They’re fighting to stay on top at Latin – Students rallying for honors courses
By James Vaznis – Globe Staff / March 6, 2010
Students have collected more than 500 signatures on a petition. Hundreds have joined a Facebook group. And their parents have been firing off letters to school administrators.
They are rallying behind a push to save honors classes at Boston Latin School, following the school’s announcement last week that it would scrap the classes and instead focus on expanding access to more rigorous college-level courses.
The move to drop honors classes next year has caused a stir at this most competitive of public schools, where even the slightest deviation in a grade point average is a cause of alarm for many students.
Supporters of the honors classes say the courses have served as a good middle ground for generations of students whose skills are above the level of standard courses but are not ready for college-level, or Advanced Placement, classes.
They also worry that the loss of honors courses will damage students’ chances of admission to top colleges. Grades in honors classes are weighted more heavily in GPAs than standard courses, but not as much as the college-level work.
Brookline pitch may hit Sox fans in wallet – Town ponders raising parking meter rates
By Brock Parker – Globe Correspondent / March 6, 2010
BROOKLINE – Red Sox fans may not get a free pass to park in Brookline on their way to Fenway Park this summer.
Officials in Brookline are warming to the idea of extending the hours that parking meters operate near Fenway Park and charging about $10 to park in the spots during games.
In past seasons, parking has been free at meters in Brookline after 6 p.m. Sox fans could hop on the Green Line to get to Fenway and avoid parking fees near the stadium that can cost up to $35. But as a result, customers at some businesses – such as those near the St. Mary’s MBTA stop on Beacon Street – often could not find a place to park.
“Our regulars will not come down here when it’s a game day,’’ said Paul Walsh, general manager of the Beacon Street Tavern, who said at least 50 percent of his patrons drive to the restaurant.
Brookline selectmen appointed a committee to consider hiking meter rates and extending the hours for metered spots until 10 p.m., said Bill Schwartz, a cochairman of the committee.
The changes could affect more than 100 parking spots around the St. Mary’s stop and the 1000 block of Beacon Street.
Where ideas can flow – MIT’s Media Lab moves into $90 million building designed by Pulitzer Prize-winning architect
By Hiawatha Bray – Globe Staff / March 6, 2010
CAMBRIDGE – It took more than 10 years, but the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s famed Media Lab has finally moved into its new digs.
The gleaming aluminum structure on Amherst Street in Cambridge officially opened yesterday. Media Lab director Frank Moss said its large central atrium and glass-enclosed laboratories are ideal spaces for the lab’s collaborative research projects.
“It delivers on the vision of a unique way of doing research,’’ Moss said. “No boundaries, no walls, a flow of interdisciplinary ideas, and plenty of space to build and invent.’’
The new lab’s Pulitzer Prize-winning architect, Fumihiko Maki, called it “one of the best buildings we ever produced in my long career, both in Japan and in the United States.’’
The plans for the new Media Lab were announced in 1999, as part of a major building campaign for the MIT campus. The most famous of the new buildings, a computer science center designed by renowned architect Frank Gehry, was completed in 2004. But Maki’s plans for the Media Lab were put in a drawer after the Internet boom of the late-1990s faded and corporate financing for the project dwindled.
