This year, the Undergraduate Association debate was anything but a debate. With only one ticket in the running for the UA President and Vice President, candidates Allan E. Miramonti ’13 and Alec C. Lai ’13 took the time this past Sunday to answer questions regarding their campaign platform.

Replete with graying beard and Canadian accent, Saskatchewan native and newly appointed Chancellor W. Eric L. Grimson PhD ’80 met with the UA Senate for the first time Monday evening. Echoing concerns raised two weeks ago when the Senate met with MIT Corporation Chairman John S. Reed ’61, students grilled the new chancellor on student engagement, culture, and communication.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano presented the Karl Taylor Compton Lecture yesterday before a modest turnout in Kresge Auditorium. Napolitano is the first woman in the Compton Lecture Series, which has included Niels Bohr, two-time Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling, and Senator Ted Kennedy.

State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley resigned on Sunday amid controversy over remarks he made last week at MIT about the treatment of Army Pfc. Bradley E. Manning. At a talk on Thursday, he called the U.S. military’s treatment of Manning, who is suspected of providing classified information to WikiLeaks, “ridiculous, counter-productive, and stupid.”