Meet your 2013 SPEC!

SPEC 2013. From left to right: Fabián Kozynski, Boris Braverman, Rachel Harding, Bernhard Zimmermann and Steven (Shiou-chi) Chang. Courtesy of SP Photofile.

SPEC 2013. From left to right: Fabián Kozynski, Boris Braverman, Rachael Harding, Bernhard Zimmermann and Steven (Shiou-chi) Chang. Courtesy of SP Photofile.

President: Boris Braverman

Boris Braverman.

Hello!

I remember that during my hectic first week at SP, an SP-helpers email inviting me to come out and help with the Orientation Brunch caught my eye. I will never know why exactly I decided to go down to help, but I remember it being a really fun time in the company of Pierre, our master bacon chef. What really sealed the deal was the orientation BBQ a few days later. Flipping hundreds of burgers with dozens of other enthusiastic volunteers showed me how vibrant the SP community was. Whatever notions I had of MIT students being unable to have fun and relax were dashed in an instant. A year of volunteering at Brunches and Coffee Hours only made this conviction stronger, and helped me meet many of SP’s interesting and diverse residents.

When the next year rolled around, the question was not whether I wanted to become more involved with the community, but how. Rising up the kitchen ranks to Brunch Chair was a natural (and delicious) choice. As it turns out, being Canadian at the same time as being a Brunch Chair is a serious risk factor for becoming the President of SP (despite the title of “President” being entirely absent from the real government of Canada). It is an honor to serve as SP’s president for this year, and I hope to make your lives more enjoyable, productive, and interesting. If you ever have a suggestion, question, or concern, feel free to get in touch with any of us at SPEC.

“Dive In” is SPEC’s vision for the year. We believe that the strength of our community lies in the enthusiasm and commitment of our leaders, and in the active participation of many of our residents in our activities and initiatives. We want to encourage every resident of the building to dive into our community and to experience all the amazing things that SP life has to offer, from enlightening COSI lectures and discussions, to fun House Cup competitions, and to delicious brunches and dessert nights. SP is much more than a place to live – it’s a community of some of the most interesting people in the world, and I would like to invite all of you to “Dive In” SP and make it your home!

Vice President of Resources: Bernhard Zimmermann

Bernhard Zimmermann.

I am a third (fourth in the fall) year PhD student in EECS, focusing on medical imaging. I grew up and did my undergrad in Zürich, Switzerland. Back at home we didn’t really have a residential campus, so I’m catching up now here at MIT. It’s been a blast.

Right after coming to SP I started volunteering at some of the larger events, and also joined a SPICE group, where I made my first friends here. For the next two years I was Hall Councilor on the 7th floor. This gave me the opportunity to connect with my fellow neighbors, get to know many awesome people, and generally be more involved in the house government. Normally officers retire after two years of service, or become Trustees, but I decided that I’d like to crown my experience here with a year in SPEC. As VP of Resources, I’m responsible for helping and managing ten officers, who in turn take care of the artwork, aquarium, audio & video equipment, bikes, computer room, front desk inventory, music room, and plants in the dorm. Another big task I tackle together with the Controller is to manage SP’s budget and to make sure all officers get reimbursed for their expenses.

I hope you take advantage of SP’s many resources to the fullest extent, and at the same time meet many of your fellow residents. We always appreciate feedback, so if you see something that doesn’t work, or if you have a positive experience, let us know!

Vice President of Residential Life: Fabián Kozynski

Fabián Kozynski.

I was born and raised in Montevideo, Uruguay, which is a small country between Argentina and Brazil that exports beef and soccer players. I did my undergrad there, majoring in Electrical Engineering (actually, Telecommunications Engineering) and came here right after graduation. I had lived all my life in the same place and coming here was a great change, as well as a great opportunity.

When I came to SP almost two years ago (time flies), I wasn’t expecting to find a home away from home. My original idea was to live here for a year and then move off campus to a “cheaper” place. After some time living here and having met the friendly people that lived in SP, my plans began to disintegrate when I realized what I’d be missing if I left; I realized that SP is as nice as its residents make it and there’s a lot of value aggregated by the community that cannot be quantified. In my opinion, one of the best phrases that describe the community as well as involvement at SP is “come for the food, stay for the friends”: my first time volunteering was at a BBQ (to be able to skip the line and combat the boredom) but after a couple times hacking through pineapples together with other volunteers, I found a great group of friends.

After volunteering for a year, I decided to become Coffee Hour chair, even though I never drink coffee. I saw it was a great place to entice tired grad students out of their rooms into procuring some free food while engaging in conversation with their neighbors (the main goal). After a year of mindlessly cutting oranges and debating with Dan what is the best way to transform overworked residents into happy ones, I decided to take one step further and become part of the Executive Council.

As VP of Residential life, it is my job to make sure that residents have a fun and interesting life during their time at MIT, be it through outings, the gym, or just simply by cooking and eating together. To help do this (they actually do most of the work), I have a cadre of amazing officers whose job is to engage the residents into going out of their rooms and enjoy the numerous activities that SP has to offer. Sidney Pacific has been in constant evolution for the last eleven years and that is thanks to the numerous officers and volunteers that have lived here (and some that haven’t) and have contributed to make this place a home.

Vice President of Information: Steven (Shiou-chi) Chang

Steven (Shiou-chi) Chang.

Hi neighbors! My name is Steven and I am a 3^rd year (going to 4^th) PhD student in Biological Engineering. I have been living in SP since I came to MIT and it has been a wonderful experience. Not only does SP provide so many resources to the residents, but there are also so many enthusiastic volunteers helping out at events to make what seems impossible become possible. I started as the newsletter chair in my second year and continued as the publicity chair in my third year. Even though these positions involved work that was behind the scenes, I did not feel that my effort went unnoticed. Throughout the past two years, I would receive generous encouragement from the Housemasters and even from the residents that I did not know, saying they really enjoyed the newsletters or the posters that I made. It made me realize that every one of us can contribute to our community uniquely and no matter how small the contribution may be, people will recognize it. This motivated me to step up to become the VP of Information this year.

The Office of Information is the communication bridge between the residents and the SP house government. Even though our mission is simple, our operations are crucial to the success of the SP community. Without the website, we wouldn’t be able to browse through the SP inventory conveniently; without the posters made by the publicity chairs, we wouldn’t know the various events at SP and without the photos, videos and newsletter articles, we wouldn’t be able to record our history. This year, there will be several improvements on the SP website and the newsletter content so keep an eye on these changes. We would also love to hear your feedback and suggestion on what can be done better. If you have a great idea, please let us know and we will make it happen!

During the time that I am not doing research and SPEC work, I try to go to SP gym regularly. I also enjoy playing various board games with friends, watching sports and occasionally playing some video games. Outside of SP, I like to explore various places around Boston, for example, I bike on the Minuteman bikeway, I explore the Boston harbor islands, etc. I would also love to meet more people at SP so tell me about yourself when you see me at future SP events or even better, when you are volunteering at the events!

Chair of the Halls: Rachael Harding

Rachael Harding.

Hello Neighbors!

I’m Rachael Harding, an Electrical Engineering and Computer Science PhD student entering my third year at MIT and Sidney-Pacific. When I’m not running around SP, I’m usually running simulations of next-generation multicore computers or running around the Charles river.

I never fully appreciated what SP had to offer until someone persuaded me to run for hall councilor in a special late election last year. I had borrowed DVDs and drying racks from the inventory, used equipment in the gym, and attended a handful of BBQs and coffee hours, even volunteering at a few. When I became more involved in life at SP, I realized that what SP truly has to offer is a community. As a hall councilor, I organized a lot of events for my neighbors. (My favorite: dessert nights!) I also started volunteering at more SP events, where I made new friends with the other volunteers. The welcoming individuals on my hall and at events made SP a supportive environment for me.

As Chair of the Halls, I’ll be leading this year’s awesome hall councilor team. The hall councilors are fun, friendly volunteers who try to foster community within each hall and act as the hall’s liaison to the SP government. If there is one person you should get to know at SP, it’s your hall councilor. Not only do they know a lot of useful information about SP, MIT, and the surrounding area, but they’re always trying to offer you free food!

I encourage you to dive in to what SP has to offer: SPICE, coffee hour, hall dinners, house cup, interest groups… The list goes on and on, but one of the best parts of SP is that there’s something for everyone. I would also like to invite you to volunteer at one or more of these events. It’s fun, rewarding, and you’ll meet some of the most fantastic people at MIT!

Farewell, Our Beloved Housemasters!

Roger and Dottie at the cake cutting ceremony. Courtesy of Steven Chang.

Roger and Dottie at the cake cutting ceremony. Courtesy of Danica Chang.

11 years. How long is 11 years? Do you remember where you were 11 years ago?

11 years ago, I just moved to South Africa with my family and started high school. English was a language that I had almost zero fluency in and coming to MIT for graduate school was something that I did not even remotely think of. But on the other side of the globe, a new graduate dormitory had just been built on the corner of Sidney and Pacific Streets in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Since its establishment, Roger and Dottie Mark have been the Housemasters of Sidney-Pacific. They dedicated the next 11 years to SP, turning it from a residence hall into a graduate community. During these 11 years, they have met with thousands of graduate students coming from all over the world, attended hundreds of SP brunches and guided countless SP officers to build “the best graduate community in the world” as Roger called it. But just as in every gathering, there comes a time when we have to say farewell. After a decade of advising and caring, Roger and Dottie are stepping down from the Housemaster positions this summer.

On June 15, 2013, SP held a farewell party to celebrate Roger and Dottie’s contribution to our community in the past 11 years. Many SP alumni came back and shared their personal stories about Roger and Dottie. Their stories gave us a deeper understanding of Roger and Dottie’s personalities. Roger has always been the wisdom tree of SP. He is always willing to give invaluable advice to residents on how to handle both work and life situations.

Past and present SP residents gathered to celebrate Roger and Dottie’s contribution to the community. Courtesy of Steven Chang.

Past and present SP residents gathered to celebrate Roger and Dottie’s contribution to the community. Courtesy of Danica Chang.

His practical personality also inspired past and present SPECs to run their meetings efficiently and have things done on time. On the other hand, Dottie has a gentle heart and always cares about our well-being. She makes sure that we are living a healthy life and always provides more than enough food during meetings. Together, they are like our grandparents. Their love, caring and passion to cultivate leaders have undoubtedly shaped our community. Because of them, SP is more than a building with rooms. Because of them, SP becomes our home away from home.

In the spirit of contribution and community building, the SP government has established the Roger and Dottie Mark Award for outstanding contributions to our community by a first year resident. This award will be presented annually at the nomination dinner. This year, the award went to Frank Wang. Frank has been actively participating or organizing SPICE meetings since he came to SP. In the spring semester, he became one of the web chairs and helped to improve the security of our website.

Ribbon cutting ceremony for the renaming of the MP room to Roger and Dorothy Mark Multipurpose Room. Courtesy of Steven Chang.

Ribbon cutting ceremony for the renaming of the MP room to Roger and Dorothy Mark Multipurpose Room. Courtesy of Danica Chang.

The SP government also renamed the MP room as the Roger and Dorothy Mark Multipurpose Room in recognition of their exemplary services as Housemasters of the SP graduate community. As the founding Housemasters, they created a vibrant community renowned for its welcoming atmosphere, outstanding residential life programs and strong tradition of student leadership. The Mark room will forever stand as a tribute to their legacy and inestimable impact on our community.

The evening ended with a standing ovation and toasts to Roger and Dottie. Farewell! We congratulate you as you move into the next chapter of your life and we thank you for all you have done for us in the past. Although Roger and Dottie are no longer living in SP, their legacy continues. Just as Roger has said, the SP community has built a strong momentum that our government will continue on its excellence as we move into a new era.

By Steven (Shiou-chi) Chang, VP of Information

A brief how-to guide on keeping freshwater fish (alive)

The SP aquarium before (left) and after (right) Pedro’s improvements. Courtesy of Pedro Perez.

As a Sidney-Pacific resident you may have noticed some changes to the lobby aquarium over the past few weeks. Many of you have asked for advice on maintaining not just a fish tank, but a natural living habitat for various organisms to coexist. Surprisingly, very little work goes into making a great-looking aquarium. However, like any craft, there are many small tidbits worth knowing that can save you many sacrificial guinea pigs… guinea fish? Either way, in this short guide I will write some of the holy rules of fishkeeping passed down to me.

1. Bigger is better

When starting out as a novice, it is a common mistake to want to buy as small a tank as possible. However, this is not the best route to take. Smaller tanks (30 gallons or less) are harder to maintain due to less volumes of water allowing for greater fluctuations in temperature and chemical balances. This often leads to disastrous and expensive results.

2. The biochemistry of fish world

There is a lot that can be said about the underlying biochemical mechanisms that keep a fish tank up-and-running. Fortunately for you, most of it is not necessary to successful fishkeeping. When starting a new tank you will need six things: water, a tank, an inexpensive water conditioner (fish do not like chlorine in their gills), gravel/substrate, light fixture and a filter.

3. Cycle of life

Next step is to cycle your tank. Fish poop just like us. Unfortunately, they also end up breathing some of their poop. You need bacteria in your tank to break down this nitrogenous poop into less toxic chemicals. Put a school of small hardy fish in the tank that will help culture these beneficial bacteria.

Your cycle should be complete in about a month or so. Thereafter, you will be able to slowly begin adding new fish into the tank (one fish every week to two weeks). Make sure to research species compatibility before mixing angry fish with peaceful ones. You may also add plants at any time you like, however be advised to do a bit of research into plantkeeping in the aquarium. Two good places to start are:

http://www.101tropicalfish.com/fish-compatibility-chart/freshwater-fish-compatibility-chart.php. (for fish)

and

http://www.liveaquaria.com/general/fwcompatibility_chart.cfm (for plants)

Voila! Enjoy your new domain as you rule over it as you see fit.

By Pedro E. Perez, SP aquarium chair

Thanks for the Memories!

Annette and Roland, the current Associate Housemasters, are leaving Sidney Pacific after their 8 years of wonderful service. Annette has accepted a position at University of Southern California, and before they move to Los Angeles they will be heading to Beijing in August for a one-year sabbatical. Below is a letter from Annette and Roland to the residents of Sidney-Pacific:

Roland, Annette, Samuel and Joshua with outgoing housemasters Roger and Dottie Mark and members of the 2012 SPEC.

We would like to thank the Sidney-Pacific community for eight wonderful years being associate housemasters. Annette recalls some trepidation starting this ambiguous adventure called housemastering in 2005, while pregnant and on the tenure-track. We are so glad that we threw caution to the wind since as we now preparing to leave MIT, we can say without a doubt that the S-P community here has been the most rewarding experience of our time here at MIT. While most of us can say that our studies/research/work is ostensibly why we came to MIT, it becomes very clear that sharing life with each other, creating a community with you, is the best thing we ever did here. Another way to put it is that when one makes a major life transition as we are doing now, it can provide a different and valuable vantage point with which to view life.

Samuel participating in the SP paper-airplane competition in Spring 2013. Courtesy of Annette Kim.

Joshua participating in the SP paper-airplane competition in Spring 2013. Courtesy of Annette Kim.

This time we are struck by how flat and cold our lives would have been without you, if we had just lived a more “normal” professor life in a private apartment by ourselves. One lesson we take with us is that in order to have a life richer and more extraordinary, trailing with warm memories, invest in relationships and community building such as Sidney-Pacific.

Some favorite memories include:

Roland honestly trying to memorize all 700 residents’ names our first year!
Making the kids’ first birthdays a dorm-wide event. Improvising a take on a Korean tradition, we had students take bets on what our babies would choose as symbols of their future (the scholar’s pencil for Joshua and the artist’s brush for Samuel).
The surprise cake and flowers at this year’s nomination dinner was the best way to celebrate Annette’s tenure!
Our weekly dinner meetings with SPEC

Annette, Joshua, Roland and Samuel at Samuel’s first birthday party. Courtesy of Annette Kim.

S-P is the only home that Joshua and Samuel have ever known. Don’t all kids have 700 brilliant graduate students from around the world in their home? They have been able to run up and down S-P’s hallways and find students who will come out to have fun with paper airplane contests, toilet paper fashion designs, epic water fights in the courtyard, and building the most incredible sand castles at the beach that only MIT engineers can do. They have gotten to see more fire trucks at our fire alarms than any toddler could ever hope to see.

We thank you for your kindness, generosity, good humor, and transparency. We will always think of you fondly and hope you will stay in touch so that we can continue to share life with you.

By Annette M. Kim and Roland Tang, outgoing associate housemasters

Hall Councilor Orientation

On Sunday, June 30th, 11 members of the hall council attended the annual Hall Councilor Orientation. The all-day workshop featured a number of experts from across MIT who gave presentations and led discussions on topics ranging from peer counseling to stress relief to active listening. Portions of the workshop were video-recorded with permission from the speakers to give to the hall councilors who were unable to attend due to off-campus summer plans.

The purpose of the Hall Councilor Orientation is to introduce hall councilors to conflict coaching, familiarize them with resources around MIT where they can refer residents who need help, and familiarize them with common issues and problems encountered by graduate students. The program was initiated in 2011 by Brian Spatocco, then Chair of the Halls.

The day started off at 9:30am with an introduction by Associate Housemaster Annette Kim about the vital role of the hall councilor in SP. In addition to hosting regular hall events, such as hall dinners, dessert nights, and “water wars,” hall councilors are a resource for SP residents to turn to if any issue should arise, whether it’s a noise complaint, a roommate dispute, or something more personal. Hall councilors are part of a network within SP (along with SPEC, the Housemasters, and House Manager) that helps support residents who have concerns or trouble.

There is also a network outside SP that residents and hall councilors can reach out to. 8 speakers from 6 different organizations across MIT spoke at the workshop, including representatives from: MIT Mental Health & Counseling, Residential Life Programs (RLP), Community Wellness, Violence Prevention & Response (VPR), the Office of the Dean for Graduate Education (ODGE), and Conflict Resolution@MIT.

Tying the day together were role play scenarios with real SP residents enacting situations that a hall councilor might encounter while serving at SP. It was an opportunity for the hall councilors to put what they learned throughout the day into practice, and get immediate feedback from seasoned coaches on their responses to the scenarios.

“[Sidney-Pacific has] a great group of Hall Councilors, and I’m glad I got to meet and work with them,” said Libby Mahaffy, Assistant Director of Conflict Resolution@MIT, who was a speaker and coach at the workshop. If you ever have any problem or unanswered question, don’t be afraid to email or approach your hall councilor. They’re here and ready to help!

by Rachael Harding, Chair of the Halls

Remembering Sean Collier

Officer Sean Collier. Courtesy of Somerville Police Department.

The following essay was written by MIT graduate student Sara Ferry the day after Sean’s death:

Officer Sean Collier was my friend, and the friend of many of my friends.

To give you an idea of the type of person he was:

He was friendly. He hung out at the Thirsty Ear a lot with the bartenders chatting. Recently, we were talking about the campus shooter scare of several weeks ago, and talking about how scary it was, and how we could make the campus safer. He was planning on starting a new job. He mentioned maybe joining the military at some point. He was so excited for his future, and was completely committed to dedicating his life to serving his community. We talked about throwing him a going away party to thank him for his service to our campus, and to celebrate the fact he might actually get to come hang out at the Thirsty in plainclothes a bit more.

He was so very helpful. When someone was breaking into my lab several months ago to steal scrap metal, the MIT police took our reports very seriously and caught the person within days. Sean offered to make a special point of coming by my lab on nights that my friends and I were working late to check on us.

He cared about the students. He loved my beloved MIT family: the residents past and present of Burton Third. When our DTYD hack this year went up, he messaged me to let me know he had heard it called in on the scanners, and could I please send him a photo since he didn’t get to see it before it was taken down? He worked detail at our party on Sunday, and mentioned beforehand that he was looking forward to it, because it had been a fun detail in the past. He messaged me after to say he had a good time. “[Burton 3rd] is good shit,” he said. BTB, you are the reason that my undergraduate years at MIT were filled with the best friends anyone could hope for, countless crazy nights of constant laughter, and stories that sometimes seem too ridiculous to believe. Sean loved you guys, and he – and the other amazing officers of our campus police force – is part of the reason that our floors’ cherished traditions and friendships are able to continue and grow year after year.

Boston area police officers attend Sean Collier’s Memorial service on Briggs Field. Courtesy of Tamas Kolos-Lakatos.

Sean loved the hacking community of MIT. To every one of us who has donned a Jack Florey shirt, who has found herself or himself crawling through a hidden tunnel or along a deserted rooftop of our beloved campus looking out over our beloved Cambridge and Boston from our secret vantage points, who has been on their way to Baker House, who has a collection of faded orange buttons in a drawer, who has spent a long night camped out in a ceiling (climbing gear and headlamp in tow) just to know that the the anonymous-but-oh-so-worth-it results of their hack will grace the campus the next morning: Sean was an amazing ally. Like so many of the MIT police officers, he loved our efforts and cared deeply about our safety. You were a huge part of the reason that he loved this campus and its students and its uniquely weird and brilliant culture.

He loved being outdoors. He had just bought a new truck. He was not much older than you, or perhaps he is younger.

He knew I was watching the marathon on Monday and was one of the first people to text me to make sure I was okay. Last night, he texted me at 10:30 to see if I’d be bartending at the Thirsty Ear that night — he was thinking about stopping by after his shift ended and hanging out with the students at our weekly karaoke night. He never responded to my text back hoping that he was safe.

Courtesy of Tamas Kolos-Lakatos.

Keep the MIT police in your thoughts. They are a kind, dedicated, hardworking part of our community. The extent to which they care about the well-being of the students and every faculty and staff member is inspiring and stems from a deep and genuine love of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Boston is my heart, Cambridge is my home, and MIT is where I’ve had the amazing privilege to live my life, working on the projects I love with the people I adore, for nearly six years. I love you all. When you’re tooling on psets as the semester wraps up, remember that they don’t matter. But the person who wrote the pset, the person who’s grading it, the person who’s working on it with you at 3 AM, the person who’s smiling hello as they clean up the reading room, the person who’s teaching the class? They matter.

Think of Sean Collier today. He’s a genuine hero and the best of what our campus represents.

I love you MIT. Mens et manus, and IHTFP. (second meaning.)

by Sara E. Ferry

The new and improved SP ZipBikes!

SP’s ZipBikes in the west bike room.

Boston may lay claim to the title of most walkable city in America, but sometimes walking just won’t cut it. In such times, savvy citizens become savvy cyclists: Strap on a helmet, hop on a bike, and ride. But where can a non-cyclist find a bike?

Sidney-Pacific residents need look no further than the West Bike Room. The SP ZipBikes program, administered by the SP Bikes Chair, offers free bicycle rentals for recreational use by residents, around half of whom don’t own a bike. For those without personal vehicles, SP ZipBikes—checked in and out at the front desk—make shopping trips and distant errands a breeze. As with any public resource, however, bikes for common use cannot help but invoke a tragic general neglect. Time and again SP ZipBikes have been found damaged and unlocked in random places in the crowded SP bike rooms, costing Sidney-Pacific—and hence residents, through the house tax—the price of repairs, new locks, and new bikes.

To promote responsible bike sharing, the ZipBikes program is piloting a new temporary checkout procedure, starting on April 1st. Instead of checking out keys from the front desk, residents can reserve a bike using a shared Google calendar and pick up keys from the Bikes Chair the evening before the scheduled rental. Residents may reserve up to two bikes a maximum of two weeks in advance, with a one-day rental period. All bikes must be returned to the West Bike Room, and keys must be returned to the Bikes Chair by 10PM or by individual arrangement. If you would like to participate in the ZipBikes bike rental program, email the SP Bikes Chair at sp-bikes-chair@mit.edu for access to the ZipBikes calendar (spzipbikes@gmail.com).

While SP ZipBikes provides a free bike rental option that’s close to home, residents should also consider joining the alternative Hubway bike rental program. Hubway provides bike rental services within the Boston/Cambridge metro area for a daily or annual fee, with two stations on the MIT campus (Kendall and Massachusetts Ave.). MIT offers subsidized $25 annual memberships for students and affiliates, which is an incredible deal. However, while Hubway bikes are very convenient for short trips, the service provides only heavy commuter bikes and allows travel only within the Hubway network of stations—an extra fee applies for trips longer than 30 minutes. SP residents are thus encouraged to join and use Hubway for short trips and to lobby the SP House Government to provide high-quality road and mountain bikes for free full-day rental through the SP ZipBikes program.

Biking at Sidney-Pacific: By the Numbers

(Survey of 87 SP residents)

51% of respondents don’t own a bike, 22% own a road bike, 13% own a mountain bike, 17% own a hybrid (more than one option allowed)
75% of SP bike owners paid less than $400 for their bikes
60% of respondents have never rented a bike from SP
79% of respondents have heard of Hubway, but only 5% are currently Hubway members

By Joel Jean, outgoing SP Bikes Chair

A Decade of Caring: A Tribute to Roger and Dottie

Housemasters Roger and Dottie Mark.

It was a bittersweet moment for us to celebrate Roger and Dottie’s 10th and final year of being Sidney-Pacific Housemasters at the Alumni Reunion. The entire alumni crowd gave a standing ovation to Roger and Dottie in recognition of their innumerable and significant contributions to the SidPac community over the years.

Roger has been the one you want to talk to if you got into trouble, got lost in your research, or ever needed some wisdom about how to handle your work/life situation. He also inspired us with his DIY attitude about getting things done around SP, whether it meant taking a drill to the brick walks to fasten down cleats for the movie ropes, or hanging up racks for pans in the kitchen pantry. His passion to make Sidney-Pacific the best dormitory in the entire world, especially by developing outstanding student leadership, has been the impetus and motivation for the incredible reputation our community holds throughout MIT (and the world!).

Dottie has been the heart and soul of SP — keeping tabs on residents, attending their thesis defenses, weddings, feeding residents with her delicious cooking, and her always gracious hospitality. Dottie made us feel loved and cared for — SP was not just our dorm, it was our home.

Roger and Dottie, we are going to miss you so much, we are actually not going to let you leave…

To all the alumni, if you are in the vicinity of Cambridge this year, please drop by so we can say “HI” to you and hear about your post-MIT/SP lives!

Fondly,

Roland Tang and Annette Kim

Sidney-Pacific Associate Housemasters

Get a Green Thumb at the SP Community Garden.

“Earthboxes” belonging to SP residents.

While the wonders of modern agriculture are separating us further and further from our food supply, some residents of Sidney Pacific are contributing their part to reverse this trend by growing their own herbs and vegetables! To serve these residents, Sidney Pacific launched a community garden in Fall 2012, spearheaded by George Chen from SPEC 2012, SP plants chair Peng Shi and Assistant Housemaster Roland Tang. The vision of this is a community of garden lovers at SP who share and support one another in the joy of planting their own food.

The community garden is currently located in the SP courtyard, in the form of a series of “earthboxes”: self-watering devices containing to 2 cubit feet boxes of soil which are lent out to residents to plant to their hearts desire. This allows residents to take advantage of outdoor sun while respecting MIT facilities regulations that disallow planting on the lawn. Residents take complete ownership of their cubic feet of soil and grows whatever herbs or vegetables they like.

Over the next year, the community garden plans to grow its membership, strengthen the sense of community, and to enjoy the fruits of its first full harvest cycle. We plan to build community by having meals together, sharing advice and tips about planting, and going to plant together. Peng, the plants chair, is planning to complement this with other plants/gardening/nature events to reach more residents with such interests and build a wider community of nature lovers at SP. If you would like to join our community, please contact SP plants chair Peng Shi at sp-plants-chair@mit.edu.

By Peng Shi, SP Plants Chair

Coming Soon: Kendall Square Redevelopment

Artist's rendering of a redeveloped Main st., as viewed from the intersection with Ames st. Courtesy MIT

Artist’s rendering of a redeveloped Main Street, as viewed from the intersection with Ames Street. Courtesy of MIT.

Over the last two years, MIT’s leadership have worked to develop a framework, the MIT 2030 plan, to guide the development and stewardship of our physical campus over the next several decades. Though this project will likely take many years to fully realize, certain pressing areas like graduate housing and Kendall Square development are being phased first for action.

MIT has looked into developing some of its real estate portfolio along Main Street in Kendall Square since March 2010 and filed its first petition in the spring of 2011. The city then engaged a year-long community planning process, known as K2 (Kendall Square), to amalgamate the needs and wishes of various stakeholder groups (e.g. neighborhoods, business owners, real estate developers, MIT, etc). During this process, the GSC and faculty grew concerned that the existing petition was deficient in its preservation of academic land and provision of housing. The first reservation was offered chiefly by outspoken faculty that expressed concerns over commercializing MIT’s last remaining undeveloped campus land assets, which were originally allocated for future academic and research expansion space.

The latter point, regarding housing, was initialized by the GSC Housing and Community Affairs committee as a result of nearly two years of quantitative analysis of the surrounding housing markets. According to the GSC’s data, the Cambridge off-campus housing market was experiencing record low vacancy rates, booming rental prices, and a yearly influx of additional high-wage earners seeking housing. The concern, as articulated in an article in the Faculty Newsletter, was that there was already a housing crisis and that further unchecked development would result in neighborhoods that were too expensive and competitive for graduate students to viably access. This, in turn, would result in a diffusion of the off-campus community into more distant neighborhoods that would impact the way we do research and live. In order to better understand the needs of MIT’s community, the article then called for the creation of a student-faculty-administrative working group to “propose a vision for off-campus communities and outline actions to guide us in this uncertain and unkind market”.

Artist’s rendering of new shops along Main Street. Courtesy of MIT.

In response to these concerns, MIT Leadership commissioned a 2030 Faculty Task Force to evaluate the existing petition and make recommendations on next steps. The Task Force’s report made several recommendations, among them that MIT should indeed create a committee that looked at areas similar to what the GSC’s Faculty Newsletter article called for. The Task Force also gave the go-ahead for upzoning given a number of conditions were met prior to refiling the petition. MIT has since refilled and is now in the final stages of getting approval to rezone various parts of Kendall Square both commercially and residentially.

Although the proposed rezoning envisions some of the largest and most exciting changes to east campus in several decades, few students knew much about the project and even fewer harbored opinions. As a result, the Undergraduate Association, Graduate Student Council, and Postdoctoral Association decided to jointly co-host the first Institute-wide forum on Kendall Redevelopment to achieve the following three goals:

1. Allow students to hear the specifics of the MIT proposal directly from the MIT staff that wrote it.

2. Allow students to hear a diversity of opinion from MIT community members educated in the proposal.

3. Provide an initial venue for soliciting student feedback on the project.

In addition to being the first joint forum between undergraduates, graduates, and postdoctoral researchers, it also broke attendance expectations and forced the use of an overflow room. In attendance were approximately 140 graduate students, 50 undergraduates, 10 postdoctoral researchers, 10 faculty, and 10 administrators. Time was divided evenly amongst the pro, neutral, and against sides of the argument, and students were allowed to form their own judgments based on the discussions from the evening.

Below are the three most common sentiments for and sentiments against the petition, in order of decreasing precedence:

Sentiments For:

1. It helps MIT’s finances and grows our endowment: Students respect the critical importance of maintaining and growing our endowment, especially in the current sequestration climate. They understand that a healthy endowment is the principal enabler of the Institute’s support of its community.

2. It improves the eastern portion of campus and creates a gateway: Students desperately want to see something done to improve the landscape of the Kendall Square, add a grocery and pharmacy, and create a respectable entrance that better welcomes guests as well as links Sloan to main campus.

3. It creates an innovation center in Kendall and next to MIT: Many students appreciate the benefits of increasing the number of employers in the area and value of entrepreneurial activity though want to avoid what happened in University Park.

Sentiments Against:

1. This may significantly impact the housing market: Students feel concerned and helpless. In order to perform their job at the levels they are expected and the hours that are needed, losing viable near-campus housing options is very intimidating.

2. On-Campus corporate offices may interfere with the academic atmosphere: Students are uncomfortable with the apparent abasement of MIT’s culture and mission by selling potential academic land to corporations.

3. It limits the opportunities of MIT for expansion: This was a concern rooted mostly in the ability to find and grow lab space.

The vote on the MIT petition will take place in early April and likely shape the face and future of Kendall Square for many generations to come. If you’re interested to learn more or want to share your thoughts on the topic please do reach out and contact us at gsc-officers@mit.edu.

By Brian Spatacco (GSC President)

Overhead view of Kendall Square. The area of proposed redevelopment is highlighted in red. Courtesy of MIT

SidneyPacific SPeaker

Newsletter for the Sidney-Pacific Graduate Community