How the world has changed. 100 years ago governments glorified war and sent their youth to their deaths. With what narrative did they blind everyone to the common sense that killing is bad.? Today, the possibility of illness closes entire schools and nations. Maybe the world is coming to its senses. But then again, may be the narrative is rooted in an era of phobia that will transform the world. Are we becoming Niven’s puppeteers?
MIT moves all classes online for the rest of the semester
211–220 of 605 posts
Re: MIT moves all classes online for the rest of the semester
#212Earlier quoted context omitted.
>In what way are dorms worse than personal homes for diseases anyway? Are they not trusting their students to prepare their own food? Why don't they just close the dining halls instead? The dorms have shared bathrooms, often shared rooms with doubles, triples, and quads, and shared living spaces (lounges, study rooms, laundry, etc.) in addition to the dining halls. Moreover, in our dorms, we have effectively no way t…
>Moreover, in our dorms, we have effectively no way to eat if the dining halls close down. That sounds crazy to me, in Poland there's a multitude of cheap restaurants full of students close to every university campus. There's a big demand because universities are packed with students that don't cook for themselves. Why hasn't the same happened to the US then?
A lot of american schools have mandatory meal plans for people who live in the school-run dorms (or at least for first-year students in dorms, which is most of the people in dorms)
Re: MIT moves all classes online for the rest of the semester
#213Earlier quoted context omitted.
Many universities are either municipalities in their own right, or have delegated municipal powers from the city government. Universities are their own small towns - they provide food, housing, have police forces, a large staff, etc. Put it the other way around, does it make more sense for a city official to be calling the shots, when campuses have their own special context?
Aren’t tenant/landlord laws typically set by the state, though-Using your analogy or do I have it backwards? Aside from local zoning laws I don’t quite see the comparison to how a municipality would be able to “call the shots” on something like eviction rules.
States delegate power to municipalities. They can override municipal law if they choose to
Re: MIT moves all classes online for the rest of the semester
#214Earlier quoted context omitted.
>In what way are dorms worse than personal homes for diseases anyway? Are they not trusting their students to prepare their own food? Why don't they just close the dining halls instead? The dorms have shared bathrooms, often shared rooms with doubles, triples, and quads, and shared living spaces (lounges, study rooms, laundry, etc.) in addition to the dining halls. Moreover, in our dorms, we have effectively no way t…
>Moreover, in our dorms, we have effectively no way to eat if the dining halls close down. That sounds crazy to me, in Poland there's a multitude of cheap restaurants full of students close to every university campus. There's a big demand because universities are packed with students that don't cook for themselves. Why hasn't the same happened to the US then?
A restaurant isn’t an improvement over a dining hall when it comes to exposure to crowds.
Re: MIT moves all classes online for the rest of the semester
#215Earlier quoted context omitted.
>In what way are dorms worse than personal homes for diseases anyway? Are they not trusting their students to prepare their own food? Why don't they just close the dining halls instead? The dorms have shared bathrooms, often shared rooms with doubles, triples, and quads, and shared living spaces (lounges, study rooms, laundry, etc.) in addition to the dining halls. Moreover, in our dorms, we have effectively no way t…
>Moreover, in our dorms, we have effectively no way to eat if the dining halls close down. That sounds crazy to me, in Poland there's a multitude of cheap restaurants full of students close to every university campus. There's a big demand because universities are packed with students that don't cook for themselves. Why hasn't the same happened to the US then?
Some college towns have cheap restaurants, not all of them do, though.
Re: MIT moves all classes online for the rest of the semester
#216Earlier quoted context omitted.
>In what way are dorms worse than personal homes for diseases anyway? Are they not trusting their students to prepare their own food? Why don't they just close the dining halls instead? The dorms have shared bathrooms, often shared rooms with doubles, triples, and quads, and shared living spaces (lounges, study rooms, laundry, etc.) in addition to the dining halls. Moreover, in our dorms, we have effectively no way t…
>Moreover, in our dorms, we have effectively no way to eat if the dining halls close down. That sounds crazy to me, in Poland there's a multitude of cheap restaurants full of students close to every university campus. There's a big demand because universities are packed with students that don't cook for themselves. Why hasn't the same happened to the US then?
MIT is kind of a weird location. Cambridge and Boston are _very_ high cost of living. Plus, every dorm either has kitchens or a dining hall, so the food needs aren't super high typically.
Re: MIT moves all classes online for the rest of the semester
#217Earlier quoted context omitted.
It would be nice if they had thought about it enough to offer some sort of concrete solution. I can only imagine how stressful and infuriating the situation MIT is imposing on its students must be for many of them.
To be fair, MIT tends to handle this sort of thing pretty well, and informally. I expect it doesn't have clear policies, but that it will try to do right by people on a case-by-case basis based on people's individual circumstances. I wouldn't take this quite so cynically. That's not to say the Institute isn't corrupt, evil, and horrible in other ways, but this is not one of the ways in which it's evil. The badness mo…
>The badness mostly starts with higher-ups and schemes in the many millions of dollars.
That kind of badness tends to corrupt entire organizations if left unchecked.
Re: MIT moves all classes online for the rest of the semester
#218Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's stopping you from lying and saying that all your classes have finals on Friday? It seems kind of stupid that they'll deprive you of a dorm you paid for because of how your schedule is laid out…
most schools have some sort of database with everyone's course registration and often finals follow a regular schedule that can be derived from the student's course enrollment. I don't know why they even bother to make students tell the RA. they could just send each student's exam schedule directly to the RA and require some written notice from the professor to document exceptions. another question is why it even mat…
They wanted students out so they didn't disturb the students that were still studying.
Re: MIT moves all classes online for the rest of the semester
#219Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Moreover, in our dorms, we have effectively no way to eat if the dining halls close down. That sounds crazy to me, in Poland there's a multitude of cheap restaurants full of students close to every university campus. There's a big demand because universities are packed with students that don't cook for themselves. Why hasn't the same happened to the US then?
There are plenty of fast food places/corner stores/restaurants/groceries in Cambridge within walking distance of MIT dorms. So the "no way to eat" part is a bit dramatic.
The closest grocery is Target in Central square, which is extremely limited or maybe Trader Joe's, which also isn't the same. The Star Market that was right behind campus closed a couple years ago. It's not so easy, in my opinion.
Re: MIT moves all classes online for the rest of the semester
#220Imagine how cool it would be if MIT would make "read only" transmissions of these sessions freely available.
(I know that MIT has already made many courses available on yootoob. Those are wonderful, I've watched many myself.)
Upon re-reading my lecture notes from long ago, they are sadly incomprehensible without the lecture that went with it. It would be great to be able to review those lectures and refresh my memory. I remember attending one given by Feynman for which no record exists.