As spring semester begins and we return to the daily grind of life at MIT, take this opportunity to look back on the previous year. The Tech provides this special Year in Review issue to highlight some of the major news events of 2007 and share a selection of campus viewpoints. In these pages, you can also rediscover the best of the year’s movies and music and learn more about our community’s excellent student-athletes.

When MIT made national and local headlines in 2007, it was largely because of one of many controversies, scandals, and bizarre incidents that may have put a dent in MIT’s reputation. The year saw clashes with the administration and lawsuits, a professor on a hunger strike alleging racism had affected his tenure denial, an admissions dean resigning because she had lied on her resume many years ago, a sodium explosion in the Charles River with MIT widely considered the cause, a sophomore arrested for wearing a harmless LED device to Logan Airport, and a lawsuit filed against the Stata Center’s architect.

In the MIT administration’s eyes, eating together builds community, and dormitory dining halls and mandatory meal plans are the best way to get at the kind of community the Institute wants. This analysis explains why when Ashdown House is renovated into the W1 undergraduate dormitory, its kitchens will be replaced with a dining hall.

In 2007, MIT garnered attention in an unexpected light — through allegations of racism in its tenure process. An African American associate professor in the Biological Engineering Department charged that racism influenced his tenure denial, prompting his hunger strike, the resignation of an executive director, the withdrawal of an alumnus, and the initiation of an Institute-wide study on underrepresented minority issues.