MIT's The Weather Oldest and Largest Today: Mostly sunny, 64°F (18°C) Tonight: Partly cloudy, 48°F (9°C) Newspaper Tomorrow: Few showers, 62°F (17°C) Details, Page 2 Volume 123, Number 44 Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 Tuesday, September 30, 2003 DonnitDries Discuss In-House Dining Plans Faculty By Waseem S. Daher opening. Dorms consider dining possibility 1bReview MacGregor House and McCormick Hall are discussing "We've been looking into reopening in-house dining halls that reopening the McCormick dining were closed ten years ago because hall for about four or five years," GIRs MIT's dining contractor could not said Professor Charles Stewart III, make money off of them. the McCormick housemaster. By Beckett W. Sterner The idea is receiving serious "The McCormick dining hall NEWS EDITOR consideration by the dormitories was a great place to go to ten years MIT will launch a review of the and MIT administrators led by ago, and we'd like to bring that undergraduate General Institute Larry G. Benedict, the dean for stu- back," Stewart said. Requirements to consider the effects dent life. Last spring, McCormick's dining of changes that have occurred in the "We're exploring what it would committee investigated the issue by student body. take from an engineering stand- administering a survey to In the next month, MIT Presi- point," said Richard D. Berlin III, McCormick residents "to try to dent Charles M. Vest said he will the director of campus dining. ascertain what people's dining appoint a task force responsible for McCormick and MacGregor din- habits were [and] what kind of reevaluating the GIRs, including the ing would likely be patterned after options they were interested in," he common science requirements for existing models in Simmons, Baker, said. all freshmen, such as Physics I and Next House, where students "We've gotten some good feed- (8.01). make a mandatory down payment of back," Stewart said. Dean for Undergraduate Educa- $200 at the beginning of the year McCormick currently offers an tion Robert P. Redwine said at the and are reimbursed during the year optional'all-you-can-eat buffet-style Sept. 17 faculty meeting that the SYLVIA YANG-THE TECH with a SOpercent discount on meals, dinner on Wednesdays to its resi- reasons for conducting the review Marla E. Tanner '04 and Dan A. Nunes '04 serve themselves from Berlin said. dents for $6.50 per meal. included a broadening and diversifi- the weekly buffet at McConnlck Dining. East Campus is unlikely to have While MacGregor is also investi- cation of the student body over the a dining hall in the near future gating the possibility of reopening often stop by the store for a small Yee K. Wong '07, a McCormick past decades, a desire to introduce because it does not have the appro- its dining facility, this would not snack such as a candy bar or a soda, resident, said that she would defi- more hands on experiences, and a priate facilities, Berlin said. replace its store, Campus Conve- especially late at night. nitely participate in a new dissatisfaction with the Institute Currently, the main dining hall nience. McCormick dining program. Laboratory requirement. for East Campus is Walker Dining, "[The store] has a different role Students have mixed reactions However, while residential din- "I've heard no discussion up to which will be relocated to the Stata than a dining hall ... it fills an Residents have different views ing halls are convenient for some now that we have a system that is Center when it opens. Benedict has important niche," Berlin said. He about the possibility of having a predicted a March or April 2004 said the distinction is that students meal plan. Dining, Page 12 GIRs, Page \4 DaYt.WleShuttle to Start in December By GlreeJa V. Ranade The shuttle will run from The shuttle will run every half December through April, except for hour, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., said MIT transportation will offer a the January Independent Activities David N. Rogers, the director of fra- Boston Winter Shuttle this year to Period, said Lawrence R. Brotti, the ternities, sororities, and independent bring students back and forth across operations manager of the MIT the Charles River during the day. Parking and Transportation Office. Shuttle, Page 19 OCWPosts 500th Class Rranco Modigliani Institute Professor Emeritus Franco odigliani passed away in By Beckett W. Sterner sleep on Friday. He was 85. • NEWS EDITOR In 1985, he and his student Richard Brumberg received the obel Yesterday, the OpenCourse Ware Memorial Prize in Economic Science for his life-cycle hypothesis project published course materials which he developed at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, now in its SOOth MIT class, at Carnegie Mellon University. Modigliani and Bromberg disagreed with http://ocw.mit.edu. previous theories that people saved money only if they were rich, or in The project offers syllabi, lecture othet words, if they had money available to save. Modigliani argued notes, homework assignments, and the opposite, and theorized that people save early on in their lives and exams in MIT classes for free on the become wealthier as a result. Then, in old age, they spend the wealth Web, and has received 115 million that they have accumulated. hits from across the nation and other With Merton H. Miller, he also showed that heavy debt by itself countries since it first opened in does not affect a corporation's value, and disproved a previous spring 2001, said Jon P. Potts, the hypothesis that too much debt would ruin a company because the com- OCW communications manager. pany would not be able to repay it. Potts said that the goal is to have ''He was the greatest living macroeconomist,' Professor Emeritus 1,800 courses available by 2007. He Paul A. Samuelson told The Boston Globe. '"'He could have gotten a said that MIT has approximately 0001 Prize for severaJ different subjects." . 2,000 total courses right now, but "Franco was a giant among economists and played a deci ive role that approximately 200 of them are in the intellectual development of corporate finance," Dean Richard not easily transferred online because Schmalensee '65 of the Sloan School of Management said in a state- they are held in the form of discus- ment. "His legendary enthusiasm and intensity never flagged. He sion sections. inspired generations of students and colleagues with his passion for OCW has so far been funded by using economics to benefit society. ' two $5.5-million grants from the Modigliani was a member of the ational Academy of Sciences JONATHAN WANG-THE TECH . William and Flora Hewlett Founda- and the American Academy of Art and Sciences. Jonathan A. Goler G asks to be allowed to hang a flag outside tion and the Andrew W. Mellon He joined MIT in 1960 as a visiting professor. He taught at MIT his donnltory window at the Undergraduate Association Sen- Foundation, and $2 million from for 28 years until his retirement in 1988. He continued to teach a ate meeting Monday night. Housing Director Karen A. Nilsson, MIT, Potts said. course each spring, according to the Times. who threatened Goler with eviction until he brought his flag "That will carry us until the end He is survived by his wife two sons, four grandchildren, and three Inside, looked on. The Senate heard presentations from each of this calender year," he said. great-grandchildren, the ews Office said in a statement. MIT is plan- side and will discuss the Issue at next week's meeting. OCW is currently applying for a ning a memorial service. second round of funding, he said. The Tech Comics SPORTS --- World & Nation 2 interviews The Tech's sports department Opinion 4 Margaret o knows exactly who will win the Arts 7 Cho. first-round baseball playoffs. Events Calendar .10 Don't bother watching; just flip to Sports 24 Page 7 Page 8 Page 23 Page 2 eptember 30, 2003 LD& 95% Of ass. S dents Pass CAS Secret CIAAgent ot Named THE BaSTa GLOBE After everal attempts, about 95 percent of Ma achu etts high school student in the clas of 2003 have cleared th MC gradua- tion requirement, according to results relea ed Monday by elated By Karl Rove, W House Says tate education leaders. early 57,000 students from last year's enior cla have passed By Eric Uchtblau be a potential conflict of interest ning to cast a more skeptical eye on the MCA test, leaving about 3,300 students still struggling to get and Richard W. Stevenson for Attorney General John Ashcroft the administration's use of intelli- over the bar, the Department of Education announced. Minority, pe- THE 'EWYORKTIMES to oversee an investigation that gence to make its ca e against Iraq. cial-education, and limited-Engli h students all gained ground on could have immense political In an interim assessment made pub- their white and regular-education counterparts, passing in far greater The White House on Monday implications for Bush, McClellan lic over the weekend, the senior numbers than on their first attempt two years ago. dismissed as "ridiculous" the sug- aid that there were "a lot of career Republican and senior Democrat on The class of 2003 was the first to pass the 10th-grade English and gestion that Karl Rove, senior advis- professionals" at the Justice the House Intelligence Committee math sections of the Massachusetts Comprehensive As essment Sy - er to Pre ident Bu h, had illegally Department and that "they're the said there were "too many uncertain- tern exam, known as one of the nation's toughest standardized te t .