Massachusetts Primary Today MIT’s The Weather Oldest and Largest Today: Cloudy, showers, 52°F (11°C) Tonight: Clearing, 40°F (4°C) Newspaper Tomorrow: Partly cloudy, 55°F (13°C) Details, Page 2 Volume 124, Number 9 Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 Tuesday, March 2, 2004 Dead Body Tentatively Identified as Mun MIT Pays By Beckett W. Sterner NEWS AND FEATURES DIRECTOR A male body recovered from the For Grad Charles River this Saturday has been tentatively identified as Daniel S. Mun ’05, a Chi Phi fraternity Insurance member who was last seen on Dec. 5. The identification is based on By Kathy Dobson Mun’s MIT ID card, which was STAFF REPORTER found in the body’s pocket, said Graduate students supported by President of the Chi Phi House Cor- research and teaching assistantships poration James Bueche ’62. will receive a full subsidy for their In addition, MIT News Director health insurance cost in the 2004- Arthur L. Jones said that “from 2005 academic year, Provost Robert what the police have said, the gener- A. Brown announced last week. al description is that the height and The subsidy provides graduate the size [of the body] is consistent” students supported by assistantships with Mun’s height and size. full health coverage with MIT’s The official confirmation of the individual extended hospital insur- identity of the body awaits the com- ance, which costs $1,440 for the parison of dental records, said 2003-2004 academic year. This will David Procopio, press secretary for result in an approximately 8 percent the Suffolk County District Attor- increase in disposable income for ney’s office, which is in charge of most affected students. Students that the investigation and autopsy. are not supported by the Institute “We're hoping that the autopsy will see no change in their insurance is going to do a couple of things,” costs, and families will only see a he said, such as “allow us to offi- BRIAN HEMOND—THE TECH partial reduction. cially identify the deceased” and Boston Fire Department firefighters load an inflatable dive boat aboard their truck Saturday night after Dean for Graduate Students establish the cause of death. searching the Charles River near the Boston side of the Harvard Bridge. A body, tentatively identified to Isaac M. Colbert said that the insur- He said they plan to do the be that of MIT student Daniel S. Mun ’05, was recovered from the river. ance subsidy is a result of the work autopsy today. Jonathan R. Moskaitis G, who Boston emergency dive team had Dexter W. Ang ’05, Mun’s for- of many groups, including “the was present during the recovery recovered the body, which was mer roommate, said that Mun did entire senior structure of the Insti- Body recovered from Charles effort, said that the body was initially clothed and wearing inline skates, own a pair of inline skates. tute” and the Graduate Student Passersby on the Harvard Bridge below the ice and a small distance from the river, Moskaitis said. He The DA’s office is “very actively Council. Both groups were “con- reported a body in the water shortly away from the bridge. said that the body appeared to have after 4 p.m. on Saturday afternoon. By approximately 5 p.m., the been underwater for some time. Mun, Page 16 Insurance, Page 19 Ringcomm Stands Firm; CONCERT REVIEW Rat Remains Unchanged A Taste So Bad, It’s Good By Marissa Vogt opinions about the design of the NEWS EDITOR ring. The survey asks students to Chorallaries Do It Again — Get It? ‘Do It.’ In a statement on its Web site rate two controversial features of By Jeremy Baskin last Friday, the Class of 2006 Ring the ring, namely the Greek letters CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Committee announced that they will phi and theta beneath the Cam- The Nth Annual Concert in Bad Taste not be altering the design for the bridge skyline and twin stars alleged The Chorallaries of MIT 2006 Brass Rat. The statement was by some to resemble the insignia of 10-250 issued in response to the recent con- the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority. February 28, 10:59:59 p.m. troversy surrounding two Greek let- Michael J. Stanway ’06 said that ters and stars on the ring. the other creators of the Web site t’s funny that the Nth Annual Concert in Bad “We appreciate ArtCarved’s and he met with the ring committee Taste doesn’t change names each year, because it recent attempts to work with us on last Friday to discuss the possibility all starts to sound the same after a while. I haven’t possibly making changes to the of changing the ring design. Iquite figured out yet whether that’s a good thing design, but it is the Ring Commit- “At this point, it doesn’t look or not, but I guess because the tee’s final decision not to change the like there’s anything more that we alternative might be a regular 2006 Brass Rat, regardless of can do unless we have some huge Arts Chorallaries concert, I’ll take the whether or not it is a feasible surge of responses on the web site,” dildo and DKE jokes, thanks. option,” the committee wrote in the Stanway said. “It doesn’t look like The jokes were good this year, which is a shame statement. anything different is going to hap- because even though the line stretched out of 10-250 “Changing the ring design even pen unless there’s forty to fifty per- all the way to Building 7, there were a few empty slightly would set a very poor prece- cent of the class,” responding, he seats in 10-250. I bet it wasn’t like this back in the dent for ring committees of the said. day when Bad Taste started at midnight. future,” the committee wrote. As of last night, 226 students For those of you who haven’t had the distinct The full statement was issued on have responded to the survey, of pleasure of attending Bad Taste, I can sum it up for Friday and posted in the frequently which 199 are sophomores, or 20.2 you using the words of my 8.02 recitation leader who asked questions section of the Web percent of the class. was trying to show us how easy Gauss’s Law was site, http://web.mit.edu/2006ring- Stanway said that the ring com- because you could solve every problem the same comm/Webpages/FAQs.htm. mittee “didn’t feel like there was a way: it unfolds like a Kabuki play. You know the set- big enough response” and didn’t ting and the plot, and even though the characters Only 226 respond to online survey want the controversy to become DMITRY PORTNYAGIN—THE TECH might be different, the overall experience is rather The ring committee’s statement “something that separated the Geoffrey A. Becker ’05 and Daniel O. Bates ’05 predictable. came four days after a group of class.” drop their pants in a skit entitled “Bare-Assidy and sophomores launched the web site the No Pants Kid.” Bo S. Kim ’04 holds a sheet Bad Taste, Page 10 http://ring2006.mit.edu to collect Ring, Page 18 to preserve the remaining shreds of their dignity. NEWS NEWS World & Nation . 2 Find out where you can go to ASA temporarily Undergraduate Association and Opinion . 4 vote in the Massachusetts rerecognizes Counterpoint . 17 Class Council candidate list. Features . 7 Primary. Arts . 8 The Tech speaks with Fun . .12 Page 16 Professor Maria Zuber . .19 Page 19 Page 2 THE TECH March 2, 2004 WORLD & NATION U.S. Plans To Put Security Haitian Rebels Enter Capital Inspectors At Foreign Airports THE NEW YORK TIMES WASHINGTON While Aristide Criticizes U.S. Domestic security officials plan to station American inspectors at several foreign airports in Europe, Asia and elsewhere to look for ter- By Tim Weiner France and Canada have pledged witnesses as supporters of the rorism suspects who may be using fraudulent travel documents, offi- and Lydia Polgreen to help fill out a multinational force deposed president were found shot cials said on Monday. THE NEW YORK TIMES with police functions. The United dead on the edge of town, three of The plan, still preliminary, is seen as one way of avoiding the PORT-AU-PRINCE States is also discussing contribu- them bound at the wrists. repeated flight cancellations that have disrupted travel between Armed rebels swept into this cap- tions from Caribbean nations, as well Haiti’s army overthrew Aristide Europe and the United States in the last two months. ital on Monday and occupied nation- as from Brazil, Chile and Argentina, in 1991 and ran a violent junta until “Had there been a program like this in place, it may well not have al police headquarters, staking a officials said. 1994. U.S. armed forces reinstated been necessary to cancel flights at significant costs to the airlines,” claim to power as U.S. Marines Secretary of State Colin L. Pow- the president, who then disbanded Robert C. Bonner, the commissioner of customs and border Protec- secured the international airport and ell said Monday that an international the Haitian military. tion, said in an interview. “We would have had the opportunity to the presidential palace. force would help install a “respon- Now that he is gone, the army screen passengers who pose a terrorist threat.” It was far from clear on Monday sive, functioning, noncorrupt” gov- may be back. In the rebels’ ranks at Officials at the Department of Homeland Security have begun dis- who was in charge, although the ernment.