Word: system
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Brutus.1, a system developed at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, was designed to write short stories on the subject of betrayal--hence the treacherous name. To teach the innocent computer its sinful ways, the computer scientists who designed it set about "mathematizing the concept of betrayal through a series of algorithms and data structures." Most people might assume that betrayal is not easily mathematized, a subject for human emotion and not for symbol manipulators, but the computer seems to have picked up the vice rather well. (A Rensselaer press release states that the programmers also taught Brutus.1 something of deception, evil...
Instead, I would like to clarify my statement that there are two ways of going about being on the council: either you can tear everything up or you can work within the system. This does not mean that you cannot push for policy change within a system that currently exists. I think this is what we have done. Successful examples include UHS reforms and Universal Keycard Access. Although unsuccessful, the council also fought hard to preserve Science Core exemptions for students with AP scores and to oppose the cut in blocking group sizes...
...chose to work in the existing system because I felt that such an effort would be too difficult to sustain from year to year, and that much of the the council's lobbying efforts made the same progress. The council's professionalism and responsibility has increased since the introduction of popular elections for the council president four years ago. In these four years, the council's role in College decisions has increased. I feel that this incremental approach--which has seen policy changes in phone rates, dining services, house life, UHS, security and safety, advising, book prices and student group...
This crisis is the result of the implementation of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS), a series of statewide standardized tests that every high school student must pass to graduate, beginning with the class of 2003. This high-stakes, high-standards test is the first in the nation to require students to reach what may be a prohibitively high level of competence for the average student. For months, educators and parents around the state have been waiting with bated breath to see what grade would constitute a passing mark on this test. That grade was revealed on Nov. 23, when...
Although these statistics may imply that the MCAS is an unreasonable measure of students' education, there are many ways that the test will be an invaluable weapon in the educational arsenal. MCAS has a sophisticated evaluative system that gives scores out not only to individual students but also to school districts, schools and specific classrooms. By analyzing these scores, educators will be able to determine which areas of the curriculum are successful and which teachers are most effective. By the same token, the tests should identify many areas for improvement and innovation...