The 2011 Class Council finalized the list of students who will have official roles in the June 12 Commencement exercises, according to Class Council President Joseph Coleman '11. Kathleen Mayer '11 will be student orator while Emily Baxter '11, Mike Lewis '11, Marian Mathias '11 and Hamish Tildesley '11 will be class historians. The marshals for graduation who will lead students in the Commencement exercises will be Ariana Almas '11, Kyle Battle '11, Emily Broas '11, Tommy Brothers '11, Angelo Carino '11, Joseph Coleman '11, Sarah Frostenson '11, Samantha Gutierrez '11 and Chris Han '11, Coleman said. Charles Wheelan '88 who teaches at the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy during the year and serves as an economics and public policy professor during the Summer term will serve as the faculty orator. During Class Day, the orators will deliver speeches while the historians will perform skits about the experiences of members of the Class of 2011 while at the College. The 2011 Class Council solicited nominations for principles from the entire student body and sought to select a diverse group of principles from over 100 nominations, Coleman said. In past years, the Senior Executive Council has been responsible for choosing principles, according to Coleman.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology borrowed $750 million on May 11 by issuing taxable bonds it plans to repay over the next 100 years, according to a written statement released by the university. The century bonds, which yield an interest rate of 5.62 percent, will finance projects such as new buildings for the performing arts center and nanotechnology fabrication center. Century bonds are rare because few institutions command the global respect and secure finances to make them feasible, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported. Although both Boston University and Yale University issued century bonds in the mid-1990s, MIT's bonds are for seven times the amount of money, The Chronicle reported.
The method by which a course is taught may be more important than the instructor's background, according to a paper published in this week's issue of Science. The study monitored two sections of an introductory physics course one was taught in lecture format by a highly experienced and respected professor while the other was taught by research associate and graduate student over the course of one week, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported. The non-certified pair used a teaching method called deliberate practice, which combined in-class practice and frequent assessments with emphasis on real-world applications, The Chronicle reported. Students in this section performed twice as well on a test at the end of the week than students in the control group, according to The Chronicle.
