MIT president censors freshman facebook

Staples of the freshman existence are spartan: extra-long sheets, ramen noodles, mass quantities of highlighters and, of course, the class facebook. But for members of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Class of 1998, the annual freshman facebook was a little late this year. According to The Tech, MIT's student newspaper, concern about possible racist interpretations of the MIT Freshman Picture Book's cover illustration -- a cartoon of a monkey in a lab coat, asking "What does 'intuitively obvious' mean?" -- led MIT President Charles Vest to delay its release. MIT junior Risa Wechsler said although she took the original picture from a book of fairy tales "that was read to us as kids," she did not create the final drawing. "We modified it to make it more relevant to MIT," she said, by adding a pocket protector and calculator. "I was very surprised by the reaction -- I didn't anticipate anything like it." Wechsler said the phrase "intuitively obvious" is a standard expression used by professors when students do not understand a concept. "It's become a total joke students make fun of," she said. In fact, the phrase is so commonly employed at MIT that it serves as the title of a series of videos about campus life produced by and for African-American, Asian and Hispanic students. For Vest, the connection between the videos and the quote on the facebook cover was racially insensitive. He suggested two courses of action for the book's publishers, Technology Community Association -- sell them without covers or do not sell them at all. Vest made the suggestions before the book went on sale and before he had received any complaints about the cover. "The Freshman Picture Book, which is considered to represent the Institute to our new students, unfortunately and unintentionally was published with a cover that easily could be misinterpreted as racially derogatory," Vest said in a written statement. "Experiences on many campuses, including ours, clearly indicate such events have caused substantial anguish within the student body and community, despite the fact that no ill will was intended," he added. Trying to avert a monetary loss, TCA, a group similar to Penn Student Agencies, worked out a compromise with Vest to sell the Picture Book -- with a simple white cover featuring a black oval -- to new students during Residence and Orientation Week in August. "I took responsibility for the decision to replace the cover before its distribution and offered to pay the costs of printing and binding the new cover," Vest stated. At the University, the freshman facebook is published by the yearbook, Poor Richard's Record. Freshmen submit their pictures and pre-order books through a summer mailer. Books are not sold during New Student Orientation. "We use our own pictures [for the cover], and the decision comes from the editor-in-chief," said Engineering senior Derek Wong, photography editor of the Record. "We try to have something representative of Penn's campus, and if we have photos, we would tend to use those [and not graphic art]." Black Student League President Robyn Kent, a College senior, said she approved of Vest's actions. "There's no place in society for anything that's racially derogatory," she added. "It shouldn't be tolerated against my race, or anyone's race, but it happens all too often."

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