MIT's The Weather Oldest and Largest Today: Sunny, windy, 30°F (-1°C) Tonight: Clear, cold, OaF (-17°C) Newspaper Tomorrow: Cloudy, 20°F (-7°C) Details, Page 2 Volume 119, Number 24 Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 Tuesday, May 4, 1999 > Concerned Students .., Criticize RSSC Plan , . By Rima Arnaout RSSC Chair William J. Hecht '61 ASSOCIATE NEW EDITOR reiterated previous statements say- As the community input phase of ing that the RSSC is "not, in any ,t the Residence System Steering way, shape, or matter, done. This is Committee's redesign project pro- not a final solution ... until we get gresses, students continue to voice community feedback and go back criticism against the RSSC's prelim- into deliberations," Hecht said. ~ inary proposals. Approximately thirty students Ashdown community threatened gathered at Baker House Sunday in Student criticism of the RSSC .;. the second of four scheduled feedback proposals unveiled last Tuesday meetings. Most students were from focused largely on the plans to make Ashdown House and MacGregor Ashdown the Freshman Hall and House - the dormitories most affect- MacGregor a graduate residence. ..., ed by the proposed changes. "For every reason Ashdown is a "I don't understand what's so good place for freshmen, it's a good wrong with our system that it needs place for grad students," said ~6 such substantial change," said Baker Ashdown resident Shunmugavelu resident Marie L. Blanke '01. "The D. Sokka G. "And it's the center of administration is basically saying one half of the student community." that 'you undergrads like the system "We chose Ashdown because it l as it stands, but we know better,'" has big public spaces" and because Blanke said. of its central location, Hecht said. The RSSC's Phase II Status The RSSC recommended to move WAN YUSOF WAN MORSHIDI-TIIE TECH Report, "An Evolving Framework," graduate students to MacGregor The ceremonial lighting of the pit marked the beginning of Senior House's Steer Roast '99 Friday .r.~' calls for the creation of a "Freshman because the dorm provides singles afternoon. See story pg. 13. 1:1all " to be located in Ashdown House and for MacGregor House to Residence Design, Page 18 f become a graduate dormitory. The committee also proposes a changed time line for residence selection to MIT Places Second in 'Most WIred' Rankings include an Independent Activities (f' Period rush. Students would choose By Kevin R. Lang Reserve University placed first. remained relatively stable from pre- for lacking a distance learning pro- their first-year residence through ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR Wake Forest University vious years. gram, among other criteria. MIT summer mailings with a Correction After falling behind Dartmouth University, the New Jersey Institute MIT scored 90.45 out of 100 in scored higher in categories includ- •• .,: J Lottery to follow for any dissatisfied College and the New Jersey of Technology, and Rensselaer the survey, slightly more than one ing 24-hour computer availability , . ,">( students, accoraiiig~he pHms. An Institute of Technology last year, Polytechnic Institute finished third point below top-ranked Case and tech support. additional housing lottery - the MIT ranked second in Yahoo! through fifth, respectively. Case Western. MIT fell behind Case Some members of SIPB, the "sophomore shuffle"- would be Internet Life's 1999 listing of Western jumped to the top from Western for having fewer computers Student Information Processing I" l.!eld in spring of the freshman year. "America's 100 Most Wired 63rd in 1998, and Wake Forest per one hundred students, for failing Board, questioned the relevance of - .At the open meeting, however, Colleges." Ohio's Case Western moved up from 77th. NJIT and RPI to have online add/drop forms, and the Yahoo! rankings. "I think 'who cares' pretty much summarizes the response," said Jered J. Floyd G. ,fa Floyd thought that MIT's computer Deutch Discusses Nuclear Proliferation availability and network services were better than the report could ,,...... By Kristen landino show, since many students run ASSOCIA TE NEWS EDITOR Linux from their home computers. Former Director of the CIA and Yahoo! also noted that MIT Institute Professor John M. Deutch hosts the World Wide Web , " ,61 discussed issues relating to global - Consortium, an organization that nuclear security with a full audience develops and manages technical of both students and professors on standards for the web. Monday afternoon W3C is managed by web-inventor i \ Deutch's speech, entitled Tim Berners-Lee. "Comments on International Nuclear In 1997, Yahoo! ranked MIT the Matters", served to highlight U.S. nation's most wired university post-Cold War policy objectives with based on categories ranging from regard to the containment of nuclear hardware resources to online acade- intelligence and weapons stock. mic programs. MIT dropped to third The talk was sponsored by the overall last year, when Dartmouth I• Department of Nuclear Engineering College was named most wired col- and the American Nuclear Society. lege and NJIT finished second. Deutch cited the lack of technical Dartmouth dropped to 26th in 1999. knowledge as a major problem in "I think you have to take all nuclear security management in the these surveys with some grain of world today. salt," said Stephen C. Moss G. "Our amount of knowledge about Several students using Athena, these issues is tremendously thin. It is including Moss, thought that the very important to have technical peo- second place ranking was proof of ple in charge ... all of these really sig- MIT being wired enough. However, nificant technical issues require the Moss noted that he was using .~I.. integration of technical knowledge, Athena at the time because economic good sense, and political Information Services had inadver- sensitivity. Often U.S. as well as for- tently disconnected the network , . eign policy makers lack these skills," connection at his office. "It's hard to Deutch said. get the high end computers," Moss He said that students with a tech- said. MIODRAG CIRKOVIC-THE TECH Another Athena user was glad to Institute Professor and former CIA Director John M. Deutch discusses issues surrounding interna- , .> , Deutch, Page 23 see that MIT was not quite the most tional nuclear policy Monday afternoon. Yahoo!, Page 21 ..... MITMSA Comics Students are invited to plant World & Nation 2 .. organizes flowers in memory of Micheal P. Opinion 4 Kosovo relief Manley '02 Saturday, May 8 from Features 6 I effort .. 11 a.m.-noon in MacGregor TechCalendar - 9 J~~ , I Courtyard. Police Log .17 Page 11 Page 14 Sports 24 . , Page2 THE-l'ECH .... ,... y ...... T' 0 IW ....... ,... T W. May 4,1999 WORLD & NATION Dow Jones Closes Above 11,000 Clinton Hints Bombing Could ,- THE WASIfINGTON POST NEW YORK The Dow Jones industrial average, the most widely watched sym- • bol of American wealth, closed above 11,000 for the first time Pause if Serbs Leave Kosovo Monday as investors continued to sell high-flying technology stocks and buy shares in long-neglected manufacturing companies. By Ken Rreman who led a delegation of religious great nation, the only superpower, A late-day bargain hunt, fueled by a positive economic report, and WIlliam Douglas leaders that persuaded Yugoslav must not succumb to the arrogance pushed the Dow average up 225.75 points, or 2.1 percent. It closed at NEIVSDAY President Slobodan Milosevic to of power or the idolatry of might." WASHINGTON 11,014.69. release three American paws. Chernomyrdin said Clinton had The new milestone came just 23 trading days after the barometer On a day of hectic diplomatic Jackson asked Clinton to reach shown receptivity to a bombing • of blue-chip stocks first closed above 10,000. But in that short period, activity, President Clinton suggested out to Milosevic, at least by teie- pause under certain conditions _ the psychology of the market has changed entirely. The narrow group Monday that there might be a pause phoning him to thank him for free- conditions the president spelled out of technology stocks that helped burst previous records has fallen out in the bombing of Yugoslavia if it ing the captives, saying such a call in a press conference shortly before of favor, and investors are now searching intently for bargains they met certain conditions, while might serve to break the diplomatic he met the Russian. He said .. missed before. Russian envoy Viktor ice. But the administration official Milosevic must at least begin to Many Wall Street officials say the change in investing patterns is Chernomyrdin said he felt a diplo- ruled out such a gesture as "unpro- withdraw his forces from Kosovo healthy for the longest-running bull market in history. Americans matic solution to the Kosovo con- ductive." and indicate acceptance of NATO's increasingly have more of their net worth tied to the market _ 52 per- flict was "closer" after meeting Jackson said he had also asked core demands: a total Yugoslav • cent of Americans own stock directly and through mutual funds, up Clinton at the White House. Clinton to release two Yugoslav pullout, a return of all refugees and from 42 percent in 1997 _ and the rise in the market has enriched But the talk of peace was tenta- paws as a reciprocal gesture. deployment of an international secu- Americans and fueled a boom in consumer spending that has kept the tive and conditional, and "Those little steps in the right rity force to protect them. U.S. economy expanding. Chernomyrdin acknowledged that direction can spare all of us a long On the thorny question of the "very detailed negotiations and dis- and bloody war," Jackson said. "We composition of that force, an issue cussions" were still needed to make have the right not to talk...