Author Archives: sp-newsletter-chair

Why You Should be a SP Officer Next Year

As the academic years comes to close, we’re looking for excited residents to fill the SP officer corp for next year. So, why should you become an officer at Sidney-Pacific? All officers are guaranteed housing at SP for the next year, bypassing the MIT graduate housing room lottery. In addition, officers get extra priorities points in the SP internal room lottery, so you can get the perfect room. Beyond housing, being an officer is a great way to meet people around the dorm and really get plugged into the community here. You’ll have a chance to help out and improve upon the events and things that you’ve enjoyed throughout the year. Lastly and most importantly, being an officer is a great excuse to do what you already love – are you interested in taking pictures? Cooking? Playing sports or working out at the gym? Going on camping trips and hikes? Many of our officer positions match very closely with residents’ own hobbies and interests. Have a look at the nearly 30 different officer position descriptions at http://s-p.mit.edu/about_sp/officer_positions.php.

There are two types of officers at SP: committee chairs and hall councillors. Committee chairs are responsible for specific aspects of SP, for example the brunch chairs run the monthly brunches at SP. Hall councillors are responsible for part of a floor. They organize activities and encourage interactions among residents at the hall level. The positions also differ in their application processes. Committee chair applicants are interviewed and appointed by SPEC. Hall councilor applicants are voted on by the respective halls. Stay tuned for publicity about the applications process and in the meantime, here’s the tentative schedule.

Office Application Timeline

March 21 – April 10: Applications for Committee Chairs open (both new and continuing officer candidates apply through this process)
April 3-17: Hall Councilor applications open
April 10-20: Hall Councilor Elections
May 1: May House Meeting / New SP Officers Introduced

We highly encourage all residents and especially our super-active first-year volunteers to apply! Please contact SPEC or any of our current officers if you have any questions. Thanks!

By SPEC

SP Photo Contest Winners

Thanks to your votes, we have the results of the SP Photo Contest. Here is the list of winners and their photos:

First Place: Bo Dong

In July,2011, I paid a visit to Shangri-La, an earthly paradise in Yunan, China. The woman in the photo is a Tibetan Buddhist, she told me she is quite happy with her life.

Second Place: Steven J Levine

Colors of the Water. This long-exposure image was taken from the 5th floor of MIT's Next House undergrad dorm in June of 2010. The city has purposely been desaturated to emphasize the beautiful colors of the buildings' reflections in the Charles river.

Second Place: Kunal Mukherjee

Multnomah Falls, Columbia River Gorge, Oregon

Third Place: Felix Moser

Children running in Kampong Phluk, Cambodia.

Third Place: Unknown (Please contact SP Photofile Chair if you took this picture)

"I Stand Alone" - Lighthouse near York Beach, Maine

SPeaker’s Opinion: The Gains of Drudgery

A few days ago I found myself wondering, as I sometimes do, just what the hell I was doing with my life. It was one of those unseasonably warm, sunny, beautiful days that we’ve been enjoying recently, and I, of course, was stuck in lab like the champion that I am. While seemingly everyone else was out enjoying a glorious weekend afternoon, I was slogging through some interminable, odious task, one that had no real intellectual depth or interest, or even connection to the research that I personally am pursuing. In short, I was doing somebody else’s scut work.

As the sounds of merriment and a sweet afternoon breeze wafted through my office window, I paused for a moment to feel sorry for myself, and to ruminate over the disastrous sequence of terrible, terrible life choices that had led me to my current predicament. I must have done something utterly heinous in a past life to deserve this, I thought to myself. Perhaps I voted Republican.

I am sure that I am not alone in this experience; indeed, I am often struck by how much of our time as graduate students is devoted to mindless, tedious, and incredibly irritating tasks that could probably be done just as well by small children, the way that God and Adam Smith intended. This is doubly true for those among us who work in experimental disciplines (you poor bastards). So why do we do it? Why should we continue to do it, if the doing is so often unpleasant?

A few months ago, a friend forwarded me a brief excerpt that addresses this very question. As is the case with all great writing and literature, it crystallizes into words something about the human experience that we may vaguely intuit, but whose clear articulation eludes us. For your consideration, let me submit this short passage on the gains of drudgery, whose third paragraph seems particularly apropos:

By drudgery, I mean work that in itself is not pleasant, that has no immediate effect in stimulating our best powers, and that only remotely serves the purpose of our general advancement. Such a definition may not be perfect, but it expresses with reasonable accuracy what we usually understand by the term.

Now, if this is what we mean by drudgery, it is clear that we are all drudges. We all have to do many things, day by day, which we would rather not do. Even in the callings that seem to present the most perfect correspondence between gifts and work, such as those of the writer or the artist, drudgery dogs the heels of all progress…We show some perception of these facts in our common sayings, that easy writing makes hard reading, and what costs a man little is usually worth little. But few of us have any adequate sense of the immense toil which lies behind the brilliant successes of the great artist or famous writer. And the same thing might be said of the lives of great statesmen, politicians, reformers, merchants, and memorable men in all walks of life. Examine such lives, and the amount of prolonged toil which lies behind all the glitter of public fame is enormous, and to the indolent even appalling. If any man of the Elizabethan period gives the impression of having achieved great things with a certain airy ease and instinctive facility of touch, it is Walter Raleigh. Yet it was of Raleigh that Elizabeth said, ‘he could toil terribly.’ The same thing may be said of every great man, so that it is small wonder that we have learned to believe that genius itself is simply an infinite capacity for taking pains…

But the gains of drudgery are not seen only in the solid successes of life, but in their effect upon the man himself. Let me take in illustration a not infrequent case. Suppose a man gives up his youth to the struggle for some coveted degree, some honour or award of the scholarly life. It is very possible that when he obtains that for which he has struggled, he may find that the joy of possession is not so great as the joy of the strife. It is part of the discipline of life that we should be educated by disillusion; we press onward to some shining summit, only to find that it is but a bastion thrown out by a greater mountain, which we did not see, and that the real summit lies far beyond us still. But are we the worse for the struggle? No; we are manifestly the better, for by whatever illusion we have been led onward, it is at least clear that without the illusion we should not have stood as high as we do. So a man may either fail or succeed in gaining the prize which he covets; but he cannot help being the gainer in himself. He has not attained, but he has fitted himself for attaining. It is better to fail in achieving a great thing than to succeed in achieving a little one, and the struggle that fails is, in any case, to be preferred to the stolidity which never aspires. And why? Because the struggle is sure to develop certain great and noble qualities in ourselves. Thus, though such a man may not gain the prize he sought, he has gained a command over his chance desires, a discipline of thought, a power of patient application, a steadiness of will and purpose, which will stand him in good stead throughout whatever toils his life may know in the hidden years which lie before it. And even if he gain the prize he sought, the real prize is found not in a degree, a certificate, a brief taste of applause on a commemoration day, but in the deeper strength of soul, the wider range of wisdom, which the long discipline of unflagging effort has taught him. So true is this, that Lessing, who was among the wisest of thinkers, said, that if he had to choose between the attainment of truth and the search for truth, he would prefer the latter. The true gain is always in the struggle, not the prize. What we become must always rank as a far higher question than what we get.

So as we enter the “midterm slump”, when the vitalizing reprieve afforded by IAP is fading from memory, and the long-awaited end of the academic term is not yet in sight, take heart, dear reader: we are fitting ourselves for attainment. Indeed, by the time we graduate we’ll have done so much fitting that attainment will be virtually inescapable. Oh, the places we’ll go!

And on that happy note, back to the salt mines!

By Nemo

Note: SPeaker’s Opinion is an anonymous contribution from a SP resident. To submit comments, suggestions for future article topics, etc., please write to Nemo at letters.to.nemo@gmail.com.

Towards A More Scholarly Sidney-Pacific

Scholarly interaction might sound like the sort of thing MIT graduate students do all the time: in lab, library and soul-crushing/rapturously life-giving meetings with advisors, TAs, co-workers, etc. But, there is another dimension to scholarly interaction, and it is what we often think of when we use expressions like “interdisciplinary” and “exciting discovery”: the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, and free of most, if not all, of the strictures and obligations of tightly focused, highly specialized research. The Committee of Scholarly Interaction (CoSI) at Sidney-Pacific is precisely dedicated to this ideal.

The Committee of Scholarly Interaction (CoSI) brings in distinguished lecturers from the Boston-Cambridge area

It’s probably worth getting to all that by addressing the two most highly trumped objections from graduate student to this sort of thing. The first is about time. How does a graduate student, busy with running experiments, reading papers and preparing for the aforementioned soul-crushing/rapturously life-giving meetings, make time for hearing and talking about the latest on the Middle East or the economy? Your correspondents, being graduate students themselves, totally understand. We hardly have time for much else, and often find ourselves very late for all sorts of deadlines, the one for submitting this piece included. That said, there is an answer to the time objection, and it is that participating in our events does not take much of your time, and we mean this honestly. One of the programs we help run is the MIT/Sidney-Pacific Distinguished Lecture Series. For each lecture, a highly regarded academic in the Boston-Cambridge area (or beyond) speaks on topic of broad interest, and takes questions from the audience. Most events last about an hour, which makes a maximum of 3 hours a semester. Whichever way one looks at it, 3 hours a semester is not very much time. It certainly pales in comparison to the 8 hours we apparently spend on Facebook every month.

Another typical protest has to do with the educational possibilities of hour-long symposia on topics one is not intimately acquainted with, and that a graduate student who has dedicated his life to physics is limited in how deeply he can understand what happens to the world economy, or what genomics really means, etc. This is partly true, and it is definitely the case that completely liberating a subject from all its technical foundations is about as helpful as liberating a plant from the soil that sustains it.

"Scholarly" discussion during dinner

Yet it is one thing to oversimplify a subject, and quite another to critically engage it at a level that respects all the technicalities, but still informs. Past lectures, we believe, bear this out. Last semester, Prof. Barry Nalebuff shared insights from his founding a soft drink company dedicated to making iced tea with the right amount of sugar. Prof. Esther Duflo spoke about using randomized evaluations to assess the effectiveness of poverty alleviation measures. Prof. Noam Chomsky examined the Arab Spring, and its implications for the political future of the Middle East. And each of these was eminently discussable. What is the right amount of sugar for a glass of iced tea, and where is the economic incentive for properly sugared soft drinks? What are the ethical boundaries associated with “performing experiments” on the poor? How exactly is the U.S. implicated in events going on in the Middle East? These were the questions people asked and the answers were often very interesting and deeply informative. During dinner/brunch discussions, people are free to disagree and challenge one another on almost anything, but the results have almost always sharpened perspectives, broadened horizons and reminded us of how awesome it is to be able to learn new things. This is what CoSI aspires to. In the end, and if it strikes a chord, we hope you can help us out with the planning and running of events, or at least reflect on the fact that 3 hours a semester is not very much time.

By David Kwabi and William Li, SP CoSI Chairs

Unhealthy Relationships: Know the warning signs and be able to help a friend

At Coffee Hour on January 25^th, representatives from MIT Community Wellness spoke to Sidney-Pacific residents about relationships. The discussion started off with a sobering statistic: 1 in 3 American women will be victims of relationship abuse during their lifetime (American Psychological Association). In a collaborative effort, residents came up with verbal, emotional, physical, and sexual aspects of healthy and unhealthy relationships. Some of the characteristics of unhealthy or abusive relationships seemed obvious, such as physical violence. Even if there has only been one incident, it is not appropriate to contextualize physical violence: it is a warning sign of probable escalation that must be taken seriously. Residents were also reminded that relationship abuse is not always physical. A partner can be verbally or emotionally abusive, and this should be taken no less seriously. Indeed, this type of abuse can precede physical violence, and should be seen as a red flag. Verbal abuse is expressed through the way one partner communicates with the other, such as in a threatening, disrespectful, or humiliating manner. Emotional abuse may be manifested through subtle actions, such as isolating the partner from friends and family, excessive jealousy, constantly checking up on the victim’s whereabouts, and/or controlling where they go and who they are with at all times. The abuser may blame their actions on alcohol, or their temper: remember, there is never any excuse for abuse. In all types of abusive relationships, one partner employs a pattern of controlling behavior used to gain power over the other person in the relationship. If you suspect a friend is in an abusive relationship, speak up: express your concerns and offer your emotional support/help. Listen to them: they may not be emotionally ready to end the relationship. Do not be judgmental: it is NEVER the fault of the victim. Be there for them, and refer them to MIT Medical’s 24-hour confidential Violence Prevention and Response hotline: 617-253-2300. If there is immediate physical danger call the police. To learn more go to http://medweb.mit.edu/wellness/programs/violence_prevention.html

After brainstorming warning signs of abusive relationships, Sidney Pacific residents started coming up with components of healthy relationships. The take-away from the evening: when in doubt, ASK! Whether it’s at the beginning of a relationship with a new boyfriend or girlfriend, or with your fiancé, asking the other person if they would like to do ___ (kiss, hold hands, have sex, you name it…) is always the gentlemanly/ladylike thing to do. A simple “Hey, I really like you, and I’d really like to kiss you right now. Is that ok?” establishes a balance of power on a date, or in a new relationship. Additionally, the importance of communication was stressed: communication about what each partner is or is not comfortable with, communication about birth control/contraceptive choices, etc. So this month, with Valentine’s Day just passed, let’s take a moment to celebrate healthy relationships!

By Sunny Vanderboll

SPICE Coffee Hour: Love Across Boundaries

Did you know there was a difference between “giving a hug” and “taking a hug”?

Well, if two people hug each other voluntarily, they would both be giving a hug; but if one person passionately hugs another who is not really willing to be hugged, then the latter would merely be receiving a hug passively.

So how do you know if someone would warmly give you a hug back, or take your hug uncomfortably? According to specialists Duane de Four and Kelley Adams from Community Wellness at MIT Medical, the key is as simple as a three-letter word: “Ask”!

Brainstorming in progress.. What are some abusive/constructive verbal behaviors?

In SPICE Coffee Hour on February 1, 2012, Duane and Kelley led 7 groups of over 40 SP residents to explore the elements of an abusive versus a healthy relationship. Participants brainstormed in groups to come up with destructive and constructive behaviors under four types of interactions in a relationship: verbal, emotional, physical, and sexual. (This order is also roughly according to increasing levels of intimacy, and it is better to spot and handle abusive behavior in early stages of this progression!)

Representatives from each group took turns presenting their ideas.

Abusive behavior is usually the means to establish power and control over the other person. As Duane and Kelley reminded us, such an approach usually leads to hurtful results on both sides. On the contrary, a healthy relationship is characterized by respect. A great way to show love and respect is by effective communication and that not only through expressing yourself honestly and gently, but more importantly though often neglected, through listening patiently. This is why asking, instead of simply acting on your presumptions, is a good start, especially when it comes to interactions that may be perceived differently across cultures, such as hugging or kissing.

On second thought though, wouldn’t asking simply “kill the moment”? Isn’t it more “magical” or “romantic” if things “just happened”? Duane and Kelley left this as a challenge for us to ponder on: where did this stereotypical idea come from, and have we considered the alternative– to be respectful by asking? Indeed, it may be worth questioning ourselves: who or what are we letting ourselves be influenced by (The media? Popular culture? Other people?), and whether we are shaping our perspective towards relationships based on what is true.

So, next time when you’re unsure if giving a hug would be appropriate, you might want to consider this simple three-letter word: Ask!

By Annie Chen, SPICE Chair

Wall of constructive behavior. Can you find the magic word that links them all?

House Maintenance

There have recently been several incidents regarding building maintenance issues, such as the availability of hot water during morning “peak usage” hours. Although Sidney-Pacific is a relatively new building (built in 2002), some parts of the building are beginning to show its wear.

Unfortunately, our wonderfully responsive building staff cannot keep track of all the places where the building is wearing down, especially if those places areinside your rooms. If you notice something that is broken or not working as it did before, please submit a housing repair request! This sets the formal repair process in motion, and that’s what ultimately leads to getting these problems fixed. You can use this link: https://insidemit-apps.mit.edu/apps/building_services/CreateResidRepairOrder.action?sapSystemId=PS1

Without your help in identifying and reporting these problems, our housing staff does not know if there’s anything wrong. And, please don’t delay in reporting problems, such as water leaks. That may not only exacerbate the problem but also spread that problem to your neighbors.

Here are some common issues that residents have and should report immediately:

Burnt out light bulbs
Malfunctioning or clogged kitchen sink garbage disposal
Water leaks (common signs include unexplained wet spots on room carpeting, paint peeling along the walls, discoloration or mold on the walls, etc.)
Limited or no hot water in showers (usually due to one of our two water boilers being overtaxed and breaking down)

By SPEC

House Cup: A look into the cavernous depths of George Chen

George Chen, SP Inter-Hall Event Coordinator

I remember the first time I spoke with George Chen (who I will hereafter refer to as GChen because I haven’t tested G-Chizzle on him yet) I couldn’t help but wonder about the whirling gears and flittering minutiae which surely steamed his mind’s engine with endless energy and unknowable outlandishness. Here was a man who clearly saw the world differently and, for what it’s worth, knew how to squeeze every drop of comedy out of even the driest of topics. Clearly now, I can remember myself wondering what a world crafted by GChen would look like. Would it be farcical jest or bitingly satirical?

I also remember thinking “What the hell is he doing with that knife?”

All these thoughts… all during brunch volunteering. Shameless plug – deal with it.

Anyway… When it came time to appoint a House Cup Coordinator, I had no hesitation in tapping GChen for the role. Here was a man of creative disposition and the House Cup contest, now on its fourth year, was ripe for reinvention. Thanks to the brilliant stewardship of past Chairs of the Halls and Interhall Coordinators, the House Cup had grown from a nascent success to a full-fledged institution. Now, however, was time for an evolution… no a revolution.

The SP Photo Scavenger Hunt achieved a number of firsts

As if Greek Aeolus and GChen were in cahoots, a great wind filled the wrinkled sail of his cavernous brain and produced what many would argue was one of the most creative and successful opening House Cup events in history: the SP Photo Scavenger Hunt. Besides raking in some serious bucks via a grant from Residential Life Programs, the event itself achieved a number of firsts. Namely, residents were asked to run around campus answering cryptic clues by taking photographs of MIT idiosyncrasies and well-hidden resources. With over 40 participants returning completely drenched in sweat and dining over thousands of pieces of sushi, the event was a grand success. At the very least, I can think of no time we’ve made SP residents rock their bodies as hard as George’s photo-physio-phrenzy.

Moving along, GChen turned his bow towards a number of other noteworthy events. In addition to a chaotic yet popular Pizza competition and a unique collaboration with the Arts Chair to put on a Hall Art Showdown, George also managed to coordinate what was likely SP’s (and perhaps any group at MIT’s) largest donation drive in history. During the November canned food drive George buoyed our incredible string of hall councilors together to rope in a total of 1,967 pounds of nonperishable food. Do you have any idea how much food that is? That’s over 2,500 meals for the homeless. Massive props to the Hall Councilor Team and of course to GChen for wowing the Greater Boston Food Bank with more cans than their pick-up truck could handle.

The Novermber Food Drive raised a total of 1,967 pounds of food!

Now… most people at this point would sit back in their comfy SP wooden chairs and rest upon the laurels of their contribution. Not GChen. Although I’d love to divulge the twisted creations he’s got in store for the House in the Spring half of the House Cup, I’d much rather save him the pleasure of gradual revelation. If not so that we can view the reactions of our hall councilor family then simply because I love watching the man’s poker face gradually give way to his intelligent, wry smile.

Sadly, many simpletons out there might dismiss my appreciation of George’s work as mere bromance. To these deprived souls I would offer but one challenge: map his actions back onto the depths of his mind and tell me, and tell me true…

…wouldn’t you have been scared cutting mangoes next to this man at brunch?

By Brian Spatocco, SP Chair of the Halls

The Pacific – A Fine Dining Eating Club

Review: Via Matta Restaurant (79 Park Plaza)

Via Matta (Source: yelp.com)

On November 22^nd, The Pacific held its inaugural dinner at the Italian restaurant Via Matta: a moderately priced ($30 – $50) up-scale Italian restaurant nestled between hotels and boutique shops at Park Plaza. Unlike your run-of-the-mill Italian eatery, Via Matta has decided to take the gamble that the American population can recognize good Italian food even when it’s not covered in tomato sauce[1]. Indeed, Via Matta’s professed specialties are the northwest cuisines of Piedmont, Tuscany, Liguria, and Emilia Romagna. Piedmont, in particular, is about as far away as you can go from the traditional spaghetti and meatballs as you are forced to trade in your twirl-and-slurp for dishes of a much earthier and creamier disposition. Egg-based noodles, fragrant truffles, hazelnuts, strong cheeses, cream sauces, and world-renowned red wines are continual features in Northwestern Italian cuisine and a welcome change from the “Frutti di Mare no more!” syndrome of the North End.

The restaurant’s ambience falls somewhere between romantic date spot to lounge and the spacing between tables provides for enough privacy to discuss everything from business in the boardroom to the bedroom. The service was generally very good and the wine selection comprehensive enough to provide accompaniment to our various main courses:

Pappardelle with wild boar (Source: yelp.com)

Pappardelle with wild boar and chanterelle mushrooms: The food, although flavorful, lacked enough textural diversity to keep my attention and stay interesting

Seared medium rare salmon over lentils, pomegranate seeds and bacon with a foam: Seared salmon was great. The lentil mixture was a little salty for my taste.

Steak sirloin with onions, tomatoes, and eggplant ratatouille. The sirloin was cooked perfectly and was also very tender. The seasoning was superb, and the eggplant side matched very well.

Fettuccine with lamb sausage: The fettuccine was tasty but not overly memorable – the lamb sausage worked well, but there could have been more of it.

Overall, our group of five SP food reviewers gave Via Matta 3.5 out of 5 stars. The most common complaint was that the restaurant’s prices were a bit steep considering the quality of the meal. Although many of the dishes were firsts for us, the monotonicity and complexity of the meals left us wanting more. Whether it was the lack of color, texture, or flavor diversity, the meals often came up short on replay value as we trekked across the plate. Certainly a great date location but not the absolute best Italian Boston has to offer.

By The Pacific

[1] Interestingly, as the tomato is a “new-world” fruit which means it actually didn’t make its way into European cuisine until the late 1500’s to early 1600’s.

Snowy Fun in the Chilly Weather of Boston

Jen Lee exploring the igloo on a snowy weekend.

Nothing beats a hot chocolate on a brisk, sunny day. The sweet aroma and the warmth of the cup through knit gloves gives off a sense of holiday and joy. Even as the Boston winter months grow brutal, it’s hard not to notice the beauty of winter. The sparkle of the ice on the Charles, the crunch of the snow as we walk to work, and of course the SP snowball fights in the courtyard. The hammocks might be gone, but last year students built an impressive igloo that fit six people at one point! It’s the perfect time to eat your first snowflake and build your first snowman.

Many of us come to MIT because we love the experience of learning something new. We get a rush from the struggle, as we inch closer and closer to conquering a new subject or skill. And MIT spends a wealth of resources to let the community have a fulfilling student life. From organizing the GSC Ski Trip where MIT students and guests have a chance to take over an entire ski resort for a weekend in late January, to some of the more local attractions, such as ice skating at the Johnson Center.

The GSC Ski Trip is an easy way to make new friends and learn how to ski. This trip often attracts a lot of newcomers and provides discounted travel, lodging and gear. There’s a party every night and there’s even night time skiing! Nothing quite like getting away from Boston to see a starry Maine sky, especially if you have a stargazing app on your phone.

Aditya Pathak, a first year in physics, flying on the ice on only his second attempt to ice skate.

My personal favorite, however, is the local ice skating rink at the Johnson Center right across the railroad tracks. It’s open to students every day and is a regular Saturday treat for me after a long workweek. You can rent skates right there for only $5, or bring your own. And if you want to brush up on your skills, there is always IAP ice skating and hockey classes taught for all levels. Or simply grab your neighbor (or your neighborhood hall councilor) and learn together. The radio is always on, so you can play off any falls as part of the new style of dance moves.

So after two hours of trying to keep up with the 10 year olds that are faster than light, I feel like my hot chocolate and feeling of joy is well earned.

By Tatyana Shatova, SP 2-South Hall Councilor