[2718] in Discussion of MIT-community interests

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Re: [Mit-talk] Group Property and GIRs

daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Derric Tay)
Thu Oct 19 18:46:12 2006

Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2006 18:45:40 -0400
From: Derric Tay <derrict@mit.edu>
To: Jeff Roberts <thejoker@alum.mit.edu>
In-Reply-To: <b82503c90610191507t26d6ee4buf62e20859066f511@mail.gmail.com>
Cc: "Jeremy H. Brown" <jhbrown@csail.mit.edu>, mit-talk@mit.edu
Errors-To: mit-talk-bounces@mit.edu

I was just saying this earlier today.  How come people are making such a 
bigger deal over something like this, as opposed to something that would 
much, much, more significantly affect the future of MIT and MIT students 
and alums.

I may be a senior myself, but (1) I recognize that the reputation that 
MIT gets, based on how various school officials (as well as students) 
manage the Institvte, will affect me and other people who have completed 
the GIRs by now, and (2) If possible, I don't want to allow ill-advised, 
unwise decision-making to screw over future generations of MIT students.

The feeling that "we can't do anything about this" is not supposed to 
exist.  If it does exist, I believe it can be attributed to decisions 
that were made by MIT's administration and/or others in such a way that 
student input--and by student input, I don't mean impractical nonsense 
that is generally associated with "college kids", but I mean realistic, 
reasonable, practical, intelligent, and wise suggestions from the 
students--were not given thoughtful and due consideration.

~DT


Jeff Roberts wrote:
> As an alum, I think that MIT should quit giving money to student
> groups.  Students obviously have no idea how to spend money properly.
> I'm going to ensure that all my future donations to MIT come with the
> stipulation that they cannot be spent by students.
> 
> MIT should hire some more Deans.  Now THOSE guys know how to spend money right!
> 
> I'm pretty amazed how much more discussion there's been on this topic
> than on the proposed GIR changes, which seem like they could be pretty
> significant ... Jeff.
> 
> On 10/18/06, Jeremy H. Brown <jhbrown@csail.mit.edu> wrote:
>> jhbrown@csail.mit.edu (Jeremy H. Brown) writes:
>>> Oh, space.  The ASA has, for a long time, been "in charge" of most of
>>> the student office space and bulletin-board space, and has
>>> periodically reallocated it.  In practice, in my era, at least, all
>>> they usually did was take office space away from defunct groups and
>>> give it to groups that wanted space, and other such more-or-less
>>> inoffensive changes.  Even there there was often controversy, but
>>> whatever.  Every group knows that their office space is nominally lent
>>> via the ASA; it's clear, and they should be under no illusion that
>>> they "own" it, because it's spelled out.
>> One final (you hope, anyhow) point: long-established groups like LSC,
>> the Tech, WMBR, etc. have office space which is generally considered
>> sacred when the ASA goes to reallocate offices.  Most other groups are
>> still jostling for space.  I know when I was a student, the years that
>> office space reallocation was coming up, the more politically-aware
>> groups would work hard to put a number of members into the ASA in
>> order to make sure their interests were thoroughly represented.
>>
>> I've also heard of people trying to do Finboard stacking, but I never
>> knew enough about Finboard's procedures to know how well that worked.
>>
>> Anyhow, coming around to my actual point: If the UA gets the power to
>> reposess resources that they deem under-utilized, eventually some
>> wacky student group is going to stack that committee/wing/whatever,
>> and go to town with it.
>>
>> Actually, that could be kind of fun.  I'd love to see what the Campus
>> Crusade for Cthulhu would do if they had control of the UA Committee
>> for Taking Other People's Stuff.
>>
>> Jeremy
>> _______________________________________________
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>> MIT-talk@mit.edu
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>>
> 
> 
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