By Ray C. HeASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR

The Association for StudentActivities has granted provisionalrecognition to the MIT-Wellesleymagazine Counterpoint after tem-porarily derecognizing the magazinelast month, said Kathryn M. Walter’05, president of the ASA.

The rerecognition came after theASA reviewed Counterpoint’s updat-ed constitution, which clarifies thatthe group comprises separate MITand Wellesley chapters, Walter said.

The change also refines the roleof the business managers at MITand Wellesley. “They stated whatbelongs to MIT and what belongs toWellesley,” she said. “It was moresubtle linguistic changes that madeit clear they’re an MIT group,” shesaid.

As a separate formal entity from

By Kathy DobsonSTAFF REPORTER

Nominations for Graduate Stu-dent Council closed at 11:59 p.m.last night and, as of that time, only

three nominations had been acceptedwith no candidate for vice president.Nominations for president, secre-tary, and treasurer have been closed,while nominations for vice presidentwill be open until elections are heldon Wednesday.

The accepted nominations ofBarun Singh G for president, LucyWong G for secretary, and VirgilioM. Villacorta G for treasurer wereaccepted.

Current GSC vice presidentMichael R. Folkert G said that thereare four people who have yet toaccept their nominations for officerpositions: two for president, one fortreasurer, and one for vice president.Folkert said that it is common forcandidates to accept their nomina-tions close to the deadline. “Prettymuch everyone wants to see whateveryone else is writing in theirstatements,” Folkert said.

The small number of nomina-tions is consistent with past years,said R. Erich Caulfield G, the cur-rent GSC president.

“In recent years, it is not uncom-mon to have zero, one, two, or threepeople running for each position,”Caulfield said, though it is morecommon to have people run than forthe position to remain vacant.

Elections planned for WednesdayThe elections will take place on

By Keith J. WinsteinSENIOR EDITOR

MIT confirmed yesterday that itwill investigate a professor’s long-standing allegations of scientificmisconduct in a 1998 MIT-ledstudy that validated a part of themilitary’s national missile defensesystem.

But fif teen months afterProvost Robert A. Brown decidedto begin an investigation, MITwould say only that the Institute“has been working to establish aprocess that permits these issues tobe investigated fully and objective-ly. To achieve that goal, MIT mustexplore with the relevant federalagencies the steps necessary topermit the investigation to pro-ceed.”

MIT spokesman Arthur L.Jones declined to discuss whetherthe investigation was yet underway or whether an investigativecommittee had yet been appointed,events that MIT’s policies sayshould happen “promptly.”

Theodore Postol, the professorof national security policy whofirst requested an independentinvestigation of the study in April2001, said he has not been contact-ed by any investigators. “Whatthey’ve been doing is f indingevery reason not to do an investi-gation,” Postol said. “It’s absolute-ly clear that there would have been

no investigation if I hadn’t persist-ed on this for the last three years.”

It was not clear what federalagencies MIT has been workingwith to permit the investigation toproceed. “I don’t know if they’rereferring to us or not,” said Lt.Col. Rick Lehner, a spokesman forthe Missile Defense Agency,which commissioned the 1998study at issue and funds about$100 million a year of research onmissile defense at MIT’s LincolnLaboratory.

“MIT has requested classifiedinformation from the MissileDefense Agency in the course ofits inquiry,” Lehner said, but theagency’s lawyers were unaware ofany discussions with MIT abouthow to proceed with an investiga-tion, he said.

Study checked fraud allegationsThe 1998 study, known as the

Phase One Engineering Teamreport, was commissioned by themilitary to investigate allegationsof fraud in a June 1997 test of thenational missile defense system.Two of the five authors — CharlesK. Meins Jr. ’75 and Ming-JerTsai, the group’s chairman, workat MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory. Theydid not return calls for comment.

The 1997 test they reviewed

By Brian LouxEDITOR IN CHIEF

Thanks to a successful show dur-ing the San Diego Padres’ springtraining season, Jason E. Szuminski’01 has become the first MIT gradu-ate to play Major League Baseball.While he was originally a startingpitcher with the MIT club, Szumins-ki will serve the Padres in a reliefpitcher role.

“It’s exciting. I’m really glad tobe here,” Szuminski said.

Though the Padres went to theirbullpen frequently after the sixthinning of yesterday’s game, Szuminski was not called upon topitch. The Padres defeated theLos Angeles Dodgers 8–2. “I’m sureI’ll get in soon enough. I’m lookingforward to getting in a game,” hesaid.

Szuminski is one of only threerookies to join the Padres roster thisyear. Other rookies are pitcher Akinori Otsuka and shortstop Khalil Greene. The average years ofmajor league experience for the 12Padre pitchers is approximate-ly 5.92, with veteran David Wells leading the bullpen with 17years.

Szuminski described interactingwith the veteran players as “help-ful,” saying that he gets along wellwith the team and is able to learnfrom them. “I just watch how theygo about their business … becauseat one time they were in my shoes,”he said.

When asked about how hewill face Barry Bonds, a power hit-ter for the San Francisco Giants,Szuminski replied, “Throw himstrikes … Sinking fastballs are myspecialty, if a left handed hittercomes up, I’ll throw it to him,maybe mix it up late in the count.

We’ll see what happens.”

MIT excited with new celebrityNews of MIT’s first major lea-

guer has created a small amount ofexcitement and pride on campus.

The Padres’ new draftee has head-lined the MIT Web site since earlySunday morning. The homepagelinks to an alumni Web site which

Volume 124, Number 17 Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 Tuesday, April 6, 2004

MIT’sOldest and Largest

Newspaper

The WeatherToday: Partly cloudy, 40°F (4°C)

Tonight: Partly cloudy, 30°F (–1°C)Tomorrow: Partly cloudy, 50°F (10°C)

Details, Page 2

“Grains ofRice” cultur-al show visits WalkerMemorial.

Page 15

Comics

Page 7

OPINIONVivek Rao examines the stressplaced on America’s youth.

Page 5

World & Nation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Events Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . .9Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24

JONATHAN WANG—THE TECH

The Harvard bridge construction sign is hacked by MIT nerds last Sunday night.

DENNIS YANCEY — THE TECH

Jason E. Szuminski ’01 pitches to a UMass-Boston batter in a 1997game which MIT won 9–8. Now, seven years later, Szuminski is setto pitch in the Major League for the San Diego Padres.

Szuminski Makes Padres Team,Is First MIT Graduate in MLB

Missile Review Still OnFor a Year, ‘Working to Establish a Process’

GSC Officer NominationsConclude, No VP Named

CounterpointRerecognizedBy the ASA

Missile Defense, Page 21

Szuminski, Page 12

GSC, Page 11Counterpoint, Page 18

By Christopher MarquisTHE NEW YORK TIMES

PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI

Secretary of State Colin L.Powell said during a visit here onMonday that U.S. judicial authori-ties were looking into prosecutingthe former Haitian president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, on corruptioncharges.

“There are inquiries being madeby our judicial authorities in theU.S. to see if there is any evidenceof wrongdoing on his part,” Powellsaid in a joint news conferencewith the new interim prime minis-ter, Gerard Latortue.

Aristide went into exile in Feb-ruary after widespread violenceand looting here. An Americanindictment against him on drug

trafficking or other internationalcharges would further inflamepolitical tensions between thosewho contend that he was forcedinto exile by American troops andothers, like Powell, who assert thatthe Americans saved his life.

Aristide, who was flown to theCentral African Republic aboardan American-leased plane, hassince returned to the region as anofficial guest of the government ofJamaica. The return of Aristide, apopulist former priest, has unset-tled Bush administration officialswho are trying to establish securityand bolster the authority ofLatortue’s interim government.

To help maintain order in Haiti,the United States has sent 1,940troops, the Pentagon says, France

has sent more than 800, Canadamore than 400 and Chile more than300. Administration officials havesaid they expect to cap the Ameri-can presence at about its presentlevel, and would welcome 2,000 or3,000 troops from other countries.

Powell, who came for a one-day visit to show the administra-tion’s continuing commitment toHaiti’s recovery, opposed a requestby the 15-nation Caribbean Com-munity for the United Nations toinvestigate the terms of Aristide’sdeparture from Haiti.

“I don’t think any purposewould be served by such aninquiry,” he said. “We were on theverge of a blood bath and Presi-dent Aristide found himself ingreat danger.”

WORLD & NATIONPage 2 THE TECH April 6, 2004

Sharon Hints He Has Dropped Vow Not To Harm Arafat

THE NEW YORK TIMES JERUSALEM

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has suggested that he no longer feelsbound by a 3-year-old commitment to President Bush not to harmYasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader.

Sharon’s spokesman, Raanan Gissin, said that Israel had noimmediate intention to act against Arafat. But the substance and tim-ing of Sharon’s threatening remarks, in an interview published hereon Monday, were significant.

His comments came as Israelis entered the Passover holidaybraced for threatened retaliation by the militant group Hamas for thekilling two weeks ago of its spiritual leader, Sheik Ahmed Yassin.Gissin said that, with 58 intelligence warnings of possible attacks,“The level of alerts is at an all-time high today.”

Sharon appeared to be signaling that he felt new freedom to actagainst Arafat in the event of a devastating terrorist attack.

Further, Sharon is trying to shore up support among right-wingIsraelis alarmed by his plan for a unilateral withdrawal from most orall of the Gaza Strip and possibly part of the West Bank. At a Cabinetmeeting on Sunday, he clashed over the plan with far-right membersof his governing coalition.

Blair To Confer With Bush As Iraq Worries Grow

THE NEW YORK TIMES LONDON

Prime Minister Tony Blair will fly to Washington next week for ameeting with President Bush that will be dominated by concern overmounting instability and the political transition in Iraq, British offi-cials said on Monday.

The meeting comes at a critical moment for the American-Britishalliance in Iraq as dual insurgencies by disaffected Sunni Muslims, whobacked Saddam Hussein, and militant Shiites flare. Details of the Bush-Blair agenda were being closely held, but officials here said it wouldfocus on how to stabilize the country while seeking to adhere to theJune 30 deadline for turning over sovereignty to an Iraqi government.

British officials said that Blair’s trip had been previously sched-uled and therefore was not a “crisis” summit meeting on Iraq. But theofficials, who spoke on the condition that they not be identified, saidthe sudden surge in violence and instability in the Sunni heartlandwest of Baghdad and in Shiite neighborhoods and towns would trans-form the meeting into a strategic review of policies toward Iraq.

Supreme Court Agrees To HearDrug-sniffing Dog Case

THE NEW YORK TIMES WASHINGTON

The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to decide whether thepolice need a special reason in order to subject a car they havestopped for an ordinary traffic violation to a trained drug-sniffing dog.

The case is an appeal by the state of Illinois from a ruling by theIllinois Supreme Court. That court found last year by a vote of 4-3that exposure to a drug-sniffing dog, without any particular reason tosuspect that the car contained drugs, had unconstitutionally broad-ened the scope of a routine traffic stop that led to the discovery of alarge quantity of marijuana in the trunk.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1983 that exposure of luggage atan airport to a trained dog did not constitute a search within themeaning of the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition of unreasonablesearches. The canine sniff is in a class by itself, Justice Sandra DayO’Connor said in that case, explaining that the sniff was less intrusiveand revealing than an ordinary search.

Iraqi Cleric Fortifies MilitiaIn Response to U.S. WarrantBy Jeffrey GettlemanTHE NEW YORK TIMES

KUFA, IRAQ

The Grand Mosque of Kufa hasnow become the grand arsenal.

On Monday, as U.S. authoritiesissued an arrest warrant for Muqtadaal-Sadr, the radical Shiite cleric whoset off the most serious insurrectionso far against the occupation forces,hundreds of his supporters were busyfortifying the mosque with heavyweapons, bracing for a U.S. invasion.

Al-Sadr has barricaded himselfinside the golden brick walls, refus-ing to surrender. His militia is prowl-ing the streets, staring down thesights of machine guns, buildingfighting positions in and around themosque, the town’s biggest, andpointing rocket-propelled grenades atthe highway heading north — theroad they expect to see U.S. forcescome rumbling down.

“The only way the Americanswill enter this city is entering overour bodies,” said Sheik Abu MahdiAl Rubayee, a commander in al-Sadr’s private army, estimated tonumber in the tens of thousands. “Ifthey come for our leader, they willignite all of Iraq.”

Kufa, a sandy, palm-lined townalong the banks of the Euphrates

River, is a picture of what might lieahead if Iraqi security forces areunable to quell potential insurrec-tions. On Sunday, as part of theuprising orchestrated by al-Sadr,hundreds of militiamen took overKufa, driving out Iraqi securityforces.

On Monday, blue-and-white Iraqipolice trucks cruised the streets. Butat the wheels were bearded, black-clad men loyal to al-Sadr. The policestations and government offices arenow occupied by al-Sadr’s agents,who enforce an austere version ofIslam and have even set up their ownreligious courts and prisons. Thetown is basically an occupation-freezone.

“The occupation is ending,”vowed Said Sadduck, a 26-year-olddisciple of al-Sadr. “This is just thebeginning.”

U.S. officials, who have accusedal-Sadr of inciting violence andunleashing his band of armed follow-ers against U.S. troops, have saidthey will capture al-Sadr when theyare ready.

“There will be no warning,” saidDan Senor, a senior spokesman foroccupation authorities.

Many Kufa residents are dreadinga showdown. The streets are full of

militiamen, in open disregard ofoccupation laws calling for privatearmies to be be disbanded. At akebab stand in front of the grandmosque, a man winced as truckloadsof armed young men whizzed past.

Kufa, 100 miles south of Bagh-dad with a population of 110,000, isthe first Iraqi city to spin entirely outof occupation control. The town is astronghold of conservative Shiitebeliefs.

For years, it has been the powerbase of the al-Sadr family, a learnedband of Shiite clerics. Al-Sadr’sfather, a famous ayatollah, was killedin 1999, along with al-Sadr’s twoolder brothers. That left Muqtada,now 31, the leader of the family.

Though al-Sadr is not an ayatol-lah, or top cleric, he has a devotedfollowing. Part of his appeal is hisyouth. The other part is his militan-cy. While other Shiite clerics havepressed for moderation, al-Sadr hasopenly rejected the occupation. Hisnewspaper, Al-Hawza, was closedlast week after U.S. authoritiesaccused it of printing lies that incitedviolence. That began a cycle ofdemonstrations that culminated inwidespread bloodshed on Sunday.What worries many people is that al-Sadr has followers all across Iraq.

Aristide May Be Charged WithCorruption by U.S., Powell Says

Hint of SunBy Nikki Prive´STAFF METEOROLOGIST

O still, spoiled trees, O city ways,O sun desired in vain,O dread presentiment of coming rainThat cloys the sullen days!— Robert Louis Stevenson

The low pressure system which brought flurries to the Boston area Mon-day will linger over the Maritime region until Wednesday, keeping skiespartly cloudy. Temperatures will slowly moderate until a cold front passesthrough tomorrow, with average highs several degrees below normal for thistime of year due to a chill northwesterly wind. April showers will return latein the week, as a new system moves in from the Great Plains, bringing cooltemperatures and rain showers possibly turning to snow on Friday morning.The track and strength of this system are uncertain, so the duration andamount of precipitation are difficult to predict.

Extended Forecast:

Today: Partly cloudy, highs in the upper 40s°F (9°C).Tonight: Partly cloudy, lows around 30°F (-1°C). Wednesday: Partly cloudy, high around 50 F (10 C), overnight lows

around 32°F (0°C). Thursday: Partly cloudy, high around 48°F (9°C), chance of rain and

snow overnight, low in the mid 30s°F (1°C). Friday: Chance of morning snow, changing to rain during the day, high

in the mid 40s°F (7°C).

40°N

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High Pressure

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Trough

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Showers

Light

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Precipitation Symbols

Compiled by MITMeteorology Staff

and The Tech

Other Symbols

WEATHERSituation for Noon Eastern Daylight Time, Tuesday, April 6, 2004

April 6, 2004 WORLD & NATION THE TECH Page 3

Letter Allegedly from Al-QaidaThreatens Spain with ‘Inferno’By Katrin BennholdTHE INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE

MADRID, SPAIN

Investigators on Monday studieda letter purportedly from al-Qaidapromising “an inferno” unlessSpain withdrew its troops from Iraqand Afghanistan. Meanwhile, thepolice reported the arrest of anothersuspect in the March 11 bombingsof commuter trains in Madrid thatkilled 191 people and woundedmore than 1,400.

In France on Monday, specialforces rounded up 13 suspectedmembers of a militant Islamicgroup thought to be behind bomb-ings last year in Casablanca,Morocco.

After a tumultuous weekend,

during which at least four suspectsin the Madrid bombings blew them-selves up, the newspaper ABC pub-lished in its Monday issue a Span-ish translation of a letter written inArabic that it had received by faxon Saturday. It was signed AbuDujana al-Afghani, who describedhimself as a member of “al-Qaidaof Europe.”

A videotape found two daysafter the train bombings had fea-tured a man speaking in Arabicwith a Moroccan accent who identi-fied himself by that name and saidhe was the military spokesman ofal-Qaida. He said the March 11bombings were revenge for Spain'smilitary cooperation with the Unit-ed States.

The letter said European Qaidaoperatives had demonstrated theirstrength on March 11 and with anunexploded bomb on rail tracks lastFriday. It said its truce with Spainwas over, unless Spanish soldierswere withdrawn from Iraq andAfghanistan immediately.

If those demands are not met,the letter said, Spain will be con-verted into “an inferno and yourblood will flow like rivers.”

Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero,who was elected new prime minis-ter days after the train bombings,has pledged to pull troops from Iraqunless the United Nations takesover the occupation force. But hehas also said he favors sendingmore troops to Afghanistan.

By Bernard SimonTHE NEW YORK TIMES

TORONTO

Nortel Networks, the Canadianmaker of telecommunicationsequipment, said on Monday that theU.S. Securities and Exchange Com-mission had begun a formal investi-gation into its accounting, com-pounding recent uncertainty overthe company.

Shares of Nortel fell sharply intrading in Toronto and New York. Itwas the most heavily traded stockon the New York Stock Exchange,where it closed down 3.7 percent, or23 cents, to $6.06. Christina War-ren, a Nortel spokeswoman, saidthat the company would not providedetails of the SEC’s concerns “at

this time,” but that it had been incontact with the commission sinceOctober and was “cooperatingfully.”

When SEC commissionersupgrade an inquiry into a formalinvestigation, the commission thenhas the power to subpoena docu-ments and request that witnessestestify under oath.

The questions over its account-ing come at the same time that Nor-tel has seen renewed demand for itsproducts.

Blaik Kirby, a senior vice presi-dent of Adventis, a telecommunica-tions consulting firm in Boston, saidthat “in terms of their core businessand delivering what their customerswant, they seem to be doing very

well.”Nortel, he said, is reaping the

benefits of not cutting back onresearch spending during the slumpin the telecommunications marketbetween 2000 and 2003.

Nortel, which is based in Bramp-ton, Ontario, said in October that itwould restate earnings and lossesgoing back to 2000, after discover-ing mistakes in recording somerestructuring costs and revenues.Last month, the company said itwould need to revise its 2003 finan-cial results again, as well as resultsfor some earlier periods. The com-pany then placed its chief financialofficer, Douglas C. Beatty, and itscontroller, Michael J. Gollogly, onindefinite leaves of absence.

Bank Of America To Cut 12,500 Jobs in Merger

THE BOSTON GLOBE

Bank of America Corp. plans to cut 12,500 jobs as it takes overthe operations of Boston's biggest bank, executives said publiclyfor the first time Monday.

As soon as next week, the bank plans to tell FleetBoston Finan-cial Corp. employees whether they will lose their jobs. But theCharlotte, N.C., bank would not say Monday how many of thoselayoffs would hit New England.

Though Bank of America has pledged to keep employment lev-els in New England flat in the long term, it plans to shift its workersaround and may move hundreds of its other employees to Boston.

“In the short term, you'll see employment levels drop, but overtime they will grow” in New England, said Eloise Hale, a Bank ofAmerica spokeswoman.

She declined, however, to say how long “over time” would be.But the elimination of 12,500 jobs — about 7 percent of the

banks' 180,000 workforce — is only one cost-cutting measure. Inthe past several years, chief executive Kenneth D. Lewis hasaggressively cut expenses as he worked to boost Bank of America'sstock price. The bank may apply some of the same strategies toFleet as it looks to keep its promise of saving $1.1 billion in themerger.

As it looks to integrate Fleet, Bank of America declined to pro-vide specific information on job cuts, but Lewis has already saidthat some of Fleet’s middle managers may be eliminated.

In Math, Computers Don’t Lie.Or Do They?

THE NEW YORK TIMES

A leading mathematics journal has finally accepted that one of thelongest-standing problems in the field — the most efficient way topack oranges — has been conclusively solved.

That is, if you believe a computer.The answer is what experts — and grocers — have long suspect-

ed: stacked as a pyramid. That allows each layer of oranges to sitlower, in the hollows of the layer below, and take up less space thanif the oranges sat directly on top of each other.

While that appeared to be the correct answer, no one offered aconvincing mathematical proof until 1998 — and even then peoplewere not entirely convinced.

For six years, mathematicians have pored over hundreds of pagesof a proof by Dr. Thomas C. Hales, a professor of mathematics at theUniversity of Pittsburgh.

But Hales’ proof of the problem, known as the Kepler Conjecture,hinges on a complex series of computer calculations, too many andtoo tedious for mathematicians reviewing his paper to check by hand.

SEC Begins Formal Investigationof Nortel’s Accounting Practices

Letters To The EditorEmbarrassing

InterviewYou are an embarrassment. The inter-

view with Miss Keum in The Tech on Fri-day, April 2 [“Missin’ Korea”] makes yousound like a bigot. Let’s see how well youdo being interviewed by a racist in a lan-guage you speak poorly. I wouldn’t be sur-prised if she decides to attend Harvard if shegets wind of this interview and the truemotive behind it — to make her look like afool because you are threatened by hersomehow.

Your article is nothing but self-indulgent,sexist, and xenophobic, and I’m really unim-pressed with The Tech for printing it.

I suggest you write an apology to MissKeum and the MIT community and have itpublished in The Tech.

Dan Roy ’04Editor’s Response: At no point during the

interview or writing of the column was it my

intention to make fun of Na Na Keum. I print-ed the text of our conversation verbatim withno changes because I do not feel entitled tochange other people’s words

Akshay PatilFeatures Editor

Fruitful AbortionDebate

I read Adam Kolasinski’s editorial[“Untenable Unborn Child Dichotomy,”April 2]. He spoke more articulately andrationally than I usually hear when peopletalk about these issues. He is right — normalpeople are outraged when a wanted unbornbaby is killed. They have a disconnect whenit is an unwanted child. I wish that the dis-cussion of abortion could be more about thissort of thing than about fruitless argumentsabout whose “rights” should prevail. Thanksfor the editorial.

Steve Savage

Mischaracterization ofPro-Choice PositionI was dismayed by Adam Kolasinki’s

gross mischaracterization of the pro-choiceposit ion in “Untenable Unborn ChildDichotomy” [April 2]. Although I agreewith Kolasinski’s claim that the UnbornVictims of Violence Act sets a precedentwhich opponents of abortion will use toargue for the personhood of the fetus, I can-not agree with his subsequent conclusions.Kolasinski accuses pro-choice advocates of“ignoring” the question of the moral statusof the fetus, but this misses the thrust of ourargument. Supporters of the right to chooseproperly focus on the substantial burdenthat pregnancy imposes on a womanbecause this is a burden that everyone mustacknowledge. We do not ignore the moralstatus of the fetus; we believe that there is

OPINIONPage 4 THE TECH April 6, 2004

Opinion PolicyEditorials are the official opinion of The Tech. They are written

by the editorial board, which consists of the chairman, editor inchief, opinion editor, a senior editor, and an opinion staffer.

Dissents are the opinions of signed members of the editorialboard choosing to publish their disagreement with the editorial.

Letters to the editor, columns, and editorial cartoons are writ-ten by individuals and represent the opinion of the author, not nec-essarily that of the newspaper. Electronic submissions are encour-aged and should be sent to letters@the-tech.mit.edu. Hard copysubmissions should be addressed to The Tech, P.O. Box 397029,Cambridge, Mass. 02139-7029, or sent by interdepartmental mail toRoom W20-483. All submissions are due by 4:30 p.m. two daysbefore the date of publication.

Letters, columns, and cartoons must bear the authors’ signatures,addresses, and phone numbers. Unsigned letters will not be accepted.The Tech reserves the right to edit or condense letters; shorter letterswill be given higher priority. Once submitted, all letters become

property of The Tech, and will not be returned. The Tech makes nocommitment to publish all the letters received.

The Tech’s Ombudsman, reachable by e-mail at ombuds-man@the-tech.mit.edu, serves as the liaison between The Tech andits readers. From time to time, the Ombudsman writes an indepen-dent column reflecting the complaints, questions, and concerns ofthe readership.

To Reach UsThe Tech’s telephone number is (617) 253-1541. E-mail is the

easiest way to reach any member of our staff. If you are unsurewhom to contact, send mail to general@the-tech.mit.edu, and it willbe directed to the appropriate person. Please send press releases,requests for coverage, and information about errors that call for cor-rection to news@the-tech.mit.edu. Letters to the editor should besent to letters@the-tech.mit.edu. The Tech can be found on theWorld Wide Web at http://the-tech.mit.edu.

ChairmanHangyul Chung ’05

Editor in ChiefBrian Loux ’04

Business ManagerRoy K. Esaki ’04

Managing EditorDavid Carpenter ’05

NEWS STAFF

News and Features Director: Beckett W. Sterner’06; News Editors: Kathy Lin ’06, Marissa Vogt’06, Jenny Zhang ’06; Associate Editors: WaseemS. Daher ’07, Tongyan Lin ’07, Gireeja V. Ranade’07, Julián E. Villarreal ’07; Staff: Kathy DobsonG, Jeffrey Greenbaum ’04, Eun J. Lee ’04, MichaelE. Rolish ’04, Jay K. Cameron ’05, Christine Fry’05, Sam Hwang ’05, Issel Anne L. Lim ’05, Jessi-ca A. Zaman ’05, Brian C. Keegan ’06, Lauren E.LeBon ’06, Jennifer Wong ’06, Ray C. He ’07;Meteorologists: Samantha L. H. Hess G, RobertLindsay Korty G, Greg Lawson G, Nikki Privé G,William Ramstrom G, Michael J. Ring G.

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Editors: Andrew Mamo ’04, Sie Hendrata Dhar-mawan ’05, Tiffany Dohzen ’06; Associate Editor:Nicholas R. Hoff ’05; Staff: Joel C. Corbo ’04, JoyForsythe ’04, Kevin Chen ’05, Albert Leung ’06,Jolinta Lin ’06, Jonathan Reinharth ’06, JenniferHuang ’07, Yaser M. Khan ’07, Y. Grace Lin ’07,EunMee Yang ’07, Sylvia Yang ’07.

OPINION STAFF

Editor: Vivek Rao ’05; Columnist: Andrew C.Thomas ’04; Staff: Basil Enwegbara SM ’01,Gretchen K. Aleks ’04, Ken Nesmith ’04, Atif Z.Qadir ’04, W. Victoria Lee ’06, Daniel Barclay ’07,Ruth Miller ’07, Chen Zhao ’07.

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Editor: Phil Janowicz ’05, Brian Chase ’06; Staff:Yong-yi Zhu ’06.

ARTS STAFF

Editors: Christine R. Fry ’05, Amy Lee ’06;Associate Editor: Kevin G. Der ’06; Staff: Bog-dan Fedeles G, Xian Ke G, Ruby Lam G, SonjaSharpe G, Fred Choi ’02, Chikako Sassa ’02, JedHorne ’04, Pey-Hua Hwang ’04, Josiah Q. Seale’04, Petar Simich ’04.

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Editors: Peter R. Russo ’02, Brian Hemond ’04, JinaKim ’06; Associate Editors: Daniel Bersak ’02,Jonathan T. Wang ’05; Staff: Roshan Baliga G,Frank Dabek G, Marcus Dahlem G, Wendy Gu G,Stanley Hu ’00, Scott Johnston ’03, Miguel A.Calles ’04, Jimmy Cheung ’04, Ben Gallup ’04,Dmitry Portnyagin ’04, Hassen Abdu ’06, Matt D.Brown ’06, John M. Cloutier ’06, Grant Jordan ’06,Stephanie Lee ’06, Edward Platt ’06, Omoleye Roberts’06, Rene Chen ’07.

FEATURES STAFF

Editor: Akshay Patil ’04; Associate Editors:Tiffany Kosolcharoen ’06; Columnists: Bruce WuG, Kailas Narendran ’01, Ian Ybarra ’04, MarkLiao ’06, Danchai Mekadenaumporn ’05, AlexNelson ’06; Cartoonists: Jason Burns G, JumaaneJeffries ’02, Sergei R. Guma ’04, Sean Liu ’04, Jen-nifer Peng ’05, Nancy Phan ’05, Qian Wang ’05,Zach Ozer ’07, Dan Scolnic ’07.

BUSINESS STAFF

Operations Manager: Lauren W. Leung ’07;Staff: Jyoti R. Tibrewala ’04, Lynn K. Kamimoto’05, Chris Ruggiero ’07.

TECHNOLOGY STAFF

Staff: Daniel Leeds ’05, Lisa Wray ’07.

EDITORS AT LARGE

Senior Editors: Satwiksai Seshasai G, Keith J.Winstein G, Jennifer Krishnan ’04; ContributingEditors: Jeremy Baskin ’04, Devdoot Majumdar’04.

ADVISORY BOARD

Peter Peckarsky ’72, Paul E. Schindler, Jr. ’74, V.Michael Bove ’83, Barry Surman ’84, Robert E.Malchman ’85, Deborah A. Levinson ’91,Jonathan Richmond PhD ’91, Saul Blumenthal’98, Joseph Dieckhans ’00, Ryan Ochylski ’01,Rima Arnaout ’02, Eric J. Cholankeril ’02, Ian Lai’02, Nathan Collins SM ’03, B. D. Colen.

OMBUDSMAN

John A. Hawkinson.

PRODUCTION STAFF FOR THIS ISSUE

Editors: Joel C. Corbo ’04, Andrew Mamo ’04,David Carpenter ’05; Staff: Lauren W. Leung ’07.

The Tech (ISSN 0148-9607) is published on Tuesdays and Fridays during the academic year(except during MIT vacations), Wednesdays during January and monthly during the summer for$45.00 per year Third Class by The Tech, Room W20-483, 84 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge,Mass. 02139. Third Class postage paid at Boston, Mass. Permit No. 1. POSTMASTER: Pleasesend all address changes to our mailing address: The Tech, P.O. Box 397029, Cambridge, Mass.02139-7029. Telephone: (617) 253-1541, editorial; (617) 258-8329, business; (617) 258-8226,facsimile. Advertising, subscription, and typesetting rates available. Entire contents © 2004 TheTech. Printed on recycled paper by Charles River Publishing.

Continued Next Page

John A. Hawkinson

I shall endeavor to write smaller more frequent columnsrather than voluminous mammoths like this.

INSIDE THIS COLUMN

Inside this column . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5Don’t hide editors’ notes! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5Changing people’s letters is a no-no . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Sidebar: Edits made to Haddad’s submission . . . . . . . . . .6UA people on Editorial Board?! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6You print it, you fix it…unless you don’t? . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

DON’T HIDE EDITORS’ NOTES!The Tech has run several editors’ notes lately, and I have

been disappointed with their presentation. In my opinion, ifsomething deserves an editors’ note, that means it deservesprominent placement on page four (or perhaps even pageone). I do not think italic text at the top of, or within the let-ters section is sufficiently eye-catching, nor is mention in theerrata box. Instead, the editors’ note should be placed in anarea of its own, similar to the errata box, where it can beclearly seen in a casual glance.

This is hardly a new idea. Last term (and prior), The Techpublished prominent editors’ notes (see examples on thispage and the next).

I was particularly dismayed by the erratum published onMarch 16 regarding Marc Haddad G’s March 9 piece,“Twisted Logic from the Syrian Ambassador.” I wasinvolved in discussion regarding that erratum, and I had orig-inally argued that it should have run as an editor’s note, notan erratum, so it would receive more prominence.

The note was initially laid out as italicized text under theletters section, and I felt as if my argument had been grosslymisinterpreted. The Tech’s chairman, Hangyul Chung, (a for-mer production editor) responded to an e-mail I sent, saying,“I thought editor’s notes were usually italicized — andputting it in a box of their own like an errata is kinda stupidand not aesthetic.”

That is wrong. Even if there were such a rule, the format-ting and style of the paper are not ironclad. They exist to con-

vey meaning, and if that meaning is best conveyed with achange, the style needs to adapt.

Ironically, both of last week’s issues carried a prominent“To Our Readers:” box asking for feedback on the EventsCalendar section — at least, it would have been prominent on

page four. It ran deep inside the paper, sandwiched above theEvents Calendar; to date it has received no responses.

April 6, 2004 OPINION THE TECH Page 5

Vivek Rao

For those of you who missed it, this pastweekend witnessed the professional debut of14-year old soccer sensation Freddy Adu. Origi-nally hailing from Ghana, the young and sub-limely talented Adu has been widely anointedas the United States’ savior of soccer, with theability to transform his sport into the Americancraze it has always puzzlingly failed to be. Adu,who already earns the highest salary in all ofMajor League Soccer, faces a burden of pres-sure seldom placed on someone his age.

Yet Adu’s case reflects a growing trend inour society, with more and more teenagers andchildren being thrust into adulthood. Faced withresponsibility that belies their age, young peo-ple today seem to spenda lot less time enjoyingthe innocent years ofyouth, a phenomenonthat at very leastdeserves our attention.

Perhaps the mostpublicized examplecomes in the person ofLeBron James, the bas-ketball superstar who atthe tender age of 16was already drawingcomparisons to legends like Michael Jordan,Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird. James hassince made the successful transition from thehigh school ranks to the National BasketballAssociation (NBA), but how he holds upagainst the pressure, hype, and attention thatwill undoubtedly accompany him throughouthis potentially illustrious career remains to beseen.

Dianna DeGarmo is another young phenomwho finds herself in the national spotlight. The16-year old Georgian is one of the finalists on“American Idol 3,” and singing performancesreach the ears of millions of people every week.

The issue of young people facing dauntingpressure is hardly limited to the exquisitely tal-ented, however. Consider the growing obses-sion with college admissions. Every year, highschoolers across the country struggle throughthe grueling process, and the pressure they facefrom their school, their parents, and themselvesis rampant. Middle schoolers are enrolling inSAT prep courses and the parents of elementaryschool children are worrying about whethertheir kids engage in enough extracurricular

activities to satisfy the Harvards and MITs ofthe world.

The fact is that kids these days are growingup faster than in recent memory. Levels of pres-sure and demands for performance oncereserved for adults are now extending toyounger and younger children. What’s ironicabout this striking trend is that our society hassimultaneously grown more and more con-scious about issues like stress, parental pressure,and child development.

The continued increases in pressure on mod-ern youth in spite of growing awareness thatsuch pressure may be detrimental proves puz-zling. Why do we encumber our children withmore and more strain and responsibility? Whydo cases of adult rage and overinvolvement atyouth sports events grow increasingly common

even as more and moreexperts openly con-demn such acts? Whydo parents grow evermore obsessed withgrades and admissions,despite the frequentobjections of coun-selors and psychia-trists?

My solution to thesediscrepancies is hardlysome sweeping con-

demnation of pressure on youth. Such a pre-scription would be both naive and unrealistic.Instead, the better approach would seem toinvolve some lessening of the double standardsthat face children in modern American society.While the pressure they face in certain walks oflife grows by the year, they are still carefullyhidden from R-rated movies (and, of course, theJanet Jackson tape) and elementary school edu-cation tends to be rather slow and simplistic.Though the sex, drugs, guns, and alcohol havecontinued to affect younger and youngercohorts of children, parents remain overly con-servative when it comes to discussing suchissues, often leaving kids unprepared for therealities of the world in which they live.

The bottom line is that modern societyplaces greater pressure on its children (certainlynot in all areas, but in most), and that is a situa-tion that’s not likely to change anytime soon,regardless of whether people like it or not.However, the time has come for adults to accel-erate the social, emotional, and even academiceducation of the nation’s youth, enabling chil-dren to keep pace with the world around them.

Helping KidsHandle Pressure

The continued increases inpressure on modern youth in

spite of growing awareness thatsuch pressure may be detrimental

proves puzzling.

Letters To The Editor, Continuedno compelling reason to think the claims ofthe fetus outweigh the claims of the mother,at least until the fetus develops certain char-acteristics that are undeniable prerequisitesfor having rights.

Judith Jarvis Thomson has argued that asevere constraint on liberty ought not to beimposed on grounds that a woman is notunreasonable in rejecting, and a woman issurely not unreasonable in rejecting the claimthat life begins at conception in favor of thevery plausible claim that having rights pre-supposes having interests (a view which sep-arates late-term fetuses from newbornbabies). It is ironic that Kolasinski believesthat the personhood of the fetus becomes“more apparent” from fetal imaging technol-ogy “even in the first trimester” when mostlaypeople cannot distinguish between an apefetus and a human fetus well into thirdtrimester. The question of when a beingacquires rights calls for careful moralinquiry, and most supporters of the right tochoose draw the line well before birth, butpositions grounded only in impulsiveresponses to 3-D graphics or clouded by aninstinctive revulsion to violent crimes are notjustifiable to the women whose freedom theywould restrict.

Jason AbaluckPresident, Perspective, Harvard Liberal

Monthly Magazine

Imaginary DichotomyThe recent column “Untenable Unborn

Child Dichotomy” [April 2] states that thereis a logical fallacy in new federal legislationtreating feticide as murder when the motherdoes not consent, but allowing it in the caseof consensual abortion. However, there isactually nothing inconsistent about thisdichotomy, either in the way the law current-ly is applied nor even in the way it should beapplied.

A fetus may not be a legal person, but thisdoes not mean the law cannot seek to protectits interests when those interests are not out-weighed by other concerns. Animals are notlegal persons, and yet anti-cruelty statutesprohibit people from intentionally harminganimals unless it is for some socially sanc-tioned purpose.

Further, the psychological harm inflictedon the mother by a criminal who kills herfetus without her consent sufficiently justi-fies a category of offense that punishes suchan act, even if the fetus itself is not capableof feeling pain at the point at which it iskilled.

In the case of abortion, the rights of themother outweigh the interests of the fetus (ifany), so there is no logical fallacy there. Thereal question is why our legal system permitstruly trivial human interests — such as wear-ing fur garments for instance — to win againstanimals’ interests in not being trapped, gassedor anally electrocuted.

The same logic that allows feticide to bepunished when there is no competing consti-tutional interest at stake should also apply tocriminalize extreme suffering inflicted uponanimals to satisfy relatively miniscule humancravings.

Bryan Pease

OffensiveGeneralization

April 2’s “Sex and the SafeRide” [“Don’tFly Solo: Wingman Tips”] was objectionablein its entirety for its objectification of womenand glorification of their “conquest.” Particu-larly disgusting, though, was its use of theterm “hos” to refer generically to women. Idon’t usually support wholesale censorshipof every politically incorrect term that mightoffend someone’s sensibilities, but to refer toall women as “whores” (which “hos” is shortfor, if I’m not mistaken) is possibly the worstkind of degrading generalization of a class ofpeople that one can utter. It doesn’t matter ifit is part of an “old adage” because it rhymeswith “bros”; it is unacceptable, and The Techowes all of MIT’s women and men an apolo-gy for printing it.

Isaac Moses G

Crossword InaccuracyJust to let you know (and whoever you get

the crossword puzzles from), the answer to 1Down in the March 30 puzzle is incorrect —not because the letters were wrong or didn’tfit, but because Sikhs are NOT Hindus.Sikhism is a distinct religion from both Hin-duism and Islam, and is the fifth largest worldreligion.

I hope the fact-checkers will do a betterjob in future puzzles. Thanks!

Gurukarm Khalsa[Editor’s Note: Our crosswords come to

us through KRT Campus, a national wire ser-vice for college papers, which receives themthrough the Chicago Tribune. While we havereported the error to KRT and they are dis-cussing the puzzle with the Tribune, we willcontinue to remain at the mercy of their fact-checkers.]

Ombudsman, Page 6

OPINIONPage 4 THE TECH May 13, 2003

The numbers can no longer be ignored. There will becrowding in Institute dormitories next year. MIT administratorshave variously described the extent of this crowding as small

and affecting a handful of students.Such statements do not appearentirely accurate. A quick calcula-

tion reveals that there are about 965 spaces for incoming fresh-men next year, and as of last Friday, 1023 prospective freshmenhave accepted their offers of admission. That number is likely tofluctuate — some 200 prospective freshmen have yet to reply,and historically 20-30 who accept change their minds and donot attend MIT — but the basic truth is that, if we are lucky, theInstitute just got thirty more people than it can really house.That problem is doubled (or maybe tripled or quadrupled)because those thirty have to live in rooms with at least one otherperson; crowding will then directly affect a population about 10percent the size of the incoming freshmen class. This is thebest-case scenario. If fewer people than normal change theirminds and decide to go elsewhere, or if a significant fraction ofthe 200 outstanding offers are accepted, the affected populationcould reach 10 percent of MIT undergraduates.

That prediction is bit dire, and The Tech does not want toimply that MIT will soon fall prey to locusts and earthquakes.On the other hand, we are concerned that administrators havenot planned very well. Dean for Student Life Larry G. Benedictseems to have had a simple plan: target the number of incomingfreshmen to avoid crowding. The target number, incidentally,was 1000.

MIT’s plan does indeed seem simple. To paraphrase the jour-nalist and commentator H.L. Mencken, for every problem there’sa simple solution — a simple solution that’s wrong. After all, even

if MIT had thirty extra beds for the Class of 2007, it would remaina dangerous proposition to shoot for an incoming class size thatexactly equaled the number of beds MIT has to offer. It doesn’ttake a statistician to know that the chance of overshooting the tar-get is about one-half. In the present case, MIT chose to set a targetthat overshot the number of beds it likely had to offer. That choiceis strange considering that both Chancellor Phillip L. Clay PhD’75 and Benedict last year pledged to eliminate crowding.

The Tech is not asking MIT to hire prognosticators, nor arewe asking MIT to be ruthless about the size of its incomingclass. But it is not unreasonable to ask for better planning. Don’tshoot for 1000 freshmen when you have 965 beds. Be realistic— and aggressive — about dealing with housing-supply prob-lems. Random Hall’s end-time appears near, and East Campusneeds renovations. That means MIT will need other sources ofhousing just to maintain current capacity, and do better than ithas in the past. Graduate student housing has been undercut byan administration desperate to find beds for undergraduates. Therush to populate Simmons Hall on time resulted in a half-com-plete dorm still riddled with problems that was constructed at acost of over $70 million.

Fraternities, sororities, and independent living groups arealso in need of help, and MIT needs their help as well. Benedictand others have said the FSILG problem is central to the crowd-ing issue. That’s true. If many of the current crop of affiliatedsophomores choose not to leave their dormitories, crowding willagain worsen.

MIT has housing problems. Administrators may or may nothave accepted the depth of these problems. They appear not tohave internalized the importance of serious, coordinated planning.

It’s time they do so.

Editorial

Taking Crowding SeriouslyChairman

Jyoti Tibrewala ’04

Editor in ChiefNathan Collins G

Business ManagerIan Lai G

Managing EditorJoy Forsythe ’04

NEWS STAFF

News and Features Director: Keith J. Winstein’03; News Editors: Jennifer Krishnan ’04,Christine R. Fry ’05; Associate Editors: LaurenE. LeBon ’06, Kathy Lin ’06, Beckett W. Sterner’06, Marissa Vogt ’06, Jenny Zhang ’06; Staff:Kevin R. Lang G, Naveen Sunkavally G, JeffreyGreenbaum ’04, Sam Hwang ’05, Jessica AZaman ’05, Tiffany Kosolcharoen ’06, LakshmiNambiar ’06, Jennifer Wong ’06; Meteor-ologists: Samantha L. H. Hess G, Robert Lind-say Korty G, Greg Lawson G, Nikki Privé G,William Ramstrom G, Michael J. Ring G, EfrenGutierrez ’03.

PRODUCTION STAFF

Editors: Joel Corbo ’04, David Carpenter ’05;Associate Editors: Hangyul Chung ’05, Sie Hen-drata Dharmawan ’05, Nicholas R. Hoff ’05, KevinChen ’06, Tiffany Dohzen ’06; Staff: Eric J.Cholankeril G, Anju Kanumalla ’03, AndrewMamo ’04, Albert Leung ’06, Jolinta Lin ’06,Jonathan Reinharth ’06.

OPINION STAFF

Editors: Ken Nesmith ’04, Andrew C. Thomas’04; Columnists: Philip Burrowes ’04, VivekRao ’05; Staff: Basil Enwegbara G, MaywaMontenegro G, Kris Schnee ’02, Gretchen K.Aleks ’04, Roy Esaki ’04, Atif Z. Qadir ’04,Stephanie W. Wang ’04, Tao Yue ’04, W. Victo-ria Lee ’06.

SPORTS STAFF

Editors: Jennifer DeBoer ’05, Tom Kilpatrick’05; Columnists: O.B. Usmen ’03, EricRosenblatt ’04, Phil Janowicz ’05.

ARTS STAFF

Editors: Jeremy Baskin ’04, Allison C. Lewis’04; Associate Editors: Daniel S. Robey ’04,Kevin G. Der ’06; Staff: Erik Blankinship G,Bence P. Olveczky G, Sonja Sharpe G, Aman-deep Loomba ’02, Bogdan Fedeles ’03, SonaliMukherjee ’03, Jed Horne ’04, Pey-HuaHwang ’04, Devdoot Majumdar ’04, Chad Ser-rant ’04, Jorge Padilla ’05, Ricky Rivera ’05,Amy Lee ’06.

PHOTOGRAPHY STAFF

Editors: Brian Hemond ’04, Jonathan Wang’05, Noel Davis ’06; Associate Editors:Daniel Bersak ’02; Staff: Regina Cheung G,Jinyang Li G, Michelle Povinelli G, DongWang G, Xiaowei Yang G, Stanley Hu ’00, YiXie ’02, Wendy Gu ’03, Scott Johnston ’03,Marissa L. Yates '03, Miguel A. Calles ’04,Nina Kshetry '04, Dmitry Portnyagin ’04, Ben-jamin Solish ’04, Dalton Cheng ’05, Annie Ding’05, Michael Lin ’05, Timothy Suen ’05, Amy L.Wong ’05, Hassen Abdu ’06, Matt D. Brown ’06,John M. Cloutier ’06, Colin Dillard ’06, VictoriaFan ’06, Jina Kim ’06, Melanie Michalak ’06,Edward Platt ’06, Omoleye Roberts ’06, Ben-jamin Schwartz ’06, Sandra Yu ’06, ElizabethZellner ’06, Jean Zheng ’06.

FEATURES STAFF

Editor: Eun J. Lee ’04; Associate Editors:Brian Loux ’04, Veena Ramaswamy ’06,Ricarose Roque ’06; Columnists: AkshayPatil ’04, Michael Short ’05; Cartoonists:Jason Burns G, Kailas Narendran ’01, Bao-YiChang ’02, Jumaane Jeffries ’02, Lara Kirk-ham ’03, Alison Wong ’03, Sean Liu ’04,Nancy Phan ’05, Josie Sung ’05.

BUSINESS STAFF

Staff: William Li ’06.

TECHNOLOGY STAFF

Director: Roshan Baliga ’03; Staff: FrankDabek G, Kevin Atkinson ’02, Daniel Leeds ’05.

EDITORS AT LARGE

Senior Editors: Aaron D. Mihalik G, Sandra M.Chung ’04.

ADVISORY BOARD

Peter Peckarsky ’72, Paul E. Schindler, Jr. ’74,V. Michael Bove ’83, Barry Surman ’84, RobertE. Malchman ’85, Deborah A. Levinson ’91,Jonathan Richmond PhD ’91, Vladimir V.Zelevinsky ’95, Anders Hove ’96, Saul Blumen-thal ’98, Joel Rosenberg ’99, Joseph Dieckhans’00, Ryan Ochylski ’01, Satwiksai Seshasai ’01,Rima Arnaout ’02, B. D. Colen.

OMBUDSMAN

John A. Hawkinson.

PRODUCTION STAFF FOR THIS ISSUE

Editors: Hangyul Chung ’05, Tiffany Dohzen’06.The Tech (ISSN 0148-9607) is published on Tuesdays and Fridays during the academ-ic year (except during MIT vacations), Wednesdays during January and monthly dur-ing the summer for $45.00 per year Third Class by The Tech, Room W20-483, 84Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, Mass. 02139. Third Class postage paid at Boston,Mass. Permit No. 1. POSTMASTER: Please send all address changes to our mailingaddress: The Tech, P.O. Box 397029, Cambridge, Mass. 02139-7029. Telephone:(617) 253-1541, editorial; (617) 258-8329, business; (617) 258-8226, facsimile.Advertising, subscription, and typesetting rates available. Entire contents © 2003 TheTech. Printed on recycled paper by Charles River Publishing.

Opinion PolicyEditorials are the official opinion of The Tech. They are written

by the editorial board, which consists of the chairman, editor inchief, managing editor, opinion editors, a photography editor, andan arts editor.

Dissents are the opinions of signed members of the editorialboard choosing to publish their disagreement with the editorial.

Letters to the editor, columns, and editorial cartoons are writ-ten by individuals and represent the opinion of the author, not nec-essarily that of the newspaper. Electronic submissions are encour-aged and should be sent to letters@the-tech.mit.edu. Hard copysubmissions should be addressed to The Tech, P.O. Box 397029,Cambridge, Mass. 02139-7029, or sent by interdepartmental mail toRoom W20-483. All submissions are due by 4:30 p.m. two daysbefore the date of publication.

Letters, columns, and cartoons must bear the authors’ signatures,addresses, and phone numbers. Unsigned letters will not be accepted.The Tech reserves the right to edit or condense letters; shorter letters

will be given higher priority. Once submitted, all letters becomeproperty of The Tech, and will not be returned. The Tech makes nocommitment to publish all the letters received.

The Tech’s Ombudsman, reachable by e-mail at ombuds-man@the-tech.mit.edu, serves as the liaison between The Tech andits readers. From time to time, the Ombudsman writes an indepen-dent column reflecting the complaints, questions, and concerns ofthe readership.

To Reach UsThe Tech’s telephone number is (617) 253-1541. E-mail is the

easiest way to reach any member of our staff. If you are unsurewhom to contact, send mail to general@the-tech.mit.edu, and it willbe directed to the appropriate person. Please send press releases,requests for coverage, and information about errors that call for cor-rection to news@the-tech.mit.edu. Letters to the editor should besent to letters@the-tech.mit.edu. The Tech can be found on theWorld Wide Web at http://the-tech.mit.edu.

Dear Readers,With our unique position at MIT, we are intensely mindful of The

Tech’s responsibility to serve our readers accountably and to keepstriving to improve our coverage. Next semester, Christine R. Fry ’05will replace Nathan Collins G as editor in chief, but our efforts todeliver a high-quality newspaper will continue.

Here is an update on some improvements we have undertaken thissemester and are planning for next semester.

• We replaced our “World & Nation” news wire, previously fromthe Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post, with the New YorkTimes News Service, which includes stories from The Boston Globe.We plan to bring you better local coverage and selections from TheTimes’ Tuesday “Science Times” section.

• Backing up our longstanding prohibition on news staff involve-ment in the opinion section, we removed the news and features editorsfrom the editorial board, the group that writes The Tech’s editorials, inorder to remove even the possibility of conflict between editors’ rolesin opinion and news coverage on the paper.

• We pursued aggressive and repeated followup stories, on issuessuch as orientation planning, the reintroduction of crowding, and thegovernment’s SEVIS international student registration system, in orderto keep our reader’s questions in the driver’s seat in campus debate.

• We published an address for information about errors that call forcorrection, news@the-tech.mit.edu, and we conscientiously followedup on each report.

Next semester:• We have asked a fixture in the MIT community, John A.

Hawkinson, to be our independent reader ombudsman. He can bereached at ombudsman@the-tech.mit.edu and will write an uneditedcolumn in this paper, serving as our liaison with The Tech’s reader-ship. We expect him to be critical and fair and to call us to accountwhen we screw up. Please do not hesitate to contact him about thepaper.

• We have appointed an executive editor with responsibilitiesincluding staff recruitment, and will step up efforts to attract new staff,especially graduate students. A critical shortage of reporters continuesto be the major limitation on our news and features coverage.

• We will continue this year’s reintroduced Features Section. Thegoal is to capture the tenor of what it is actually like to be an MIT stu-dent on an everyday basis and to diversify our coverage.

• We are pursuing ways to improve our accessibility and respon-siveness to the MIT community, including “talk back to The Tech”seminars, where readers are invited to discuss and ask questions aboutthe previous month of the paper with the editors.

The Tech is just a student group pledged to find out the truth andreport it back to our readers. The people who work on it, few as we are,live down the hall from you and work on your behalf. We’re proud ofour reporting this past semester — and proud of our top-ranked statusamong American college newspapers, judged by the Associated Colle-giate Press — but our real goal is to earn your respect and deliver qual-ity news, and we will continue working toward those ends. Let usknow how we can help.

P.S. Did we mention we’re desperate for reporters and featureswriters? Join us next year or write for our monthly summer issues.

From the Editors

Rebuilding the OldMan

In response to Vivek Rao’s column lastFriday, “You Can't Replace The Old Man,” Iwould like to offer forth the point that NewHampshire’s Old Man in the Mountain hasbeen synthetically held together for manyyears using anchoring spikes, cables, andepoxy. Although the original formation wasentirely natural, the article neglected the factthat without man’s intervention it wouldhave collapsed ages ago. The New Hamp-shire state government has already set the

policy that the Old Man of the Mountain isnot a landmark to be left to its own devicesand completely rebuilding the monument isjust following with an already establishedmaintenance policy. Vivek Rao should have

voiced concern when New Hampshire firstdecided to restore the monument, not whenNew Hampshire decides to repair the monu-ment again.

George Waksman ’05

ErratumThe headline on a May 6 article [“MIT Issues $250 Million in New Bonds”] transposed

two numerals in the amount of an MIT bond issue. As correctly reported in the article, it was$205 million, not $250 million.

Letters To The Editor

“From the Editors” from May 13, 2003.

On Friday evening, The Tech sent a spam e-mail to 28 widely-read MIT mailing lists in an inappropriate recruiting effort.We were wrong to do so. Our e-mail was a gross violation of common courtesy and the Athena Rules of Use, and was far out-side the behavior of the respectable community institution that we work to be. It will not happen again.

On behalf of the paper, we sincerely apologize.

Jyoti Tibrewala ’04 Christine R. Fry ’05 David Carpenter ’05 Roy K. Esaki ’04 Eun J. Lee ’04Chairman Editor in Chief Managing Editor Business Manager Executive Editor

To Our ReadersChairman

Jyoti Tibrewala ’04

Editor in ChiefChristine R. Fry ’05

Business ManagerRoy K. Esaki ’04

Managing EditorDavid Carpenter ’05

Executive EditorEun J. Lee ’04

NEWS STAFF

News and Features Director: Jennifer Krishnan’04; News Editors: Keith J. Winstein G, LaurenE. LeBon ’06, Beckett W. Sterner ’06; AssociateEditors: Kathy Lin ’06, Marissa Vogt ’06, JennyZhang ’06; Staff: Jeffrey Greenbaum ’04,Michael E. Rolish ’04, Sam Hwang ’05, JessicaA Zaman ’05, Tiffany Kosolcharoen ’06, Lak-shmi Nambiar ’06, Jennifer Wong ’06; Meteor-ologists: Samantha L. H. Hess G, Robert Lind-say Korty G, Greg Lawson G, Nikki Privé G,William Ramstrom G, Michael J. Ring G.

PRODUCTION STAFF

Editors: Hangyul Chung ’05, Kevin Chen ’06,Tiffany Dohzen ’06; Associate Editors: SieHendrata Dharmawan ’05, Nicholas R. Hoff’05; Staff: Andrew Mamo ’04, Albert Leung’06, Jolinta Lin ’06, Jonathan Reinharth ’06.

OPINION STAFF

Editors: Ken Nesmith ’04, Andrew C. Thomas’04; Columnists: Philip Burrowes ’04, VivekRao ’05; Staff: Basil Enwegbara G, MaywaMontenegro G, Kris Schnee ’02, Gretchen K.Aleks ’04, Atif Z. Qadir ’04, Stephanie W.Wang ’04, Tao Yue ’04, W. Victoria Lee ’06.

SPORTS STAFF

Editor: Jennifer DeBoer ’05; Columnists:Eric Rosenblatt ’04, Phil Janowicz ’05.

ARTS STAFF

Editors: Jeremy Baskin ’04, Allison C. Lewis’04; Associate Editors: Daniel S. Robey ’04,Kevin G. Der ’06; Staff: Erik Blankinship G,Bence P. Olveczky G, Sonja Sharpe G, Fred Choi’02, Amandeep Loomba ’02, Bogdan Fedeles’03, Sonali Mukherjee ’03, Marjan Bolouri ’04,Jed Horne ’04, Pey-Hua Hwang ’04, DevdootMajumdar ’04, Chad Serrant ’04, Petar Simich’04, Jorge Padilla ’05, Ricky Rivera ’05, AmyLee ’06, Jacqueline A. O’Connor ’06.

PHOTOGRAPHY STAFF

Editors: Brian Hemond ’04, Jonathan Wang ’05,Noel Davis ’06; Associate Editors: DanielBersak ’02; Staff: Regina Cheung G, WendyGu G, Jinyang Li G, Michelle Povinelli G, PeterR. Russo G, Dong Wang G, Xiaowei Yang G,Stanley Hu ’00, Eric J. Cholankeril ’02, Yi Xie’02, Scott Johnston ’03, Marissa L. Yates ’03,Miguel A. Calles ’04, Nina Kshetry ’04, DmitryPortnyagin ’04, Benjamin Solish ’04, DaltonCheng ’05, Annie Ding ’05, Michael Lin ’05, Tim-othy Suen ’05, Amy L. Wong ’05, Hassen Abdu’06, Matt D. Brown ’06, John M. Cloutier ’06,Colin Dillard ’06, Victoria Fan ’06, Jina Kim ’06,Melanie Michalak ’06, Edward Platt ’06, OmoleyeRoberts ’06, Benjamin Schwartz ’06, Sandra Yu’06, Elizabeth Zellner ’06, Jean Zheng ’06.

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Peter Peckarsky ’72, Paul E. Schindler, Jr. ’74,V. Michael Bove ’83, Barry Surman ’84,Robert E. Malchman ’85, Deborah A. Levin-son ’91, Jonathan Richmond PhD ’91,Vladimir V. Zelevinsky ’95, Anders Hove ’96,Saul Blumenthal ’98, Joel Rosenberg ’99,Joseph Dieckhans ’00, Ryan Ochylski ’01,Satwiksai Seshasai ’01, Rima Arnaout ’02, IanLai ’02, Nathan Collins SM ’03, B. D. Colen.

OMBUDSMAN

John A. Hawkinson.

PRODUCTION STAFF FOR THIS ISSUE

Editors: Joy Forsythe ’04, Kevin Chen ’06,Tiffany Dohzen ’06; Associate Editors:Nicholas Hoff ’05, Jonathan Reinharth ’06;Staff: Jennifer Huang ’07, Yaser Khan ’07,Sylvia Yang ’07.The Tech (ISSN 0148-9607) is published on Tuesdays and Fridays during the academicyear (except during MIT vacations), Wednesdays during January and monthly duringthe summer for $45.00 per year Third Class by The Tech, Room W20-483, 84 Massa-chusetts Ave., Cambridge, Mass. 02139. Third Class postage paid at Boston, Mass. Per-mit No. 1. POSTMASTER: Please send all address changes to our mailing address:The Tech, P.O. Box 397029, Cambridge, Mass. 02139-7029. Telephone: (617) 253-1541, editorial; (617) 258-8329, business; (617) 258-8226, facsimile. Advertising, sub-scription, and typesetting rates available. Entire contents © 2003 The Tech. Printed onrecycled paper by Charles River Publishing.

Opinion PolicyEditorials are the official opinion of

The Tech. They are written by the editorialboard, which consists of the chairman, edi-tor in chief, managing editor, opinion edi-tors, a photography editor, and an arts edi-tor.

Dissents are the opinions of signedmembers of the editorial board choosing topublish their disagreement with the editori-al.

Letters to the editor, columns, andeditorial cartoons are written by individu-als and represent the opinion of the author,not necessarily that of the newspaper.Electronic submissions are encouraged andshould be sent to letters@the-tech.mit.edu.Hard copy submissions should beaddressed to The Tech, P.O. Box 397029,Cambridge, Mass. 02139-7029, or sent byinterdepartmental mail to Room W20-483.All submissions are due by 4:30 p.m. twodays before the date of publication.

Letters, columns, and cartoons mustbear the authors’ signatures, addresses, andphone numbers. Unsigned letters will not beaccepted. The Tech reserves the right to edit

or condense letters; shorter letters will begiven higher priority. Once submitted, allletters become property of The Tech, andwill not be returned. The Tech makes nocommitment to publish all the lettersreceived.

The Tech’s Ombudsman, reachableby e-mail at ombudsman@the-tech.mit.edu, serves as the liaison betweenThe Tech and its readers. From time totime, the Ombudsman writes an indepen-dent column reflecting the complaints,questions, and concerns of the readership.

To Reach UsThe Tech’s telephone number is (617)

253-1541. E-mail is the easiest way toreach any member of our staff. If you areunsure whom to contact, send mail to gen-eral@the-tech.mit.edu, and it will bedirected to the appropriate person. Pleasesend press releases, requests for coverage,and information about errors that call forcorrection to news@the-tech.mit.edu. Let-ters to the editor should be sent to let-ters@the-tech.mit.edu. The Tech can befound on the World Wide Web athttp://the-tech.mit.edu.

OPINIONPage 4 THE TECH September 9, 2003

ErratumA Friday article [“Passing Rate for

FEE Levels Off”] referred incorrectlyto the trend in the pass rate on theFreshman Essay Evaluation. Perfor-mance on the FEE has remainedroughly constant over the last sixyears, but the score of “Intermediate”was merged into “Pass” in 2001 whenthe Writing Requirement became thecurrent Communications Requirement.

The percentage of freshmen receiv-ing a “Pass,” “Intermediate,” or asuperlative score on an AdvancedPlacement examination was 79 percentin 1998 and 1999, 74 percent in 2000,66 percent in 2001, 73 percent in 2002,and 74 percent in 2003, according tofigures provided by Leslie C. Perel-man, the director of writing across thecurriculum.

The Ombudsman

Don’t Hide Editors’ Notes; Serious screwup editing letters

“To Our Readers” from Sep. 9, 2003.

CHANGING PEOPLE’S LETTERS IS A NO-NO.

I have more to say about Haddad’s pieceand its erratum. Not only was I displeased withthe erratum’s formatting, but I thought its con-tent was insufficient. It didn’t clearly explainthe situation and what actually happened.

Chronology:• On March 6, Haddad e-mailed his piece to

letters@the-tech.mit.edu, and clearly identifiedit as a “letter” submission. Opinion EditorVivek Rao elected to publish it as a “column,”and made several edits to the piece, includingadding text in six places. Rao did not contactHaddad about this, though Rao told me he triedto call and left no message and sent no e-mail.

• The edited piece was published on March9; see the accompanying sidebar for a compari-son of the letter as submitted and the column aspublished.

• Haddad complained on March 10 (specifi-cally about four additions to his piece), and theMarch 16 issue carried this erratum:In Marc Haddad’s column “Twisted Logicfrom the Syrian Ambassador” [Mar. 9], thesentence “Just this past October, U.S. StateDepartment Coordinator for Counterterrorismcalled Syria ‘a sponsor of numerous terroristorganizations,’ citing groups like HAMAS andHizbollah,” should have been attributed as aneditor’s note, as should the URL referenced inthe article. The editors inserted these refer-ences to substantiate the arguments of Mr.Haddad without his consent.

There is a lot that that went wrong here!Background on opinion submissions:

Submissions may be either “letters” or“columns.” The distinction is sharp at theends, but somewhat vague and fast-and-loosewhere the two meet.

Short contributions written in response toitems published in the paper are publishedunder the headline “Letters To The Editor” onpage four. Longer columns from staff opinionwriters are published on the remaining opinionpage(s); these carry the byline in roman type(i.e. not italic).

Longer letters that are responding to issuesraised in the paper may be printed after pagefour, and can carry a tag “Letter” inset withinthe first paragraph. “Guest columns” alsoappear after page 4, but with the byline itali-cized, and represent longer column-style sub-missions that do not meet the opinion editor’sidea of a “letter.”

Got that?(The opinion department announced the

guest column byline italicization policy onOct. 3, 2003, in a “From The Editor [sic]”note. I think this method of designating guestsubmissions is poor. It’s not explained any-where, and few readers will remember the notefrom October. The opinion department shouldeither resume placing a “guest column” insettag next to guest columns, or should explainthe meaning of the italics clearly, perhaps inthe opinion policy box at the bottom of pagefour.)

Columns and letters should be editeddifferently: the opinion policy box mentions“The Tech reserves the right to edit or con-dense letters,” but the expectation is thatchanges will be minor: letters will only beshortened for space; minor grammar, spelling,style, punctuation corrections made; and per-haps potentially libelous claims removed.

In a column, however, an editor has morelatitude. The editor should help the writershape the argument, make wording changes,reorder sections, and perhaps add text.

In both cases, however, the relationshipbetween the writer and editor must be well-understood by both parties. The writer shouldunderstand and approve of all changes the edi-tor is making, and should have the opportunityto decline publication if he or she does not feelthey are appropriate.

For the case of letters, the above minor cor-rections don’t require checking with theauthor, but anything more significant certainlydoes. Without question, adding text to a letterrequires clear permission from the author.

In a column, however, the line depends onthe relationship between the columnist and theeditor. They should have agreed in advance onwhat kinds of editing are ok. In no eventshould anyone be surprised to see what is pub-lished under his or her own byline in a news-paper!

Hear are the problems as I see them:1. The opinion section needs to do a better

job distinguishing between “letters” and“columns,” because they require differenttreatment. It doesn’t help that both are e-mailed to letters@the-tech, so sometimes eventhe editors cannot tell the difference and haveto guess (in this case, however, there shouldhave been no question).

2. Marc Haddad’s submission should nothave been printed as a “column” without his

explicit consent.3. The additions to Haddad’s column

should not have been made without his explicitconsent.

4. Any changes made by editors should atleast be well proofread for spelling and gram-

mar errors (e.g.: “stipulated a that Syria”?).5. The idea that an opinion column must

state its sources and attribute its facts explicitlyis flawed. Rao seemed to feel that by addingsome facts that buttressed claims made, thenthe piece was necessarily made better. That’snot always true.

Certainly it is responsible journalism forcolumnists to attribute their facts and explainthe origin thereof, but they are not required todo so in all cases. An opinion column shouldbe a persuasive argument, but need not be lit-tered with footnotes following every sentence.

I don’t think a statement like “Syria stillsupports militant groups in the region” needs toinclude a quote from a US government official.Yes, it can make the statement stronger. But itcan also change the very substance of the argu-ment being made.

It is folly for an editor to presume he knowswhich fact to add to support a prior assertion ina column; it is then even worse to find a URL

and throw it in as if it were the author’s actualsource.

6. In his complaint, Haddad observes thatthe specific references to militant groups are “apolitical statement,” and could not “be con-strued as editorial clarifications or corrections.”

He is quite right: to single outthose two groups by name dra-matically changes the tenor of theargument, and potentially putsHaddad at personal risk if mem-bers of those groups take excep-tion.

7. Haddad also observes thatthe URL added “for more details”is from a Web site he “does notconsider a reliable, respectable orimpartial source.” You cannottrust everything you read on theWeb. Editors should not relyupon Google to find them evi-dence.

8. Most importantly, thenewspaper owes Haddad muchmore than a simple acknowledge-ment that a nameless editorinserted some references. It needsto publicly apologize to Haddadfor injuring his public image. TheTech needs to explain why injurywas done and what steps arebeing taken to ensure it will nothappen again. The Tech needs togive a full accounting of thechanges made to the piece, notsimply the two worst offenses.

UA POLITICIANS ON TECHEDITORIAL BOARD?!

It has come to the my atten-tion that The Tech’s sole opinioneditor, Vivek Rao, is one of thetwo Undergraduate Association(UA) Senators for Burton-Con-

ner. The opinion editor selects and edits thecontent of the opinion section, and also servesto convene and organize The Tech’s editorialboard.

The membership of The Tech’s editorialboard changed on March 14 (for those of youwho’ve not been closely following the opinionpolicy box). The Tech’s managing board votedto add Ken Nesmith to the editorial board.Nesmith is a former opinion editor. Like Rao,Nesmith is also involved in student governmentand the UA—he is the vice president of theclass of 2004.

It’s hard to know exactly how to react tothis. As I understand it, Rao’s affiliation wasnot disclosed at the time of his election to theposition in December of 2003. I learned of it inFebruary.

Nesmith was originally nominated for theeditorial board at the Feb. 7 meeting of themanaging board, at which he was not present.His affiliation was disclosed, and the managing

board chose to postpone his election untilMarch so they could discuss the issue withhim.

I am concerned about the potential conflictsof interest, both when I evaluate each personindividually, as well as when I evaluate themtogether. I may have more thoughts to offer onthis subject in the future, but I wanted to get theword out, since the editors of the paper havenot seen fit to provide this information other-wise.

YOU PRINT IT, YOU FIX IT…OR NOT?I’m upset with The Tech’s news department

over the handling of errata. Perhaps you recallthe lead article from the first issue of term,“UA Completes Under Half of Fall Projects”[Feb. 3]? In my research for my Feb. 13 col-umn that mentioned that article, I concludedthat at least three of the goals in the table fromthat article were misclassified. One of thosewas acknowledged in an erratum publishedFeb. 13 (“coffeehouse re-introduction”), how-ever two others (“Nominations committee” and“Public Relations committee”) have not beenacknowledged. I’ve asked the News depart-ment repeatedly to address these, both in e-mailand in person, as early as Feb. 12 and as recent-ly as March 29.

Finally, News and Features Director Beck-ett W. Sterner told me, “I’m not interested inputting in the effort to resolve the issue of thetwo or three goals that had unclear status at theend of the article. I believe it would take toolarge of an effort compared to the relativelyminor nature of the affair.”

Wow. That attitude is really shocking tome. It’s not as if the news department is beingasked to go and fact-check everything pub-lished in that story. They were given prettyclear information, both from me and from the“UA Q&A” column published on Feb. 10.Worse, that column was accompanied by anitalicized editor’s note: “The Tech is currentlydiscussing with the UA the nature of the dis-crepancies and will publish errata should thearticle prove to include inaccuracies.”

It’s grievous enough to decline to affirm thefact of errors for which there seem to be nodoubt, but it is truly egregious to promise (inprint!) to publish errata, and then to fail to doso! I don’t understand what Sterner can bethinking.

In a subsequent e-mail message, Sternerclarifies that this “should not be construed as ablanket statement that I do not follow up onerrors in the articles. I think that’s clear in gen-eral, evidenced by the errata we have run, andmost recently by my response to the Putnamarticle,” referring to the March 30 errataregarding “MIT Takes First Place at PutnamMath Test” [March 19]. I’m at a loss to recon-cile these positions.

The Tech’s Ombudsman welcomes yourfeedback, to ombudsman@the-tech.mit.edu.His opinions are his own.

Page 6 THE TECH OPINION April 6, 2004

Editors Should Never Add Text To Letters!Ombudsman, from Page 5

“From The Editor” from Oct 3. 2003.

ChairmanJyoti Tibrewala ’04

Editor in ChiefChristine R. Fry ’05

Business ManagerRoy K. Esaki ’04

Managing EditorDavid Carpenter ’05

Executive EditorEun J. Lee ’04

NEWS STAFF

News and Features Director: Jennifer Krish-nan ’04; News Editors: Keith J. Winstein G,Lauren E. LeBon ’06, Beckett W. Sterner ’06;Associate Editors: Kathy Lin ’06, MarissaVogt ’06, Jenny Zhang ’06; Staff: JeffreyGreenbaum ’04, Michael E. Rolish ’04, Jay K.Cameron ’05, Sam Hwang ’05, Jessica A.Zaman ’05, Tiffany Kosolcharoen ’06, Laksh-mi Nambiar ’06, Jennifer Wong ’06, ShuaiChen ’07; Meteorologists: Samantha L. H.Hess G, Robert Lindsay Korty G, Greg LawsonG, Nikki Privé G, William Ramstrom G,Michael J. Ring G.

PRODUCTION STAFF

Editors: Hangyul Chung ’05, Kevin Chen ’06,Tiffany Dohzen ’06; Associate Editors: SieHendrata Dharmawan ’05, Nicholas R. Hoff ’05;Staff: Andrew Mamo ’04, Albert Leung ’06,Jolinta Lin ’06, Jonathan Reinharth ’06, JenniferHuang ’07, Yaser M. Khan ’07, Sylvia Yang ’07 .

OPINION STAFF

Editors: Andrew C. Thomas ’04; AssociateEditor: Vivek Rao ’05; Columnist: Philip Bur-rowes ’04; Staff: Basil Enwegbara SM ’01,Gretchen K. Aleks ’04, Ken Nesmith ’04, AtifZ. Qadir ’04, W. Victoria Lee ’06, Daniel Bar-clay ’07, Ruth Miller ’07.

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Editor: Jennifer DeBoer ’05, Phil Janowicz’05; Staff: Yong-yi Zhu ’06; Columnists:O.B. Usmen ’03, Eric Rosenblatt ’04.

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Editors: Jeremy Baskin ’04, Allison C.Lewis ’04; Associate Editors: Daniel S.Robey ’04, Kevin G. Der ’06; Staff: ErikBlankinship G, Bence P. Olveczky G, SonjaSharpe G, Fred Choi ’02, Amandeep Loomba’02, Bogdan Fedeles ’03, Sonali Mukherjee ’03,Jed Horne ’04, Pey-Hua Hwang ’04, DevdootMajumdar ’04, Chad Serrant ’04, Petar Simich’04, Jorge Padilla ’05, Ricky Rivera ’05, AmyLee ’06, Jacqueline A. O’Connor ’06.

PHOTOGRAPHY STAFF

Editors: Brian Hemond ’04, Jonathan Wang ’05, DanBersak ’02; Staff: Regina Cheung G, Wendy Gu G,Jinyang Li G, Michelle Povinelli G, Peter R. RussoG, Dong Wang G, Xiaowei Yang G, Stanley Hu’00, Eric J. Cholankeril ’02, Yi Xie ’02, Scott John-ston ’03, Marissa L. Yates ’03, Miguel A. Calles ’04,Nina Kshetry ’04, Dmitry Portnyagin ’04, BenjaminSolish ’04, Dalton Cheng ’05, Annie Ding ’05, MichaelLin ’05, Timothy Suen ’05, Amy L. Wong ’05, HassenAbdu ’06, Matt D. Brown ’06, John M. Cloutier ’06,Noel Davis ’06, Colin Dillard ’06, Grant Jordan ’06, JinaKim ’06, Melanie Michalak ’06, Edward Platt ’06,Omoleye Roberts ’06, Benjamin Schwartz ’06, SandraYu ’06, Elizabeth Zellner ’06, Jean Zheng ’06.

FEATURES STAFF

Editor: Brian Loux ’04; Associate Editor:Ricarose Roque ’06; Columnists: Bruce Wu G,Akshay Patil ’04, Michael Short ’05; Cartoon-ists: Jason Burns G, Kailas Narendran ’01, Bao-Yi Chang ’02, Jumaane Jeffries ’02, Lara Kirk-ham ’03, Alison Wong ’03, Sergei R. Guma’04, Sean Liu ’04, Jennifer Peng ’05, NancyPhan ’05, Josie Sung ’05, Qian Wang ’05.

BUSINESS STAFF

Advertising Manager: Aye Moah ’05; Staff:William Li ’06, Victoria Fan ’06, Lauren Leung’07, Donald H. Wong ’07.

TECHNOLOGY STAFF

Director: Roshan Baliga ’03; Staff: FrankDabek G, Kevin Atkinson ’02, Daniel Leeds ’05.

EDITORS AT LARGE

Senior Editor: Aaron D. Mihalik G, SatwiksaiSeshasai G; Contributing Editors: Joel C. Corbo’04, Joy Forsythe ’04.

ADVISORY BOARD

Peter Peckarsky ’72, Paul E. Schindler, Jr. ’74, V.Michael Bove ’83, Barry Surman ’84, Robert E.Malchman ’85, Deborah A. Levinson ’91, JonathanRichmond PhD ’91, Vladimir V. Zelevinsky ’95,Anders Hove ’96, Saul Blumenthal ’98, Joel Rosen-berg ’99, Joseph Dieckhans ’00, Ryan Ochylski ’01,Rima Arnaout ’02, Ian Lai ’02, Nathan Collins SM’03, B. D. Colen.

OMBUDSMAN

John A. Hawkinson.

PRODUCTION STAFF FOR THIS ISSUE

Editors: David Carpenter ’05, Hangyul Chung ’05,Sie Hendrata Dharmawan ’05.The Tech (ISSN 0148-9607) is published on Tuesdays and Fridays during the academic year(except during MIT vacations), Wednesdays during January and monthly during the summer for$45.00 per year Third Class by The Tech, Room W20-483, 84 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge,Mass. 02139. Third Class postage paid at Boston, Mass. Permit No. 1. POSTMASTER: Pleasesend all address changes to our mailing address: The Tech, P.O. Box 397029, Cambridge, Mass.02139-7029. Telephone: (617) 253-1541, editorial; (617) 258-8329, business; (617) 258-8226,facsimile. Advertising, subscription, and typesetting rates available. Entire contents © 2003 TheTech. Printed on recycled paper by Charles River Publishing.

Beginning in this issue, there are two perti-nent changes to the Opinion section whichshould be made known.

First, guest column submissions will now beidentified by having the author’s name italicized.In addition, on occasions where there is no roomfor a particular letter on this page, those letters tothe editor which are placed on the facing pagewill be identified clearly as such.

Second, in order to stimulate more discus-sion and illuminate campus issues, we havebegun to solicit guest column submissions frommembers of the administration (with the aid ofProfessor Paul A. Lagace ’78). To begin thiscollaboration, a column written by Dean LarryG. Benedict is on the facing page. As always,we encourage all interested parties — students,faculty, and community members — to submit

letters to the editor (of maximum length around150 words) or full length guest columns (ofabout 750 words) to letters@the-tech.mit.edu,on MIT or worldly matters.

Our goal, as always, is to foster dialogue inthe community on issues of importance to MITand the world at large. We’re dependent onyour feedback to make this happen! Keep thatmail coming.

OPINIONPage 4 THE TECH October 3, 2003

Opinion PolicyEditorials are the official opinion of

The Tech. They are written by the editorialboard, which consists of the chairman, edi-tor in chief, managing editor, opinion edi-tors, a photography editor, and an arts edi-tor.

Dissents are the opinions of signedmembers of the editorial board choosing topublish their disagreement with the editori-al.

Letters to the editor, columns, andeditorial cartoons are written by individu-als and represent the opinion of the author,not necessarily that of the newspaper.Electronic submissions are encouraged andshould be sent to letters@the-tech.mit.edu.Hard copy submissions should beaddressed to The Tech, P.O. Box 397029,Cambridge, Mass. 02139-7029, or sent byinterdepartmental mail to Room W20-483.All submissions are due by 4:30 p.m. twodays before the date of publication.

Letters, columns, and cartoons mustbear the authors’ signatures, addresses, andphone numbers. Unsigned letters will not beaccepted. The Tech reserves the right to editor condense letters; shorter letters will be

given higher priority. Once submitted, allletters become property of The Tech, andwill not be returned. The Tech makes nocommitment to publish all the lettersreceived.

The Tech’s Ombudsman, reachableby e-mail at ombudsman@the-tech.mit.edu, serves as the liaison betweenThe Tech and its readers. From time totime, the Ombudsman writes an indepen-dent column reflecting the complaints,questions, and concerns of the readership.

To Reach UsThe Tech’s telephone number is (617)

253-1541. E-mail is the easiest way toreach any member of our staff. If you areunsure whom to contact, send mail to gen-eral@the-tech.mit.edu, and it will bedirected to the appropriate person. Pleasesend press releases, requests for coverage,and information about errors that call forcorrection to news@the-tech.mit.edu. Let-ters to the editor should be sent to let-ters@the-tech.mit.edu. The Tech can befound on the World Wide Web athttp://the-tech.mit.edu.

Errata

Because of an editing error, the Tues-day obituary for Institute Professor Emeri-tus Franco Modigliani misstated the day ofthe Nobel laureate’s passing. He died onThursday, Sept. 25, not Friday, Sept. 26.

Because of an editing error, a Tuesdayarticle about the new MIT Boston WinterShuttle [“Daytime Shuttle to Start inDecember,” Sept. 30] misspelled the nameof the Graduate Student Council president.His name is R. Erich Caulfield, not R. EricCaulfield.

The solution to Tuesday’s Chessmatewas incorrect. The correct solution is:

1. [...] Qd1+ 2. Kb2 Qc1#

From The Editor

The new Syrian Ambassador to the U.S., United States, Dr.Imad Moustapha, spoke on March 2nd 2 at MIT about Middle Eastpeace, a topic of controversy and contradictions by most anyaccount.

What was unusual about this talk is that the speaker himselfseemed full of contradictions, perhaps more so than the issues hediscussed. Dr. Moustapha set the tone early on when he started byexpressing his admiration for the MIT community, then promptlyproceeded to insult our intelligence with twisted logic, albeit in avery polite way. Yet since he appeared to be genuinely interested indialogue, I would like to give him here the positive feedback hesolicited.

To start with, the ambassador’s claim that Syria is for a peacefulresolution of all conflicts in the Middle East is very questionable,since Syria still supports militant groups in the region, some ofwhich are under its direct tutelage and/or protection. Just this pastOctober, U.S. State Department Coordinator for Counterter-rorism called Syria “a sponsor of numerous terrorist organiza-tions,” citing groups like HAMAS and Hizbollah. And even ifone is to believe, in good faith, the ambassador’s claims that theSyrian regime is now against the use of force, then why is it thatforce and oppression are still being used inside Syria to restrictfreedoms and deprive the Syrian people of their basic humanrights? rights in a situation documented by respected organiza-tions like Human Rights Watch? By the same token, if the Syrianregime is against the use of military force in Iraq and Israel becauseforce doesn’t resolve conflicts as the ambassador stated, then whyis it that Syria maintains an occupation force of roughly 20,000troops in neighboring Lebanon? Why not 20,000 Red Cross work-ers instead?

The ambassador proceeded to say that his country’s 30-yearlong occupation of Lebanon can not be called an occupation,because not a single bullet has been fired against the Syrian armysince the end of the Lebanese civil war 12 years ago. Apparently,the ambassador is not impressed by the hundreds of peaceful stu-

dent demonstrations against Syrian occupation inside and outsideLebanon; maybe we should conclude that Dr. Moustapha onlyunderstands the language of force in which he claims he doesn’tbelieve in? believe?

I’d like to remind the ambassador that the reason the Lebanesehave stopped firing at the Syrian army is because they have alreadyturned in their weapons at the end of the civil war as provided forby the Syrian-sponsored Taef accord Taif Accord of 1990, 1989,which also stipulated for a that Syria relocate its troops by 1992from Beirut and other major cities to the Beqaa Valley andestablish a timetable for its complete Syrian withdrawal by 1992.Now (see http://www.meib.org/articles/0307_l1.htm for moredetails). Now, 12 years later, this complete withdrawal has still notoccurred.

But perhaps the most blatant piece of twisted logic came in theambassador’s claim that he was not part of the Syrian establish-ment, as the obvious easy way out of having to answer for all thatestablishment’s offenses. This attempt at self-exoneration removedany remaining shred of personal credibility that I was still hopingfor, and I’m sure it failed to pass the Litmus litmus test by anyonelooking for signs of real change from the Syrian regime.

What the ambassador needs to learn here and convey to his gov-ernment back home is that no one is duped anymore by theirattempts at putting a friendly face to one a repressive regime. AsCharles Dickens once wrote: “Charity begins at home, and justicebegins next door”, door,” and we are still waiting to see real reformin Syria and a withdrawal of Syrian troops from neighboringLebanon. The failed experience of Iraq’s Information MinisterMohammed Al-Sahaf should be the best indication to Dr.Moustapha that spin doctors can not cannot hide and twist the truthfor very long, and that while America may still buy all get most ofits oil from the Middle East, people can nonetheless easily tellwhen it’s of the snake-oil variety.

Marc Haddad PhD is a doctoral candidate in Technology Man-agement and Policy.

Edits made to Haddad’s submissionChanges made to the Marc Haddad G’s letter published on March 9 as “Twisted Logic from the Syrian Ambassador.” “Strikethru” indicates

removed text, “redline” indicates added text. By my count, there are 8 punctuation/spelling/style corrections, 6 significant additions/changes to thetext, 2 grammar changes, 1 condensation for brevity, 1 factual correction, and 1 title clarification, for a total of 19 changes. — JOHN A. HAWKINSON

Page7

April 6, 2004

by Brian Loux

Trio by Emezie Okorafor

Page 8 The Tech April 6, 2004

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philosopher20 Footwear on

horseback?23 Plunk starter?24 College paper25 Outline27 Road shoulder30 Blot33 Cavalryman’s

weapon37 Right on maps39 Uncommon40 Actress Verdugo

41 Rx approvers42 Field measures43 “On Golden __”44 Russian ruler45 Gets under

control46 Safe48 Complex silicate50 Bank robbery52 Seer57 Block up59 Bird perched at

the bar?62 Wipe out64 Shawl or cloak65 Glorify66 Broadcaster67 Actress Campbell68 Cicero’s being69 Gardening tools70 Skyrocket71 __ off (annoyed)

DOWN1 Smallest Scotsman2 God of Islam3 Forest space4 Smooths wood5 John of Monty

Python6 Rowers7 Close by, old-style8 Honker9 Fragrant

substance10 ET’s vehicle11 Support piece on

a swaying seat?12 Hit with a finger13 End of the road?21 Zodiac sign22 Formerly,

formerly26 About28 Umps’ cohorts29 Lady’s address31 Native people of

Canada

32 Shell rival33 Numidian serpent34 Shaving-cream

additive35 Initials carved on

a seat?36 Transfuse38 Indian wear42 Video-game

company44 Try out47 Stair parts49 Slangy officer51 Burgs53 Lace tip54 Type of fire?55 Parasitic pest56 Brought to a

close57 Letter starter58 Opera highlight60 Nabisco cookie61 Molten rock63 Observe.

Positions Available Graduate Housing Opportunity

Positions Available for live-in Resident Advisors for MIT's Fraternities, Sororities, and Independent Living Groups. Applications are due by April 15, 2004, and are available online at: http://web.mit.edu/slp/fsilgs/ra-application.html

Description: A Resident Advisor is expected to serve as a mentor, guide, and resource for students and to serve as a liaison between the chapter and the Dean's Office. The RA is expected to know and educate FSILG students about MIT policies, applicable Chapter and/or Fraternity/Sorority headquarters policies, and common sense safety practices. Training is provided.

Remuneration: All Resident Assistants receive free room and board. In addition, some organizations may include a small stipend. Each Resident Advisor is furnished with a single room in the chapter facility.

Qualifications: A BA or BS and/or graduate enrollment at an accredited institution are required.

join@tt.mit.eduW20-483, 617-253-1541

Free food after 11 p.m.

April 6, 2004 The Tech Page 9

Tuesday, April 6

10:00 a.m. – Undergraduate Admissions Office Information Session (Followed by Campus Tour). Followingthe Admissions Information Session is a Student Led Campus Tour which begins in Lobby 7. Groups over 15people need to make special reservations. Free. Room: Admissions Reception Center (10-100). Sponsor:Admissions. 10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. – WHOI Donut and Coffee Hour. Come join your classmates for some post-bus, pre-classes refreshments! Free. Room: WHOI Student Center. Sponsor: WHOI Student Organization. 10:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. – QNN Group Seminar. Ion trapology for scalable quantum information processing.Free. Room: 37-252. Sponsor: Nanostructures Laboratory. 10:45 a.m. – Campus Tour. Student led campus tours are approximately 90 minutes long and provide a gen-eral overview of the main campus. Please note that campus tours do not visit laboratories, living groups orbuildings under construction. Groups over 15 people need to make special reservations. The Campus Tourbegins in Lobby 7. Free. Room: Lobby 7. Sponsor: Information Center. 11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. – Opportunities in the Medical Technology Industry: Turning Innovation into Enter-prise. Michael A. Mussallem Edwards Lifesciences Corporation Opportunities in the Medical Technology Indus-try: Turning Innovation into Enterprise. Free. Room: 26-100. Sponsor: Mechanical Engineering Dept. 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. – Excel User Group. Free. Room: N42 Demo Center. Sponsor: Information Servicesand Technology. 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. – Modern Optics and Spectroscopy. Frequency Domain Observations of ElectronOrbital — rovibrational coupling. Free. Room: 34-401. Sponsor: Spectroscopy Laboratory. Dept. of ElectricalEngineering and Computer Science and School of Science. 12:05 p.m. - 12:45 p.m. – Mass. Free. Room: MIT Chapel. Sponsor: Tech Catholic Community. 2:00 p.m. – Undergraduate Admissions Office Information Session (Followed by Campus Tour). Groups over15 people need to make special reservations. Free. Room: Admissions Reception Center (10-100). Sponsor:Admissions. 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. – Human Error, Organizational Factors, and Safety Culture in the Nuclear Power Indus-try. Free. Room: 35-225. Sponsor: GSC Funding Board, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, MIT StudentChapter. 2:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. – Fast and Tunable Integrated AC Eletrokinetic Pumping in a Microfluidic Loop. Free.Room: 2-338. Sponsor: Physical Mathematics Seminar. 2:45 p.m. – Campus Tour. TFree. Room: Lobby 7. Sponsor: Information Center. 3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. – MITea Time — Culture Exchange — English Chinese Class. Our free English class isgood for new comers to get start their English conversations in a very friendly environment. It is also good forpeople who have interest on learning the American culture, American life styles, etc. Lots of interesting topicsand discussions will be a good start for your English learning. Feel free to come and have wonderful discus-sions with our Native English speakers. Refreshments will be served. Free. Room: 36-156. Sponsor: ChineseStudent and Scholar Association, Graduate Student Council. MIT CSSA & GSC. 3:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. – MTL VLSI Seminar Series. High Frequency Broadband Communications. Free. Room:50 Vassar St., 34-101. Sponsor: MTL VLSI Seminar. 3:30 p.m. – Varsity Baseball vs. Bates. Free. Room: Briggs Field.3:30 p.m. – Varsity Softball vs. Babson College (Doubleheader). Free. Room: Briggs Field. 4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. – MIT Physical Chemistry Seminar Series, Professor Minhaeng Cho, Korea University.Coherent multidimensional spectroscopy and polypeptides. Professor Minhaeng Cho, Korea University. MITPhysical Chemistry Seminar Series “Progress in the Study of the X-Ray Background” by Prof. Riccardo Giac-coni, 2002 Nobel Prize in Physics. Prof. Giacconi will describe some the research efforts which have recentlyelucidated the nature of the X-Ray background 40 years after its discovery. The resolution of the background indiscrete sources at the limit of both X-ray and optical surveys reveals a rich field of research to be pursued.Free. Room: 37-252 (Marlar Lounge). Sponsor: AeroAstro, Masschusetts Space Grant Consortium. 3:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. – spouses&partners@mit weekly meeting: MIT Museum. We will visit “Hub of the AirUniverse: A Century of Flight in Massachusetts.” The MIT Museum marks the centennial of the Wright Broth-ers’ first heavier-than-air powered flight by spotlighting the work and achievements at MIT and throughout thestate’s aviation industry. Meet in front of La Verde’s in the Student Center at 3 p.m. We will walk to the muse-um together. Free. Room: MIT Museum. Sponsor: spouses&partners@mit. 4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. – PSFC Seminar. What the Quiet Times Tell us about the Storms. Free. Room: NW17-218. Sponsor: Plasma Science and Fusion Center. 4:00 p.m. – Varsity Men’s Tennis vs. Wheaton College. Free. Room: du Pont Tennis Courts/JB Carr TennisBubble. 4:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. – Government Transparency: Are the US and Japan Heading in Opposite Directions?Free. Room: E38 6th Floor Conference Room. Sponsor: MIT Japan Program, Center for International Studies. 4:15 p.m. - 5:15 p.m. – Applying the Temperley-Lieb Algebra to the 4-Colour Theorem. Reception at 3:30p.m. in Room 2-349. Free. Room: 2-338. Sponsor: Combinatorics Seminar. Department of Mathematics. 4:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. – Joint Theory Seminar. Creation of particles, Cosmology and Moduli trapping. Free.Room: Center for Theoretical Physics. Sponsor: Laboratory for Nuclear Science. 5:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. – Rainbow Lounge Open. MIT’s resource lounge for lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender,and questioning members of the community offers a place to hang out, various activities, and a lending libraryduring its open hours. Free. Room: Rainbow Lounge (50-306). Sponsor: lbgt@mit. 5:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. – Henry W. Kendall Memorial Lecture. Henry W. Kendall Memorial Lecture: Dr. GeorgeWoodwell, The Woods Hole Research Center “Disruption Climatic and Political - Towards a World that Works.Free. Room: 10-250. Sponsor: Earth System Initiative. Departments of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sci-ences and Civil and Environmental Engineering. 5:10 p.m. - 6:15 p.m. – Worship Service (Holy Communion). All students, staff and faculty are welcome atour weekly worship service. Free. Room: MIT Chapel. Sponsor: Lutheran-Episcopal Ministry. 5:15 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. – Wednesday Agape Meal and Footwashing. Holy week event: Agape Meal and Foot-washing. Free. Room: Building W11. Sponsor: Lutheran-Episcopal Ministry. 5:30 p.m. – Student Vocal Recital. Graduate student Ahmed E. Ismail, baritone, Yukiko Ueno, piano. Worksby Britten, Mahler, Finzi, and Vaughan Williams. free. Room: Killian Hall. Sponsor: Music and Theater Arts Sec-tion. 5:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. – General Council Meeting. Room: GSC Office, Walker Memorial (Bldg. 50) Room 220.Sponsor: GSC Meetings. 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. – Graduate Christian Fellowship Bible Study. Come join us for Bible study, prayer, andfellowship! We are currently studying the book of Acts. Free. Room: 66-369. Sponsor: Graduate Christian Fel-lowship, GSC Funding Board. 6:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. – Getting a Job in Business - Primers for MIT Engineers & Scientists. How do you get ajob as a VC, consultant, banker, sales rep, or marketing manager? What roles can you shoot for as a BA orPhD in science/technology? What do each of these people do? What sort of hours do they work? How muchmoney do they make? What sort of options will each career path generate for your future in business? Whatare the keys to success in business straight out of school? MIT SEBC Consulting & Law Focus Group cordiallyinvites you to attend this highly interactive event. This event will be beneficial to engineers and scientists whoare considering careers in business. Elad Gil (PhD ’01) has worked with a variety of venture-backed Silicon Val-ley. He is currently with McKinsey & Co where he works with technology and life sciences companies. While atMIT, Elad was the Lead Organizer of the 2001 MIT $50K and the founding President of the MIT SEBC. Free.Room: 66-110. Sponsor: Science and Engineering Business Club. 6:00 p.m. – Lewis Mumford’s City and Films of the New Deal. HTC Film Series. Free. Room: 3-133. Sponsor:History, Theory and Criticism of Architecture and Art. 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. – Start up Clinic. Through our Start-up Clinics, attendees discover how to present aplan to potential investors. Two pre-selected companies present their business plans and receive feedbackfrom a panel of experts and the audience over an informal dinner. The key learning points include howplans and presentations are evaluated; what investors and evaluators look for, and how to fine-tune plansand presentations. This clinic is most useful for entrepreneurs and companies who are beginning the fund-raising process. Presenters must have full business plans. Pre-registration is required for this event. Seewebsite for pricing. Room: MIT Faculty Club, Sloan Building, 6th Floor. Sponsor: MIT Enterprise Forum ofCambridge, Inc. 7:00 p.m. – French Politics in crisis? With protests in the streets, disillusioned voters, the return of the Far-Right, and anti-globalization demonstrations, where are French politics heading? A report from the field. Free.Room: Rm 4-270. Sponsor: GSC Funding Board, Club Francophone. 7:00 p.m. – Chicks Make Flicks: Wendy Chan. Screening of dramatic film, “Dance By Design,” the storyof a young woman who struggles to balance her career as an architect with her artistic ambition to be adancer. Shot and edited entirely on digital video in the Boston area, the film features original music bylocal artists. . free. Room: 6-120. Sponsor: Women’s Studies Program. WIFV/NE, Women’s IndependentLiving Group. 7:30 p.m. – Red Sky Morning. A book from Yale University’s Gus Speth, Dean and professor at the School ofForestry and Environmental Studies, brings together the latest data to show in detail the depth of the globalenvironmental crisis. He reveals which agencies are effecting real change and sounds a clarion call forrenewed focus on environmental policy. Free. Room: 3 Church Street; Harvard Square. Sponsor: Board ofChaplains. The Cambridge Forum. 8:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m. – Israeli Folk Dancing (participatory). Israeli Folk Dancing Early Teaching at 8 p.m.,followed by teaching and requests until 11 p.m. Beginners are always welcome. Family dancing usually occurs

from 7-8 p.m. each week. Great for kids of ALL ages! To confirm family dancing for a given week, and for up-to-date announcements about each week’s dance, see our Yahoo Group athttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/mitfdc/messages. Free for MIT/Wellesley students; suggested donation $1from others. Room: Lobby 13. Sponsor: Folk Dance Club. 8:45 p.m. - 11:30 p.m. – Swing Dancing. Beginners welcome, no partner necessary. free. Room: Student Cen-ter 2nd floor. Sponsor: Lindy Hop Society, GSC Funding Board.

Thursday, April 8

10:00 a.m. – Undergraduate Admissions Office Information Session (Followed by Campus Tour). Groupsover 15 people need to make special reservations. Free. Room: Admissions Reception Center, (10-100).Sponsor: Admissions. 10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. – WHOI Donut and Coffee Hour. Free. Room: WHOI Student Center. Sponsor: WHOIStudent Organization. 10:45 a.m. – Campus Tour. Free. Room: Lobby 7. Sponsor: Information Center. 11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. – The Nantucket Peppermill: Designed and Manufactured in the USA. Tom is theinventor of the Nantucket Peppermill, a peppergrinder that can easily be operated with one hand. Tom invent-ed it and manufactures it in the USA. He will talk about how he invented it, makes it, and operates a profitablesmall consumer product business in the USA. Free. Room: 26-100. Sponsor: Mechanical Engineering Dept. 12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. – STS Brown Bag Lunch Seminar Series — Joe Corn. Cars, Consumers, and Complex-ity: Thinking Historically about Technology Users. Free. Room: E51-165. Sponsor: STS. 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. – English Bible Class. You are welcome to attend this free Bible class led by BarbaraBeevers of Baptist Campus Ministry. International spouses are welcome especially, but open to all. Comepractice English, ask questions and make friends. Free. Room: W11 Board Room. Sponsor: Baptist CampusMinistry. 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. – Lunch Seminar. A representative of Maritime Management Consulting will speak.Free. Room: 5-314. Sponsor: 13SEAS, GSC Funding Board. 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. – TechTime: MIT Personal Calendar Quick Start. Free. Room: N42 Demo Center.Sponsor: Information Services and Technology. 1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. – Free Conversational English Class. International students, scholars and spouses arewelcome to attend a free conversational English class. Come exchange culture, learn about American cultureand holidays and make lasting friends. Free. Room: W11 Board Room. Sponsor: Baptist Campus Ministry. 1:15 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. – Special Seminar. I-MOS and its derivaties for Logic and Memory. Free. Room: 34-401A. Sponsor: Microsystems Technology Laboratories, EECS, Working Group on Support Staff Issues. 2:00 p.m. – An Afternoon with Composer Libby Larsen. Libby Larsen, 2003 recipient of The Eugene McDer-mott Award presented by The Council for the Arts at MIT and composer of the “The Nothing That Is” (2004)that will be premiered by the MIT Chamber Chorus on May 8, will speak and answer questions about her musi-cal career, views and compositions, selections from which will be played from CDs held in the Lewis MusicLibrary’s comprehensive Larsen collection. Free. Room: Rosalind Denny Lewis Music Library (14E-109). Spon-sor: Music and Theater Arts Program, Rosalind Denny Lewis Music Library, Office of the Arts Special Programs. 2:00 p.m. – Undergraduate Admissions Office Information Session (Followed by Campus Tour). Groups over15 people need to make special reservations. Free. Room: Admissions Reception Center, ( Building 10, Rm.10-100). Sponsor: Admissions. 2:45 p.m. – Campus Tour. Free. Room: Lobby 7. Sponsor: Information Center. 3:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. – CSAIL Dertouzos Lecture Series. Free. Room: 34-101. Sponsor: Laboratory for Com-puter Science. 3:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. – Nuclear Engineering Dept. Lecture. Seminar on Sonoluminescene - a possible meansto attain thermonuclear fusion. Free. Room: 4-153. Sponsor: American Nuclear Society, Nuclear Engineering. 4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. – MIT Atmospheric Science Seminars. Surface fluxes and ocean coupling in the tropicalintraseasonal oscillation. free. Room: 54-915. Sponsor: MIT Atmospheric Science Seminars. 4:10 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. – The Gerald N. Wogan Lecture. Chemoprevention of Cancer: New approaches and newagents. Professor of Pharmacology, Dartmouth Medical School. Free. Room: 68-181. Sponsor: Biological Engi-neering Division, Center for Environmental Health Sciences. 4:15 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. – Physics Colloquium Series: “Measurements of Gravity-likeForces at Sub-mm Dis-tances”. The Physics Community is invited to a pre-lecture reception at 3:45 p.m. in room 4-339. Free. Room:10-250. Sponsor: Physics Department. 4:15 p.m. - 5:15 p.m. – The Price of Anarchy under Nonlinear and Asymmetric Costs. ORC Spring SeminarSeries. Seminar reception immediately follwowing in the Philip M. Morse Reading Room, E40-106. Free.Room: E40-298. Sponsor: Operations Research Center. 4:30 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. – Refugee and Indigenous Rights: A Discussion of Human Rights Issues in NorthernThailand. Sue Darlington, Associate Professor of Anthropology & Asian Studies, Hampshire College MichaelForhan, Executive Director, Burma Border Projects Josh Rubenstein, Northeast Regional Director, AmnestyInternational. Free. Room: E38-615. Sponsor: Center for International Studies, Program on Human Rights &Justice. 5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. – Communications Forum: Movies in the Digital Age. Motion Picture Association ofAmerica President Jack Valenti presents his views on digital piracy. Free. Room: Bartos Theater, MIT MediaLab. Sponsor: Communications Forum. 5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. – MIT Men’s RUGBY Practice. Ever wanted to learn a cool contact sport? Rugby is atraditional English game requiring good hands, quick feet, and balls of leather. Bring friends, relatives and any-one interested in learning the fantastic and elegant game of rugby. All ages/ sizes & experience levels wel-come. Free. Room: Johnson Outdoor Turf. Sponsor: Rugby Football Club, MIT, Edgerton House Residents’Association. 5:30 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. – Weekly Grad Student Bible Study for Absolute Beginners. Weekly informal Biblestudy for grad students; refreshments provided; lgbt welcome. Free. Room: W11-007. Sponsor: Lutheran-Epis-copal Ministry. 6:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. – Budget Proposal and Planning Workshop - studnet groups. The workshop will offertips, recommendations and advice for student groups who prepare group or specific event budgets. Studentgovernment funding board representatives (GSC Funding Board, UA Finboard, LEF & ARCADE) will discuss whatthey look for in good funding proposal requests and give examples of realistic estimates for expenses. Atten-dance is strongly recommended, active participants will have an edge at upcoming funding cycles. For ques-tions, contact budget-workshop@ua-2.mit.edu. Free. Room: 4-237. Sponsor: UA Finance Board, Student LifePrograms, GSC Funding Board, LEF (Large EventsFund), ARCADE (Assisting Recurring Cultural DiversityEvents). 6:03 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. – Weekly meetings. Regular meeting of the core group at muddy charles. Free. Room:Muddy Charles. Sponsor: Techlink. 6:30 p.m. – “Forgetting Passaic.” HTC Forum Series. free. Room: 10-401. Sponsor: History, Theory and Criti-cism of Architecture and Art. 7:00 p.m. – Weapons of Mass Distortion? Music & Multi-Media as an Antidote to Propaganda! Ms. Dunlopwill perform music & multi-media works by composer Martin Wesley-Smith. Ros & Martin are Australianactivists who have for decades been dedicated to the universal struggle forhuman rights. If you can’t imaginethe clarinet as a “blunt instrument” used in murder and political mayhem — if you haven’t seen propagandaset to music — if you’d like to meet an activist whose passion for music is inseparable from her compassionfor those who fight their oppressors — attend this concert! Free. Room: MIT Student Center, Mezz. Lounge(3rd fl.). Sponsor: MIT Western Hemisphere Project. Noam Chomsky; MIT Associate Provost for the Arts;Amnesty International; Cultural Survival. 7:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. – Meditation and Discussion on the Heart Sutra. Meditation and discussion of one ofthe central and perhaps the most popular text in the Buddhist philosophical canon. Free. Room: MIT Chapel.Sponsor: Buddhist Community at MIT. 7:00 p.m. – Chi Epsilon Initiation Dinner. Chi Epsilon dinner for current members and new initiates. Free.Room: Kendall Marriott. Sponsor: CEE Administrative Staff. 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. – Graduate Christian Fellowship Bible Study. Come join us for Bible study, prayer, andfellowship! We are currently studying the book of Ephesians. Free. Room: NW86-560. Sponsor: GraduateChristian Fellowship, GSC Funding Board. 7:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. – Chess Club Meeting. A prominent player of the club will talk about some ideas in theopening. Then it will be designated time for play! Free. Room: Student Center, PDR 1&2. Sponsor: Chess Club. 7:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. – Holy Thursday Mass. Mass of the Lord’s Supper. Free. Room: MIT Chapel. Sponsor:Tech Catholic Community. 8:00 p.m. – Power of Darkness. Leo Tolstoy’s play directed by Assistant Professor Jay Scheib. $8, $6 stu-dents. Room: Kresge Little Theater. Sponsor: Dramashop. 8:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m. – MIT Concert Band Rehearsal. The Concert Band, a student-run performance group,rehearses twice per week. We welcome students of all levels of musical experience. Free. Room: W20-3rdFloor, 20 Chimneys. Sponsor: Association of Student Activities, Concert Band. 8:30 p.m. - 10:30 p.m. – Underwater Hockey. The MIT SCUBA Club invites all to participate in UnderwaterHockey every Thursday. Underwater Hockey is an exciting co-ed sport played at the bottom of a pool with ashort stick and a lead puck. New Players should e-mail uwh-officers@mit.edu. free. Room: z-pool. Sponsor:Scuba Club. 9:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m. – Coffee Hour. Food and drink - an Ashdown tradition. Free. Room: Hulsizer Room(W1). Sponsor: Ashdown House.

Events Calendar Events Calendar appears in each issue of The Tech and features events for members of the MIT community. TheTech makes no guarantees as to the accuracy of this information, and The Tech shall not be held liable for any loss-es, including, but not limited to, damages resulting from attendance of an event. Contact information for all events is available from the Events Calendar web page.

Visit and add events to Events Calendar online at http://events.mit.edu

Page 10 THE TECH April 6, 2004

Senior Segue

OTZMA is a 10-month program designed to offerJewish adults ages 20-25 (college graduates preferred)an opportunity to live andvolunteer in Israel in a varietyof settings.

This year Combined JewishPhilanthropies sponsored six “Otzmanikim.” Spots arestill open for next year andapplications are currentlybeing accepted.

For more information, contact jamesb@cjp.org

www.otzma.com

Israel

April 6, 2004 THE TECH Page 11

Diversify Your Portfolio with $1000

Announcing the 2Be Diversity Project

The 2Be Diversity Project is a writing contest open to the entire MIT community. Contestants pick as the topic of an essay some aspect of themselves with which they identify that makes them feel

diverse. It’s a celebration of diversity!

¶ Creativity Break April 7th

(14E-304 6-7pm - food)

¶ Essays due April 14th

- Email submissions to adlevin@mit.edu

¶ Awards ceremony April 28th (14E-304 6-7pm - food)

For more details go to:

http://web.mit.edu/ccrr/grants/2Be.html

Sponsored by the MIT Fund, CCRR, AFA, LBGT@MIT, GSC

Organized by Advocates for Awareness

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April 7 at the monthly GSC generalcouncil meeting at 5:30 p.m. in 4-370. Although voting is limited tothe GSC’s outgoing executive com-mittee and dormitory, department,and at-large representatives,Caulfield said that he would“encourage as many graduate stu-dents to come to the meeting” tomeet the candidates and give input.

The elections are a cascadingprocess in which candidates that donot win the office for which they arerunning can choose to run for a posi-tion that is later voted on. Thechronological order of the electionsis president, vice president, secre-tary, and treasurer.

Both Singh and Wong said that ifthey are not elected to the positionsfor which they are running, they willnot run for another position.

If a position remains vacant,nominations will become open at theGSC meeting on Wednesday. Folk-ert said that if a position is uncon-tested, the candidate will usuallydrop out temporarily to let the otherpeople accept nominations to run.

Singh said he plans to do this ifthe position of president goes uncon-tested. “A contested election isalways better because you can getdifferent points of view,” Singh said.

Communication common goalThe biggest goal that Singh

would like to accomplish if he iselected president of the GSC is toimprove the communicationbetween the GSC and the graduatestudent body.

“I’d like every single student to

look at the GSC and to [view it as]their representative body,” Singhsaid. Specifically, he said he wouldlike to work on “keeping studentsinformed throughout the process aswe do things” and not wait untilafter initiatives are passed to tell stu-dents.

Singh said one initiative hewould like to take is to collect infor-mation from the graduate studentbody about the “academic side ofthings” such as advisor / adviseerelationships.

Singh said he envisions doingthis through a survey such as the2002 Graduate Student Life Sur-vey, which he created, implement-ed, and analyzed when he waschair of the GSC Housing andCommunity Affairs Committee in2002-2003. The information col-lected in that survey had a “pro-found impact on what we were ableto accomplish over the next twoyears” including rent restructuring,stipends, and efforts with othergroups within the GSC, said Singh.

Wong said that her biggest prior-ity is to archive meeting minutesfrom previous years and to “clean updata for future years.” She said cur-rently “the archives are discombobu-lating.”

Wong also said that she wouldlike to improve communicationbetween the GSC and the graduatestudent body through campus publi-cations, such as the GSC’s publica-tion, the Graduate Student News,and The Tech. Wong has been theeditor-in-chief for the Graduate Stu-dent News for the past year.

Villacorta could not be reachedfor comment.

GSC, from Page 1

GSC Elections Slated For Tomorrow Night

Smile

Page 12 THE TECH April 6, 2004

ATTENTION GRADUATING SENIORS

POSITION AVAILABLE IN THE OFFICE OF ADMISSIONS

now accepting applications

for the position of Admissions Counselor.

This is a one or two year full-time position beginning in July 2004. Duties

include:

¶ Evaluating applications and participating in admissions committee

decisions

¶ Traveling throughout the country for recruitment purposes

¶ Coordinating MIT student involvement in Campus Preview

Weekend and supervising other recruitment efforts such as telethons

and MIT’s Overnight Program

¶ Conducting admissions information sessions

Applications are available in the Admissions Office, 3-108, or the

Admissions Reception Center, 10-100, and should be returned no later than

Friday, April 16, 2004

Please contact counselors@mit.edu with any questions

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• Homecoming Events

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• Sports Banquets

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has kept track of Szuminski’sprogress since the beginning ofspring training. Additionally, Szu-minski headlined the Padres’ home-page on Sunday as well.

MIT Men’s Baseball coachAndrew Barlow said that Szuminskihas generated such a responsebecause “you don’t have a lot of proathletes coming out of MIT andother such schools.” Barlow alsocalled Szuminski’s accomplishment“a testament to his work.”

“It’s a story of the underdog

coming through,” said John J. KogelG, an assistant coach for the MITbaseball team. “It gives everyone abit more hope.”

Kogel, who served as Szumins-ki’s catcher on the MIT baseballteam in 2001, said he was happy tosee him make it. “I hope he will getsome chances [to pitch] in the nextfew weeks,” he said.

Szuminski criticizes MIT athleticsDuring interviews with national

media outlets, Szuminski was notoften kind to MIT’s sports pro-grams. In an interview with Jim

Caple for an ESPN Page 2 column,Szuminski criticized the quality ofthe athletic facilities and coachingof MIT. “I didn’t go to practicemuch. It was always the ones whowent to practice who got worse,” hesaid in the column.

Barlow, who joined the MITprogram in the fall of 2003, said hecould not comment on the programbefore his time. “In his defense, Ithink it was a bit sarcastic,” saidBarlow. ESPN’s Page 2 is a humorcolumn, though it often includessomewhat serious interviews rele-vant to the column’s topic.

However, Szuminski said thathis comments to Caple were sincere,and also said that, “The school did-n’t do anything” to alleviate the sit-uation. “The coach we had was pret-ty bad and they left him there forfive years. It was a pretty frustratingexperience,” he said.

Barlow, who became the teamcoach in the fall of 2003, said that“now, expectations are far differentthan how [Szuminski] describedthem.”

Kogel declined to comment onthe validity of Szuminski’s com-ments, but did say “it is definitely not

true now. It’s in very good hands.”“We all have things we wish we

had more of,” Barlow said in regardsto MIT’s baseball facilities. Barlowalso mentioned that the installationof a more durable fence and a newbullpen are signs that things are pro-gression. However, Barlow did holdsome reservations. “Forty sports,that’s a lot. Maybe they are spreadtoo thin too often,” he said.

“I’m disappointed by the fewerscheduled games due to funding,etc., but I don’t want to say whosefault it is.” Kogel said. “It’s just dis-appointing from our side.”

Szuminski Criticizes MIT Athletics in ESPN ColumnSzuminski, from Page 1

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April 6, 2004 THE TECH Page 13

Page 14 THE TECH April 6, 2004

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The Asian American Association hosted theseventh annual Grains of Rice show on Sunday,April 4. This night of food and performancesbrought together MIT’s many cultural clubs. Inaddition to cultural performances by students,guests Vienna Tang and Anyssa Kim con-tributed to the show. Grains of Rice alsoserved a ten-course ethnic meal to attendees.

(Clockwise from Upper Left)

Writer Anyssa Kim gestures for a big, roundBuddha during her poetry reading.

Boston University student Alan Batangankeeps two Chinese yo-yos (Tzuh-ling) in the airat once.

Jessica G. Chinsomboon ’07 performs the SriVijayan Dance with the Thai Students at MIT.

Members of the Filipino Students Associationbalance glasses half-full of rice wine in “Bina-suan.”

Rohit Gupta ’05 performs “Noor-e-Punjab” withMIT Bhangra.

Professional recording artist Vienna Teng per-forms a selection from her new album “WarmStrangers.”

Photography by Jonathan Wang.

MIT Hosts “Grains of Rice” Culture Show in Walker

Page 16 THE TECH April 6, 2004

EASTER VIGIL

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S E N I O RGive Back. Celebrate. Get Involved.

Offices open for election:

If you are interested in staying involved, but not in an elected position,we are also seeking volunteers to serve as Members at Large.

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Online elections will be held April 29-May 14

Brought to you by You Made It,sponsored by the MIT Alumni Association.

E l e c t i o n s

2004

the rest of the magazine, Counter-point’s MIT group now meets theASA’s 50 percent MIT membershiprequirement.

“They’re under provisionalrecognition, which we put groupsunder for the first year of recogni-tion” Walter said. The ASA willcheck on Counterpoint’s status inone year before regranting them fullrecognition, she said.

The move to provisional recogni-tion replaces the period of temporary,suspended recognition during whichCounterpoint did not have access toits financial account. This temporaryrecognition was to last until April 1.

The ASA had previously derec-ognized Counterpoint for failing tomeet the ASA’s 5/50 clause, whichrequires groups to have at least fiveMIT students, who make up at least50 percent of the group’s member-ship.

ASA Plans To WatchCounterpoint StatusCounterpoint, from Page 1

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JINA KIM—THE TECH

The Undergraduate Association hosted a Subway study break at 11 p.m. yesterday on the firstfloor of the Student Center. This event was the first in a series of events for Undergraduate Appre-ciation Week.

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Job Summary The Summer RA is a fundamental part of the success in the Summer Housing experience. Students hired for this position will be responsible for building community in their building, for having a presence in their assigned area, and for being a resource to students in terms of information about services available to students or contacting the appropriate people on campus in case of a crisis. Eligibility In order to be considered for the Summer RA position, a student must qualify for Summer Housing under the guidelines set out by the Housing Office (see Student Life Handbook, page 53). In addition, all applicants must be registered for classes at MIT in the Fall 2004 semester. Graduating seniors will only be considered for the Summer RA position if they have been accepted into an MIT graduate program that will begin in the Fall 2004 semester. Applicants must have lived in an on-campus dorm for a minimum of two years. Applicants must currently be in good standing both academically and disciplinarily, and must remain so throughout the term of employment. Come to an Information Session to learn more :

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was supposed to determinewhether the missile defense sys-tem could identify an enemynation’s warhead flying throughouter space, disguised among aseries of decoy balloons. The testwas initially announced as a suc-cess.

An engineer fired from TRWInc., a defense contractor that par-ticipated in building the system todistinguish warheads from war-head-shaped balloons, alleged thatTRW had faked the results, andher allegations eventually led themilitary to commission an “inde-pendent review” — the Phase OneEngineering Team study, chairedby Tsai.

That review, in which Postolalleges scientific misconduct, fin-ished in 1998 with the conclusionthat TRW’s methods “are welldesigned and work properly, withonly some refinement or redesignrequired to increase the robustnessof the overall discrimination func-tion.”

Postol has been alleging fraudin the study almost ever since,writ ing repeated letters to theWhite House, Congress, and MITofficials. He stresses that he doesnot want an investigation of Tsaiand Meins, the named MITauthors. “I have no desire to seeanybody punished,” he said in2002. “All they [MIT officials]need to do is write a letter to theDepartment of Defense and theDepartment of Justice.”

Investigation requested in 2001Starting in April 2001, Postol

wrote nine letters to senior MITofficials calling for MIT to repudi-ate the study, which he saysignored the fact that the missiledefense system’s sensor “producedno usable data” because the sensorfailed to cool properly. (The Gen-eral Accounting Office, the inves-tigative arm of Congress, wouldlater conclude that TRW had exag-

gerated the performance of its sys-tem, but the GAO’s experts did notagree with Postol’s assessment thatthe cooling problem had renderedthe sensor useless.)

In February 2002, Brownresponded, denying Postol’srequest to review what Browncalled “a government, not MIT,document” but saying he wouldcommission an inquiry intowhether Meins and Tsai had com-mitted scientific misconduct. Heappointed Professor Edward F.Crawley ’76, then the head of theAeronautical and AstronauticalEngineering Department, to con-duct the inquiry.

In MIT’s two-part procedurefor dealing with scientific miscon-duct, an “investigation” must bepreceded by an initial “inquiry”that determines whether or not afull investigation is warranted.

In July 2002, Crawley conclud-ed in a draft report that no investi-gation was warranted. “Not onlydo I find no evidence of researchmisconduct,” Crawley wrote, TheNew York Times reported, “but Ialso find no credible evidence oftechnical error.”

But after a technical discussionwith Postol, who took strong issuewith the draft recommendations,Crawley then reversed himself andrecommended a full investigationon Nov. 4, 2002.

Crawley “said that he could notresolve a number of issues withinthe scope of the inquiry,” the MITstatement said. “After a review ofthe report, the provost determinedthat an investigation into thoseissues was therefore warranted.”

Jones, the MIT spokesman, saidBrown had accepted Crawley’srecommendation by January 2004.MIT will not give status reports onthe status of the investigation, ordiscuss when it will begin orwhether i t has already begun,Jones said, but when the investiga-tion is over, there will be “somesort of public notice that there is aconclusion,” he said.

Postol Seeks ReviewOf ’98 MIT-led StudyMissile Defense, from Page 1

Be Cool,Stay in School

Page 22 THE TECH SPORTS April 6, 2004

Jennifer E. Sauchuk ’06 leaps in the air during the bal-ance beam competition. Sauchuk tied with teammateWhitney E. Watson ’05 for 26th place with a score of9.300.

Ashley T. Tran ’07 plants straight up in the air asshe competes in the vault. Tran was the highestMIT finisher in the vault, placing 20th with ascore of 9.45.

Members from overall team winners University of Wisconsin at La Crosse cheeron a teammate. Led by sophomore Nina Schubert, the team set a new meetstandard on the uneven bars, posting a score of 19.375.

MIT assistant coaches Jackie Renoni, left, andJennifer Miller-McEachern, right, congratulateChandler E. Hatton ’06 after Hatton landed hervault last Friday.

The MIT gymnastics team poses for a team photo during a practice in Januaryat the Dupont Gym. MIT placed sixth out of eight teams during the NationalCollegiate Gymnastics Association Championships, hosted this past weekendat MIT. The University of Wisconsin at La Crosse won the team competitionwith a score of 191.25.

Ashley R. Rothenberg ’05 applies chalk to her hands before competing in the unevenbars.

NationalCollegiate

GymnasticsAssociation

Championships

Photography by Stanley Hu

April 6, 2004 SPORTS THE TECH Page 23

quite a hefty sum from this endeav-or, but money for the league isn’t abad thing.) The game didn’t detractfrom the American viewers, even ifthey are die-hard fans of the Skinsand the 49ers. Being from theWashington D.C. area, I did not feelany resentment from the people orthe press about losing a pre-seasongame to Japan.

However, as a baseball fan, I dofeel resentment at losing my Open-ing Day to them. I did not under-stand why a country so far away gotthe chance to watch the beginningof our baseball season. Surely,MLB could have made it an exhibi-tion game, and the fan base forHideki Mastui would have been justthe same. (Let’s be honest, nobodyat the park was there to see the D-Rays, or the other Yankee players.Just remember that roar after Mastuihit the two-run homerun.) Not onlydoes doing this detract from the tra-ditions of baseball, but it makes itdifficult to even watch the game;who gets up at five in the morninghere anyway?

Another globalization issue thatbugged me was how the MontrealExpos played half of their homegames in San Juan last year. Talk

about a total disadvantage. Notonly did they have to play 81 roadgames, but they had to add anotherhandful of “home” games onto thatdreadful traveling schedule. Howcould that team have succeeded?They were way too tired, theywere not accustomed to their"home" park and it appeared tojust be a hassle.

Why doesn’t MLB simply movethese globalization excursions to thepre-season? I’m sure that the Exposwouldn’t mind playing some gamesin San Juan over the course ofspring; I’m sure that the Yankeesand the Devil Rays would not haveminded counting those two games inJapan as training. That way, we cannot only bring American baseball tothose that might not otherwise havean opportunity to see it, but we canalso appease the American fans.

I love Opening Day and I justwant to make sure that it stays theway it has been. After all, we don’topen our football, basketball, andhockey seasons outside the Ameri-can time zones, do we? To moveOpening Day would be just as badas moving the Super Bowl. But atleast for now, I’ll pretend like thosetwo games never happened and thatthis week is the official start ofbaseball.

Losing the Fan BaseWhen Opening Day doesn’t open in the U.S.

still upset about their victory overthe Leafs last year, and had reallyhoped they'd face Ottawa in the firstround so that whichever team wonwould be severely depleted due toinjury. Oh well.

Goaltending is key. Jersey in six.

Maple Leafs (4) vs. Senators (5)This grudge match comes back

for another round. Before last year,the Leafs eliminated the Senators inthree consecutive playoffs, and thisyear they are better armed than everto make a deep run. LongtimeRangers defenseman Brian Leetch

has stabilized the Toronto line alongwith the quiet signing of CalleJohansson. Joe Niewendyk has donemore than play a sensible game;he’s also done wonders with Toron-to’s younger players. In the net, EdBelfour is one of the few experi-enced playoff goaltenders in theleague today. However, few teamsare as susceptible to injury as theLeafs, and if Belfour goes, look forthem to tap young Mikael Tellqvistfor the job.

Goaltending should be the leastfear for the Senators, who have oneof the best backups in the league inMartin Prusek. Top goalie PatrickLalime may be out with a sprained

knee, but if he returns, look for himto be there for them in the clutch(plus, with the adornment of Marvinthe Martian on his mask, he’s got tobe the coolest goalie in the league).Ottawa has rearmed as well, pickingup solid defenseman Greg de Vriesin addition to an already greatdefensive duo of Zdeno Chara andWade Redden. Picking up sniperPeter Bondra from the Capitalswont hurt either.

This one’s going to go all theway to the wire. I’m looking for-ward to a tight-checking, responsi-ble performance from both teamsand some great attitudes in thecrowds. Leafs in seven.

Grudge Matches Fill NHL Playoffs

STANLEY HU—THE TECH

Midfielder Kelsey M. Presson ’05, left, prepares to shoot past two Smith College lacrosse defend-ers during MIT’s 13–4 victory on Saturday.

Hockey, from Page 24

Opening Day, from Page 24

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SPORTSPage 24 THE TECH April 6, 2004

By Brian ChaseSPORTS EDITOR

MIT Men’s Lacrosse placeditself at the top of the PilgrimLacrosse League on Saturday when

it blew out LasellCollege 16–7. As theseason begins, MITfinds itself 2–1 over-all and 1–0 in its con-ference.

MIT opened conference playthis Saturday against Lasell, whohad won their previous conferencegame against Maine MaritimeAcademy. MIT took advantage ofits clear offensive advantage overLasell to grab the lead and never letit go. The first goal was scored inthe first quarter by Isaac B. Taylor’05, and MIT followed that goal upwith four more before Lasell final-ly answered towards the end of thequarter with a goal of its own.

The second quarter saw more ofthe same MIT dominance, as theyscored three more goals in the firstfive minutes of the second quarterbefore Lasell scored its second goalwith nine minutes left in the half,making the score 7–2. All thesesecond quarter MIT goals werescored without any kind of powerplay, over and through all ofLasell’s defenders.

MIT was up 10–3 in the thirdbefore Lasell was able to score

consecutive goals, which camequickly with 12:12 and 11:52 leftin the quarter. But MIT shot Laselldown again, scoring three goals inthe next nine and a half minuteswhile leaving Lasell scoreless. Therest of the game proceeded thesame way as the beginning, withMIT scoring three goals to eachLasell goal scored.

Lasell did not help itself downthe stretch when it was trying to getback in the game. During a span ofseveral minutes in the third, threeconsecutive attempts from theLasell goalie to clear the ball wentout of bounds, and MIT got posses-sion again right by Lasell’s goal. Isit any wonder, then, that MIT even-tually scored? MIT did take nearlytwice as many shots on goal asLasell (46 to 25), to achieve victo-ry, and part of that is due toLasell’s inability to clear the balland keep possession of it.

MIT’s team emphasis on scor-ing also helped them to win. Onlyone of MIT’s starting midfieldersor attackers failed to score, and allof them had shots on goal orassists. The leading scorer wasJonathan P. Stolmeier ’07, withfour points. When asked why histeam had such success on theoffensive side of the field, CoachWalter A. Alessi stated that “wehad a really good Spring Break

[team trip] … we emphasizedstickwork, and that obviouslyhelped us score a few goals today.”

When asked what he though the

teams chances were in the confer-ence this season, Alessi opined thatwith the possible exception ofSpringfield, “the class of the

league,” he thought MIT was theequal to any team in the confer-ence. Hopefully this year’s teamlives up to his assessment.

Men’s Lacrosse Starts League Play With Blowout Win

By Andrew C. ThomasOPINION COLUMNIST

These National Hockey Leagueplayoff picks are dedicated to theMIT Men’s Hockey team, who had

an excel-lent seasonf i n i s h e dwith a

heartbreaking overtime loss toBryant College in the New EnglandCollegiate Hockey Associationplayoff finals. Thanks for a greatseason, guys.

Five of these playoff matchupsweren’t determined until the last

day of the regular season since theplayoff races were very close thisyear, notably in the Eastern Confer-ence. Its going to make for a veryexciting playoff run. Today I’ll pickthe Eastern Conference; Friday I’llgo over the West.

Lightning (1) vs. Islanders (8)This one should seem like no

contest for the conference championLightning, who are not only one ofthe healthiest teams entering theplayoffs but are one of the few tohave playoff-experienced goaltend-ing in Nikolai Khabibulin, who hadhis first series victory last year. TheLightning have a surprise Hart Tro-phy (MVP) candidate in the smallbut springy Martin St. Louis and atleast two good scoring lines, plus abolstered defense. Their greatestfear might be injury, as this teamhas lost very few games due tomissing players. They might not beable to adapt to the loss of a keycontributor like St. Louis during thegrit of the playoffs.

The Islanders are making a play-off appearance for the third straightyear, but they’ve also exited in thefirst round the last two times. Theirstarting goaltender, young RickDiPietro, is unproven, but he couldbe the wildcard in the series. Theycan also field four good lines,though they tend to be weak downthe left side.

However, this one will have togo towards home ice advantage,since the Islanders are particularlybrutal on the road. Watch for TampaBay to get to a quick lead in theseries and leave the Islanders in thedust. Tampa in five.

Bruins (2) vs. Canadiens (7)A classic matchup, the season

series between these two clubsproved to be tantalizingly close.Boston has redefined itself beyondthe one-line club they’ve presentedin past seasons. The top line of JoeThornton, Mike Knuble and GlenMurray is devastating as ever,while the Bs have given themselvesadditional depth in the acquisitionsof Michael Nylander and TravisGreen, and the emergence of rookieforward Patrice Bergeron anddefenseman Nick Boynton. Young

goaltender Andrew Raycroft hasshown ability and a steady hand andis a considerable improvement overlast year’s unproven goalie. Thedifference maker has to be the addi-tion of stud defenseman SergeiGonchar, plucked from the strug-gling Capitals at the trade deadline,who has boosted the Bs abysmalpower play.

The Canadiens, however, haveflown under the radar all season.Troubled goaltender Jose Theodorewas reborn with his victory in thefirst outdoor NHL game in Novem-ber, and new general manager BobGainey picked up struggling sniperAlexei Kovalev from the New YorkRangers. Their success will ulti-mately depend upon number onedefenseman Sheldon Souray stayinghealthy, as well as rookies MikeRibeiro and Michael Ryder keepingup their pace.

In their first round series twoyears ago, Montreal proved thatthey could easily be spoilers. I putmy first upset pick here, because theBruins can’t seem to get it done athome. Watch for Montreal to takethe first game and the series in six.

Flyers (3) vs. Devils (6)The key is goaltending. Pure and

simple. Sean Burke and RobertEsche of the Devils are capable, yes,but when defense bogs the scoringdown the outcome is going to comedown to the red jersey in the bluepaint. Martin Brodeur is the undis-puted king of the net in this era; it’sno coincidence he’s led the Devilsto three Stanley Cups while only 31years old. Never a high scoringteam, the Devils will rely upon thedefensive sensibilities of captainScott Niedermayer, the quick returnto form of Brian Rafalski, and “thebest defense is offense” thinking oftop line Scott Gomez, Patrik Eliasand Boston College product BrianGionta.

The Flyers are facing a consider-able injury crisis with the return ofJeremy Roenick and Keith Primeaufrom concussions and defensemanEric Desjardins from a broken arm.Still, I hate the Flyers and fear theirexcellent coach Ken Hitchcock. I’m

Eastern Conference of NHL PlayoffsExpected to Produce Close Finishes

By Yong-yi ZhuSPORTS COLUMNIST

Don’t you love the joys of Open-ing Day in baseball? It’s been a longwinter, with icy roads, brutal snow

and ridicu-lously coldt e m p e r a -tures. It’s

great that spring is finally rollingaround again. It’s finally time for usto get our ball caps on and go backout to the ballparks to enjoy somegames. Opening Day means base-ball is back.

But this year has seen a changefrom the normal routines of Open-ing Day. True, for several years nowESPN has been opening up thebaseball season with a game theSunday night before everyone elsestarts. To me, it carried some meritfor those fans who are unable toobtain tickets to the game the nextday, or who are unable to skip workto watch a baseball game. At leastfor them, there was some way ofofficially starting the season.

However, this year, MajorLeague Baseball has decided to takeOpening Day to a whole new level.While spring training goes on, thefirst two games of the season wentover to Japan to have the New YorkYankees and the Tampa Bay DevilRays play each other overseas as aspecial effort in globalization. Thetwo teams then return home andconclude the rest of their springtraining schedule before facing eachother in the final game of that seriesyesterday.

Okay, so what were they think-ing? Don’t get me wrong. I loveglobalization. I love it when coun-tries compete with one another insports. The World Cup of soccer isone of the only soccer events Iwatch because it includes so manynations, each with their best players.I am a big fan of the Olympics aswell because of the competitionamong countries. I think it’s alsogreat that football, the Americanvariety, is finally being broadcastacross the world. Imagine being outof the country during the playoffseason and not being able to see asingle game. That was what I had tostruggle with over IAP.

I thought that when the Wash-ington Redskins and the San Fran-cisco 49ers opened their pre-seasonschedules last year with a game inJapan was brilliant. The importantfact was this occurred during pre-season. Fans here don’t watch pre-season games on TV that religiouslyanyway. Being able to bring twoprofessional teams to a country for-eign to football and generate a fanbase for the sport is a great idea.(True, the NFL probably brought in

Modifying Baseball’sStart Ruins Tradition

STANLEY HU—THE TECH

Midfielder Isaac B. Taylor ’05, left, fires off a shot as he gets hit by a Lasell College defender duringMIT’s 16–7 victory on Saturday.

Column

STANLEY HU—THE TECH

Co-captain Whitney E. Watson ’05 competes in the balancebeam during last Friday’s team competition. Watson tied withteammate Jennifer E. Sauchuk ’06 for 26th place with a scoreof 9.300. See spread, page 22.

Column

Opening Day, Page 23

Hockey, Page 23