Volume 128, Number 6 Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 Friday, February 22, 2008 MIT Drafts Response to Senate Inquiry on Endowment, Tuition by Natasha Plotkin Each Year
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The Weather Today: Snow developing, MIT’s High 30°F (-1°C) Tonight: Moderate to heavy snow, Oldest and Largest Low 27°F (-3°C) Newspaper Tomorrow: Persistent flurries, High 33°F (1°C) Details, Page 2 Volume 128, Number 6 Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 Friday, February 22, 2008 MIT Drafts Response To Senate Inquiry On Endowment, Tuition By Natasha Plotkin each year. AssoCIATE NEWS EDITOR President Susan Hockfield said MIT is compiling data to re- at a February 20 faculty meeting spond to the Senate Finance Com- that, in its request, Congress is be- mittee’s request for information ing “over-simplistic” about how about the school’s endowment, fi- schools manage their endowments. nancial aid, and tuition rates. She said that MIT has “a strong po- The committee sent this request sition on financial aid,” by, among to MIT and 135 other universities in other examples, supporting a need- the country with endowments over blind admissions policy and provid- $500 million on Jan. 24, in light ing 62 percent of students internal of increasing concerns regarding need-based scholarships. hikes in tuition and unprecedented She said that MIT cannot be endowment growth. compared with similarly ranked OMARI STEPHENS—THE TECH The request indicates that the universities such as Harvard Uni- The moon passed completely into the Earth’s shadow this past Wednesday night in the last total Senate plans to more closely moni- versity and Yale University because lunar eclipse until Dec. 2010. Here, the moon re-emerges after being completely eclipsed from tor university spending policies. MIT has a much higher percentage 10:01 to 10:51 p.m. See http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/ for more information on lunar Iowa Senator Charles Grassley of students studying science and and solar eclipses. (R), ranking member of the com- engineering, which are, in gen- mittee, described the purpose of eral, more costly than study in the the request in a Finance Commit- humanities. She also noted that tee press release: “We’re giving the financial backgrounds of MIT In Short well-funded colleges a chance to students are different than those Late-Night Appearance describe what they’re doing to help of students at similarly ranked ¶ The cancelation deadline for students.” “More information will schools. MIT cannot match Har- the MIT Student Extended Insur- help Congress make informed de- vard and Yale’s recent financial aid Brings Prominence To ance Plan is next Thursday, Feb. 28. cisions about a potential pay-out increases for middle income fami- Those wishing to waive the plan requirement and allow universities lies without “eroding support” for can visit http://web.mit.edu/medi- to show what they can accomplish lower income families. cal/p-waiver.html. on their own initiative,” he said. She told the faculty that MIT 8.02 Instructor Fisher MIT Vice President and General will make a public statement on fi- By Ramya Sankar air drag or friction must slow down ¶ The spring final exam schedule Counsel R. Gregory Morgan, who nancial aid in early March but that STAFF REPORTER a spinning ring, and so he sent an is now available. See the schedule was unavailable for comment, is they should not expect any sweep- “It’s like a drug,” said Physics e-mail to his Electricity and Mag- online at http://web.mit.edu/regis- coordinating the Institute’s effort to ing changes in financial aid, such Professor Peter H. Fisher, referring netism (8.02) students in the early trar/www/schedules/exams.html. provide a response within 30 days, as those announced by Harvard, to the 14 minutes of fame he got in morning hours of Feb. 7, requesting as the committee requested. Yale, and, most recently, Stanford a recent appearance on NBC’s Late their suggestions. ¶ Add date is Friday, Mar. 7: Re- The MIT administration has ex- University. member to designate a sophomore Show with Conan O’Brien. Within an hour, Fisher got several pressed concern at the possibility Regarding the Senate’s men- exploratory subject! See more on- Most of the time, Fisher re- dozen suggestions, ranging from re- of increased government monitor- tion of pay-out rules, Hockfield line at http://web.mit.edu/academ- searches dark matter. But for brief placing the air around the ring with ing or control over tuition rates. explained how endowment spend- ic-guide/sec8.html. few days at the beginning of Febru- helium to using an air table. With The Senate press release mentions ing cannot be simplified to just a ary, he found himself contemplating these suggestions and with the re- that college tuition is rising faster simple percentage, as MIT must ¶ Laptop security tagging is of- a more mundane problem: how to sults of several home trials in hand, than inflation, and that college en- take into account its various needs fered today in Lobby 10, from 9 make O’Brien’s wedding ring spin Fisher headed to Rockefeller Center dowments are exempt from a re- and the requirements of the 2000- a.m. to 11:30 a.m. For $10 cash, the on his desk for a long, long time. in New York City for the taping of quirement that private foundations MIT Police will affix a bar-coded Fisher appeared on O’Brien’s the show at 5:30 p.m. on Friday, Feb. pay out five percent of their assets Endowment, Page 10 plate to your laptop. show on Feb. 8 as a guest to help 8. O’Brien improve his ring’s spin time. During the rehearsal, O’Brien, a Because of the Writer’s Guild strike, Brookline native, talked with Fisher the problem had occupied parts of about the Boston area. After discuss- O’Brien’s show for days. ing various possible spin methods, Contacted by supervising pro- they settled on using Vaseline and ducer Frank Smiley to help Conan Teflon. Some spins with Vaseline break his 41-second record, Fisher lasted more than 80 seconds during approached the challenge in the the rehearsal. (He set a 51-second problem domain he knows best: physics. Fisher theorized that either Fisher, Page 11 P/D/F Option Proposed For Graduate Students At Feb. Faculty Meeting By Shreyes Seshasai vidual instructors may prevent stu- STAFF REPORTER dents from using the P/D/F option Professor of Biology Stephen P. in their subjects, and departments Bell presented a motion at Wednes- may also limit the use of the op- day afternoon’s faculty meeting tion. that would allow graduate students The motivation for the proposal to take subjects on a Pass/D/Fail comes from a growing desire of basis, similar to the option cur- graduate students to take subjects MARK THOMPSON rently available to junior and senior outside of their primary field of re- Keynote speaker Ray Hammond comments on the future of Dr. King’s message by asking the audi- undergraduates. The motion will search, Bell said. Currently, gradu- ence, “What now?” at the 34th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration held in Walker on be discussed and voted upon at the ate students can elect either to re- Thursday morning. March 19 faculty meeting. ceive full grades or listener status. If the proposal is approved, But some students hesitate to take graduate students would be allowed subjects that might hurt their grade to take one subject per term on a point average, especially when they RTS P/D/F basis. The subject’s units only want to get exposure to a dif- A World & Nation ������������������������������������� 2 would not count towards the total ferent field, Bell said. And subjects You mean you don’t record over video Opinion �������������������������� 4 number needed to fulfill degree taken with listener status do not rentals? Check out the review of ‘Be Campus Life ���������������������� 5 requirements, but the units would show up on transcripts and leave no count against any unit restriction lasting record that a student took Kind Rewind.’ Comics / Fun Pages ���������������� 6 a student faces, such as those im- the subject. Page 8 Arts ����������������������������� 8 posed by teaching assistant and re- Professor Charles H. Stewart III search positions. Sports �������������������������� 16 As the proposal stands, indi- Grades, Page 14 Page THE TECH February , 008 WORLD & NATION Researchers Exploit Serbian Protestors Set Fire DRAM Vulnerability By John Markoff THE NEW YORK TIMES SAN FRANCISCO To Unprotected U.S. Embassy A group led by a Princeton University computer security researcher has developed a simple method to steal encrypted information stored By Bostjan Videmsek able to disperse the crowd. “hold the Serbian government per- on computer hard disks. and Dan Bilefsky The Associated Press reported that sonally responsible for the safety The technique, which could undermine security software protecting THE NEW YORK TIMES the small fires at the embassy were and well-being of our embassy em- critical data on computers, is as easy as chilling a computer memory chip BELGRADE, SERBIA quickly extinguished by firefighters. ployees.” with a blast of frigid air from a can of dust remover. Encryption software Demonstrators attacked the U.S. Serbian television reported that He added that the security that is widely used by companies and government agencies, especially in Embassy and set part of it ablaze on the Croatian Embassy had also been had been provided was completely portable computers that are especially susceptible to being stolen. Thursday as tens of thousands of an- attacked, and the state news agency inadequate. The development, which was described on the group’s Web site on gry Serbs took to the streets of Bel- said the Bosnian and Turkish Embas- At the United Nations, Zalmay Thursday, could also have implications for the protection of encrypted grade to protest Kosovo’s declaration sies were also targeted.