- \ MIT's The Weather Oldest and Largest Today: Sunny, 67°F (19°C) Tonight: Clear, cool, 42°F (6°C) Newspaper Tomorrow: Sunny, 67°F (19°C) Details, Page 2 Volume 119, Number 26 Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 Tuesday, May 11, 1999 Student Victimized In Robbery Attempt By Kevin R. Lang him until I was within maybe -ten ,ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR feet of him," the victim said. For the second time in two weeks, As he entered the turnstile area, an MIT student was held at gunpoint the suspect stepped toward the vic- Thursday in the Kendall Square area. tim. "His appea~ance didn't look 1 A Crime Alert sent out by MIT threatening," the victim said. The Campus Police described the sus- suspect then revealed a handgun. pect as a Hispanic male approxi- pointed at the victim's abdomen, mately six feet tall and 170 pounds, and told the victim not to yell. thin but muscular, with short, "mili- However, the victim kept walking tary style" hair. The victim said that toward through the turnstiles and up the suspect carried a brown or black the platform. leather jacket which he used to con- The victim said that he "made a ceal a small handgUn. quick decision that the guy was either The student said that the suspect going to shoot me or not shoot me." stood at the bottom of a flight of Once in public view on the plat- stairs in the subway entrance so form, the victim called for help and that he was not visible from either asked the token booth clerk to call the street or the platform. "I didn't the police. "The police were awe- .~ see him until 1 was within maybe some," the victim said. He said that ten feet of him," the victim said. at least twenty Massachusetts Bay The student said that the suspect Transportation Authority and GARRY MASKALY-THE TECH stood at the bottom of a flight of Cambridge Police arrived within A MIT student was the victim of an attempted robbery at gunpoint In the Kendall T stop Thursday stairs in the subway entrance so that minutes. evening. This was the second incident in a two-week period. he was not visible from either the street or the platform. "I didn't see Crime Alert, Page 17 Summers Speaks on MIT Joins in Charles Cleanup By Erik Snowberg Coalition. Harvard University, Polaroid and World Eoonomic Br8 STAFF REPORTER Genzyme, all members of the Coalition, were also By Kristen Landino engine. Japan and Europe must con- MIT, along with several other area universities present. ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR tribute to growth as well," Summers and businesses, is working with the U.S. Deputy Secretary of the u.s. said. Environmental Protection Agency to clean up the Charles River, Page 18 Treasury and Institute Alumnus Charles River by 2005. Lawrence H. Summers '75 spoke on Summers speaks on 90's finances The goal of the Clean issues relating to the global econo- Summers gave a brief synopsis Charles 2005 Coalition is to my in Bartos Theatre last Tuesday of the U.S. response to the slow- make the river fit for swim- afternoon. down in Gross Domestic Product ming, fishing and boating by His speech was part of an ongo- growth experienced during the Earth Day 2005. The EPA ing series of public policy lectures recession of the early 90's. began its efforts towards a sponsored by the Undergraduate Summers, who worked closely with cleaner Charles in 1995. Economics Association. President Bill Clinton on responding John P. DeVillars, the New Summers' talk focused on effec- to this economic problem, cited England administrator for the tive U.S. and foreign policy initia- deficit reduction as the major policy EPA, said, "When we set out in .~ tives in times of financial crisis. objective of Clinton during this 1995 to make the Charles fish- "The world economy cannot fly able and swimmable by 2005, forever on a single American Summers, Page 15 frankly there were a lot of doubting Thomases." Princeton Mathematician MIT, others join effort According to Paul Parravano, co-director of the Speaks at CMI Inauguration President's Office of Government and Community By Adam Brown brief welcomes. Relations, MIT has been ST.I"'''' REJ'URTER These welcomes included "three involved with the Charles A brass quartet, the unveiling of soundbites" from CMI Adviser River Watershed Association a sculpted logo, a number of notable Edward Witten of the Institute for "for several years." mathematicians, and an audience of Advanced Study: Mathematics is a "The EPA has recently over 450 celebrated the formation of pillar of modem civilization because become interested in getting the Clay Mathematics Institute yes- it is ancient (though it is not, panel involved with colleges and uni- terday in Room 10-250. Andrew moderator and Editor at Large of versities. This particular pro- , Wiles, the Princeton University Us. News & World Report David ject is important to the EPA mathematician who proved Gergen later pointed out, the oldest and its regional administrator," Fermat's Last Theorem, delivered profession); the strongest aspect of Parravano said. the keynote address. modem civilization due to rigor in According to Parravano, The Clay Mathematics Institute proofs; and the broadest, because MIT was invited to a meeting (CMI) was formed in September mathematics supports the creative in January by the EPA. This KRZYSZTOFGAJOS-THETECH 1998, according to Director Arthur enterprise of most of science. meeting was the beginning of MIT has made an agreement with the Environmental Protection the Clean Charles 2005 Agency to help clean up the Charles River by Earth Day 2005. ,> Jaffe. Yesterday's lecture was its first public event. Many notable mathematicians and others gave CMI, Page 20 Comics The Undergraduate Association This is the last scheduled issue of The approves fall-term Finance Tech for the spring semester. Summer World & Nation 2 Board allocations to student issues will be published on June 4 Opinion .4 (Commencement), June 11, July 7, and groups. Aug. 4. The Tech will publish daily during Features ' 6 Orientation beginning Aug. 25 and will TechCalendar 7 resume regular publication in September. Page 11 Page 12 Page 2 THE TECH May 11, 1999 WORLD & NATION Confrontation Escalates Refugees Continue to Leave Over Palestinian Headquarters LOS ANGELES TIMES JERUSALEM Kosovo Despite Withdrawal Intense U.S. diplomacy and days of negotiations failed late Monday to defuse a confrontation between the Israeli government By Carol J. Williams refugees who have flooded through thousands who had been forced and Palestinian politicians over the Palestinians' headquarters in East LOS ANGELES TIMES here have hunkered down in miser- from their homes by threats and .... MORINA. ALBANIA Jerusalem. able tents and plastic-shrouded truck gunfire but were unable to escape Despite warnings that the move could unleash a wave of violence If Yugoslav President Slobodan beds to wait out what they hope will Kosovo. on the eve of national elections, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Milosevic has begun withdrawing be a short-lived war. Stripped of money, documents _ ... Netanyahu ordered three Palestinian offices to shut down within 24 his forces from embattled Kosovo, "This town has seen the largest and dignity weeks ago and left to hours after Palestinians rejected Israeli demands that they curtail cer- the masked, dagger-wielding thugs movement of people through a sin- wander, the hungry, desperate strag- tain activities. who drove 14-year-old Fitore Lika gle place since World War II, if not glers have again begun crossing out Netanyahu, in a tight race for re-election and slipping in the polls, and throngs of other ethnic befor~ that," said UNHCR of Kosovo in droves. has tried to make Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem a centerpiece of Albanians out of the province spokesman Ray Wilkinson, reiterat- "We've been walking for three his campaign. He maintains that the Palestinians illegally use their Monday hadn't gotten the word. ing the refugee agency's fears that weeks and only with the help of East Jerusalem complex, known as Orient House, to stake out a pres- "They told us to go or we would the inundation provides fresh vic- God are we still alive," Nuradin ence in the disputed holy city. all be massacred," said Lika, weep- tims for the already bandit-ridden Gashi, exhausted and sobbing, pro- - ~ Netanyahu threatened to use force if the Palestinians do not obey ing as she trudged across the northern regions of Albania. claimed as he was met by aid work- his order, but Palestinians warned of potential retaliation. Kosovo border in a torrential down- In Bel~de, the Yugoslav army ers at this border post with his preg- "I hope they do not try," Faisal Husseini, the senior Palestinian pour. "They came in the morning announced it was withdrawing part nant wife, infant son and ailing official for Jerusalem, told a crowd gathered outside Orient House with masks and long knives and told of its forces from Kosovo, a south- mother-in-law. They had fled their late Monday, "but we will be ready to confront them if they do." us to run to NATO if we wanted to ern province of Yugoslavia, because home in Skenderaj under a hail of be saved." it had completed its rout of ethnic Serb gunfire. After a weekend when Albanian rebels of the Kosovo "The police have heen playing .__ -to Medicare Patients Face ~ Limit Milosevic's army troops, police and Liberation Army. NATO and with us, pushing us first here and paramilitary gunmen stepped up Western leaders said the announce- then there, threatening to kill us if On Benefits for Therapy their campaign of terror and expul- ment was far short of their demand we didn't leave and then blocking THE WASJ{JNGTON POST sion, officials of the U.N.