Monthly Archives: August 2011

Welcome to Sidney-Pacific! Make It Yours!

SPEC 2011-12. Left to right: Brian Spatocco (Chair of the Halls), George Tucker (VP of Information), George Lan (President), Ahmed Helal (VP of Residential Life) and Holly Johnsen (VP of Resources)

The Sidney-Pacific Executive Council (SPEC) and the House Council would like to warmly welcome all of our new residents. You’re joining an amazingly diverse, active graduate community of almost 700 students. In order to serve and unite a community this large, SP has a wide variety of traditions and institutions, some of which we’d like to introduce here:

Hall Councilors and Hall Dinners: Sidney-Pacific is divided into 13 halls, and hall councilors are like your friendly neighborhood Spiderman. If you have any questions, concerns, or issues, they’re a great first resource to turn to. Plus, they organize monthly dinners and outings – basically, excuses for everyone in your hall to come together, hang out, and enjoy some free food. During orientation, each hall will be holding a mandatory hall meeting for all of its new residents to go over housing policies, roommate agreements, etc. Afterward, both new and returning residents are invited to the first hall dinners of the new academic year – please talk to your hall councilor for more details.

Sidney-Pacific Orientation: The next few weeks of Orientation are very exciting, and there are many can’t-miss events:

  • First, SP traditionally kicks off its orientation with Open Doors Night, an event where 30-40 residents, both old and new, host small room parties for an evening. It’s a great chance to break the ice, meet your new neighbors, and maybe even show off some of your culinary skills. We’re currently recruiting hosts. Contact your Hall Councilor for more information!
  • Then, we have our three staple large events – the Glow in the Dark Dance Party, the Orientation Brunch, and the Rock ‘n Roast BBQ. These are open to the entire graduate community and usually attract crowds of up to 400-600 people. SP is generally known around campus for its large social events (we have 2-3 every semester, in addition to orientation), so keep your eyes open for announcements during the semester. Some of the great events we held just this past year include: the Wine & Chocolate Party, a Halloween masquerade, an Iron Chef competition, Dumplings of the World night, and an Asian Street Food festival.
  • In addition to our large events, SP organizes a number of smaller events, such as trips to the Museum of Fine Arts and the Aquarium, an “arts crawl” through Downtown Boston, and sailing on the Charles. All of these great events are organized by members of the Sidney-Pacific House Council. For the full list of events, please check out the orientation calendar in this newsletter, the official SP orientation guide, or our online Google calendar (http://bit.ly/sp-mit-calendar).

SP residents enjoying the monthly brunch on a Sunday. (Courtesy of SP Photofile Committee)

Monthly Brunch: Every month, Sidney-Pacific and Ashdown each provide a free Sunday brunch (12:00 – 1:00 PM, MP Room on the 1st floor) that’s open to the entire MIT community. From scrambled eggs to chocolate-chip banana pancakes, and from roasted potatoes to fresh seasonal fruits, our brunches are not to be missed. Just don’t forget to bring your own silverware – we’re all about sustainability here! We have an enthusiastic, committed team of residents who volunteer every month to cook brunch mostly from scratch for over 300 people. As always, volunteers get to skip the lines and eat first. If you’d like to help out behind the scenes, come down to the MP Kitchen anytime between 8 AM – 12 PM.

Weekly Coffee Hour: Every Wednesday night (9:00 PM – 10:00 PM), SP residents are invited to the MP room for free fresh fruits, snacks, and of course, coffee – there’s tea and other drinks, too. Occasionally, we’ll have specialty menu items (such as a seasonal soup) or additional programs (such as a bike auction or a hobby fair). Once a month, we partner with a student group for a larger, culturally-themed coffee hour; last year, we celebrated Cinco de Mayo (Mexico), Holi (India), Chinese New Year (China), Chuseok (Korea) and many other holidays with those respective cultures’ special cuisines.

Sidney-Pacific Inter-Cultural Exchange (SPICE): Even though SP residents represent more than 40 different nationalities, we believe that merely assembling a “diverse” group of people is not enough. The benefits of diversity come from actively sharing and learning about each other’s different cultures, beliefs, and worldviews. SPICE is a dinner discussion program that facilitates this cultural exchange. At the beginning of the year, residents who sign up for SPICE are assigned to groups of 10-12 people. Over the course of the year, these groups meet about every other week for a subsidized dinner; at each dinner, members of the group discuss a particular topic, such as “How does your family celebrate various holidays, such as the New Year?”or “What do you and your family consider to be taboos?”

Housemaster Dinners: We’re very fortunate to have Professor Roger and Dottie Mark, and Professor Annette Kim and Dr. Roland Tang as Housemasters to support our residential programming and development. New residents will have the chance to meet them, along with our adorable “Housemasters-in-Training” Joshua and Samuel, during our Housemaster Welcome Dinners in the middle of September. Please check your e-mail for your personal invitation. In addition, over the course of the year, residents will receive special invitations to other Housemaster gatherings, such as the Thanksgiving and Holiday dinners, dinners with professors, and so forth.

SP Interest Groups: Are you interested in hiking the nearby Middlesex Fells trails? Do you often play Settlers of Catan and other board games late into the night? Would you be interested in going on a “progressive dining” tour of the Asian restaurants in Brighton/Allston? Over the past year, SP residents have organized these and many other great activities through SP Interest Groups. Basically, these are open, opt-in mailing lists that residents sign up for to connect with other residents of similar interests. In addition, if you can get a group of SP residents together for an activity, you can receive funding – that’s right, SP will partially subsidize that restaurant or concert trip. Go to https://s-p.mit.edu/myacct/interest_groups.php to learn more.

Volunteering at SP: All of the programs and resources run by the House Council would not be possible without the help of resident volunteers like you. Come on out, get involved, and meet other SP residents. There are many ways to get involved, from grilling at the barbeque to spearheading environmental initiatives, or even writing for this newsletter. No experience is required! You can find out about ways to get involved by signing up for the Volunteer mailing list in your “My Account” settings here: https://s-p.mit.edu/myacct/resident_edit_entry.php

Our vision for this year is: “Sidney-Pacific: Make It Yours!” All of the aforementioned institutions are ways that past and current residents have taken ownership over their community – making SP their home. We hope you’ll make SP yours as well by joining us in some of these traditions. More importantly, we look forward to creating some new traditions – if you have any questions, suggestions, or ideas, please contact us at spec@mit.edu. Enjoy orientation, and we look forward to meeting you!

By SPEC

Welcome From the Housemasters

Roger and Dottie Mark, Sidney-Pacific Housemasters (Courtesy of SP Photofile Committee)

We are honored to be your housemasters, and we extend our enthusiastic greetings to all residents of Sidney-Pacific, especially to those of you who are joining us this year! We want very much to help build our community into a safe, supportive home where we can grow intellectually and socially. We strongly support the theme for this year – “Sidney-Pacific: Make it yours!” We wish that each resident would build connections with others through small group activities and the development of new friendships. Don’t be a passive resident here – jump into the active life of SP!

Housemasters are faculty mem­bers who live in community with students in MIT dorms. We are ap­pointed by the President of MIT and report to the Dean of Student Life. Our goal is to facilitate the building of community within the living group, to represent and advocate for the needs and desires of students to the administration, and to communicate the policies of the administration to the students.

It is our great pleasure to support and advise the officers of the SP student government, but they take full responsibility for poli­cies, strategies, and programming in the dorm. The officers are a dedicated and talented team, but they are not a “closed” group. We strongly encourage everyone to get to know them, and join in to help!

SP is an unusually diverse and in­ternational community, with representatives from more than 45 different countries this term!  As residents here, we have an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to learn from each other during our time together! We are particularly excited about the SPICE (Sid­ney-Pacific Intercultural Exchange) program! We hope you will get involved in this unique opportunity to build intercultural bridges!  There are other ways to connect as well: check out the interest groups, and take the initiative to propose an activity – subsidized by the house budget! And jump in with your colleagues in helping behind the scenes with the launching of programs. There is no better way to make friends than to work together. Join the SP-Helper email list to be informed of opportunities to volunteer!

As housemasters we are eager to meet each of you, and to be available to you both professionally and per­sonally. We will certainly try to be visible at coffee hours, social affairs, and will host a number of house­master dinners in our apartment. It is our hope that each resident will attend at least one such dinner dur­ing the year. Do not feel you need to wait for an invitation, just come by any time you want!

Housemasters, as experienced MIT faculty mem­bers, are always available to residents for advice or counseling on academic and/or per­sonal issues, and we are particularly pleased when individual students contact us for private discussions. Graduate school can be exciting and fulfilling, but there are also times of high stress, loneliness, disappoint­ment and uncertainty. Sharing a cup of tea to talk over anything would be our pleasure – knock on the door (#568) or email (rgmark@mit.edu or dotmark@mit.edu)!

By Roger and Dottie Mark, Sidney-Pacific Housemasters

Places to Explore Around MIT

Annette Kim & Roland Tang, Sidney-Pacific Associate Housemasters

Welcome to Sidney-Pacific!  As Associate Housemasters, we look forward to sharing with you some of things we love best about living here in Boston and Cambridge.  The following are some not so well known, but great places to visit – bring a book and lunch to enjoy! Contact us at sp-housemasters@mit.edu if you can’t find directions!

By Annette Kim & Roland Tang, Sidney-Pacific Associate Housemasters

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  • Boston Main Library Courtyard at Copley Square
  • Rose Kennedy Greenway
  • Rooftop Garden in Kendall Square
  • Weeks Footbridge, Cambridge
  • Charles River Canoe and Kayak at Kendall Square—rent a kayak here to explore the Charles River!

Sidney-Pacific Orientation 2011

As summer comes to an end, orientation season beckons us. The season begins on August 28th and officially ends on September 17th. Orientation events for the incoming graduate students are organized all over MIT including residential houses and dorms. Many different student groups are involved in the planning and execution phases of these events and a lot of hard work and thinking goes on behind the scenes. Despite the different flavors, locations, and faces involved in these events, all of them have one thing in common: their goal to welcome new students to their new home, new career and a new life. We, the Orientation Chairs of Sidney-Pacific, have many exciting events coming up for you: Rock ‘n roast BBQ and Outdoor Movie Screening, Orientation Dance Party, Welcome Reception, Open Doors Night, Ice Cream and Dessert Outings, Bike ride, Aquarium tour, Art Crawl and Sailing on Charles. Some of the large scale events like the BBQ and Dance Party attract hundreds of students because of their popularity while outing events are smaller in size and more focused. Some of the events will showcase the resources of Sidney-Pacific, giving you an opportunity to mingle with Sidney-Pacific residents, while others will take you out and around the Cambridge and Boston area. Let’s take a peek at some of these events.

Orientation BBQ. Enjoy the food and outdoor movie. (Courtesy of SP Photofile Committee)

The Rock ‘n Roast BBQ will take place at 6 pm on Sept 10th in the SP courtyard. There will be around 700 to 800 students relaxing on the grass and enjoying the evening. Live band music will be playing and the smell of BBQ will be in the air. We will provide a large variety of fresh fruits, sandwiches and burgers. You will also be able to purchase cold beer at a nominal price. Later in the evening we will screen an outdoor movie in the same area so make sure you find a good spot while you munch on your burger. Feel free to bring mats or pillows to add to the experience of outdoor movie watching.

The Orientation Dance Party at SP, which will be held on the evening of Sept 2nd, is a hugely popular event at MIT. You will be amazed by a fantastic DJ crew, superb light and sound system, and the dance floor skills of the students you just met! We will provide free snacks and beverages and you can purchase alcoholic drinks at a nominal price.

Participate in the Open Doors Night is a great way to meet other residents in SP. (Courtesy of SP Photofile Committee)

Open Doors Night on Aug 29th is a one-of-its-kind orientation event. In this event, current as well as incoming residents of SP host small parties in their very own apartment! As a new resident you are invited to all of these parties. Isn’t that cool? Some residents prepare appetizers, while others show off their dessert selection. Your job is to go from room to room, meet and greet the hosts while enjoying their hospitality and free food of course. You will see students walking across the hallways talking about the parties they had just been to and where next they might go. Don’t miss this fun event!

If you are an international student, you should definitely join the group for outdoor events e.g. Bike Ride and Aquarium Tour. This way you will experience the culture of the city where you will spend your next few years. If you are a fan of gourmet desserts, make sure to look out for Ice Cream and French Dessert outings.

A great way to make new friends while you enjoy these events is to get involved in the preparation. Basically you show up an hour early for the indoor events e.g. BBQ and Dance Party and offer a helping hand either in the kitchen, the courtyard or somewhere in between. You will be surprised to meet students just like you running behind the scenes and making these events successful.

Make sure you look up the latest Orientation Schedule for the exact time of these events!

By Birendra Jha and Hussam Zebian, SP Orientation Chairs

Additional Event: Wed September 21, 8-10p SPICE coffee hour

* Bold events denote events organized by Sidney-Pacific student government.

** Event schedules are subject to change. Please look up the latest orientation schedule at http://s-p.mit.edu/orientation/ and http://gsc.mit.edu/orientation2011/calendar.html#top for the exact time of the events.

Food, Flames, Friends

In the culinary world, nothing transcends cultural differences as BBQ does. From Cuban churrasco to Korean dalkkotchi and Greek souvlaki, few things in life are as fundamental and provide such an opportunity for primal catharsis as cooking over an open flame. This is reaffirmed by the diverse groups I’ve seen outside using the grills. Everything from live octopus, Thai chicken satay, whole lamb, full racks of ribs, Japanese yakitori, and succulent scallops have roasted over SP flames. The grill is truly a canvass upon which you can create a masterpiece and one which I would encourage everyone to take a chance using before the beautiful summer weather chills towards winter.

Using the gas grill is easy and simple but be sure to follow the important rules posted next to the grills. (Courtesy of SP Photofile Chair)

As many of you are aware, we’ve recently just acquired two new built-in gas grills for our patio. They will be joined shortly by a new charcoal grill for those purists among you who swear by briquettes and woodchips.  Using either of the gas grills is as simple as doing a little prep in your room, bringing it downstairs, renting some grill equipment from the front desk, and turning the grills on. Granted, there are a couple of important steps (which are posted next to the grills) for safely starting the grills but in spite of those I am doubtful you have any equipment in your lab which is simpler to operate than our backyard beauties.

The most common objection I hear to why folks don’t BBQ or use the grills is because it “just takes too much time to prep stuff in my room, bring it down, cook it, bring it back up blah blah blah…” In reality, most dishes you’d consider cooking in the oven or in a pan are much easier and faster to cook over an open flame. Whereas baking chicken will set you back 20 – 30 minutes (not to mention the time it takes to heat up the oven), grilling chicken will take between 8 – 12 minutes and the heat is almost instantaneous once you ignite. In addition, cleanup with the grills is much easier as all you have to do is brush the grill gratings down and close the lid.

The other major stumbling block for residents is that they simply aren’t sure what to grill. My response is that this is an excellent opportunity to turn some of your more boring dishes into faster, more flavorful and exciting offerings. For example, why bake chicken when you can simply marinade some raw chicken in Italian dressing or another citrus/vinegar-based sauce while you’re at work and then come home and toss it immediately on the grills. Optimal marinade times vary, but a 7- to 9-hour grad student work day often falls in the golden zone for optimal flavor. Another good example is working with seafood. A major problem with cooking seafood is that it often sticks to the pan and makes your room smell like a wharf for the next several days. Why not wrap a piece of salmon in aluminum foil with soy sauce, lemon, grated ginger, and minced garlic and let it steam up over the grill?

Flipping Burgers at the Hall Councilor’s BBQ. Want to learn about how to make real burgers? Join the SP BBQ Interest Group today! (Courtesy of SP Photofile Chair)

Easy, tasty, impressive: Gentlemen, get ready to impress your dinner dates.

And on that note, for those of you who are looking to share recipes and impress or even those who simply want to learn a couple of tips and tricks on the grills, I’d like to invite any interested residents to join our Sidney Pacific BBQ Eating Club which will be running from August to October. We are in the process of scheduling our dinners but the goal will be to exchange different grill recipes and catalogue them for all to share. And if the idea of recipe exchange doesn’t get you all hot and bothered, remember:

Nothing forges friendships like food and flames!

Email Spatocco@mit.edu if interested in joining the BBQ Eating Club!

By Brian Spatocco, SP Chair of the Halls

Volunteers Clean Up Owu Room Library

There is a room in Sidney-Pacific hidden in plain view.  Though few are aware of its existence, those in the know find it immensely useful for everything from salsa dancing to martial arts to music practice to simply quiet introspection.   There is no concealed door or secret password, and it is conspicuously marked on the SP floor plan; in fact, you’ve probably walked past it way more than three times on the way to check your mailbox.

For years, the Michael Kobina Owu Room (named for the manager of the construction of Sidney-Pacific) has duteously served the needs of Sidney-Pacific residents.  But until recently, it resembled the Hogwarts Room of Requirement in more than just its obscurity.  For years, SP residents have been depositing their unwanted paperbacks and textbooks in the room originally designated as a library, creating a dizzying array of clutter that has grown exponentially with disuse and neglect.  With books strewn haphazardly across the shelves and stacked in teetering towers, browsing for a casual beach read or a quals-prep textbook can be a task more daunting than, well, digging for a mysterious diadem in a heaping mound of relics and junk.

Volunteers sort through novels piled on the “Fiction Couch.” On the right is the accompanying “Textbook Couch.” (L-R: Chelsea He, Annie Gai, Isaac Oderberg) (Courtesy of Roland Tang)

Yvonne Yamanaka sorts the non-fiction books into different categories. (Courtesy of Roland Tang)

Recognizing the potential to transform a packrat’s haven into a bibliophile’s paradise, Associate Housemaster Roland Tang led a group of intrepid volunteers on a mission to create order from chaos.  On Sunday, August 7, seven volunteers worked diligently for two hours, pulling every single book off the shelves, wiping away years of dust and grime, and sorting the volumes into categories such as Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Romance, Classics, Historical Nonfiction, Foreign Language, and Textbooks.  If we assume that the books in the Owu Room reveal the reading preferences of SP residents past and present, some trends can be observed.  Unsurprisingly, volumes on computer programming and economic policy dominate the textbook category, while selections are ripe among science fiction and thriller novels.  Perhaps less expected, however, are the countless romance paperbacks, which make up the largest (by far) of the fiction categories.  Once sorted, the next step was to reshelve the books into the appropriate locations.  To avoid clutter, books that were obsolete or in poor condition were marked for recycling, and those that were deemed outdated or esoteric were packed away for donation.  In total, four boxes of books were recycled, and an additional eight boxes were donated to charity.

Tatyana Shatova organizes the textbook shelf as Toddler Housemaster Samuel Tang looks on. (Courtesy of Roland Tang)

The book cleanup is just the first step in plans to revamp the Owu Room library.  More improvements are on the way, including reading lamps, new signage, and reading recommendations.  We encourage you to browse the collection at your leisure, or even add to it with your own books; all we ask is that you please help us keep it neat for the benefit of all SP residents.  And we hope that on those shelves you will uncover your next great adventure, be it historical (see: The Iliad of Homer in Classics), geographical (see: Guide to the Jersey Shore in Travel), romantic (see: Dating Boot Camp: Conquering the Dating Obstacle Course in Self-Help), astronomical (see: 3001: The Final Odyssey in Sci-Fi/Fantasy), or gastronomical (see: The Joy of Cooking in Cooking).  Happy reading!

By Chelsea He

Starting Your Eco-friendly Journey at Sidney-Pacific

Welcome to Sidney-Pacific! We are one of the most eco-friendly student communities on campus, and we count on you to continue make a difference in our everyday lives. Here are the tips for an eco-lifestyle at SP:

Recycling:

  • Don’t leave your recyclables in front of your door.
  • Dispose your recyclables into the big recycling bins conveniently located in each corridor.
  • Make sure you rinse the bottles and containers if needed. Contaminated items ruin other recyclables and make your corridor smelly.
  • Single stream pick-ups at SP are twice a week, usually Mondays and Thursdays. Before pick-up times the recycling bin in your corridor might disappear for a day or so, be patient — it will come back! Single-stream recycling includes glass products, plastics 1-7, paper and cardboard.
  • Bring reusable bags to the grocery store! Note that used plastic bags CANNOT be recycled in single stream. Observe that they do not actually have a plastic recycling number. Instead, they are collected in a special bin in the main lobby and sent back to be recycled into new shopping bags.

Composting:

  • Get a compost biodegradable bag from the main lobby by the front desk and once you have filled it up, simply leave it in front of your door. The cleaning staff will take it to the compost bins located outside the building for you. Please make sure the bag is not leaking!
  • If you prefer to take it out yourself, the compost bins are located behind the courtyard, at the west entrance of the parking lot. Also, don’t hesitate to use the compost bins available in every common kitchen!
  • We now compost ALL food and plant waste, including meat and dairy, as well as napkins, tea bags, coffee residues and other compostable products.

Techno-cycle:

  • Techno-cycle bin is located in the main lobby.
  • Read the label on the bin carefully for qualifying items.
  • NO light bulbs, batteries, monitors, CPUs, toner cartridges! ABSOLUTELY NO single stream recyclables!

Batteries:

  • Battery collection bin is in the main lobby, located next to the techno-cycle.

Energy Efficiency:

  • Use stairs when you can, challenge yourself! Walk or bike to your lab!
  • Use drying racks available for check-out at the front desk to dry your laundry.
  • Turn off A/C when you leave your room for the day.

Reusing:

  • Use the SP-MORE service (see details in this issue) and obtain free household items donated by previous residents instead of buying new items at the store!
  • You have something you do not wish to use anymore? Don’t trash it! Send an email to the SP ‘reuse’ interest group at sp-igroups-reuse@mit.edu!

Other Sustainable Efforts:

  • Bring your own eating ware to the SP food events like coffee hours or brunches. Save disposable, single-use stuff and win prizes in the Green Raffle every week! Note that all provided utensils at brunches and coffee hours are compostable, do not trash them! Instead use the red bins for compost!

For more information about recycling, composting and techno-cycle:

Questions? Contact sp-environment-chair@mit.edu

Don’t miss our visit of the recycling center on August 31st! Look out for posters!

By Ece Glusen and Jean-Philippe Coutu, SP Environment Committee