Future Vassar Dorm to Have Beds, Optional Meal Plan
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WEATHER, p. 2 MIT’s Oldest and THU: 68°F | 61°F Largest Newspaper Mostly Cloudy FRI: 70°F | 45°F Mostly Cloudy thetech.com SAT: 55°F | 46°F Partly Cloudy Established 1881 Volume 137, Number 30 Th ursday, November 02, 2017 Future Vassar dorm to have beds, optional meal plan Students, admins compromise on kitchens, dining By Sandhya Kalavacherla to be residential fl oors with four in the new dormitory and work- STAFF REPORTER clusters, three for student rooms ing in diff erent committees to in- and one for dorm-wide lounge fl uence the architectural design Th e New Residences Working use. Th e student clusters will com- decisions. Group (NRWG), composed of eight prise a total of 456 beds (Maseeh, During the pre-design process, students and staff members from the largest residence hall, has 490 the NRWG and the administration the Division of Student Life and the beds). Th ere will also be three disagreed on several fronts, such Offi ce of Campus Planning, met for study rooms on each residential as the kitchen spaces. Th e working the last time Sept. 20 to review the fl o o .r group requested larger, more fully- architectural plans for MIT’s new Th e dormitory features a hybrid equipped kitchens on each fl oor. dormitory on Vassar Street. dining hall and kitchen-and-pan- However, the fi nal design includes Th e NRWG originally wanted try model that is new to MIT. Stu- a dining hall and small kitchen- fully-equipped kitchens on each dents can choose to be on a meal ettes on each fl oor with one larger fl oor and 30 to 40 percent of the plan or cook for themselves us- kitchen on the ground fl oor. rooms to be singles. Th e adminis- ing the kitchen spaces and pantry Other disagreements included tration ultimately decided on a hy- supplies. the distribution of rooms. While brid dining hall and kitchen-and- Th ese updates were shared with the Architectural Principles docu- pantry model new to MIT and 26 a portion of the general student ment recommended that 30 to 40 percent of the rooms being singles. body through an Oct. 13 email sent percent of rooms be singles, the Th e dormitory is expected to by NRWG member Allan Sadun ’17 new dormitory’s rooms will be 26 open in fall of 2020, replacing the to the public dorm-of-the-future percent singles — slightly higher West Garage parking facility (W45). mailing list. than Maseeh, 21 percent of whose Chancellor Cynthia Barnhart In the email, Sadun wrote that rooms are singles. announced the dormitory’s loca- details that remain to be fi nalized “My primary complaint with tion in February, and many of its include how the dorm will be gov- the administration is not that our specifi cations, which included the erned and furnished, and how the preferences were not always cho- JOHNNY BUI—THE TECH prioritization of a dining hall and kitchen-and-pantry payment plan sen; it is that the large-scale deci- MIT students in Halloween costumes take to the ice Oct. 27 at at least 450 beds, were publicized will work. sions about the dorm were not the Johnson Ice Rink at SaveTFP-organized “Spooky Skate”, where in March. Th e NRWG was charged with made with very much transparen- Th e dormitory will be fi ve sto- implementing the concepts of the students could enter a costume contest, decorate cookies, carve and ries tall. Floors 2 through 5 are set Architectural Principles document Dorm, Page 2 paint pumpkins, and skate on the ice for free. eta Tau joins IFC IN SHORT e last day to add half-term subjects o ered in second half following second vote of term is this Friday. Revision of admission policies allowed MIT Medical will expand its for earlier revote after initial failed bid Urgent Care hours in Novem- ber. Urgent Care will be open By Jessica Shi Tau’s initial petition, according to from : a.m. to : p.m. seven ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR the minutes of a November 2016 days a week. meeting of the Association of In- Th e Interfraternity Council (IFC) dependent Living Groups (AILG) Relax and pet dogs at Furry admitted the MIT chapter of Th eta board, a group of alumni which co- First Friday this Friday from Tau, a professional engineering fra- ordinates with the IFC. Th eta Tau TRISTAN HONSCHEIND—THE TECH ternity, as a probationary member was initially allowed to reapply for :–: p.m. outside the Following the conclusion of the annual Pumpkin Drop on Sat- Oct. 12. admission in the spring of 2018. Hayden Library. urday night, the audience celebrates in the large fi eld of debris Robert Binkowski ’18, president But in a February 2017 AILG outside of the Green Building. of the IFC, announced the result in meeting, Binkowski announced Send news and tips to news@ an email. With Th eta Tau’s addition, that the IFC would adopt “a con- the IFC now consists of 26 member stitutional amendment to resolve tech.mit.edu. chapters. Last fall, the IFC rejected Th eta Theta Tau, Page 2 Fundraising campaign hits .B Donations to go towards New House renovations, graduate housing By Tu-Lan Vu-Han Donations ranged from under Projects that have been realized $5 to single donation sums of more with money from the campaign The MIT Campaign for a Better than $100 million. This year’s re- include student financial aid, the World has received $3.6 billion in cord was an unrestricted single Abdul Latif Jameel World Educa- donations as of the end of the 2017 donation of $140 million from an tion Lab (J-WEL), the new Hock fiscal year, 17 months after its of- anonymous donor. E. Tan and K. Lisa Yang Center for ficial launch in May 2016. It is 76 Th e Campaign for A Better Autism Research at the McGov- percent of the way toward its $5 World is the largest giving cam- ern Institute for Brain Research billion goal. paign in MIT history. “Th e past at MIT, and the work-in-progress Over 87,000 donors have con- three years have been record set- MIT.nano. The renovations of New tributed to the Campaign. 71 per- ting, with sums over $500 million House, new undergraduate resi- SABRINA CHENG cent of the donations were from raised each year,” Aimée Jack, in- dence hall on Vassar Street, and “Course Sax” plays chamber music at MIT’s Annual Family alumni, 26 percent from parents terim executive director for com- graduate student resident tower Weekend Concert in the Kresge Auditorium Oct. 27. and friends of the Institute, and munications and events of the MIT near Kendall Square are also ex- 3 percent from corporations and Department for Resource Develop- pected to be funded by the cam- foundations. ment, wrote in an email to Th e T e c . h paign money. CAMPUS SNAP- REVIVAL OF 200-YEAR OLD OP- BTS WITH ARTIST PUBBING AN SECTIONS Arts . .4 SHOTS ERA COMES TO BOSTON FROM PIXAR’S COCO EVENT? Fun Pages . .6 This week: cute cos- Odyssey Opera performs Donizetti’s Dean Kelley previews Posters along the tumes and Nobel laure- L’assedio di Calais, set during the Hun- scenes from upcoming film Infinite are taken down ates. NEWS, p. 8 dred Years’ War. ARTS, p. 5 about Land of the Dead at Monday & Friday morn- an LCS event. ARTS, p. 4 ings. Pin accordingly! 2 The Tech Thursday, November 02, 2017 WEATHER Established 1881 Recent storm causes disruption across the Northeast Chairman Karleigh Moore G By Tafsia Shikdar In fact, Maine experi- and Sarah Weidman enced its highest single Editor in Chief storm outage as nearly Vivian Zhong ’19 On Sunday night, 500,000 residents lost the northeast ex- power, and over 1 mil- Business Manager perienced its fi rstlion people were left Christopher Wang ’19 Nor’easter of the sea- in the dark across New 130°W 125°W 120°W 115°W 110°W 105°W 100°W 95°W 90°W 85°W 80°W 75°W 70°W 65°W 60°W Managing Editor son, with strong winds England. Luckily, this 40°N Áron Ricardo Perez-Lopez ’20 and heavy rain hitting week will be much Boston and the sur- calmer, with mostly Executive Editor rounding area. In Bos- cloudy days, and a 1003 Emma Bingham ’19 ton, wind gusts topped chance for a few show- out around 60 miles per ers as a low pressure 35°N NEWS STAFF hour; a peak gust of 93 system slides through News Editors: Patrick Wahl ’18, Anshula mph was recorded on New England over the Gandhi ’19; Assoc iate News Editors: Zoe the Cape. Th ese winds weekend. Today and Anderson ’21, Sheila Baber ’21, Sharon Chao ’21, were strong enough to tomorrow will remain 30°N Jessica Shi ’21; Staff: Olivia Brode-Roger ’17, fell several trees, block- warm with highs near Drew Bent ’18, Marie Patino ’18, Aishwarya ing roads and caus- 70 °F in advance of 1024 Anantharaman ’19, Divya Gopinath ’19, 1005 Meenakshi Sivapriya ’19, Rose E. Wang ’20, Fiona ing damage. Farther a cold front that will 1018 Chen ’21, Sandhya Kalavacherla ’21, Whitney north in New Hamp- push through Friday 25°N Zhang ’21; Meteorologists: Erik Lindgren G, shire and Maine, many evening; temperatures Colin Thackray G, Vince Agard ’11, Jordan counties experienced over the weekend and Benjamin ’19. signifi cant power out- into next week should PRODUCTION STAFF ages and school can- be more seasonable.