Feeling under pressure recently?
How can MIT students change expectations so they don’t compete against each other? Should undergraduates feel like underachievers if they are taking only four classes? Can a grad student work a 9–5 schedule without feeling like they are slacking? Are certain majors “less hardcore” than others? Where does the faculty fit into the picture of student stress?
A revised policy on alcohol
MIT has recently changed its “Good Samaritan Policy.” Meant to protect those who call for help for a victim in an alcohol-related emergency, the policy is designed so that the “good samaritan” will not get in trouble for calling an ambulance for someone. The old policy, largely unchanged since it was written in the mid-2000s, was several pages long, and also included minimum outcomes (e.g. a follow-up from housemaster, or review by the Committee on Discipline) for individuals transported to a hospital many times or living groups responsible for the intoxication. Last spring, Don Camelio, director of Community Development and Substance Abuse, and Judith M. Robinson, associate dean for Student Outreach and Support, conducted focus groups about the old policy, and then created the Alcohol Policy Working Group to further review it. They decided to modify the policy “to remove some of the perceived barriers to seeking help”, according to the CDSA website. Camelio described the old policy as “not user friendly.”
Admissions Office lowers CPW event cap to 175
Dorms will be limited in the number of Campus Preview Weekend events that they can hold this year, according to Katherine Kelley, assistant director of admissions. The total number of dorm CPW events will be capped at 175, and the events will be divided between dorms by DormCon, according to Kelley. This is the second year that a cap has been in place for dorm events; last year, the number of events was capped at 200.
Early sophomore standing
This year, 25.9 percent of freshmen were offered early sophomore standing, down slightly from last year’s 26.9 percent. Of the 296 eligible, 134 freshmen have accepted so far. Offers were sent out in late November by the Senior Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education Julie B. Norman. Although freshmen have until Add Date, March 8, to accept, Norman does not expect the number to rise significantly.
Winter storm brings headaches & fun to Institute
Winter storm “Nemo” (as named by The Weather Channel) swept through Cambridge this past weekend, dumping 24.9 inches of snow and leaving much of New England in disarray. MIT was closed on Friday, on Saturday, and for the first two work shifts on Sunday. The storm was the fifth largest snowstorm to hit Boston in recorded history.
IN SHORT
The UA’s shuttle service to Costco, Target and the rest of the Gateway Center in Everett will begin on Saturday, Feb. 16 and continue on a biweekly basis. A full schedule and map of pickup locations (which are throughout campus) can be found at http://web.mit.edu/facilities/transportation/shuttles/grocery.html.
Nevin S. Scrimshaw dies at age 95
Institute Professor emeritus Nevin S. Scrimshaw, who founded MIT’s former Department of Nutrition and Food Science, died in Plymouth, N.H., on Friday, Feb. 8. He was 95 and died of congestive heart failure.
Watching Obama for pre-speech signs of change
WASHINGTON — On Tuesday night, the president will address the nation and Congress on the state of the union. But many will watch as well for signs of the state of Barack Obama.
Video: Killian Snowball Fight
MIT closed on Friday, Feb. 8, 2013 for a winter storm that hit the Boston area — 24.9 inches of snow fell at Boston Logan Airport over the weekend. MIT had an Institute-wide snowball fight in Killian Court at 4:05 p.m.
Winter storm Nemo to hit Cambridge tomorrow
A major snowstorm is expected to hit MIT tomorrow, as winter storm Nemo makes its way across the coast. MIT has announced that they will be closed on Friday ; Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick has declared a state of emergency that will be effective on Friday starting at noon. Community members should check emergency.mit.edu for the most up to date information. The Tech will update this page throughout the night as we learn more.
MOOCs: A review
Pretty much everybody’s gotten on board the MOOC bandwagon. MIT says its edX platform for “Massive Open Online Courses,” as they’re called, heralds a “revolution in education.” Stanford professors Andrew Ng SM ’98 and Daphne Koeller, who cofounded edX competitor Coursera, have similar ambitions for their startup — and 33 universities have joined with them so far. Political commentators are excited, too: “Let the revolution begin,” proclaimed Thomas L. Friedman in The New York Times.
MIT Kendall plans spark debate
MIT’s latest rezoning petition, which would bring commercial and residential developments as well as new academic buildings to east campus, prompted concern from students and drew criticism from faculty and staff at a forum about Kendall Square plans on Wednesday. The topics discussed included the future of graduate housing and the broader question of how the petition would serve MIT’s interests.
New York’s mayor builds an empire in London
LONDON — It is the biggest development in this city’s buzzing financial district, and even Olympics-jaded Londoners call it grandiose: two bronze-and-stone towers, connected by sky-bridges atop the ruins of a 2,000-year-old Roman temple.
Alexander Wang, Samsung partner
The fashion designer Alexander Wang is joining forces with Samsung to create a new print based on doodles, sketches
New faces in the Division of Student Life hired this year
The MIT Division of Student Life (DSL) has undergone a slew of hiring in the last two years. These additions have been focused in three major areas: student development and support, the Student Activities Office (SAO), and residential life.
Winter storm Nemo finds its way to Boston
A major snowstorm is expected to hit MIT today, as winter storm Nemo makes its way across the coast. MIT announced last night that it would be closed today — the second campus closure due to weather this year, after Hurricane Sandy shuttered the Institute on Oct. 29, 2012. Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick has declared a state of emergency that will be effective today starting at noon. Community members should check emergency.mit.edu for the most up-to-date information.
A vision of OCW for the future
OpenCourseWare’s (OCW) goal for the next decade, as presented on their website, is unapologetically bold: to reach a billion minds by the year 2021. But since the announcement of MITx and edX over a year ago, there understandably has been some confusion about how OCW will fit into the picture. All three share a common goal — to make an MIT-caliber education freely available to the world — and much of MIT’s material on edX (developed through MITx) is already available on OCW. With these seeming overlaps, what is the future of OCW?
Editor’s note
The world may not have ended in 2012, but it was still a year full of news for MIT and the world. In this special issue of The Tech, we look back on the biggest headlines at the Institute.