MIT’s The Weather Today: Slight chance of showers, Oldest and Largest Mid 50s°F (13°C) Tonight: Cloudy, Lows in the Newspaper lower to mid 40s°F (6°C) Tomorrow: Partly sunny, Highs in the upper 50s°F (15°C) http://tech.mit.edu/ Details, Page 2 Volume 128, Number 23 Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 Friday, May 2, 2008 Dean for Student Life MIT Will Release Student Birth Search Committee Will Dates, Enhance Opt-Out System By Michael McGraw-Herdeg Start Interviews in May EXECUTIVE EDITOR MIT will release students’ dates By Michael McGraw-Herdeg will review packets of information of birth for statistical purposes, but EXECUTIVE EDITOR about each potential replacement, it will not publish those dates. The The search for Dean for Student and they will choose a list of eight release will take place in the fall, Life Larry G. Benedict’s replacement candidates to interview further, Hol- following a proposal discussed by is well underway, and a preliminary mes said. Dean for Undergraduate Educa- list of the top eight candidates will First-round interviews with the tion Daniel E. Hastings PhD ’80 at be chosen Monday afternoon. committee will be held in the subse- a meeting with undergraduates last Following the current schedule, a quent week, Holmes said. The com- night. new dean could be named as early as mittee will choose three or four can- The change would let MIT par- June or as late as early July. Benedict didates to invite to a second round ticipate in an information-sharing will leave at the end of the academic of interviews with the committee, system used by the 65-university year, at the end of August, said Un- administrators, and students, to be American Association of Universi- dergraduate Association President held in the second half of May. ties, Hastings said. It would also let Martin F. Holmes ’08, a member of If the committee cannot make a the Institute include student birth the committee that is selecting the final recommendation after these in- dates with census information sent new dean. terviews, a final round of interviews each year to the Cambridge Elec- A community picnic honoring with the top candidates will be held tion Commission; this year, the in- Benedict will be held Monday, May in early June. formation was only sent to the city 5, in Killian Court starting at noon. In the search for a new admis- with students’ written permission. As Dean for Student Life, Benedict sions dean, MIT made an offer two That census information is used to has worked on campus dining issues, to three weeks after that search com- confirm that people are eligible to overseen dormitory renovations, ex- mittee had issued its recommenda- vote in Cambridge, and the infor- panded the housemaster program to tions, Holmes said. If this pattern mation may affect whether students graduate residences, and worked on holds, a new dean for student life are called for jury duty in Massa- other student services projects. His could be chosen as early as June or chusetts. position, which allows him to advo- as late as July. The Family Educational Rights cate on students’ behalf, also makes Benedict was named Dean for and Privacy Act prevents MIT from him responsible for student life and Student Life on June 16, 2000, and disclosing some personal informa- well-being in a tangible way, evi- the appointment was effective two tion about its students without their dent in his work on the 2001 Mental months later, on Aug. 21. The new consent. Some basic facts may be Health Task Force. dean will not have quite so long for revealed without getting permission Benedict was unavailable for an a transition, since Benedict is slated first; these facts are called “directo- interview. to leave at the end of August. ry information” and frequently in- PERRY Hung—THE TECH About six dozen candidates to Holmes said that the commit- clude things like names and phone Dean for Undergraduate Education Daniel E. Hastings PhD ’80 speaks replace Benedict have been vetted tee has considered appointing an numbers. Each school decides on to the Undergraduate Association last night. by an external search firm, and of interim dean for student life in case its own what constitutes directory those, about three dozen have com- the new dean cannot begin serving information. Under the law, a stu- Four members of the AAU, participate in the association’s da- plete applications, Holmes said. On in time to replace Benedict. In 2000, dent may ask for their information including MIT, do not presently ta-sharing system, which provides Monday afternoon, immediately af- not to be released, and universities consider birth dates “directory in- ter the picnic, the search committee Student Life, Page 14 must abide by this opt-out request. formation.” As a result, they cannot Birth Date, Page 14 3Com Corporation’s New CEO Signals In Short ¶ Pi Beta Phi has accepted an in- organization’s Web site. There are vitation from MIT to colonize and currently no other Pi Phi chapters in Change in Focus to the Chinese Market will be the Institute’s sixth sorority. Massachusetts colleges. Founded in 1867, the sorority has By Hiawatha Bray chusetts Institute of Technology and Besides, while the US economy 131 chapters at colleges across the Send news information and tips to THE BOSTON GLOBE Cornell University. is on the brink of recession, demand country, according to its national [email protected]. Telecommunications equipment “Bob’s bicultural background, for telecom gear in China remains maker 3Com Corp. is based in Mar- extensive business experience in strong. Kerravala said the H3C busi- lborough, Mass. Asia, and fluency in Mandarin and ness should shield 3Com from the But the announcement that its English offer a rare set of skills that effects of the American slowdown. new chief executive will be based can bridge Chinese and western Jeff Evenson, senior analyst for in Hong Kong leaves no doubt the organizations,” said 3Com’s board US data networking at the invest- company’s future is in China. chairman, Eric Benhamou. ment firm Sanford C. Bernstein LLC Robert Mao SM ’72, previously Once one of the world’s leading in New York, said that putting Mao 3Com’s executive vice president of networking hardware firms, 3Com in China could reinforce efforts to corporate development, replaces has faded in recent years, falling far develop inexpensive H3C products outgoing chief executive and presi- behind rivals like Cisco Systems Inc. that could then be exported world- dent Edgar Masri. But the company has found salva- wide. The move could also help Former 3Com executive Ronald tion in China’s booming market for 3Com hang on to vital Chinese engi- Sege, who left the company a decade telecom gear. The company’s H3C neering talent, he said. 3Com has al- ago, will serve as president and chief business unit, based in Hong Kong, ready offered lavish cash payments operating officer, a job that will re- was a joint venture between 3Com to keep workers who were brought main in the United States. and China’s Huawei Technologies, into the company after the H3C ac- “We have the opportunity to until 3Com bought the entire opera- quisition. bring in two very experienced and tion in 2006. Indeed, Evenson thinks 3Com talented individuals who the board H3C, which makes switches, would be better off selling its Tip- believes are well equipped to lead routers, and other communications pingPoint business, which makes 3Com forward,” said 3Com spokes- equipment, generated two-thirds of network security gear, and another man Kevin Flanagan, “particularly 3Com’s revenue for its fiscal third US-based operation that makes In- when it comes to maximizing the quarter, which ended Feb. 29. ternet-protocol telephone products, success of our already successful “H3C is their growth path, not to focus on H3C. “I would just shift China operation.” traditional 3Com stuff in the US,” the company to be a Chinese com- Mao, former president of China said Zeus Kerravala, network equip- pany,” he said. operations for Nortel Networks, a ment analyst at Yankee Group in Mao’s appointment comes weeks Canadian telecom vendor, is a US Boston. “Their brand has really been citizen and a graduate of the Massa- tarnished here.” 3Com, Page 13 ARTS World & Nation . 2 Were you the sweaty, annoying girl at Opinion . 4 the Third Eye Blind concert? If so, It’s Friday . 5 ERIC SCHMIEdl—THE TECH Sarah wants to talk to you … Arts . 6 Andreas Mershin of the MIT Flying Club took Tech photogra- Page 6 Comics / Fun Pages . 10 phers Ricardo Ramirez ’09 and Eric D. Schmiedl ’09 up for an aerial photo shoot of the MIT campus on April 26, 2008. For Sports . 16 more photos, see page 8. Page 2 THE TECH May 2, 2008 WORLD & NATIO N Reading Initiative Found Ineffective U.S. Airstrike Kills Militia By Sam Dillon THE NEW YORK TIMES President Bush’s $1 billion-a-year initiative to teach reading to low- income children has not improved their reading comprehension, ac- Chief Linked to Al-Qaida cording to a Department of Education report released on Thursday. The program, known as Reading First, drew on some of Bush’s By Eric Schmitt against Islamic militants outside of that ended up wounding or killing educational experiences as Texas governor, and at his insistence Con- and Jeffrey Gettleman Iraq, Afghanistan or Pakistan since civilians. gress included it in the federal No Child Left Behind legislation that THE NEW YORK TIMES a deadly strike in Yemen in 2002, re- Still, some administration of- passed with bipartisan support in 2001.