MIT’s The Weather Oldest and Largest Today: Cloudy, cool, 75°F (24°C) Tonight: Rain, cool, 59°F (19°C) Newspaper Tomorrow: Clearing, 79°F (26°C) Details, Page 2 Volume 121, Number 29 Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 Wednesday, July 11, 2001 License Commission Suspends Alpha Tau Omega for 20 Days Punishment for Underage Drinking, Spring Weekend Disturbance By Jennifer Krishnan underage people on ATO’s roofdeck ‘Positive actions’ lighten sentence NEWS EDITOR that afternoon were drinking. Alpha Tau Omega will be sus- Jeffrey J. Billing, ATO summer Billing, Pheiffer, and Associate pended for 20 days by the Cam- house manager, had originally testi- Dean for Students Robert M. Ran- bridge License Commission (CLC) fied that there was a case of beer on dolph argued that ATO took steps to as punishment for underage drink- the roofdeck and that a only a few deal with the racial implications ing and causing a public disturbance people were drinking. incident on its own, adding that during Spring Weekend. The sus- CLC Chairman Benjamin C. punitive measures would detract pension period will not coincide Barnes said he could see “hard from the utility of the constructive with rush. liquor … and some 40 oz. bottles of measures already in place. The CLC, which made its deci- alcoholic beverages” in the pho- “The positive actions ATO took sion at last night’s hearing, was tographs. [are] the only reason I’m not recom- investigating a complaint of racial Additionally, CLC Executive mending 30 days,” Barnes said. remarks allegedly shouted from Officer Richard V. Scali hinted that Cambridge Police Department ATO’s roof, an ensuing altercation Interfraternity Council President Captain Henry W. Breen said that with The Roots band, and the sup- Rory P. Pheiffer ’02 withheld the the racial slurs that were allegedly posed presence of alcohol on the “most disturbing” photographs from shouted from ATO’s roofdeck were roofdeck. the Commission. The CLC original- wrong, but that, as a first offense, ROSHAN BALIGA—THE TECH Photographs provided voluntari- ly received only 12 of 16 pho- they merited “positive discipline” in Fireworks explode over the Charles River as part of Boston’s ly by a member of ATO led com- tographs mentioned in the police Independence Day celebrations. More photos, page 15. missioners to believe that many report. ATO Decision, Page 25 Wellesley Sophomore, OpenCourseWare Receives Funding Boarder, Dies at ATO From Mellon, Hewlett Foundations By Joy Forsythe MIT material such as course out- more access to information about By Jennifer Krishnan is pending, said Charles McDonald, STAFF REPORTER lines, lecture notes, assignments, courses they are considering. And it NEWS EDITOR Director of Communications at the The first phase of OpenCourse- and handouts available on the Inter- may be easier for faculty to get their A Wellesley sophomore was Suffolk County Executive Office of Ware is underway. With financial net. It is designed to benefit both the material out to their students and see found dead at Alpha Tau Omega, Public Safety. contributions from two foundations MIT community and people around what other professors are doing in her summer residence, on July 2. Thompson was from out of state totaling $11 million, an interim the world. related subjects. Cambridge police said the death and had a summer job in Boston. management committee is setting up “We’re obviously pleased that The project’s offerings are not appeared to be a suicide. Randolph said she was living in a an infrastructure for the online ini- [the foundations] are enlightened intended as a replacement for class- The student, 18-year-old Molly triple at ATO with two other tiative. and interested in the benefits such a es, and no credit or degrees will be Thompson, was found by a room- Wellesley students. The Andrew W. Mellon and project can bring,” Dean for Under- granted through OpenCourseWare. mate at approximately 11 p.m. She was last seen in the early William and Flora Hewlett Founda- graduate Education Robert P. Red- Associate Dean of Engineering Dick Associate Dean for Students evening by friends, Randolph said. tions have each donated $5.5 mil- wine said of the foundations. K. P. Yue ‘74 describes the project Robert M. Randolph said the “We at ATO are truly saddened lion for the pilot phase of the pro- Greater access to course material as “not a door; more like a window” deceased had apparently ingested by the unexpected death of one of gram, a project that intends to place may aid students and faculty. Stu- for those outside MIT. something and that a note was also our summer boarders,” said ATO 500 courses online in 27 months at a dents will be able to access all of the Yue was instrumental in the cre- found. cost of $12 million. material associated with the course The cause of Thompson’s death ATO Death, Page 25 OpenCourseWare will make they are taking at any time and have OpenCourseWare, Page 25 Institute Examines Dining, Rooming for New Dorms By Jeffrey Greenbaum has been financially organized to host STAFF REPORTER conference guests during the summer. The Office of Residential Life and The other graduate dormitory, 70 Student Life Programs (RLSLP) will Pacific Street, is located on the corner add one new undergraduate and two of Pacific Street and Sydney Street. new graduate dormitories within the The building will house a maximum next two years to guarantee on-cam- of 750 graduate students next fall. pus housing for more students. After its completion, MIT will house The Simmons Founders Group nearly half of its graduate students. projects that Simmons Hall, the new “We are very excited about these undergraduate dormitory, will open new dorms,” said Karen Nilsson, in time for Orientation 2002. To Director of Housing Operations. develop a Simmons community, the “They are architecturally unique.” Founders Group will be meeting with prospective Simmons residents to Innovative Dining organize the dorm life. The Founders The Simmons Founders Group, Group will discuss issues, such as a led by its future housemaster, Profes- mandatory meal plan for its dining sor Anne E. C. McCants, has estab- hall, with the prospective residents. lished the framework for Simmons Graduate students will begin liv- by including a two-level fitness cen- ing in 224 Albany Street (Building ter, a music practice room, a game MING-TAI HUH—THE TECH NW30) on August 16. Only first-year room, a multi-purpose room, five Fuel rocked Cape Cod residents at the Melody Tent in Hyannis on June 28. See review in Arts, graduate students can occupy NW30 laundry rooms, an Athena cluster, a page 14. for a period of nine months, as gov- erned by the lease, because the dorm Simmons Hall, Page 23 ARTS Comics The Tech interviews new MIT World & Nation . 2 Forget their Chancellor Phillip M. Clay PhD Opinion . 4 CDs — Fuel ’75, who shares his views on Arts . 7 rocks live. graduate students, undergrads, On the Town . .10 and everything in between. Events Calendar . .20 Page 14 Page 11 Page 26 Science & Technology . .21 Page 2 THE TECH July 11, 2001 WORLD & NATION Singapore Acknowledges Second Terrorist Receives Onset of Recession By Mark Magnier LOS ANGELES TIMES Life Sentence for Bombing TOKYO — Singapore said Tuesday it had slipped into recession, the first Southeast Asian nation to do so since the 1997-98 Asian eco- By John J. Goldman believed to be under the protection about the people he killed.” nomic crisis. But economists say it won’t be the last. LOS ANGELES TIMES of the Taliban regime in Fitzgerald said that when “We’re going to see a string of these, either extremely poor or NEW YORK — Again stating Afghanistan. Mohamed was caught, “he threat- negative numbers in the near future,” said Song Seng Wun, Singa- that execution might turn a terrorist On June 12, the jurors decided ened to do it again.” pore-based regional economist with G.K. Goh Research. “They’re all into a martyr, a federal court jury against sentencing Mohamed “What he has is ice in his veins, getting hammered.” Tuesday spared the life of a second Rashed Daoud al-‘Owhali, a 23- that’s what makes him more danger- Singapore’s Ministry of Trade and Industry said the economy fell man convicted in the 1998 bomb- year-old Saudi Arabian, to death for ous because he coldly, coolly decid- by a seasonally adjusted 0.8 percent in the second quarter over a year ings of two U.S. embassies in East the Nairobi bombing. He too ed, ‘I’ll kill,’” the prosecutor said. earlier. This is the second consecutive decline in its gross domestic Africa that killed 224 people. received a life sentence. The two “Zero remorse.” product, which meets the definition of a recession. At the start of their third day of other men convicted of conspiracy Government lawyers argued dur- Singapore is the first country to report its second quarter results, penalty-phase deliberations, the in the case, 40-year-old Wadih El- ing the penalty phase that Mohamed but Thailand, Taiwan and the Philippines, which also reported nega- jurors announced that they could not Hage, a naturalized U.S. citizen would create a constant threat to tive first quarter growth in its gross domestic product, could also turn reach agreement on whether Khal- born in Lebanon, and Mohamed guards and other correctional per- out to be in recession when they reveal their second-quarter results in fan Khamis Mohamed, a 27-year- Sadeek Odeh, a 35-year-old Jordan- sonnel if he were sentenced to life the next few weeks. old native of Tanzania, should be ian, face automatic life sentences.