MIT’s The Weather Oldest and Largest Today: Cloudy, 40°F (6°C) Tonight: Not too cold, 28°F (–3°C) Newspaper Tomorrow: Clear, 40°F (6°C) Details, Page 2 Volume 125, Number 2 Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 Friday, February 4, 2005 MIT Plans Pipe Break Causes Campus Water Outage By Jenny Zhang For Many NEWS EDITOR All of Cambridge City, includ- ing the entire MIT campus, experi- Renovation enced either a water shortage or a water outage yesterday. A major water main broke in Kendall Square Projects at Broadway and 3rd Street, accord- ing to the Cambridge City Web site. By Kelley Rivoire Water was restored to the MIT NEWS EDITOR campus, except for Tang Hall grad- Following the recent campus uate dormitory, by 10:35 p.m. last construction boom, MIT will shift night, according to MIT’s 3- its focus to renovating existing DOWN Services Status update Web facilities, said Executive Vice Presi- page. dent John R. Curry at the annual The broken 30 inch water pipe, town gown presentation to the Cam- the largest type used in Cambridge, bridge Planning Board on Tuesday. goes “all the way from Harvard “Instead of new buildings, we’re Square,” so the entire city was talking about renewal” in upcoming affected by either no water or low years, he said. water pressure, said Cassandra A. The annual town gown presenta- Koutalidis, manager of engineering tions allow the public an opportuni- and program development for the ty to hear updates on the develop- City of Cambridge. ment projects of private colleges. “Provisions have been made for BRIAN HEMOND—THE TECH Renewal and infrastructure pro- Porta-Potties and supplemental A Massachusetts Water Resources Authority employee points at a deep fissure in the asphalt near jects scheduled for the coming year water” for Tang Hall, wrote where a water main broke last night. The broken water main flooded Broadway with water and silt, and include Vassar Street West public Bernard J. Richard, MIT manager also disrupted water service to much of Cambridge and the MIT campus. improvements and an infill project of mechanical, electrical and bridge Water Department is work- uncertain what had caused the bro- functional, and laboratories did not in buildings 4, 6, and 8 for the plumbing operations, in an e-mail. ing on reducing the radius of the ken pipe. have running water, he said. Green Center for Physics. While no “Hopefully the pipe will be area affected by the broken pipe, he The water purifying RODI, or new major construction projects fixed by noontime” Friday, said said. Although the pipe had not Lab water, sprinklers were off Reverse Osmotic Deionizing, sys- Joseph Bourdeau, Cambridge water been repaired as of yesterday Richard said MIT Facilities tem, which provides water for lab- Town Gown, Page 18 treatment plant operator. The Cam- evening, much of the city, including first learned of the problem from oratory animals, was also turned MIT, had water restored because it reports of low water pressure on off. was being rerouted from elsewhere, campus. he said. Bourdeau said he was The fire sprinklers were non- Outage, Page 17 Limited Residence Exploration In Draft of Orientation Schedule By Jiao Wang lier this year, which Brelinsky said expect to get it.” STAFF REPORTER should help the fraternities attract Brelinsky also said that he feels The Academic Resource Center more freshmen. Rush will begin after that the administration supports the recently completed its draft of the the Greek Griller on Saturday, one IFC and that both DormCon and the schedule for Orientation 2005, which day earlier than last year and two IFC have the respect of the adminis- will include an earlier closing date for days after the freshmen move into trators. the housing adjustment lottery than their assigned dormitories on Thurs- previous orientations have. day. Earlier lottery to aid dorm culture Dormitory Council President Ian “Our interests are being met, Norman said that the sooner the Brelinsky ’06 said that the amount of things are looking great, we are excit- freshmen get settled, the sooner time set aside for Residence Explo- ed,” said Interfraternity Council Vice housemasters, house managers, and ration is similar to last year, but is President Jordan K. Fabyanske ’06. affiliated upperclassmen can start in concentrated earlier in the week. Brelinsky said that Residence getting freshmen acquainted with “There are benefits and there are Exploration should not be affected by their dormitories. cons to the schedule,” Brelinsky said. the earlier start for fraternity rush. Some members of the Dormitory “Basically, we had set out to do “Whether [students are] only here for Council, including Jeff S. Cohen ’06, something different” by dedicating a year or four years, it doesn’t matter, president of Random Hall, want to three days to Residence Exploration, we have the same goals for them” of structure certain orientation events so he said. Instead, most of the dormito- providing a good support network, he that they can connect freshmen to ry events will be held on a Sunday. said. upperclassmen and “establish good The housing adjustment lottery will support network in dorms.” close on Tuesday of that week. Making schedule a ‘difficult fight’ Brelinsky said in an e-mail to Brelinsky said that DormCon is Brelinsky said that crafting the dormitory presidents and members working with the ARC to ensure that orientation schedule was a joint effort of DormCon’s Executive Board that freshmen will be encouraged to arrive between administrators, the Under- he hopes to “prepare small events on campus by Saturday. “If the fresh- graduate Association, DormCon, the across the various dorms… for the men don’t come in until Sunday IFC, and Panhellenic. Discussions 500 or so frosh that will be on cam- night, then they’re going to miss began in November and will continue pus at the time.” He wrote that he REX,” he said. until the schedule is finalized. expects “evenings will yield a few “We’re working on better terms hundred [more] frosh” who are oth- CHRISTINA KANG—THE TECH CityDays, rush schedule changed with the administration than we did in erwise occupied during the day. He Jeffrey Ginsburg of the United Way observes the “Justice and Julie B. Norman, associate dean the past,” Brelinsky said. “We got a also wrote that the goals of these Equality for All: America’s Moral Dilemma” exhibit on display of academic resources and program- whole lot more than the trend was events is to “introduce [freshmen] to in Lobby 10 during the week of Jan. 31. The exhibit was creat- ming, said that some agencies were going for.” some members of our community ed by a group of students taking a seminar sponsored by the not able to host volunteers for City- Still, he said that DormCon did (upperclassmen, graduate residence Planning Committee for the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Cele- Days, a public service event, last year not get what it wanted for residence tutors and housemasters), and edu- bration Activities during the 2005 Independent Activities Peri- because the event took place on the exploration out of the new schedule. cate them on the expectations of our od. The exhibit’s purpose is to encourage interaction between Friday before Labor Day weekend. “It’s a difficult fight because not residential community.” members of different communities within MIT. The event is planned for Monday this everybody agrees that REX is a good Norman said that these low-key year. thing,” he said. “We wanted more, Fraternity rush will also begin ear- but we can’t ask for the world and Orientation, Page 15 Film “Hotel Comics CAMPUS LIFE World & Nation . 2 Rwanda” is a Akshay Patil contemplates the Opinion . 4 powerful effects that consuming a Arts . 6 must-see. women’s nutritional bar could Campus Life . .10 have on his masculinity. Sports . .24 Page 6 Page 12 Page 10 Page 2 THE TECH February 4, 2005 WORLD & NATION U.N. Diplomat Reportedly Poisoning Results In Death Sought Oil Deals For Egyptian By Susan Sachs THE NEW YORK TIMES Of Georgia’s Prime Minister Benon Sevan, a career U.N. diplomat who headed the oil-for-food program for Iraq, solicited favors from Saddam Hussein’s govern- By Steven Lee Myers he would assume the duties of prime pointed protest from Russia’s for- ment on behalf of an Egyptian trader who made more than $1.5 mil- THE NEW YORK TIMES minister as well as president, though eign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov. lion in profits from his privileged access to Iraqi oil contracts, accord- MOSCOW it is unclear for how long. By law he A backgammon board was lying ing to an investigative report released Thursday. Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania of has a week to announce a replace- open on a table near an Iranian- The trader, Fakhry Abdelnour, who is based in Geneva, also paid Georgia, a youthful reformer and ment. made gas heater. Portable gas or an illegal surcharge of $160,000 to the Iraqis, in violation of the U.N. ally of President Mikhail The interior minister, Nano Mer- wood-burning heaters are common sanctions against Iraq, while he and Sevan were lobbying for more Saakashvili, died early Thursday in abishvili, said at a news conference in Georgia, where central heating is business, the report said. what officials described as a bizarre that Zhvania had arrived at scarce, even in the capital. The offi- In securing the oil contracts for Abdelnour, Sevan allegedly intro- but accidental poisoning. Usupov’s apartment around mid- cial Russian Information Agency duced him into one of the byways of the giant program, one that Zhvania, 41, was asphyxiated by night on Wednesday, according to reported that 45 Georgians had died enriched a small group of traders while pouring money that was carbon monoxide apparently news reports from Tbilisi.