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Republican Scott Brown@@@ Wins skyline Mass. @@@ Senate Election, Details Page 2 MIT’s The Weather Oldest and Largest Today: Gradually clearing. High 37°F (3°C) Newspaper Tonight: Partly cloudy. Low 26°F (-3°C) Tomorrow: Sunny. High 36°F (2°C) Details, Page 2 http://tech.mit.edu/ Volume 129, Number 62 Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 Wednesday, January 20, 2010 ‘Metaphysical Plant’ Takes Home Recent Report Calls Coin in Annual MIT Mystery Hunt For More Awareness By Margaret Cunniff Staff REPORTER After nearly 42 hours of time- Of Faculty Diversity travel, riddle-solving, and very little sleep, team Metaphysical Plant found By Meghan Nelson sities. the much coveted Mystery Hunt coin, Staff REPORTER concluding the annual MIT puzzle The Initiative for Faculty Race Expand, clarify recruitment competition. An estimated 1000 MIT and Diversity released its final report The backgrounds of both minor- students, alumni, and unaffiliated on the minority faculty experience at ity and non-minority faculty are re- puzzle solvers formed the 37 teams MIT last Thursday after a two and a markably similar, the report found. who participated in the event. half year effort. Stemming from an Fifty-five percent of minority faculty The coin was found on January effort to understand why a dispro- hold PhD degrees from either MIT, 17 at 5:50 a.m. near the southeast portionately small number of MIT Harvard, or Stanford, indicating gate of Old Ashdown, under roughly faculty are members of minority missed opportunities in hiring a di- an inch of soil. groups, the report found that there verse faculty by simply not expand- This year’s hunt began at last Fri- are inequities in the minority faculty ing the search to more universities. day at noon and was written by Be- experience. Fifty percent of white faculty and ginner’s Luck, the winning team of Of 1,009 faculty members, only forty three percent of Asian faculty last year’s competition. At the begin- six percent are classified as minori- also hold their PhDs degrees from ning of the hunt, teams were faced ties, an increase from the four and those three universities. with one round of ten puzzles and a half percent in 2004, where the The large percentage of faculty one “meta”-puzzle, a more complex federal government defines minori- members from three specific univer- puzzle requiring the use of several ties as naturalized or permanent resi- sities is not caused by a deliberate previous puzzles’ solutions to solve. dents who self-identified as African, pipeline or network, but instead by a As the Hunt progressed, teams un- Hispanic, or Native American. Since lack of a concerted effort to broaden locked additional challenges, adding Asian residents are represented at the sources of applicants, the report ten more rounds and 92 puzzles to MIT at a higher percentage than rep- said. Expanding the search even to the Hunt. resented at the general U.S. general just the top twenty ranked schools JASMINE FLORENTINE—ThE TECH Inspired by the 30th anniversary population, they are not considered This year’s Mystery Hunt, organized by the team Beginner’s Luck, of Mystery Hunt, the theme this year underrepresented minorities. The Diversity, Page 11 began with a silent skit accompanied by an MP3 file which the Hunt numbers of minority faculty are participants were instructed to listen to on Friday, Jan. 15. History Munt, Page 10 comparable to other science univer- See page 13 for an additional article with Report excerpts. At MIT, Ritalin Use on Par ‘Eleanor’ Gets Second Among Other With Peer Schools; Formal Silicon-Paneled Cars in World Race Disciplinary Action is Rare By Ana Lyons To the unexpecting eye, her pres- side of several states on her North ASSOCIate EDItoR ence on the road during a test run American tour, demonstrated the By Jessica J. Pourian be enticed to obtain the drug from Meet Eleanor. Her sleek, reflec- often demands a second glance, team’s newest technology to her Staff REPORTER their peers, often around exam week, tive body spans the length of nearly perhaps even reminding onlookers many sponsors on firsthand visits, “If you’ve ever been like super or come to believe that they might in 16 feet — encrusted with over 580 of a UFO. But the banners decorat- and has been the center of attention ridiculous caffeinated and drank two fact have ADHD, due to a perceived silicon solar cells and capable of ing her sides proudly announce that during of dozens of club outreach Rockstars and didn’t have anything difficulty to focus on coursework. generating an estimated power out- she’s not from outer space. She’s the events as the team’s tenth genera- to eat, sort of get that brain fuzz and If the administration finds a stu- put of 1200 watts. Her streamlined most recent creation of MIT’s stu- tion single-passenger solar car. can’t look at anything straight and dent using Ritalin without a prescrip- curves and futuristic design make dent run Solar Electric Vehicle team But her biggest accomplishment everything is peripheral vision; that’s tion, however, they will likely focus her an instant star of any roadway, (SEVT) — a fusion of novel design, yet comes from her completion of how being on Ritalin feels to me.” on the student’s health and send the whizzing past other cars at speeds meticulous construction, and some the 2009 World Solar Challenge last Duncan, a freshman at MIT, is student to mental health services of up to a potential 90 mph and of the latest solar car technology. October — the team’s primary race just one of many students around the rather than take disciplinary action, boasting a drag coefficient of only Since her unveiling last Febru- United States who have taken Ritalin. said to David W. Randall, Assistant 0.11. ary, Eleanor has seen the country- Solar Car, Page 12 While Duncan was on it legally for a Dean of Student Support Services couple of weeks with a prescription (S^3). from his doctor for attention-deficit “Drug abuse, including abuse of hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), it prescription drugs, happens at all ended up not working for him. college campuses,” said Randall. “It Ritalin, a stimulant that is primar- doesn’t happen here at any greater ily used to treat hyperactivity and at- frequency than other colleges.” tention problems, is also sometimes misused as a study aid. Ritalin use is average at MIT While some studies suggest that MIT numbers are in fact in line competitive schools located in the with the national average. The 2006 Northeast see the highest use of Rit- survey at MIT found that only four alin in the nation, a more recent 2006 percent of students had tried a stimu- survey of MIT students conducted lant like Ritalin in order to enhance by the American College Health As- their academic performance in the sociation shows that MIT’s stimulant past year, while seven percent ad- abuse is actually in-line with that of mitted to trying it at some point in the national average. But with the their life. A national survey con- sudden pressure and difficulty of MIT, speculation is that students may Ritalin, Page 14 CHRIS PENTACOFF held on Sat. January 23–24 starting The MIT Solar Electric Vehicle team’s solar car, Eleanor, is being inspected at one of the control stops In Short at 6 p.m. in 26-100. during the world solar challenge in Australia. ¶ An ‘Alice in Wonderland’ Extrav- ¶ Students can give input regard- aganza, sponsored by the Literature ing the Stellar Next Generation department, takes place tomorrow: a learning management system, Opinion Column: World & Nation . 2 day-long roving reading of Alice and which will replace the current Stellar Populists at the Gate Opinion . 4 Wonderland, starting in room 14E- system, tomorrow at 2 p.m. in 1-150. 304 at 9 a.m. For a complete sched- See the IAP event listing at http:// Arts . 6 ule, see: http://lit.mit.edu/spotlight student.mit.edu/searchiap/iap-9668. Page 5 Campus Life . 8 html for more information. ¶ The 32nd Annual Science Fic- Fun . 9 tion Marathon sponsored by the Send news information and tips to Sports . 16 Lecture Series Committee will be [email protected]. Page 2 THE TECH January 20, 2010 WORLD & NATIO N Obama Pressing for GOP Surges to Senate Protections Against Lenders By Jackie Calmes and Sewell Chan THE NEW YORK TIMES WASHINGTON Victory in Massachusetts President Barack Obama on Tuesday stepped into the middle of a fierce lobbying battle by reinforcing his support for an independent agen- By Michael Cooper lose their filibuster-proof majority in It was a sharp swing of the pendu- cy to protect consumers against lending abuses that contributed to the THE NEW YORK TIMES the Senate. lum, but even Democratic voters said financial crisis. The president’s move also signaled a tougher line and a BOSTON Beyond the bill, the election of a they wanted the Obama administra- more direct role as Congress weighs an overhaul of banking regulation. Scott Brown, a little-known Repub- candidate supported by the Tea Party tion to change direction. The financial industry and congressional Republicans have singled lican state senator, rode an old pickup movement also represented an unex- “I’m hoping that it gives a message out the administration’s proposed consumer agency in particular, hoping truck and a growing sense of unease pected reproach by many voters to to the country,” said Marlene Con- to greatly weaken if not kill it. With liberal Democrats and Web com- among independent voters to an ex- President Barack Obama after his first nolly, 73, of North Andover, a lifelong mentators fighting just as hard for a strong independent office, the issue is traordinary upset Tuesday night when year in office, and struck fear into the Democrat who said she cast her first becoming a central point in the debate over regulation.

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