MIT’s The Weather Oldest and Largest Today: Cloudy, 40°F (4°C) Tonight: Cloudy, late showers, Newspaper 50°F (10°C) Tomorrow: Rain, High 57°F (14°C) http://tech.mit.edu/ Details, Page 2 Volume 128, Number 61 Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 Tuesday, December 9, 2008 Initial Dining Proposal Includes Possible Automatic Meal Charge By Austin Chu mitted its first set of proposals to be habits. During the term, this money STAFF REPORTER evaluated by an outside consultant. could be applied toward meals at Amid reports that the Blue Rib- One of these proposals includes a house dining locations and on cam- bon Committee on Dining is consid- “minimum nutritional fee” to en- pus restaurants, gift cards for Star ering the possibility of an automatic courage students to invest in their Market or Trader Joe’s, or fraternity, meal charge for most undergradu- nutritional well being. sorority, or independent living group ates, the Undergraduate Association This proposal, variously de- dining membership fees. Senate last night passed a bill de- scribed over the past week and con- The revelation that the Blue Rib- manding more transparency in the firmed by members of the commit- bon Committee on Dining had al- committee’s deliberations. tee, would require undergraduates ready sent proposals to an outside The Blue Ribbon Committee on to pay a certain minimum amount consultant prompted students to call Dining, formed in the fall of 2007 by for food-related expenses per term. for more transparency. Currently, former Dean for Student Life Larry By making this amount a sunk cost, members of the committee are not G. Benedict to investigate the struc- the proposal hopes to encourage stu- ture of campus dining, recently sub- dents to establish better nutritional Dining, Page 15 Some Floor Faculty Will Vote Next Plans Gone; Week on GIR Changes Issue 49 of SCEP Survey: Students Like Some Changes By Pearle Lipinski be offered in different “flavors,” each YUANYU CHEN STAFF REPORTER with a specific area of focus. The Christine Chen ’12 checks out ornaments on display at the ‘The Tech’ The MIT faculty will vote to ap- flavors would be akin to the current MIT Glass Lab Holiday Sale in Lobby 10 on Dec. 8. The sale prove changes to the General Insti- varieties of the biology GIR, where featured colorful pieces made by students and instructors at tute Requirements recommended by students can take 7.012, 7.013, or the MIT Glass Lab. Was Stolen the Education Commons Subcom- 7.014, which focus more on human By Nick Semenkovich mittee of the Committee on the Un- biology and genetics, neurobiology EDITOR IN CHIEF dergraduate Program on Wednesday, and development, and ecology, re- This occasional feature will fol- Dec. 17. spectively. low up on news stories long past their The Student Committee on Edu- In the SCEP student survey — Tuition Announcement Will Come prime. In this edition: MIT’s removal cation Policy surveyed students for which was run before the final report of floor plans their opinions on the changes. 753 of the ECS was released but after the Sooner Than Usual After from the Facili- upperclassmen (24 percent) and 345 interim report was released — 78 The Institute will announce its 2008–9 tuition and financial aid ties website, and freshmen (33 percent) responded to percent of freshmen and 71 percent budget sooner than usual, said Secretary of the Corporation Kirk D. Deadline what ever hap- the survey. The results were present- of upperclassmen agreed or strongly Kolenbrander after the Friday, Dec. 5 MIT Corporation meeting. The pened to Issue 49 of The Tech? ed to the faculty in November and are agreed with the introduction of fla- tuition announcement is usually made in March. available online along with recom- vors. Students generally liked the At its meeting, the Corporation also discussed Six floor plans removed from web mendations from the committee at flexibility, but some students voiced News tuition and financial aid along with the provost’s Earlier this year, The Tech noticed http://ua.mit.edu/committees/scep/. concern that they would be influ- first report on diversity, intended to be an annual that a series of floor plans had been enced too much by the flavors they report similar to that presented to the faculty each removed from MIT’s listing of floor Students like “flavors,” neutral on chose when they had to decide on a Briefs year. But the majority of the time at the meeting, plans at https://floorplans.mit.edu. Foundations courses major. Others worried that since not which keeps private minutes, was spent discussing the coming budget In addition to the nuclear reactor, The ECS final report recom- all flavors would be equivalent in cuts, Kolenbrander said. at least six floors do not have plans mended that the same core subjects content, professional schools would available on the facilities website: of the science, mathematics and en- News Briefs, Page 13 Floor 8 of Buildings 16 and 56, Floor gineering (SME) GIRs remain but GIR Survey, Page 14 7 of Building 46, Floor 00 of Build- ing 68, and Floor 6 of Buildings E17 and E18. The plans for those floors Meet JoVE: have been replaced with PDFs that request users contact the Drawing Information Systems group. The YouTube It is not clear exactly when the floor plans were removed, though the “last modified” time returned by the Of Scientific server indicates that the plans may have been pulled as early as Jan. 16, 2007. Journals It’s also unclear why the floor By Zeina Siam plans were taken down; The plans STAFF REPORTER may have been removed because of Science journal meets YouTube security concerns or Nuclear Regu- in the Journal of Visualized Experi- latory Commission requirements. ments; an open-access peer-reviewed At least some of the floors are online journal, accessible at jove. likely to contain highly radioactive com, that has been publishing vid- Cesium-137 sources that are part of eos of biological research from labs Gammacell Irradiators used in biol- across the country, including many ogy research. Documents from MIT’s from MIT. Environmental Health and Safety Of- One of the journal’s goals is to fice imply that MIT owns multiple ir- provide an effective means of com- radiators, and indicate that additional municating advanced lab techniques training is required for “radiation that would be more difficult to com- workers who will use the Gammacell municate in a traditional text jour- Irradiators in the Center for Cancer nal. Research, Department of Biology, or ADITI Verma—THE TECH Research videos range from the Biological Engineering Division.” Adam Kerry Boyles, music director, conducts “Southern Harmony” by Donald Grantham during “Microcontact Printing of Proteins MITSO’s concert “Eroica” on Dec. 5 in Kresge. for Cell Biology,” to “Obtaining Issue 49 stolen from stands Eggs from Xenopus Laevis [African If you missed the Tuesday, Oct. 21 clawed frog] Females.” issue of The Tech, you aren’t alone; JoVE featured a project by MIT Many copies of Issue 49 were stolen biology graduate student Randal PINI O N from the newsstands, likely because This is the last issue O World & Nation . 2 Halfmann, in July. of an article regarding delayed reno- of The Tech for 2008. Response to Opinion ��������������������������4 In his video, Halfmann demon- vations of the W1 dormitory. We return Jan. 7, 2009, ‘Trust the Police?’ . 4 Arts ��������������������������������5 strated a protocol he developed for The article, “W1 Dorm Project De- screening hundreds of proteins at layed As Funds Dry Up,” detailed how and will publish each NEWS Campus Life ������������������8 once for their potential to form amy- MIT, weighing its financial liquidity, Wednesday during IAP. Grad student gets Comics / Fun Pages ����10 loid in cells. Halfmann explained decided to postpone $90 million reno- that his lab is interested in amyloid Good luck on finals! pretrial probation . 12 Sports . 20 After Deadline, Page 15 JoVE, Page 17 Page 2 THE TECH December 9, 2008 WORLD & NATIO N Deep in Debt, Tribune Seeks Car Dealers, Hoping for a Bankruptcy Protection By Richard Pérez-Peña THE NEW YORK TIMES Bailout, Brace for Closings Tribune Co., the newspaper and television chain that publishes The Los Angeles Times and The Chicago Tribune, filed for bankruptcy pro- By Clifford Krauss brands, as General Motors is talking sented to Congress last week to save tection on Monday. THE NEW YORK TIMES about doing. These laws have been a the company, he called for reducing The move came less than a year after Sam Zell, a Chicago real As Denny Fitzpatrick, a Chev- big impediment to auto companies in that number to 4,700 over the next estate tycoon took control of the Tribune chain and took on $13 billion rolet-Hummer dealer near Oakland, the past as they sought to cut their three years. in debt that threatens to cripple it in the face of a sinking economy and Calif., has watched the top Detroit dealer networks. Industry experts note that Chev- a collapse in advertising. auto executives plead for money But this time, many analysts rolet, GM’s flagship brand, has about Zell said the company had enough cash to continue operating its 12 from Congress, he has been rooting say the sheer scale of the economic three times as many dealerships as newspapers, 23 television stations, national cable channel and assorted for them — but with no great con- downturn is reducing the likelihood Toyota but sells about the same num- other media holdings, and the company insisted that the filing would viction. that many dealers will fight to stay ber of cars.