Residence-At Caltech Marked by Choice
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The Weather Today: Cloudy, 91°F (33°C) Tonight: Clear, cool, 66°F (18°C) Tomorrow: Cloudy, muggy, 81°F (21°C) Details, Page 2 Saturday, August 28, 1999 living Groups Court Students at Midway By Kristen Landino yellow tape with the words "non- ASSOCIATE NEWS ED/7VR conforming material" printed in Freshmen got their first taste of black letters. the MIT housing options last night One Senior House resident wore at the residence midway. a dress made with only a Senior MIT's living groups converged House t-shirt and masking tape. on Johnson Athletic Center as a Many of the fraternities had prelude to the rush which will similar displays with pictures, rush begin today at 12:45 p.m. in Killian books and smiling fraternity mem- Court. bers. Upperclassmen distributed Phi Kappa Sigma displayed information pamphlets, rush books, "The Vortex." Freshmen climbed and business cards to freshmen as a into a black tunnel to view pictures lure to stop by their living groups of the house's biannual Scuffle during the coming days. Bexley party. Hall's absence was consistent with Beta Theta Pi set up couches and their anti-rush philosophy. coffee tables to emphasize the laid- Each dormitory's display tried to back atmosphere of their fraternity. give freshmen an idea of what life Freshmen appeared to be using was like at their residence. the time yesterday evening to begin To emphasize their social envi- winnowing their options. Anna ronment, Baker did not distribute Parish '03 said, "I'm pretty sure that pamphlets but had a number of resi- I'm going to live in a dorm but I GREG KUHNEN-THE TECH dents on hand to discuss life at haven't really looked around GmlNG SUCKED IN - Freshman Marc Farrell enters Phi Kappa Sigma's Vortex during Residence Baker. enough to figure out which one I " Midway last night in Johnson Athletic Center. Random Hall residents sported like the most." SIPB Turns Over Website to Institute .Residence-at Caltech Athena 8.3features mainte1ll1Jla improvements; quota also increased By Anna K. Benefiel this summer. machines to the new Athena 8.3 Marked by Choice STAFF REPORTER The Athena Cluster Service release. By Karen Robinson After six years, the Student Team installed approximately 100 Most features of the 8.3 release ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR Information Processing Board relin- new Sun Ultra 5s, Ultra lOs, and This article is the second in The Tech's series of articles profiling quished <http://www.mit.edu> to SGI 02s and upgraded all Athena Athena, Page 15 residence systems at MIT's peer institutions. Information Systems to mirror the As Undergraduate Association President Matthew L. McGann '00 official MIT home page. told the Class of 2003, MIT's housing is somewhat unusual in that SIPB has controlled the domain incoming students choose their housing and live with upperclassmen. name since 1993, when the site was Our unusual system is matched by that of the California Institute of one of the first 100 on the web. "As Technology, which is based on "a kind of hybrid dorm-frat known as a group, we've known that this has a house," said Bryan Eastin, Caltech '01. been coming for a couple years," There are seven on-campus houses: Blacker, Dabney, Fleming, said SIPB Chairman Gisele M. Lloyd, Page, Ricketts, and Ruddock. Each "comprises a kind of Proulx G, "and we're trying to work extended family," Eastin said. Members of a house eat together every with Information Services to make a evening, and most socializing also takes place within a house. smooth transition." Like MIT dorms and living groups, houses have distinct personal- When the site was established, ities. Caltech junior Celeste Yang, said the "moles," or tunnel hack- "www wasn't a hig deal," said ers, often live in her house, Blacker. Page and Fleming residents, she Matthew K. Gray '99, author of the said, are often more athletic. original SIPB site. After World Wide Web Consortium member Freshmen choose houses Timothy R. Berners-Lee recom- During the first week of classes, freshmen live in temporary hous- mended www over other prefixes, ing and "do rotations" - eat lunch and dinner at a different house the issue of domain names took on every day. At the end of the week they designate four houses in which greater significance, Gray said. they would like to live. Every student is placed in one of his four Berners-Lee, who invented the choice houses, said Biff Yamazaki, in the Caltech Housing Office. Web, is now a principal research "Most people get into either their first or second choice," Eastin said. scientist in the Laboratory for Students move after having been at Caltech for two weeks, during Computer Science. their first term. According to Eastin first term is already "a swirl of Lauding the "close relationship" colors, sounds, hopes, and hormones. The extra bit of craziness added between US and SIPB, Gray said, "it by moving after two weeks is hardy noticeable." makes sense for www.mit.edu to be the MIT homepage." Houses also select freshmen The www site receives an aver- I-louse members meet after dining with the freshmen during rota- age of 500,000 hits a day, with six tions, and discuss them. At the end of rotations houses, too, rank the percent of visitors from MIT and 94 freshmen they thought would fit well at that house. "I have a feeling that percent from outside the Institute, the upperclassmen know where the freshmen should go better than the Gray said. frosh know themselves," Eastin said. "In every case I know of a frosh being disappointed by which house picked them, that frosh subsequent- Athena system updated, improved ANNIE S. CHUI-TIIE TECH The domain name was only one FROSH FISH - Bexley Hall hackers hung fish at the entrance Caltech, Page IS of the several changes to the Athena and left sprinklers running to drive freshman away. computing network that took place , -- Core Blitz ~ Comics Feeling overwhelmed by your introduces () residence choices? The Tech s World & Nation 2 freshmen to f# annual residence spread pre- Opinion .4 core course sents all of the options. options. Features 6 Page 14 Page 13 Pages 9 -12 Page 2 THE TECH" . August 28, 1999 WORLD & NATION Hurricane Dennis Picking Up Steam, Eyeing Florida Land Mexico's Former Lawman LOSANGELES TIMES MIAMI A strengthening Hurricane Dennis swirled menacingly along the Faces Laundering Charges southeast coast Friday, kicking up surf in Florida while threatening to blow ashore in the Carolinas early next week. By Esther Schrader sents an important step against to protect the man convicted in Forecasters said the storm's maximum winds could rise to 110 and James F. Smith impunity," Madrazo said in a state- January of masterminding that mur- miles an hour or more as it paralleled the coastline on a northward LOS ANGELES TIMES ment. der, Raul Salinas de Gortari, the trajectory. WASHINGTON U.S. Customs CommIssioner brother of Mexico's former presi- Late Friday the center of Dennis was located about 300 miles Mexico's former No.2 lawman Raymond W. Kelly said in a state- dent. southeast of Cape Canaveral, and moving north-northwest at seven has been charged by federal authori- ment that the charges show "the Raul Salinas also is believed to miles an hour. Top winds were estimated at 80 miles an hour. ties with laundering more than $9 enormous corrupting power of drug have profited from the drug trade. Dennis pounded the northern-most Bahamas on Friday. million in drug payoffs through a money. (Ruiz Massieu) was a top Swiss authorities have identified Especially hard-hit was Great Abaco, which saw the eye of the storm Houston bank, a move officials official who violated the public about $115 million they say is pro;- pass over just before sunset. Ham radio operators reporters wind hailed Friday as a major victory for trust. There is no worse crime than tection money paid to Salinas. He is gusts of more than 60 miles an hour, according to forecasters at US. and Mexican anti-drug forces. this for law enforcement officials." being held in a Mexican jail. Miami's National Hurricane Center. Former Deputy Attorney General Ruiz Massieu's lawyer, Cathy The U.S. charges connected with Computer models predicted the hurricane would gain strength Mario Ruiz Massieu was taken into Fleming, called the charges "politi- Ruiz Massieu's undeclared cash once it cleared the Bahamas and moved out over the warm waters of custody late Thursday at his New cally motivated" and said her client were dismissed soon after they were the Gulf Stream. Those same computers say that the hurricane would Jersey home. He has been under intends to plead not guilty. filed. But Ruiz Massieu has been likely strike the Carolina coast sometime late Monday or early house arrest there since 1995, first At a hearing in Newark, N.J., on under court-ordered house arrest Tuesday. on a minor customs charge and then Friday, US. Magistrate Judge Joel .ever, since, fighting deportation pro- as he fought extradition. Paisano set bail at $500,000. Ruiz ceedings by the Immigration and On Monday, a federal grand jury Massieu and his wife co-signed the Naturalization Service. He wears an Maryland Drought Aids Police in Houston indicted him on 25 bond, which allows him to return to electronic ankle bracelet to monitor counts of laundering narcotics pro- his rented house in a Newark sub- his movements, and is forbidden to in Hunting for Marijuana ceeds, aiding racketeering and con- urb.