[2049] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
Re: [Mit-talk] [UA-SCATR] New Card initiative
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (John Belcher)
Sun Jul 9 07:56:12 2006
From: "John Belcher" <jbelcher@mit.edu>
To: <mit-talk@mit.edu>
Date: Sun, 9 Jul 2006 07:55:40 -0400
In-Reply-To: <b82503c90607081958m809ec9bgf1055446938fba49@mail.gmail.com>
Errors-To: mit-talk-bounces@mit.edu
>Also, whatever you like or dislike about different dining programs, I'd
>be wary about criticizing them as "social engineering" attempts.
>In the same vein, the floor/suite/kitchen system that many people like
>might be described as the result of a social engineering experiment
>(read the Faculty Housing Committee report of 1963 -- I'm pretty sure
>it's in the Institute Archives). Faculty and administrators often
>have, and will probably continue to, make changes that affect the
>overall student experience -- the important question is whether you
>think they will be for better or for worse. That's all from me --
I would also add that however much you resent these attempts, and find them
misguided, you should recognize that administrators choose between upsetting
you and having to live with their mistakes if they don't make a good
decision. I don't doubt that Chuck Vest thinks about Scott Krueger once a
day, and feels guilty, and will to the day he dies. The dining plan does
not rise to the level of life or death, of course, but I bring this up to
make the point that administrators deal with a lot of things that are at
that level, and my experience here is that they make the best choices that
they can. Some of them I don't agree with, but they are all in good faith.
You just have to complain loudly with the ones you don't agree with. But
they are not out to get you.
John Belcher
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