Lottery Results Available Today MIT’s The Weather Oldest and Largest Today: Sunny, mild, 86°F (30°C) Newspaperednesday Tonight: Clear, 62°F (17°C) Tomorrow: Sunny, cooler, 77°F (25°C) W Details, Page 2 Volume 123, Number 35 Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 Wednesday, August 27, 2003 2004 Class New MIT Council Chapter Loses Two Of SAE Officers By Jeffrey Greenbaum Planned STAFF REPORTER By Jennifer Krishnan The 2004 class council NEWS AND FEATURES DIRECTOR announced the resignations of Class The MIT chapter of Sigma Secretary Rachana D. Oza ’04 and Alpha Epsilon fraternity may soon Social Chair Nadjia M. Yousif ’04 be rechartered. in an e-mail sent to the class of 2004 “We’ll be an active group con- on Saturday. tributing to MITcommunity as These resignations came only a early as mid-September,” said few months after President Alvin M. Matthew W. Adkisson ’05, one of Lin ’04 and Vice President Nikhil S. the 12 upperclassmen who have Gidwani ’04 were asked to resign expressed interest in “recolonizing” last spring because their campaign the chapter. platform was plagiarized. With the MIT’s SAE chapter was closed most recent resignations, the council in Jan. 2000, after an incident of is now left with only its treasurer underage drinking in one of their and publicity chairs. NATHAN COLLINS—THE TECH two houses. Yousif decided to leave her posi- Donald H. Wong ’07 demonstrates his talent with a bongo board Tuesday evening at a rush event “MIT revoked recognition from tion as social chair in order to run held in the Student Center. SAE at that time,” recommending for class of 2004 president. suspension for two years, said She had served as social chair David N. Rogers, assistant dean and her sophomore year and run for director for fraternities, sororities, president her junior year, but lost. Ex-Prof Loses in Court Lottery Will and independent living groups. Because she went to Paris this past By Jenny Zhang Van Putten, who began teaching “It’s been three years, and … spring, she decided to run for social ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR at MIT in 1996, says in the lawsuit there is an interest,” Rogers said. chair and not president because of The Middlesex Superior Court that MIT failed to “provide a fair Determine “There’s a group of 12 guys who the difficulty in campaigning from has denied former Assistant Profes- and/or objective evaluation of [Van have contacted the alumni board of abroad. sor of Mathematics Maurice H.P.M. Putten’s] credentials for promotion to Participation SAE. … We are [currently] in dis- “Had I been in Boston, I defi- van Putten’s motion for a prelimi- the position of Associate Professor.” cussions with an interest group.” nitely would have run for Presi- nary injunction to be rehired. After his appointment ended on dent,” Yousif said. However, she On July 30, the court ruled that June 30, 2003, he asked the court to In Concourse SAE shut down in 2000 said that she had faith in the system “there is no likelihood of success on reinstate him and extend his The Massachusetts Iota Tau that a qualified president would be the merits for the plaintiff, nor is he employment until a final decision in By Beckett W. Sterner chapter of SAE was established at elected. likely to suffer irreparable harm from the lawsuit. NEWS EDITOR MIT in 1892. When the seats of Lin and Gid- the denial of his request.” The suit named as defendants Freshmen have shown strong “SAE has been around for more wani became vacant, Yousif said Van Putten’s request to extend his MIT, Dean of Science Robert J. Sil- interest this year in alternatives to than 100 years,” Adkisson said. “It that she became worried about the employment was part of a July 2002 bey, Mathematics Professor Alar mainstream lecture courses, espe- has a legacy as one of the strongest state of the class council. lawsuit he has filed against the Insti- Toomre SB ’57, and Mathematics cially in Concourse, which will have houses at MIT.” “Class council politics became a tute, alleging that MIT’s tenure Department Head David A. Vogan to run a lottery for the first time in In September 1999, SAE came review process, which denied him many years, according to Concourse under fire after a 19-year-old Council, Page 12 tenure and a promotion, was unfair. van Putten, Page 8 Director Cheryl A. Butters. Wellesley College student was The greater interest was a sur- taken by ambulance to a hospital, prise, she said, since “we anticipat- allegedly after being served alcohol ed a low enrollment” this term. The at SAE. program can take about 60 students In the ensuing months, both of per term, but only about 30 students the fraternity’s Beacon St. houses had responded over the summer. were closed by the Boston Licens- “It turned around” in the last two ing Board, the chapter’s local alum- days, though, she said, with a total ni board expelled all of the then- of over 70 having signed up on upperclassmen from the fraternity, Monday, and about 100 after the and recognition from the Institute open house on Tuesday. was withdrawn. She said it was unclear why the Adkisson said the 1999 incident response had been so late or so strong. was “before the time of everybody Butters said that as a result of the sud- who’s involved” now. den interest in the program, a lottery “What happened in the past, hap- will have to be run for the first time in pened in the past. We’re looking many years. They hoped to have the forward to the future,” he said. results available last night, she said. “I don’t like to turn people Group seeking new philosophy away,” she said, “but it’s difficult Adkisson said they are recolo- enough putting on a program for nizing the SAE chapter at MIT 60” and if it is larger than that, the because “we didn’t find any frater- program loses its unity. nities whose philosophies matched ours.” Demand strong across the board “We want to build a chapter that NATHAN COLLINS—THE TECH The other learning communities, emphasizes common values and Mechanical Engineering Professor Alex Slocum entertains incoming freshman Ryan E. Pester ’07, such as the Experimental Studies brotherhood, not just a living Neera Jain ’06, and Joy Tang ’07 at a student-faculty dinner on Tuesday evening. Communities, Page 9 SAE, Page 8 MIT coaches Comics OPINION World & Nation . 2 preview Freshman Ruth Miller pines for Opinion . 4 upcoming her home in Dixie. Events Calendar . .6 season. Arts . 7 Sports . .12 Page 11 Page 6 Page 5 Page 2 THE TECH August 27, 2003 WORLD & NATION Army Creates Biotechnology Shuttle Report Raps NASA, Research Center THE NEW YORK TIMES LOS ANGELES Says Safety Culture ‘Broken’ Seeking to harness biotechnology in new ways, the U.S. Army is establishing a research institute at three universities to By John Schwartz they took appropriate steps, making that another accident will follow.” apply biology to the development of sensors, computers and and Matthew L. Wald three requests for outside assistance In a briefing here on Tuesday, materials. THE NEW YORK TIMES to get photos of the shuttle to assess board members said that they were The new center, the Institute for Collaborative Biotechnologies, WASHINGTON the damage. A high-risk rescue mis- unanimously committed to the future will have its headquarters at the University of California at Santa NASA will lose more shuttles and sion might have been mounted, the of spaceflight. “None of us has come Barbara, with some of the work also to be done at the California more astronauts unless it transforms board said, if management had recog- to the conclusion that it is not worth Institute of Technology and the Massachusetts Institute of Technolo- its “broken safety culture,” the board nized the severity of the problem and the risk and not worth the money,” gy. The initial grant is for up to $50 million over five years, the Army investigating the loss of the Columbia acted quickly. said John Logsdon, a member of the and the universities said. said in its final report on Tuesday. But instead, it countermanded the board and director of the Space Poli- The Army has long been involved in medical research involving The scathing 248-page report of engineers’ moves. The problem that cy Institute at George Washington biotechnology, including defense against biological warfare agents. the Columbia Accident Investigation doomed Columbia and its crew — University. But it wants to broaden the use of biotechnology to nonmedical Board said blunders and organiza- even after liftoff — was not a lack of But their report was far from areas. tional problems at NASA were just as technology or ability, the board con- enthusiastic about the prospects of “We feel that this coming century the big technologies will be important as the errant chunk of insu- cluded, but missed opportunities and resuming the shuttle program, which biotechnology, that biotechnology has the potential to transform how lating foam that blew a hole in the a lack of leadership and open-mind- exists primarily to carry astronauts we conduct our business probably as much as I.T. did in the past cen- spacecraft’s wing, setting in motion a edness in management. and equipment to the International tury,” said James J. Valdes, a scientific adviser for biotechnology at chain of events that ended with the The accident “was probably not Space Station. The board said the the Army, referring to information technology.