[2480] in Humor
Forwarded without comment
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Brian T. Sniffen)
Mon Oct 5 17:39:07 1998
To: humor@MIT.EDU
Date: Mon, 05 Oct 1998 17:35:31 EDT
From: "Brian T. Sniffen" <brians@MIT.EDU>
MIT to stop admitting freshmen beginning in 2001
Associated Press, 10/05/98 12:22
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.(AP) -- In light of continued incidents involving underage
drinking at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the school has
announced that starting in 2001 it will no longer admit freshmen to its
undergraduate program.
``If we could completely control the actions of our students we would, but
at this time the elimination of freshman year is the only way to completely
protect our chargees,'' announced Charles Vest, President of MIT, to an
astonished faculty on Monday. ``Recent events have made it clear that no
university system can control the actions of its students, on or off
campus. We must start thinking about protecting our students in terms of
not having them.''
The school would continue to accept transfer students in their sophomore
year. However, students under the age of 21 would be housed in foster
homes in the greater Boston area. Vest said the foster home system is an
excellent model for the future of MIT housing. ``Foster homes provide a
nurturing environment while still maintaining control and strict discipline
for our underage students,'' said Vest.
MIT's action comes after a series of highly publicized alcohol related
incidents, the most recent involving the hospitalization of a 20-year-old
Simmons College student after excessive drinking at an MIT dorm party last
Saturday. The MIT administration has also been under harsh criticism for
their lack of responsibility for students' actions since the death of Scott
S. Krueger, a freshman member of Phi Gamma Delta fraternity who drank
himself to death during a pledge party. After the death the administration
moved to house all freshmen on campus, but recent incidents in dormitories
have shown that the housing move did not go far enough.
President Vest downplayed faculty concerns that it would be harder to draw
transfer students away from other universities once they have been
integrated into student life elsewhere. ``At this point, I want to
reiterate that students are and will be important elements of our campus
life,'' said Vest. ``We do not expect all the departments to go through
this transition without some help, financial and otherwise, from the
Institute. This is not a guarantee that every department will survive as
it currently exists, but it is not at all clear that they would if we
continued with the current system unchanged.''
