In August 2008 the newly-appointed Dean for Student Life Chris Colombo told The Tech that “there is a process where the conversation goes both ways” in regards to student life policy. However, this vital communication pipeline has been ineffectual or broken down in a number of areas since Dean Colombo took office last year.

Lobby 7 is already a beautiful architectural space, to which the apparently empty plinths (waiting for the viewer’s imagination, or the viewer’s person, to fill them in) contribute greatly. Putting in statues, even classical ones in keeping with the Roman feeling of the lobby, would detract from the effect; worse yet would be inserting artwork so trendily contemporary as to turn one of the main entrances to the Institute into a permanent display of one decade’s taste.

The fundamental debate is whether the right to increases in capital and property supersedes the right to equality, i.e. the right to equal access to labor and life. If the two rights are considered absolute they cannot coexist; one destroys the other (per “What is Property” by French anarchist Joseph-Pierre Proudhon).

Do you think that social networking tools like Facebook and MySpace are eliminating the need for real social interaction? I was doing an Internet survey the other day that was about interactions with close friends — something along the lines of, “list your top five friends, and then list the last way you communicated with them.” For me, few of my closest friends live in the same city as me, so my answers largely involved some form of electronic communication — e-mail, instant messaging, text messaging and others.

Senate met on Monday, November 16. Additions to Summer/Fall 2009 Finance Board Appeals were passed, and 41 U.A.S. 6.3: Fresh Fund Allocations allocated money from the Fresh Fund to many newly-recognized student groups. The 2013, 2012, and 2011 Class Council budgets were also approved by Senate. 41 U.A.S. 6.4: Re-Charging the Enrollment Committee, a bill to re-charge the UA Committee on Enrollment in light of the likely increase in enrollment, was passed. Two bills regarding the procedure to nominate a student to a position on an Institute Committee, 41 U.A.S. 6.1: Applicability of Nominations Committee Process and 41 U.A.S. 6.2: Nomination Process for Ex Officio Members of Institute Committees, were presented, but both will be voted on at later meetings. Finally, summaries of the past three years of Senate prepared by the UA History Committee were approved.

The solution for the sudoku in Tuesday’s issue was incorrect. The correct solution is printed here, to the right.