Lunch with Madam President by Mollie B. '06

Well, apparently I touched a nerve with my last entry — sounds like everybody has science/math teachers who are great big dorks. (Although hopefully none of my professors themselves will ever hit the blog when they’re googling themselves — hi professors, I really do like you!)

So my big news of the day is that I got to eat lunch with MIT President Hockfield today. Apparently she asks five or six students to eat lunch with her every Friday, and this week Bryan and I got lucky. Now, I happen to think this is very cool in and of itself — there are not too many schools in this country, especially Really Good Ones, where the president of the school cares so much about student life and opinions that she asks students to lunch every week.

I was particularly glad that President Hockfield is very interested in what sets MIT students apart from students at other schools she’s had experience with (she was at Yale for 20ish years before she came here). I think it’s a very positive thing for our community when our president recognizes and respects the qualities which set MIT apart from other schools.

A short list of the topics we discussed at lunch: the very collaborative nature of student work (surprising to her), what MIT’s role ought to be in national and global energy policy, the tremendous drive and productivity of MIT students (like the ad slogan — “Impossible is Nothing”), and the way we’re taught to think rather than memorizing tedious lists of facts. It was a very entertaining, intelligent, and philosophical discussion, and I’m grateful I had the oppportunity to participate.

Plus I got to meet Bryan in real life, and he promised he would organize a blogger outing to go get ice cream! Best day ever!

Argh, now I have to find Adam and drag him back to his computer — he got a two-day extension on a paper for 21A.100 that was supposed to be due yesterday, so I’m putting off seeing the new Harry Potter movie until tomorrow, which annoys me to no end. Plus, while he’s writing the paper, I’m doing his laundry. The things I do for that boy! You bet your bottom dollar he’s being required to take me out to a romantic dinner — perhaps in the North End — tomorrow night before the movie.