Volume 131, Number 20
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NO CLass MonDAY anD tuesDAY WEATHER, p. 2 FRI: 51° | 34°F MIT’s Sunny Oldest and Largest SAT: 50°F | 44°F Newspaper Partly cloudy SUN: 60°F | 46°F Rain Volume 131, Number 20 tech.mit.edu Friday, April 15, 2011 Dinner will be served by Bon Appétit Student input was vital, say committee members By Margaret Cunniff ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR Bon Appétit Management Company will be the provider for the new House Dining, effective next semester. Bon Appétit is the current pro- vider for residential dining. Bon Appétit was chosen based on a combi- nation of input from an Evaluation Committee consisting of students and faculty housemas- JESSICA L. WASS—THE TECH ters from the dorms with dining halls — Baker, Madame Yandong Liu and President Susan J. Hockfield toast after signing an MIT-China educational partnership agreement this McCormick, Next, Simmons, and the Phoenix Wednesday at the McGovern Institute. Madame Liu’s appearance at McGovern was followed by a talk in Building E51 from 5–6 p.m. Group — as well as analysis of financial factors by members of the MIT administration. Three vendors — Bon Appétit, Aramark, and Sodexo — responded to MIT’s request for pro- MIT-China agreements established posals. They were evaluated on their initial writ- ten proposals, a presentation to the Evaluation Councilor Yandong Liu visits MIT to confirm new program Committee, and site visits by members of the Evaluation Committee. Site visits consisted of By Robert McQueen important documents that will ship Program, a program that Shanghai Jiao Tong University members of the committee going to schools that NEWS EDITOR further strengthen MIT’s part- will be offered to MIT graduate (SJTU). had dining plans from each of the vendors. nership with China. The first students who are also citizens of According to Dean of Gradu- The Evaluation Committee developed pro/ On Wednesday, Chinese document confirmed the agree- the People’s Republic of China. ate Education Christine Ortiz, con lists for each of the vendors and came up State Councilor Yandong Liu ment between MIT and China The second document was a let- the new fellowship program will with a list of recommendations. These recom- met with President Susan J. to establish the China Scholar- ter of intent calling for collabo- Hockfield for the signing of two ship Council Graduate Fellow- ration between MIT and the China visit, Page 14 Dining Vendor, Page 13 DormCon, Senate will live on Restructuring plan fails second vote By Evan Moore STAFF REPORTER The Dormitory Council voted yesterday against the proposed student government restructuring GREG STEINBRECHER—THE TECH brought forth by Undergraduate As- Alchemist was fitted with a shirt promoting the annual “Dance ’Till You Drop” party held by the Burton Third Bombers. Previous years’ hacks sociation President Vrajesh Y. Modi to promote DTYD have included the shadow of the Bomber airplane inside the Bldg. 7 dome and a fake cement bomb on Kresge Lawn. ’11 in late March. DormCon voted 57 percent in favor of 42 UAS 14.2, the Bill to Unify the Undergraduate Student Voice at MIT — 18 points be- low the amount required to pass and France crafts ‘new university’ IN Short 11 points below the previous April Tax date is not April 15 this year! Because of Pa- 3 vote on the measure. The setback triot’s Day, Federal taxes are due on Monday, April 18 may end the potential for any dra- Edu. Minister Pécresse talks at Harvard and Massachusetts taxes are due on Tuesday, April matic UA changes in the near future. By Derek Chang ics?” Pécresse has held pri- French university at your 19. Had the measure been passed STAFF REPORTER or government positions as lecture. What is the con- in DormCon and the UA Senate, regional councillor and as a cept, and how does it affect Drop date is next Thursday, April 21. both bodies would have dissolved Valérie Pécresse, the member of the French Na- the current style of higher immediately after Modi signed the French Minister for Higher tional Assembly. On Tues- education in France? The Day of Silence recognizing anti-LGBT harrass- bill. In their place would have been Education and Research, day, the Minister discussed Minister Valérie Pécresse: ment is today. There will be a sit-in in lobby 7. a new UA Council, comprised of 20 visited Harvard University with The Tech and other The new French university representatives including dormi- Monday to give a public media the “new French uni- allows for more autonomy, TEDxRamallah will be streamed from Bethlehem. tory presidents, and delegates from lecture and question-and- versity” and what the con- which means that such Palestine@MIT will host a screening on Saturday, 3–8 the Panhellenic Association, the In- answer session on “The cept means for French and universities have more p.m., in 4-163. terfraternity Council, Living Group New French University: An American academics. freedom in recruiting fac- Opportunity to Cooperate The Tech: You discussed Send news information and tips to [email protected]. UA Restructuring, Page 12 with American Academ- the concept of the new Pécresse, Page 10 TECH neXT Prints DAY of siLence LIMITLESS has Victories! SECTIONS World & Nation . .2 MIT could benefit from more LGBT Cycling, gymnastics, on friDAY 4/22 LIMitations Opinion . .4 awareness. OPINION, p. 5 and lacrosse claim The Tech will be observ- Big ones. The concept is Fun Pages . .6 impressive national and ing the Institute Holiday hinDSIGht is 20/20 good, but the film fails to Arts . .9 for Patriots Weekend. deliver more than mostly local wins. Sports . .15 Goldstone’s column casts new light on mindless action. ARTS, p. 9 SPORTS, p. 15 Israel-Gaza war. OPINION, p. 5 2 The Tech Friday, April 15, 2011 For Boehner, budget is a silver D cloud with a dark lining Three colleagues rebuke WASHINGTON — It should have been a moment of victory for Speaker John Boehner and fellow members of a House Re- publican leadership team. Instead, it felt a little like defeat. Gaza report author’s essay Although the House voted convincingly Thursday to end the spending fight that had brought the government to the brink By Ethan Bronner ed Nations Human Rights Council attack on a Palestinian family, gath- WORL of a shutdown, Democrats had to ride to the rescue to provide THE NEW YORK TImes in September 2009. The report is ered by Israeli troops into one build- the winning margin as dozens of Republicans turned thumbs headed for the Security Council and ing that was then bombed, now ap- N down. JERUSALEM — Three members General Assembly this year. peared to have been caused instead Fifty-nine Republicans — nearly a quarter of the new major- of the United Nations panel that “In recent days some articles by the fog of war — a misread drone ity — rejected the measure personally negotiated by Boehner investigated Israel’s Gaza war two and comments appearing in the report that, he had noted elsewhere, and endorsed by his top lieutenants, Reps. Eric Cantor of Vir- years ago rejected on Thursday an press with respect to the report of showed men carrying firewood that ginia, the majority leader, and Kevin McCarthy of California, essay written by the fourth, the for- the United Nations (U.N.) fact-find- may have looked like rockets. the party whip. Twenty-seven of the 59 who bucked the leader- mer chairman Richard Goldstone, ing mission on the Gaza conflict Goldstone, who is Jewish and ship were freshmen. in which he retracted the panel’s of 2008-2009 have misrepresented South African, said that Israeli mili- ATIO The outcome amounted to a warning shot to the leadership key conclusions, especially that Is- facts in an attempt to delegitimize tary investigations — while slow from its right flank that conservatives are serious when they say rael had deliberately made civilians the findings of this report and to cast and incomplete — were showing they will not support measures that do not meet their fiscal ide- targets. doubts on its credibility,” their joint him that civilians were probably not als, a position that is not going to make Boehner’s life any easier The three — Hina Jilani of Paki- statement began. targets. Meanwhile, he complained as he heads into new showdowns over raising the federal debt stan, Desmond Travers of Ireland, “Members of the mission, sig- that Hamas had conducted no inter- limit and deficit reduction. It could also have long-term impli- and Christine Chinkin of Britain — natories to this statement, find it nal investigation of its firing of rock- cations for the speaker politically if he continues to face such issued a statement to The Guardian necessary to dispel any impression ets at Israeli civilians, that it contin- internal division. in London saying that any attempt to that subsequent developments have ued to launch such rockets and that & N —Carl Hulse, The New York Times backtrack on their report amounted rendered any part of the mission’s the council should make a point of to yielding to outside pressure, and report unsubstantiated, erroneous condemning those attacks. that doing so would deprive the vic- or inaccurate,” it said. He added, “I had hoped that our tims of justice. Goldstone said by email that inquiry into all aspects of the Gaza Budget deal fuels Washington Although their statement did not he declined to respond to his col- conflict would begin a new era of refer directly to Goldstone’s com- leagues’ statement. evenhandedness at the U.N. Human school voucher program revival mentary in TheW ashington Post or His Washington Post essay in- Rights Council, whose history of bias In the 11th-hour compromise to avoid a government shut- to the issue of whether armed force cluded this broad statement: “If I against Israel cannot be doubted.” ORLD down last week, one concession that President Barack Obama was used intentionally against civil- had known then what I know now, The biggest complaints that Is- made to Republicans drew scant attention: He agreed to fi- ians, it was nonetheless a firm re- the Goldstone Report would have rael and its backers had about the nance vouchers for Washington students to attend private buke of Goldstone and of efforts to been a different document.” panel’s original report was that it ac- schools.