MIT's The Weather Oldest and Largest Today: howers, 73°F (23°C) Tonight: Showers ending, 57°F (14°C) ewspaper Tomorrow: Mostly sunny, 76°F (24°C) Details, Page 2 Volume 123, umber 42 Cambridge, Massachusett 02139 Tuesday, September 23,2003 New Major in Bioengineering Pledge Numbers Even Prompted by Student Interest With wt Year's Rush By Shual Chen oped because of "interest on [the] molecular Kinetics and Cell By Angelln R. Baskaran and others received very few. part of the students" said Robert P. Dynamics, and Biological Instru- . The standard deviation in MIT plans to offer a new bio- Redwine, Dean of Undergraduate mentation and Measurement labo- Fraternity rush results have so pledges per fraternity increased dra- engineering major to students in the Education. ratory. Classes that are currently far been similar to last year's, but matically last year, as fraternity rush class of 2009. The major is current- Alexis R. DeSieno '05, the pres- offered 'and will also be in the bio- pledging is somewhat more unifonn occured during the school year for ly under development and will ident of the Biomedical Engineer- engineering core include Differen- across fraternities. the first time in more than 20 years. expand on the already-existing Bio- ing Society, said that "based on the tial Equations (18.03), Organic Fraternities have offered 422 The average number of pledges medical Engineering minor. Activities Midway, we had around Chemistry (5.12), Laboratory Fun- bids to 333 male students, according per fraternity is 10.0 so far this year, The major may be available to a hundred freshmen" express inter- damentals in Biological Engineer- to statistics provided by the Interfra- compared with 10.6 at the end of students in the class of 2008, though est in a future bioengineering ,ing (BE.109), and Statistical Ther- ternity Council. By yesterday, 270 Rush last year. The standard devia- there is "no expectation students major. modynamics of ..Biomolecular of those students had pledged, com- . tion so far this year is 5.0 students coming in now can do it" said Linda However, the labs that will be Systems (BE.011/2.772J). pared with 286 last year, 319 in per fraternity, compared with 5.4 last G. Griffith, chair of the Bioengi- ~ed for bioengineering classes cur- The bioengineering department. 2001, and 313 in 2000. About 35 year, 4.1 in 2001, and 3.5 in 2000. neering Undergraduate Program rendy only have enough space for is also offering a "internship pro- students still have bids open. Several fraternities who did .Committee. "around fifty students per class" gram connected with compan~es There was some concern as to poorly in the previous rush picked Before bioengineering can offi- said Roger D ..Kamm, a professor of [that] should be available before the the accuracy of the IFC's rush num- up in numbers this year: Delta cially become a major, it will have biological engineering. major," Griffith said.. bers. Sigma Phi Epsilon originally Kappa Epsilon received nine to be approved by the Committee on Griffith said that it is "too early The faculty for the new bioengi- reported four pledges to the IFC, but pledges this year after receiving no Curricula, the Committee on Under- on in the stage" to decide what to do neering major will be drawn from the correct number is one pledge, pledges last year. graduate Programs, the Faculty Pol- if more than fifty students enroll in those already teaching at MIT. Over said F. Rene Anziani '04, the frater- icy Committee, and eventually the' the program. the past five years, there has been a nity president. Freshmen find their matches whole faculty. "gradual increase in faculty" in this John J. Huss '05, the IFC rush Freshmen said they were happy . The bioengineering division has New classes planned for BE major area, Griffith said. chair, concurred with the change, with rush week. "It was a great not yet submitted a proposal to the The core curriculum of the bio- "At this point, most of the facul- saying he thought SPE probably chance to see all the fraternities and curriculum committee, said. David engineering major will include ty who would be teaching are reported the original number out of what they were about," said Joshua Micus, the executive officer of the many classes already offered, as already here," Kamm said. embarassment. "I would be shocked J. Whitman '07, who pledged curriculum corpmittee.: well as some new classes. They have "more than 30 faculty if any of the other houses were Kappa Sigma "because I really liked Under development for the bio- in the division and around twenty incorrect," Huss said. the guys, the guys' attitudes, and the Student interest sparks major engineering core are classes such house," he said. "I got to know them The new major is being'devel- as Genetics and Genomics, Bio- BE, Page 21 Distribution of pledges evens out well. It was just a great fit for me." The distribution of pledges per MIT's independent living groups fraternity was somewhat more uni- had their first rush independent of form this year than last year, the fraternities this year. Student according to the IFC statistics. Last House was the only ILG to release year, several fraternity rush chairs statistics to The Tech. It extended complained that some fraternities three bids and received three received too many pledges to house pledges. Bids and ~Iedges Fraternity Pledges Lost Open Bids Alpha Delta Phi 11 6 I .Alpha Epsilon Pi 7 3 o Alpha Theta Omega 13 3 I Beta Theta Pi 9 3 2 Chi Phi 12 8 o Delta Kappa Epsilon 9 5 1 Delta Tau Delta 20 1 o Delta Upsilon 13 4 1 Kappa Sigma 15 7 o . Lambda Chi Alpha 5 5 2 Number 6 Club 12 1 I NuDelta 4 7 1 Phi Beta Epsilon 10 7 I Phi Delta Theta 15 6 1 Phi Kappa Sigma 19 5 o Phi Kappa Theta 12 4 5 Phi Sigma Kappa 8 11 2 Pi Lambda Phi 10 2 2 _ WENDY GU-THE TECH Sigma Chi 13 4 I Geoffrey A. Becker '05 works on a modified Inkj~t printer that prints with proteins Instead of black pig- SigmaNu 10 2 o ment In the lab of Shuguang Zhang, associate director of the Center for Biomedical Engineering. The Sigma Phi Epsilon 1 nla n/a (Source: SPE) printer will be used to print collagen patterns on which neurons will be placed to study how they com- Tau Epsilon Phi o o 3 p_ute. Theta Chi 12 1 o Theta D.elta Chi 1 3 5 Theta Xi 7 3 3 MITFCU Might Have to Start Paying Zeta Beta Tau 14 3 O' Zeta Psi 8 2 6 Total: 270 .Rent Under Proposed Payment Plan These fraternity rush numbers reflect those submitted so far to the By Julian E. Villarreal then~. The rent payment plan is still to stay on campus, they will defi- Interfraternity Council. under discussion, and MITFCU has nitely be paying rent. OURCE: iNTER.FRATERNITY OUN IL A rental plan proposed by MIT not yet decided if it will stay on "Being charged rent would be an would force the MIT Federal Credit campus and pay for' the space. additional expense we [would] Union to begin paying rent for space' MIT Comptroller James.L. Mor- incur," said MITFCU Chief Execu- that it currently occupies rent-free. gan also said that no decision has tive Officer Brian W. Ducharme. RlAA Documents Online Under the proposed lease agree- been made for the amount of rent The MIT Federal Credit Union, To our readers: ment, MITFCU would be charged payments or the specific details that which was established in 1940, is The Tech has placed an archive of court documents related to the sub- for its current space in Building a rent plan would entail. But, Mor- poena to MIT from the Recording Industry Association of America at: E19, should it choose to remain gan said, if the credit union wishes MITFCU, Page 15 http://www-tech.mil. edu/Bulletins/RJAA The Red Hot Comics NEWS World & Nation 2 Chili Peppers Complete vote tallies in the class Opinion 4 play the council and Undergraduate Asso- Arts 6 Tweeter. ciation elections. Events Calendar .12 Sports 28 Page 7 Page 10 Pages 24,27 Page 2 eptember 23,2003 ATIO sabel S · as ore Than ee WoundedAfter 700,000 Left · the Dark THE £w YORK TIMES o g C assroom Hostage Utility companie made major tride to restore power in part of Maryland and northern Virginia on Monday, but evere damage harply By Sarah Kershaw WAT team and negotiators arrived special training called "active shoot- slowed work in southern Virginia and orth Carolina, leaving more THE EW YORK TIME by 11:25 a.m. and school oIficial er response" in the aftermath of the than 700,000 homes and bu inesses there dark for yet another day. A' 17-year-old student at a high evacuated 2,000 students using a Columbine, Colo., shootings. With frustration growing over the pace of repairs,. utility officials school in pokane Wa h., was shot fire alarm. At some point before the Investigators said the student's could offer little good news for the storm-ravaged areas of Richmond by the police Monday after firing a 90-minute standoff, the three other motive was still unclear. and Tidewater in Virginia, and eastern orth Carolina, saying most gun and barricading himself in asci students and the t~acher had The superintendent of Spokane people there could not expect to have power until Thursday or later.