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MIT’s The Weather Oldest and Largest Today: Cloudy, 45°F (8°C) Tonight: Cloudy, 38°F (3°C) Newspaper Tomorrow: Rain, 38°F (3°C) Details, Page 2 Volume 124, Number 57 Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 Tuesday, November 30, 2004 Bug in MyMIT System Allowed Sharing of Users’ Information By Jeffrey Chang Redwine said. In those circum- “We then had to spend a few STAFF REPORTER stances, a user could see the informa- weeks trying to understand the MIT Admissions e-mailed about tion from someone else’s registration extent of possible access to informa- 9,500 registered users of the MyMIT or application. tion,” Redwine said. Of the total admissions Web site last week to con- MIT was alerted to this problem number of people who had used the firm that their applications were cor- by a student using the portal. “As portal, about 20 percent potentially rect after discovering and correcting a soon as we heard, we took the portal could have been affected. Out of that problem where users could potential- down,” Redwine said, causing the group, only a quarter, or about ly access other students’ applications. inaccessibility of the MyMIT site 2,400, were students who had MIT Admissions realized in late around Nov. 1 and the subsequent already submitted their applications. October that under some circum- extension of the Early Action appli- stances, a user of the site could find cation deadline. It took a couple Applicants alerted via e-mail himself or herself with the same ses- days, but the difficulty, a hardware “We have recently corrected a sion ID as someone else, Dean for configuration problem, was straight- Undergraduate Education Robert P. forward to fix. MyMIT, Page 13 Thirsty Ear Gets A Helping Hand By Beckett W. Sterner Hathaway, has been hired to manage and bartend for events on- and off- EDITOR IN CHIEF scheduling and the student bar- campus has also been improved, he The Thirsty Ear pub will reopen tender staff, said former Thirsty Ear said, in order to help save student this Thursday to a schedule of trivia, Manager Gregory S. Pollock G. groups the hassle of hiring bar- karaoke, and live music on Monday, Director of Campus Dining tenders from outside MIT. Thursday, and Friday nights, and Richard D. Berlin III said that since will otherwise be available to the the pub has no kitchen facilities, it Pub prospects look good MIT community for reservations. will serve food catered from Alpine The Thirsty’s “new business Thursday night will be the pub’s Bagel in the Student Center. model pares down our hours to the Grand Reopening, sponsored by the “I think it would probably be an shifts in which we had the most Graduate Student Council. abbreviated menu based on what business,” a change planned to make The pub, which closed last travels well” from Alpine to it financially self sustainable, spring after it was unable to find a Ashdown, he said. “I think one of Pollock said. manager within the MIT administra- the primary things would be … He said sustainability has been tion, is able to reopen now that an brick oven pizza.” OMARI STEPHENS—THE TECH Dean R. Gibbons and Tony Rebelo change the lights around outside, part time manager, Lance The pub’s ability to cater alcohol Thirsty, Page 14 Kresge Auditorium last Tuesday, Nov. 23. In addition to the light-changing, various facilities teams performed routine Six Marshall, Rhodes Scholars at MIT maintenance around campus. By Kathy Dobson ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR Six MIT students were awarded scholarships to attend universities in Federal Database Tracking the United Kingdom for the next two years. Virginia L. Corless ’05, Brian A. Student Data a Possibility Mazzeo ’05, and Jessica A. Lee ’05 each won Marshall Scholarships, By Diana Jean Schemo which allow them to study at any THE NEW YORK TIMES university in the U.K. Elizabeth WASHINGTON Masiello G, Laurel Yong-Hwa Lee A proposal by the federal government to create a vast new database ’05, and Javed K. Samuel G were of enrollment records on all college and university students is raising awarded Rhodes Scholarships to concerns that the move will erode the privacy rights of students. study at Oxford University. Until now, universities have provided individual student informa- In total, 40 Marshall tion to the federal government only in connection with federally Scholarships and 47 North financed student aid. Otherwise, colleges and universities submit infor- American Rhodes Scholarships mation about overall enrollment, graduation, prices and financial aid were awarded this year. The scholar- without identifying particular students. ships each had about 900 applicants. For the first time, however, colleges and universities would have to give the federal government data on all students individually, whether Scholars to pursue interests or not they received financial assistance, with their Social Security Corless, who plans to pursue a numbers. doctorate in astrophysics at The bid arises from efforts in Congress and elsewhere to extend the Cambridge or Oxford, said that she growing emphasis on school accountability in elementary and high was ecstatic when she heard about schools to postsecondary education. Supporters say that government the scholarship. oversight of individual student data will make it easier for taxpayers “Studying in the U.K. for a PhD and policy makers to judge the quality of colleges and universities is ideal for me because I’m heading through more reliable statistics on graduation, transfers and retention. in a policy, applied science direction The change would also allow federal officials to track individual as opposed to academia,” Corless students as they journey through the higher education system. In said. Her goal is to “get into the real recent years, increasing numbers of students have been attending more world after I finish,” possibly pursu- than one university, dropping out or taking longer than the traditional ing international science policy or four years to graduate. Current reporting practices cannot capture such consulting. Corless said she was trends; a mobile student is recorded as a new student at each institu- interested in bring technology into tion. the developing world. Under the proposal, the National Center for Education Statistics at Jessica Lee, who plans to attend JINA KIM—THE TECH the Department of Education would receive, analyze and guard the stu- Oxford or University of Wales to Virginia L. Corless ’05 and Jessica A. Lee ’05 (rear, left to right) are dent data. In making its case for the change, the national center points study environmental conservation, two of this year’s Marshalls Scholars. L. Yong-Hwa Lee ’05 and to a long history of working with student information and says it has said that when she found out she Javed K. Samuel G (front, left to right) are two 2004 MIT Rhodes never been forced to share such data with law enforcement or other won the scholarship, she was Scholars. Not present are Marshall winner Brian A. Mazzeo ’05 and Rhodes winner Elizabeth Masiello G. Tracking, Page 14 Scholars, Page 11 ARTS Comics OPINION “Alexander” is not worth the film The comic superhero history of World & Nation . 2 it was developed on. The the Middle East. Opinion . 4 soundtrack, though, wasn’t so Arts . 9 bad. Sports . .16 Page 9 Page 6 Page 5 Page 2 THE TECH November 30, 2004 WORLD & NATION Stress and Distress May Federal Appeals Court Rules Give Your Genes Gray Hair By Benedict Carey THE NEW YORK TIMES Colleges May Bar Recruiters Some stressful events seem to turn a person’s hair gray overnight. Now a team of researchers has found that severe emotional dis- By Adam Liptak medical school, if any of its units, appeals court to review the decision tress — like that caused by divorce, the loss of a job, or caring for an THE NEW YORK TIMES like its law school, make military by the three-judge panel or ask the ill child or parent — may speed up the aging of the body’s cells at the Universities may bar military recruiting even a little more diffi- Supreme Court to hear the case. In genetic level. The findings, being reported Tuesday, are the first to recruiters from their campuses with- cult. either event, the government may link psychological stress so directly to biological age. out risking the loss of federal Billions of dollars are at stake, also ask for a stay of the decision. The researchers found that blood cells from women who had spent money, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court and no university has been willing In the meantime, colleges and many years caring for a disabled child were, genetically, about a of Appeals, in Philadelphia, ruled to defy the government. Indeed, universities are free to limit military decade older than those from peers who had much less caretaking Monday. several law schools that are mem- recruiters’ access to their campuses, experience. The study, which appears in Proceedings of the National The court ruled that educational bers of one of the groups that sued said E. Joshua Rosenkranz, who Academy of Sciences, also suggests that the perception of being institutions have a First Amendment to block the law, the Forum for Aca- represents the law schools in the stressed can add years to a person’s biological age. right to keep military recruiters off demic and Institutional Rights, have suit. Though doctors have linked chronic psychological stress to weak- their campuses to protest the not been publicly identified. Among “Now every academic institution ened immune function and an increased risk of catching colds, among Defense Department policy of the institutions willing to be named in the country is free to follow their other things, they are still trying to understand how tension damages excluding gays from military ser- are the law schools of New York consciences and their nondiscrimi- or weakens tissue.