Volume 128, Number 16 Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 Friday, April 4

MIT’s Oldest and Largest The Weather Today: Rainy and cool, 40s°F (7°C) Newspaper Tonight: Showers, 30s°F (4°C) Tomorrow: Cloudy, 40s°F (7°C) Details, Page 2 http://tech.mit.edu/ Volume 128, Number 16 Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 Friday, April 4. 2008 GSC Officers Elected New Grad Incoming President Oaz Nir Says He Will Voice Student Concerns, Pursue Dental Plan Dorm Will By Arkajit Dey MIT graduate students, decided to ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR stop enrolling MIT students. Not Have The Graduate Student Council Both Nir and outgoing GSC pres- elected Oaz Nir, a third-year PhD ident Leeland B. Ekstrom said that student and the current editor of the an equally important issue facing the Graduate Student News, as its new GSC is increasing student input in Analog president for the 2007–2008 school Institute decisions. year on Wednesday. The rest of the council’s officers Nir prioritizes a dental plan Telephones include Nan Gu as vice president, By building on the work of last Lorenna D. Lee-Houghton as secre- year’s GSC, Nir said, he will be able By Austin Chu tary, and David C. Opolon as trea- to create a dental plan for graduate STAFF REPORTER surer. students this year, along with a “cat- NW35, the new graduate resi- Nir hopes to secure a dental astrophic dental care fund” to help dence that will be named Ashdown health plan for graduate students, he students in extreme need. House when it opens this fall, will said in an interview yesterday. Den- The lack of an MIT dental insur- not have analog phone lines in the tal care emerged as a key problem in ance plan has long challenged stu- rooms. Residents who want room fall 2007 when the Boston University phones will need to purchase a voice Student Dental Plan, used by many GSC Elections, Page 12 over IP phone and Internet phone service. But NW35 will have four network ports per pillow — at least twice as Amid a Peruvian City’s many as in the current Ashdown PERRy Hung—THE TECH House. Debris, Visions of Rebirth Former NBC news anchor Tom Brokaw delivers a lecture titled The change reflects changing “Life Is Not Virtual” for the Karl Taylor Compton Lecture Series telephone usage patterns. Director CityScope Participants Plan Future of Tambo de Mora on Wednesday. Speaking in 32-123, Brokaw explored the role of Housing Dennis J. Collins said of information, technology, and the modern media in informing that he believes most students today By Natasha Plotkin Our mission was to learn about citizens around the world. have cell phones for communicating ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR the people in the area, their prob- with friends and family. To that end, In August 2007, earthquakes lems, and their ideas for recovery, NW35 will be “cell-phone friendly.” devastated the small coastal town of and to find a semester project that Housing is “putting in cell phone Tambo de Mora, located just south of will serve their community’s needs. repeaters to ensure cell phones will Lima, Peru. During our first day in the town, Undergrad Rooms in NW35 work everywhere,” Collins said. This spring a reality more complex than what I The MIT campus is increasingly Reporter’s break, about or my classmates could have imag- moving towards voice over IP, said Notebook three dozen ined emerged. The local government Dorm Will Not Have Stoves Steven R. Winig, manager of the Re- students, my- was caught in a quagmire of orga- By Austin Chu W1 in fall 2010, when its renovation lationship Management Program at self included, traveled to the town as nizations with different scopes and STAFF REPORTER from a graduate dormitory to an un- Information Services and Technol- part of CityScope (4.001/11.004) to The undergraduates living in dergraduate dormitory is completed. ogy. VoIP is a technology that trans- learn how we could help its residents. CityScope, Page 14 NW35 this fall will not have access Housing has canceled the order ports telephone calls digitally over a to the stoves that were to be installed for the stoves in the undergradu- computer network. Traditional phone in their rooms. ate portion of NW35, said Director service operates on a separate analog The current plan “under consid- of Housing Dennis J. Collins. The network. MIT to Offer Latin eration” for the undergraduate por- stoves may still be reordered if plans Collins said that the decision to The Romans are coming. tion of NW35 is for there to be no change, he said. provide extra network ports instead This fall, the Literature Department will offer what may be MIT’s stoves in the rooms, said Donna M. The decision not to install these of an analog phone port “really was first ever subjects in the Latin language, Latin 1 (21L.300) and Latin Denoncourt, associate dean of resi- stoves was made to be “consistent not about the money.” Rather, he 2 (21L.335). dential life. Instead, the undergradu- across campus” as “no undergradu- said, Housing wanted to “build for The language will be taught by Yumna ates will share a single “modified ates have stoves in their rooms,” said the future.” News Briefs Z.N. Khan, a classical scholar who has re- country kitchen,” she said. Denoncourt. Collins said that the four net- cently served as a visiting lecturer at Brandeis. Fifty-seven undergraduates will Unlike the shared kitchens in work ports would provide access Teaching Latin is a step towards “creating a community of students be living in the graduate dormitory most undergraduate dormitories, the for two computers, a VoIP phone, interested in Ancient and Medieval culture,” Shaknar Raman ’86, as- NW35, the new Ashdown House, kitchens in NW35 are more private, and a possible future IP television when it opens in fall 2008. These located within individual apartment service. Residents will be free to Briefs, Page 12 undergraduates will form the core of the community that will move into Stoves, Page 14 Phones, Page 13 William L. Kraushaar MIT NEWS OFFICE Professor William L. Kraushaar, a former MIT physics professor and a pioneer in the field of high-energy astronomy, died March 21 of complications from Parkinson’s disease. He was 87. Kraushaar received his bachelor degree from Lafayette College in 1942. During World War II he worked at the National Bureau of Standards on projects that included development of the proximity fuse for artillery shells. After the war he earned his doctorate at Cornell University. In 1949 he was appointed research associate at MIT where he made the first measurements of the mean life of the pi meson at the MIT electron synchrotron. Over the next 15 years he rose through Kraushaar, Page 12 In Short ERIC SCHMiedl—THE TECH MIT’s Concert Choir (directed and conducted by Bill Cutter) holds its second MIT Community Sing ¶ Steven R. Lerman ’72, dean Shao ’09, finished in the top six. in Lobby 10 yesterday afternoon, inviting passersby to join in singing. for graduate students, is now the dean for graduate education, as of ¶ The UA elections debate for pres- March 31. The Graduate Students idential and vice presidential candi- Office was also renamed the Office dates will be held Sunday evening in of the Dean for Graduate Educa- the Student Center. NEWS NEWS World & Nation . 2 tion. Star Simpson’s trial set District court judge Opinion ��4 ¶ The Big Screw charity fundrais- ¶ MIT placed third in the Put- er, which will be held next week, for May 23 . 12 halts RIAA subpoena It’s Friday ��5 nam math competition held in is now taking nominations. E-mail seeking identities Arts ��6 December, earning $15,000 for [email protected] or see http:// the math department. Harvard and web.mit.edu/apo/www/. Undergraduate admission of BU students. Comics / Fun Pages ��8 Princeton placed first and second, rates plunge ��12 Page 11 Sports . 16 respectively. Two MIT students, Send news information and tips to Qingchun Ren ’10 and Xuancheng [email protected]. Page 2 THE TECH April 4. 2008 WORLD & NATIO N New Signs of Mugabe Testimony Offers Details of Crackdown in Zimbabwe By Michael Wines THE NEW YORK TIMES Bear Stearns Takeover Zimbabwe’s government staged separate police raids on Thursday against the main opposition party, foreign journalists and at least one By Stephen Labaton Bank of New York, would have led to next morning. democracy advocate, raising the specter of a broad crackdown aimed THE NEW YORK TIMES “a greater probability of widespread Pummeled by market rumors of at keeping the country’s imperiled leaders in power. WASHINGTON insolvencies, severe and protracted insolvency, the investment house lost With the government facing election results that threaten its 28-year Three weeks after the market damage to the financial system and, more than $10 billion — or more reign, security officers raided the Miekles Hotel in central Harare on crisis that forced the rescue of Bear ultimately, to the economy as a than 80 percent — of its available Thursday afternoon, searching rooms that the main opposition party, Stearns, federal officials and senior whole.” cash in a single day. Only a few days the Movement for Democratic Change, had rented for election opera- Wall Street executives offered their The testimony disclosed that earlier, the chairman of the Securities tions, said Tendai Biti, the party’s general secretary. first public account on Thursday of Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paul- and Exchange Commission, Christo- A second group of riot officers sealed off the York Lodge, a small the harrowing four days of negotia- son Jr.

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