrite it, it’s as ifyou’ve skipped aworkout, cheating yourmind just as you mightcheat your body ofneeded exercise.
Spoken and writtendiscourse can clearlyhave primary purposesthat are divorced fromtheir content. But thatdivorce extendsbeyond discourse. Thesame sunderance canbe identified in mostfacets of life: in sci-ence, researchers oftencompete to publishpapers and earnstature, rather than tosolve scientific prob-lems, which might bedone better collabora-tively. Marriages aremade for myriad endsbesides love — status,wealth, religion, convenience, pregnancy, andso forth. People do community service andUROPs to burnish resumes. We purchase allmanner of commercial items for their socialstatus effects, rather than their functional pur-pose. Divorce between stated purpose andactual or revealed purpose is everywhere, andgenerally speaking, the more such differencesare widely acknowledged and understood, theless damage they cause.
Most of those points are obvious — every-one knows that people buy things to gainsocial status and wed for wealth. But watching“The Internationalist,” I found the separationbetween content and purpose especiallyunnerving, probably in the way that the reve-lation of any ulterior motive pertinent tosomething important to us is unnerving.
I’ve studied very little theater, and perhapswhat I’ll propose now is a familiar part of the-
ater history. I wouldlike to see a play con-clude without a bow,leaving the audience inthe realm of discourse,instead of so readilybreaking the connec-tion to a fantasticdialectic by remindingus that these are justactors, just putting ona play, seeking thesocial approval of theiraudience. The audi-ence could be forced tobreak that connectionthemselves and wouldstep from the theaterwith the play ratherthan the resigned,unnatural interruptionof applause lingeringin their minds. Theplay’s purpose wouldthen be its content, notsomething else. A filmon genocide could
conclude not with credits, acknowledging allof the hard work of actors, set designers,sound editors, and production assistants thatcreated this element of social dialogue, butcould instead conclude with finality, a fade toblackness and silence that left the ball in theviewer’s court. These would be moving waysto expand the power of theatrical discourse.Compelling the same candidacy of purpose inother fields is another matter.
Why Are You Talking?
David Berman
In the March 8 issue of The Tech, KenNesmith purports to summarize a host of PaulKrugman’s New York Times editorials, to “help
counterbalance what-ever influence theNew York Times has
on national opinion.” Instead of object analysis,however, Nesmith’s summaries are full of con-venient omissions and misguided criticisms,and they use logic almost as faulty as that con-tained in President Bush’s privatization plan.
Paul Krugman is one of the preeminenteconomists of our time, and is widely respect-ed in the field. He has published 20 books andhas written for the New York Times since1999. He’s been awarded numerous medalsand honors. But more important than his biog-raphy is his aptitude for well-reasoned, logicaleconomic analysis. For all of these reasons,it’s quite revolting to see his work distortedand maligned because it doesn’t seem to rein-force Nesmith’s personal politics.
Nesmith’s article is full of half-truths and
erroneous summaries. Perhaps the most mis-leading number he cites is the “$10 trillion”shortfall of the current Social Security system.This number is taken directly from the Bushadministration’s talking points and is based onan “infinite horizonmodel,” which is neverused in practice. TheCongressional BudgetOffice estimates theshortfall over 75 yearsto be $1.9 trillion —just 0.35 percent of theGDP. This is still asignificant number, butcompare that to theestimated $8.1 trillioncost of the recently-passed PrescriptionDrug Benefit or the$11.1 trillion cost of making the Bush tax cutspermanent.
Nesmith talks as if it’s to be taken forgranted that we need a new national retire-ment plan, when in fact we already have onethat is functioning quite well. He then pro-
ceeds to repeatedly attack Krugman for failingto propose a new retirement plan, whichmakes no sense — Krugman’s intent is todefend the one we currently have! Why wouldhe propose a new one?
Nesmith’s summa-ry of Krugman’s Jan.28 article is particular-ly reprehensible. Hediscusses Krugman’sproblem with Bush’sattempt to exploit forpolitical gain the dif-ference in lifeexpectancy betweenA f r i c a n - A m e r i c a nmales and other males.Nesmith boils Krug-man’s article down tothe following sentence:
“Two years isn’t that much, he says, so blacksare fine under the current system.” In doingso, he completely misses the two main pointsof the article: 1) Despite the life expectancydiscrepancy, Social Security provides morereturn for African-Americans by using a pro-
gressive formula to determine benefits and byalso being a disability insurance program. 2)Bush’s attempt to exploit this race-based dis-crepancy to further his privatization schemeinstead of working to actually close the lifeexpectancy gap is tantamount to bigotry.
Social Security is one of the most success-ful large-scale social engineering programs thecountry has ever seen. Despite the misleadingstatistics pushed by those interested in destroy-ing it, the most conservative estimates showthat Social Security will be solvent through atleast 2042 and with no adjustment will still beable to pay out 81 percent of promised benefitsafter that time. Paul Krugman has been pre-senting an intelligent, well-reasoned defense ofthis program for quite a while, and his analysisdeserves better than Nesmith’s partisan hack-job. In fact, what it really deserves is to beread, in full, by those interested in the facts.You can find his columns undistorted athttp://www.pkarchive.org/column/column.html.Mr. Nesmith: You might want to give them asecond look as well.
David Berman is a member of the class of2000.
Nesmith Distorts Krugman’s Views on Social Security
At the end of a vicious debate,opponents might shake hands
with mutual respect, even thoughpositions they’ve just defended
might variously require that theyconsider their opponent irrational
or ignorant, some shade of ababy killer or an oppressor ofwomen, a Bible thumping
simpleton or a soulless atheist, ora racist or a demagogue,
depending on the specific topic ofa particular debate.
Nesmith talks as if it’s to betaken for granted that we need anew national retirement plan,when in fact we already haveone that is functioning quite
well.
Letter
We’ll show you howto get busy
in the dark room.
W20-483, [email protected]
Page6
March 18,2005
by Brian Loux
Trio by Emezie Okorafor
by A.K.Turza
One Screw Loose by Josie Sung
Think you can draw better than our artiste?Then draw for The Tech! — [email protected]
March 18, 2005 The Tech Page 7
KRT Crossword PuzzleSolution, page 14
ACROSS1 Ford or Dodge4 Parade vehicle9 Chris of tennis
14 Wrath15 Deciduous conifer16 Bannister, e.g.17 Chest bone18 Tournament uncertainty20 Average grades22 Possessive pronoun23 Skates24 Drawing power26 Evening in Torino28 Tournament time34 King novel37 Lost38 College cheer39 Gilbert and Teasdale42 Arista43 Event site46 Acting as toastmaster49 Tournament winner52 Vegetarian taboo53 Puzzle57 Sicilian mount60 Dude from Dubuque
63 Head-to-head contest64 Tournament, slangily67 Not well68 String quartet member69 Supped70 Poetic meadow71 __ of Troy72 Cache of cash73 Cub Scouts' unit
DOWN1 Approximately2 Sharon of Israel3 Dissident4 Spinoff of "Alice"5 Portable lights6 Correct: pref.7 Longing8 Belief in God9 Aussie bird
10 Lively11 Exile isle12 Depend13 Most of Paris?19 La __ Tar Pits21 Japanese wrestling25 St. Louis pro
27 Vitamin fig.29 Natl. interest watchdog30 Sheik's women31 Actor Morales32 Stitched33 Caroled34 Turkey's neighbor35 DEA agent36 Queens stadium40 Elec. unit41 Systematized disciplines44 Identifiable45 Unreturnable serve47 Long, long time48 Writer Bagnold50 Reagan's Alexander51 In conflict54 Trade group55 Dust-up56 EAP part57 Write on metal58 Friend's pronoun59 Foster film61 Stand by62 Dancer Pavlova65 Saturn model66 Old English letter
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Dilbert® by Scott Adams
THE 2005 HE 2005 HAROLD & & A ARLENE SCHNITZERPRIZE IN TH THE VISUAL AL ARTS
The Council for the Arts at MIT and the MIT Student Art Association invite all registered MIT students to submit works ofvisual art (2 dimensional, 3 dimensional, and video) to the Harold & Arlene Schnitzer Visual Arts Competition
Submissions will be accepted on Monday, April 4, 2005
between 12noon – 5:00pm at the Student Art Association (W20-429)
FIRST Prize $1500 SECOND Prize $900 THIRD Prize $600
Winners must be willing and able to display their work in the Wiesner Student Art Gallery
The show will hang in the gallery during commencement, from late May 2005 through June 30, 2005
Schnitzer Prize Applications are available at the Student Art Association (W20-429),Campus Activities Complex (W20-500), and the Office of the Arts (E15-205)
You may also download the material from the SAA web page:http://web.mit.edu/saa/schnitzer.html
Winners will be announced on Monday April 11, 2005
If you plan to enter the Schnitzer competition, please send a confirmationIf you plan to enter the Schnitzer competition, please send a confirmationemail to [email protected] with “Schnitzer Prize” in the subject lineemail to [email protected] with “Schnitzer Prize” in the subject line
Bon
usCro
ssw
ord
Sol
utio
n, p
age
13
ACROSS 1 Hidden snag6 TV adjuncts
10 Open slightly14 Loan-sharking15 Half a train?16 Mrs. Dithers of
“Blondie”17 Throat infection, briefly18 Drag19 Us opponent20 Substitute batter23 Forty winks24 Junky jalopy25 Funnyman Jay27 Rely30 Boxing proximity34 Greek Cupid35 Buckeye State37 Keyboard key38 Row’s opp.39 Afghan maker
41 Singer McGraw42 Movie house44 Table insert45 Tableland46 Esteems48 Supplies with new
weapons50 “La __ Bonita”51 On deck52 Blast letters54 Signal sender60 Decomposes62 Toe the line63 Sea World performer64 Table spread65 Paint with words66 Provisions67 Workers’ rights grp.68 Fair-hiring grp.69 Elbow grease
DOWN1 Dental point2 Italian wine region3 1/3 of a Byrds hit4 Christmas depictions5 Syllable break6 TV monitor, of a sort7 Idle talk8 Sound defeat9 Sacred
10 Part of a play11 “Three’s Company” star12 Type of code13 Interstate exit21 Wore22 Film critic Ebert26 TV sales channel27 Interior look28 Succumb to time and
tide29 Time trials leader30 Bar mitzvahs and
baptisms31 Smidgen32 Belief in God33 Bombeck, et al.36 Dagger handle39 Prepared to pray40 Actor Zimbalist43 Harvest goddess45 Perry of “Friends”47 Singer King49 Lives51 Justin Timberlake’s
group52 Disney sci-fi film53 Football coach Chuck55 Irish Rose’s lover56 Verne captain57 Weight allowance58 Jane Austen novel59 Iron oxide61 Cry out loud
By Nivair H. GabrielSTAFF WRITER
OthelloBy William ShakespeareProduced by Meghan HarrisDirected by Kortney AdamsWith Dan Liston ’04, Holly Laird ’07, BrianKeller ’05, Jonathan Reinharth ’06, ElvieStephanopoulos ’07, Erin Rhode ’04La Sala de Puerto RicoMarch 17-19, 8 p.m.$6 students; $8 general public
It is very easy to be jealous of the MITShakespeare Ensemble. How do they all man-age to tirelessly bear their acting chops 20hours a week and still do their problem sets?How can they master the inflection of everymonologue so that their characters’ intentionsare understood? How can they spend weekssewing costumes and daubing makeup, untilthe look of the show is authentic?
They just do. And yet despite this prepara-tion, the Ensemble’s production does not drawexcessive attention to lavish costumes or acomplicated set. All “Othello” needs is a min-imal backdrop, believable enough for theaudience to accept, yet simple enough thattotal attention is given to the actors, the story-tellers. For the Ensemble, Shakespeare’s mes-sage is front and center, as it should be.
Though “Othello” retains its spirit, theEnsemble Players have enhanced it with theirown twist. Instead of the classic racial strug-gle against the historically black Othello, theEnsemble introduces instead religious preju-dice. Othello, being a Moor, is a convertedMuslim in a Christian world — in this ver-sion, the tumultuous Italy and Cyprus of the1960s. The costumes, however, are still classi-cally Shakespearean, as is (obviously) the lan-guage, so the only way to know the time peri-od is to read the program.
It’s best to put the program down as soonas the show starts, though.Holly Laird ’07, who per-forms Iago with a relent-less, fabulously evil flair,comes on with high ener-gy and never falters in theentire three-hour durationof the show. She portraysan Iago who is addicted tostrife and suffering, guilt-less in his destruction ofothers’ happiness, andcapable of crimes so coldand calculated that theydraw uncontrollable shiv-ers. Her transformation ofOthello (Dan Liston ’04),from a sickeningly sweetfamily man to a tormentedmonster who strangles hisown devoted wife, is theheart of Shakespeare’scautionary tale.
Liston emulates thishonorable but troubledman in full; he is totallyimmersed, as is Laird, inhis character and nothingelse. His handling ofShakespeare’s characteris-tic asides, when he turnsto the audience to revealhis thoughts, is truly pro-fessional; he is intent onnot breaking the "fourthwall" between spectatorand actor. Laird, by con-trast, looks at everyone inthe eye as though incitingus to action, which onlymakes her manipulation
more frightening. Othello,it’s clear, is the most pathet-ic plaything for Iago’smachinations; Laird and Lis-ton convey perfectly that itis simply all too easy.
As the play progresses,fascination turns to horrorwith the performances ofErin Rhode ’04 and ElvieStephanopoulos ’07. Rhode,Iago’s subdued wife Aemil-ia, emerges as the most trag-ic figure in the story; boundto serve her husband, sheunwittingly participates inthe downfall of her mistressDesdemona (Stephanopou-los). When she finally real-izes her treachery, it is toolate to do anything but assurethe murderer Othello that hissuspicions of his wife hadabsolutely no grounding inreality. With her death ispaired that of the sweetheart-ed Desdemona, who tearfullyadmits that she loves herhusband even as he beats anddebases her. Rhode andStephanopoulos could elicitweeping from the most well-regulated mind.
In the midst of all this, itis a mystery why lightheartedFrench music from the movieAmélie plays during a scenechange, but perhaps if no oneknew its origin, it wouldseem bizarrely appropriate.The few other mistakes —such as the semi-frequent slips of tongue or themilitary drum sound effect that skipped andthen started over — were nominal and disap-peared in the midst of the plot’s skillful pro-gression. The unmatched patterns in Aemilia’scostume do not, but the tremendous symboliceffect of Cassio’s (Jonathan Reinharth ’06)ripped-off patch and Desdemona’s pure blueoutfits are far from blunders.
The shoes on Bianca "the whore" (Saman-tha Weiss ’08) make my feet ache with pain,but her character makes me laugh. WhenRodorigo (Brian Keller ’05) spies on theunfolding drama, his ridiculous sunglasses —stolen from “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”— speak his hidden intentions perfectly. Bra-bantio (Todd Radford G) is a delight, not onlybecause of his hilarious grumble as he awakesto the noise of Iago and Rodorigo, but becausehe spends his early stage time in a nightgownand a suit jacket. Radford’s later role of Soldieris a brilliant portrayal of Shakespeare’s comic
humor, even without so amusing an ensemble.As far as symbolism goes, watching Des-
demona cross herself and settle into bed nextto an ornate, cathedral-styled window makesit ten times worse when she is awoken fromher slumber for a midnight asphyxiation. Oth-ello removes his cross necklace before heembeds hers into her throat, and takes off herwedding ring. When it later drops by accidentacross the grisly scene, Gratiano (Erin Price’06) sets it next to the dead couple, makingthe scene even more poignant.
Just as their name would have it, this groupof MIT thespians offer a devastating “Othel-lo.” The defining moment of the show is themost heartbreaking: when Desdemona reachesout to stroke Othello’s face, and he shoves herhand away as if he wishes to break it.
Yes, it’s easy to be envious of the Shake-speare Ensemble for their talent and skill, andfor this excellent and professional production— but that jealousy could be my undoing.
By Tony Hwang
MIT Symphony OrchestraKresge AuditoriumMarch 11, 2005, 8 p.m.
Though MITSO is an organization that hasstruggled with enrollment, the members thatremain year after year are characterized by afierce love for orchestra playing and the senseof community that follows from it. Thesemusicians put in at least five hours of sched-uled rehearsal per week and practice on theirown time as well. Thus, when they put on ashow, they deserve praise in the form of loudapplause from the audience. However, thisconcert’s audience shamefully did no suchthing.
Temporarily setting aside that issue,MITSO played a relatively short but flowingprogram of three pieces. For the most part, themusic came off smoothly, and even inmoments of emotional turmoil, the orchestra’ssound was still round with few sharp corners.As a former MITSO member and concertgoer,I am accustomed to hearing at least one pieceper concert that feels extremely contemporaryand more punctuated, and I was surprised tohear otherwise. Perhaps the conductor, DanteAnzolini, had a slight change of heart.
The concert opener was Mozart’s “Adagioand Fugue in C minor, K. 546” for strings,
and it showed off the individual talents ofeach string section. A convincing performanceof this piece requires great technical precisionand emotional involvement. There are manytimes, especially at soft dynamic levels, whenthe melody is completely exposed. MITSOgave a decent interpretation, though a certaindegree of passion was missing. For example,when the orchestra produced powerful chordsin the beginning of the Adagio section, theexpected feelings of grandeur were notevoked. However, the Fugue was more excit-ing with deeper sonorities and greater activityamong the sections.
Annoyingly, at the conclusion of theMozart, the spectators failed to clap until theconductor began his customary walk off thestage (with a hint of incredulity on his face atthe audience’s reaction). Not only was thisreaction (or lack thereof) a breach of concertetiquette, but it also showed a lack of attentionto the performance and was disrespectful tothe players.
Following the Mozart was the world pre-miere of “Symphony No. 1 for Orchestra” byMarco Betta. This contemporary work wascommissioned by Anzolini and was composedin the spirit of commemorating the victims ofthe Italian mafia in Via D’Amelio, Palermo.The first movement begins with a unisonpizzicato and then sustained harmonics, creat-ing an eerie mood. It follows a listless course,
though it is occasionally punctuated by dra-matic and frantic sections led by the windsthat represent memories of the horrible explo-sion. Starting with a similarly subduedentrance, the second movement contains dis-tinct low rumblings that move from the brassto the string and finally the winds. The snaredrum is heard playing sequences in a mannerreminiscent of a faraway march or procession.The final movement features solos by stringsection leaders and synthesizes the first twomovements. MITSO did a fine job of convey-ing the mixture of reverence and terror thatthe piece was intended to transmit. Especiallynoteworthy were the winds, both its soloistsand as a section, as their delivery wassuperbly accurate and moving. It’s a shamethat the composer was not able to be presentto receive the appreciation of the audience atthe conclusion of the piece.
The intermission was followed by the finalwork, “Symphony No.2 in D Major, Op. 73”by Johannes Brahms. The last piece of a con-cert is usually the most impressive, and it wasobvious that MITSO had put in the most workon this piece. Immediately, there was a con-siderable improvement in intonation and coor-dination among the sections. In the first move-ment, there were bright and triumphantsections contrasting with soft and playful por-tions, impressively all based on the same threenote motive. The second movement takes a
darker turn, receding into subdued and relaxedechoes of the first movement’s energy. Build-ing on the second movement, the third fea-tures graceful melodies and fast-paced yetlyrical passages based on an impressive oboesolo. By the last movement, MITSO finallydemonstrated the power of a symphonyorchestra at full force with great energy andtightness as a group, ending with an exultantcelebration of sound.
With such a compelling finish, about halfof the audience gave a standing ovation, and itseemed that MITSO had earned its due for theevening. However, the applause died downeven before the conductor had the opportunityto make his trek to and from the podium theobligatory number of times, cutting him offfrom the recognition he deserved. Again, thiswas a rude and unacceptable gesture from theaudience.
While MITSO is not a professional orches-tra, it still should not be taken lightly. It pro-vides entertaining music and surges unafraidinto challenging repertoire that lesser groupswould hesitate to tackle. Though the audi-ence’s less-than-stellar manners could be writ-ten off as ignorance, Friday’s concert was arespectable showing for the musicians, andthe players deserved more appreciation thanthey got. Hopefully, the future will provideimprovements in both MITSO and its listen-ers.
ARTSMarch 18, 2005 THE TECH Page 9
CLASSICAL REVIEW
Musicians Met with Lack of RespectMIT Symphony Orchestra Struggles to Satisfy Ignorant Audience
THEATER REVIEW
The Green-Eyed MonsterThe Shakespeare Ensemble’s Flair Could Make Anyone Jealous
TAMAR ENGEL—THE TECH
Desdemona (Elvie Stephanopoulos) sings sadly as she pre-pares to retire to her bedroom, where she was asked towait alone by her suspicious husband.
TAMAR ENGEL—THE TECH
Othello (Dan Liston) weeps when he learns that the handker-chief he had given to his wife was allegedly found in Cas-sio’s bedroom, implying she was unfaithful.
Page 10 THE TECH March 18, 2005
government and faced repeatedinterrogations and professionalblack-listing during the early1960s. She described post-war lifein Poland in her second novel,Quicksand (1989).
Ettinger earned a Ph.D. inAmerican literature from WarsawUniversity in 1966; she moved toCambridge the following year andserved as a Senior Fellow at theRadcliffe (now Bunting) Instituteuntil 1974. She was known for herpassionate and incisive lectures onmodern Russian literature, as wellas her outspoken critiques of thematerialism, anti-intellectualism,and racial prejudice that she per-ceived as dominant aspects ofAmerican culture.
From 1975 to 1996, Ettingerserved as professor of writing atMIT, where she was namedThomas Meloy Professor ofRhetoric and Literature. A demand-ing and forceful teacher, she helpedbuild the Institute's Program inWriting and Humanistic Studiesand was instrumental in bringingsuch writers as I. B. Singer,Bernard Malamud, and Elizabeth
Bishop to the MIT community.Ettinger's biography, Rosa Lux-
emburg, A Life (1987), was trans-lated into several languages. It por-trays the personality — the heartand mind — of a brilliant revolu-tionary who was murdered by hercomrades. Love and politics areintimately interwoven throughoutEttinger's narrative.
Ettinger's controversial 1994book, Hannah Arendt-Martin Hei-degger, interpreted the lengthyromantic relationship between theJewish philosopher and her Nazi-affiliated mentor. In this work,described in the New York Times as“absorbing and cruelly fascinat-ing,” Ettinger was “unsparing inher exposure of both Heidegger'smendacity and Arendt's propensityfor self-deception” about Heideg-ger, wrote the reviewer. Shortlyafterward, the Heidegger estatepublished the full text of the Hei-degger-Arendt correspondence.
Ettinger was at work on a full-length biography of Hannah Arendtat the time of her death. She is sur-vived by her daughter, MaiaEttinger, of San Francisco.
A memorial service will be heldat the MIT Faculty Club on Sun-day, April 10, at 11 a.m.
March 18, 2005 THE TECH Page 11
Council for the Arts at MIT Funding Available!
Next application deadline:
April 8, 2005!
Important information is available on the web:
Grants Guidelines: http://web.mit.edu/arts/do/funding/grantguide.htmlApplication form: http://web.mit.edu/arts/do/funding/grantform.html
Other funding sources:http://web.mit.edu/slp/finances/supp-funding-guide.html
Please contact the director of the Council for the Arts at MIT, SusanCohen, at [email protected], to make an appointment to discussyour project and the Council’s application process. While not mandatory,it is strongly recommended that you meet with the director.
Requests for funding submitted on this deadlinemust be for projects or events that
begin no sooner than May 19, 2005
Ettinger Was KnownFor Literary WorksEttinger, from Page 1
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Page 12 THE TECH March 18, 2005
the faculty votes to carry greatsymbolic weight on campus. TheFaculty of Arts and Sciences isonly one of Harvard’s 10 schools,but it represents almost half of thetenured and tenured-track faculty.It includes the undergraduate col-lege and the traditional PhD pro-grams and is considered by manyto be the heart of the university.
“This is something the corpora-tion has to take seriously,” EverettMendelsohn, a professor of the his-tory of science, said in an interviewafter the meeting, where he votedfor both motions. “These twomotions are a serious critique ofthe president and indirectly of thecorporation.”
Mendelsohn said he “acceptedat face value and respected” Sum-mers’s apologies, but added that“whether in the face of these[votes] he can do his job is some-thing he’ll have to look hard at.”
Summers, whose demeanor inthe meeting was described by fac-ulty as very somber, indicatedafterward that he did not intend toresign. “As I said to the faculty, Ihave done my best these last twomonths to hear all that has beensaid, to think hard, to learn, and toadjust,” he said in a statement afterthe meeting. “I will continue to dothat.”
The embattled president washounded by dozens of protesters,many of them students, as he head-ed for a waiting car after the meet-ing. Some of them sang, “HeyLarry, goodbye,” to the tune ofSteam’s 1969 hit, “Na Na Hey Hey(Kiss Him Goodbye).”
But inside the Loeb Drama Cen-ter, home to the American Reperto-ry Theatre, the mood was describedas serious and low key, with lessapplause and tension in the air thanat two contentious faculty meetingslast month. Only the student news-paper is allowed to attend facultymeetings.
Over 800 people had the right tovote Tuesday, according to a Har-vard spokesman, but nontenuredprofessors rarely attend facultymeetings or vote at them becausetheir position at the university isless stable.
J. Lorand Matory, who intro-duced the resolution for a vote ofno confidence, was surprised with
the outcome, saying he expectedonly about 30 percent of the votersto support his motion.
“This was a resounding state-ment that he should resign.” saidMatory, professor of anthropologyand African and African Americanstudies. “There is no noble alterna-tive to his resignation. This isabout his management style. He isdictatorial and autocratic.”
But even some who supportedthe motion said they weren’t con-vinced that the only thing Summerscould do was quit.
“I feel confused about whetherhe should resign,” said JudithRyan, professor of German. “Butthis is really about change and theway business is conducted on theFaculty of Arts and Sciences.”
Morton Keller, coauthor withhis wife, Phyllis, of “Making Har-vard Modern: The Rise of Ameri-ca’s University,” said last nightthat he knew of no vote of no con-fidence in a Harvard president atleast since the Civil War, althoughhe said there had been talk of sucha vote against James Bryant Conantin the 1930s, when he fired somepopular instructors.
“The real decision is in thehands of the corporation, and theyhave to weigh a lot of things,”Keller said. “Obviously that votecarries a lot of weight one way, butacceding to it will open up possi-bilit ies in the future that anyresponsible corporation would bevery concerned about.”
Several professors defended thepresident at the meeting.
“As someone who went into theacademic profession 50 years agoin the days of Senator McCarthy, Isaid this is very menacing andwould set a terrible precedent,”said Stephan Thernstrom, a historyprofessor. “It is a very bad blow tothe conception of academic free-dom.”
One professor offered a motionthat would have prevented a voteon the no-confidence resolution,but it was soundly defeated on avoice vote.
The text of the second motion,introduced by Theda Skocpol, pro-fessor of government and sociolo-gy, read: “The Faculty regrets thePresident’s mid-January statementsabout women in science and theadverse consequences of thosestatements for individuals and forHarvard; and the Faculty alsoregrets aspects of the President’smanagerial approach as discussedin recent meetings of the Faculty ofArts and Sciences. The Facultyappreciates the President’s statedintent to address these issues andseeks to meet the challenges facingHarvard in ways that are collegialand consistent with longstandingfaculty responsibilities in institu-tional governance.”
Skocpol said some of her col-leagues told her they voted for theno-confidence motion but not herresolution because they found it tooconciliatory.
But she said she told the gather-ing that she meant it to “indicatethe faculty was determined toremain vigilant and united as wemoved forward.”
“It wasn’t a statement thateverything is fine,” Skocpol said.
Boston Open 2005USA Badminton Sanctioned National Ranking Tournament
March 25-27, 2005
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Solution to BonusCrossword
from page 8
FAS Conflicted OverNo Confidence VoteFAS, from Page 1
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By Kathy DobsonASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR
Graduate student stipend rateswill increase by an average of 3.5percent next year, according to amemo sent out by Dean for Gradu-ate Students Isaac M. Colbert andAssociate Provost Alice P. Gast inFebruary.
Single graduate students withresearch or teaching assistantshipswill continue to receive a full sub-sidy for their health insurance costs,while premiums for spouses anddependents of students will decreasefrom last year’s levels, according tothe memo.
Increase varies by degree, dept.Next year’s graduate student
stipend level will range from $1,873to $2,101 per month (doctoral can-didates receive more than master ofscience candidates, and teachingassistants more than research assis-tants). Departments have the optionto decrease this base rate by up to10 percent or increase it by up to 15percent.
“We’re encouraging departmen-tal student groups to approach theirdepartments to push for somethingon the [positive] side,” wroteMichael Folkert G, co-chair of theGraduate Student Council Housingand Community Affairs Committee,in an e-mail.
Faculty will continue to cover 55percent of the tuition for graduatestudents.
The stipend hike is greater thanthe rise in cost of living for graduatestudents, which is expected to be 2.9percent next year, according toinformation compiled by the Gradu-ate Student Council. The cost of liv-ing estimate is based on data takenfrom the 2002 Graduate StudentLife Survey, the MIT HousingOffice, and local and national eco-nomic data.
Family health insurance fees fallIn addition to extending the full
health insurance subsidy for sup-ported single students, family healthinsurance premiums will alsodecrease.
Premiums for spouses anddependents will decrease by $200next year to $1360 for a spouse and$360 per child. Premiums for fami-lies will be capped at $1720. Thesereductions were made based on rec-ommendations from the director ofthe Medical Department, the vicepresident for Human Resources, andthe Office of Budget and Planning,according to the memo.
“The GSC has been pushing forthe needs of families for the lastthree years,” said Barun Singh G,president of the GSC.
Committee to examine grad fundsTo further examine ways to
improve financial support of gradu-ate students, a new Committee onthe Funding of Graduate Studentshas been established by ProvostRobert A. Brown.
The committee will examineissues such as the on-campus/off-campus disposable income gap(which the GSC estimates to beabout $240 more for off-campusstudents per month), the graduatehousing shortage, support for gradu-ate co-operative living groups, andoff-campus rent subsidies, wroteFolkert in an e-mail. As the GSCpresident, Singh will be the graduatestudent representative on the com-mittee.
The committee is chaired byPhilip S. Khoury, Dean of theSchool of Humanities, Arts, andSocial Sciences.
March 18, 2005 THE TECH Page 13
REMINDER!
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the new Minor in Management
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Current sophomores and juniors are eligible. To apply:
Visit http://mitsloan.mit.edu/undergrad/ to learn about the minor and download an application form.
Visit the Student Services Center (11-120) to request a free unofficial transcript.
Submit completed application with unofficial transcript to E40-161 or E40-159.
Questions? Email [email protected].
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GraduateStipendsIncreaseBy 3.5%
By Kelley RivoireNEWS EDITOR
A new consortium between pri-vate and public institutions based atthe Broad Institute was announced onTuesday. The three year, $18 millionproject, The RNAi Consortium,known as TRC, will use the relativelynew technique of RNA interferenceto generate an openly availablelibrary cataloguing gene inhibitors.This will help scientists understandthe functions of genes, includingthose that cause diseases such as can-cer and diabetes, according to aBroad Institute press release. RNAi isa useful research tool because bysilencing certain genes, scientists canobserve how an organism behavesdifferently when a particular gene isnonfunctional.
The consortium aims to “create apublic good: a comprehensive set ofreagents to be used in thousands oflaboratories,” said Professor Eric S.Lander, director of the Broad Insti-tute, as quoted in the press release.
TRC will also work to “developefficient protocols for preparing DNAand virus stocks of the RNAireagents and will create methods forperforming high-throughput screen-ing with the entire library,” said thepress release.
The affiliations of TRC members
include MIT, Massachusetts GeneralHospital, Harvard Medical School,the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, andthe Whitehead Institute for Biomed-ical Research.
Five other member organizationswill each contribute $3.6 million toTRC over the three-year duration ofthe project, according to the pressrelease. They are Bristol-MyersSquibb, Eli Lilly and Company, andNovartis, pharmaceutical companies,Sigma-Aldrich, a manufacturer ofresearch products, and AcademiaSinica-National Science, an academicconsortium affiliated with the govern-ment of Taiwan.
“In order to advance pharmaceuti-cal science, fundamental tools likeRNAi need to be made available andaccessible to scientists around theworld,” said Mark Fishman, presidentof Novartis Institutes for BioMedicalResearch in the press release.
“The ability to perform high-throughput screening with validatedRNAi reagents will provide the abili-ty to systematically identify thegenes underlying disease process andthereby identify previously unknowntargets for drug discovery,” saidSteven Paul, executive vice presidentof Lilly Research Laboratories, EliLilly and Company in the pressrelease.
New RNAi ConsortiumTo Be Based at Broad
Page 14 THE TECH March 18, 2005
By Kelley RivoireNEWS EDITOR
A proposal for a new FacultyHousing Assistance Program waspresented at Wednesday’s facultymeeting. The proposal wouldimprove upon the current HousingAssistance Loan Program in light ofrecent increases in area housingprices and would extend the pro-gram to junior faculty.
The proposal, created by theCommittee on the Design of theFaculty Housing Program, wouldprovide separate types of aid forjunior and senior faculty to purchasehomes in the area, and its recom-mended starting date is July 1.
The full report of the committeeis available online ath t t p : / / w e b . m i t . e d u /faculty/reports/index.html. Thecommittee has opened a 30-dayperiod for comments, which can besent by e-mail to [email protected] , said AssociateProvost Claude R. Canizares, chairof the committee.
Program to keep MIT competitiveThe new program aims to keep
the Institute competitive with othertop institutions in the resources itprovides to faculty members.
“It’s no secret to the faculty thatwe face challenges recruiting facul-ty and retaining them in the Bostonarea because of housing costs,” saidProvost Robert A. Brown.
The proposal is based in part onthe recommendations of a 2003Committee on Senior Faculty Hous-ing Benefits. The plan that the 2003committee made was tabled at thattime because of Institute financial
difficulties.
Loans available to facultyEligible tenured faculty would be
able to receive a $300,000, 30-yearContingent Interest Mortgage, a low-interest second mortgage with interestdependent on how the property valueappreciates throughout the loan’sduration. According to the commit-tee’s report, this would “significantlyincrease the buying power of facultynewly hired or promoted into tenuredpositions.”
Eligible junior faculty couldreceive a $50,000, five-year No-Inter-est Fully Amortized Loan, which isincrementally forgiven over thelength of the loan, as well as a$50,000, 10-year Contingent InterestMortgage. These two options wouldbe aimed at giving faculty the fundsto make down payments on firsthomes, according to the committeereport.
Eligible faculty for this yearwould include those who entered thearea’s housing market as first-timebuyers during or after July 2000,when the quotient of median housingprice and average associate professorsalary first escalated to “historicallyunprecedented high values,” as statedin the report. Those who have alreadyreceived other financial assistancefrom MIT would not be eligible. Infuture years, the eligibility periodwould last three fiscal years.
The program must also bereviewed by the MIT CorporationExecutive Committee and weighedagainst other priorities, as the pro-gram “would end up being a rathersignificant financial commitment,”Canizares said.
Solution toKRT Crossword
from page 7
Faculty Housing AidPlan Recommended
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March 18, 2005 THE TECH Page 15
SPORTSPage 16 THE TECH March 18, 2005
Saturday, March 19
Varsity Men’s Gymnastics vs. U.S. Military AcademyduPont Gymnasium, 1 p.m.
By Diana S. ChengCLUB MEMBER
Two MIT students competed atthe 10th annual U.S. Figure SkatingMIT Intercollegiate Competition,
and four MIT FigureSkating Club mem-bers passed ice dancetests at the concurrentU.S. Figure Skatingtest session on March
12 at Johnson Ice Rink.Sheila Tandon G won a bronze
medal in an Intermediate solo dancefield of seven competitors. LauraMcKusick of Northeastern Universi-ty won the event, and Tiffany Chenof Boston University placed second.
Tandon’s previous training inballet showed as she carried herarms gracefully throughout thedance. The compulsory dance forthis event was the Ten Fox, and thehalf-ice pattern was skated twicearound the rink. Tandon said sheprefers skating the dances with apartner rather than solo, but theintercollegiate competitions do nothave a partnered dance event.
Club president Adriana Tajonar’06 performed her solo program to avariation on Forever Tango’s “Feli-cia.” She placed 10th out of 16skaters in the Pre-Intermediate Ccompetition, the equivalent of U.S.Figure Skating’s Juvenile event.This year, Tajonar’s coach, HeatherClark, worked with her on addingtango dance movements in betweenher jumps and spins, and Tajonar’sprogram was artistically muchimproved from last year. LynnMcIntyre of Boston College placedfirst in Pre-Intermediate C, MeghanReeves of the University ofDelaware placed second, andKristin Smith of Northeasternplaced third.
Bonny Kellermann ’77 began
organizing the MIT intercollegiatecompetition as a venue for full-timecollegiate skaters to compete. It hasevolved into being part of a seriesof three intercollegiate competitionsqualifying the top collegiate teamsin the region of the country for theU.S. Collegiate Team SkatingNationals.
Derek Bruening PhD ’04 recent-ly received his Bronze Singles/PairsTest appointment as a U.S. FigureSkating judge, and the MIT inter-collegiate competition was the firstcompetition he has officiallyjudged.
In addition, club test chair andpostdoctoral lecturer Barb CutlerPhD ’03 introduced a club test ses-sion at the beginning of this year’scompetition. Taking tests measuresa skater’s proficiency and improve-ment, and allows skaters to competeat the level of the passed test.
Cutler and Bruening passed theirEuropean Waltz dance to completetheir Pre-Silver dance test. Passingeach dance test level requires thepassing of three compulsory dancesin any order. Cutler and Brueningcompleted their Fourteenstep andFoxtrot, also Pre-Silver dances, inDecember 2002 and December2003, respectively.
Tandon completed both the Pre-Bronze and Bronze dance test levelsby passing four dances (FiestaTango, Hickory Hoedown, WillowWaltz, and Ten Fox) with her Gold-level partner Devon Manz G.
Also during the test session,Diana S. Cheng ’04 passed theRhythm Blues, completing her Pre-liminary dance test. She also passedtwo Pre-Bronze dances: FiestaTango and Swing Dance.
On March 19, the club is hostinganother test session, for moves inthe field tests and freestyle tests.
By Noah RiskinHEAD COACH
Led by amazing all-around per-formances by Zachary M. Eisenstat’06 and Bradley J. Sutton ’07, the
Varsity Men’s Gym-nastics team posted anall-time-high teamscore of 184.1 — afull four pointsbeyond their stated
goal — during a recent loss toSpringfield College.
Seasoned all-arounders Eisenstatand Sutton could not have done italone, though. Matthew K. Heine’08 and Joshua S. Coblenz ’08 havecontributed consistently all seasonlong. Co-captain Luis R. Perez ’06contributed with a brilliant perfor-mance on the rings, by far his bestevent, while co-captain Robert JoeySteininger ’06, Cameron Sadegh’06, and YinFeng Shao ’08 alsoproved once again to be critical tothe success of the team.
The highlight of the afternoonwas Eisenstat’s performance of anew “V-Cross” skill. He began withan Iron Cross, in which a gymnastholds the rings, with straight armsperfectly perpendicular to his body,
for a full two seconds. He thenadded the difficult “V” position, inwhich a gymnast’s straight legs arebrought within inches of his nose.
Under international rules, agymnast may name a sufficientlyoriginal skill upon its competentdemonstration in internationalcompetition. Although Saturday’scontest was not an internationalcompetition, the MIT team hasdecided to name the skill the“Eisenstat” in its lexicon — a deci-sion supported by Abe Grossfeld, athree-time Olympian and interna-tional judge who was at MIT tojudge the event.
In the end, it was still the per-formance and attitude of the teamthat was most impressive. Perform-ing with the poise and elegance ofchampions, the team is as focused,inspired, and deserving as anygymnastics team in recent MIT his-tory.
With the ECAC Championshipsjust around the corner — March 25at Springfield College — the teamappears able to average 180 pointsthis season, a feat which shouldqualify MIT for USAG Nationals atCornell in early April.
By Paul DillHEAD COACH
The Varsity Men’s Volleyballteam pushed its overall record to22–4 (14–2 NECVA) this past week
with two more winsover conference foes.
In their matchagainst Johnson &Wales University, theEngineers controlled
the first two games behind theoffense of Robert M. McAndrew’05, who led the team with 18 killsfor the match. The oppositionfought back at the end of the third
game, however, taking a slight leadand earning a game point at 29–28before MIT turned the tide andpulled out the game, 31–29, for the3–0 victory. Jordan X. Wan ’06dished out 35 assists, whileMatthew Ng ’08 and Ryan G. Dean’08 anchored the defense with 13and 12 digs, respectively.
MIT’s next opponent, EmmanuelCollege, fared no better, falling 3–0as well. This time, the Engineerscontrolled the match from start tofinish. McAndrew again led the waywith 14 kills, while Bob G. Aspell’06 and Michelangelo A. Raimondi
’06 each added seven kills to theeffort. Also, with his 38 assists inthe match, Wan surpassed his ownMIT record for assists in a singleseason, which he set last year at1039.
McAndrew also received confer-ence honors for his impressive playduring the week. He was named theNECVA New England DivisionPlayer of the Week and the NECVAConference Player of the Week.NECVA is comprised of 32 Divi-sion III teams.
MIT is currently ranked 11thnationally in Division III.
Varsity Men’s Volleyball RecordNow 22–4, Still 11th in Div. III
Gymnastics RecordsAll-Time High Score,But Still Loses Meet
Students Pass Ice DanceTests, Perform Very WellAt Skating Competition
UPCOMING HOME EVENTS
DAVID GANDY—THE TECH
Jordan X. Wan ’06 serves the ball against Harvard University on Wednesday night. Despite somegood plays, the MIT Men’s Volleyball team lost to Harvard 3–1.
The pineapplescommand you to
join The Tech.
The pineapplesmust be obeyed.
