Dear Colleagues
We face many challenges/opportunities for unity :-), and herein is how I have attempted to combine some thoughts of mine and others into a poem to reflect on some recent committee reports on how we might reshape the GIRs for example. The poem title itself is reflective of the riddles, for it is a wink to 69 Stat. 290 and the future of all wealth and finance being totally dependent on information technology (and always has been?). The poem ideally is presented in full art form of a circle with a special fun code: and there is a linear form representing a rocket ship and a circular form representing on the wheels on the bus go round and round . . . . But these are hard to fit in the formatting constraints of the FNL without the font being too small for many to read. A link to download these versions is here: https://sites.mit.edu/slocum/2026/04/07/girs-d-fined/; and here: https://sites.mit.edu/slocum/2026/04/07/in-line-girs-d-fined/. It is also presented below one stanza at a time with short discussions for each.
“Reshape” the GIRs is an indication to why the poem is in the format it is (download and see 🙂 ). Indeed, I am a product of several very fine HASS classes from my UG days. Beyond that riddle, many more remain, and like much of good art, the one who experiences it will “see” new things according to their personal experiences and feelings: Good art inspires others to create. In fact, one might say that the art (and riddles) created in response to the TFUAP report were motivated by the report, because “FUAP” is “A comb over hairstyle that looks extra crispy. It’s either slick back or a brush-over that can look like a wave.”? Was this their fun riddle? :-).
And this is why I take the time and thought to compose my thoughts not in essay form, which is too traditional and easy to set up debates and arguments about, especially since when confronted with normal formal, reaction is often formal and normal (as in perpendicular to the hypothesis!) . . . . ART, on the other hand, gives us pause to think deeper and roll ideas around in our minds as we ask what does it mean to us . . . . This is what the true humanists taught me when I was an undergrad at MIT :-). Thank you!
So let’s start with the binary code to be deciphered and the words themselves have coded meaning . . . but a fun first key that enables then many other keys ties in with the poem title: “IT God we trust” (ooooh some deeper riddles right there). The sum of the “1”s is 252 = 6*42, and in Genesis 1:1-31. . . So hitch your wagon to this poem and have some fun, as it rolls on and on . . . (AHA! Another fun hint :-)). Onward one stanza at a time:
Stanza 1
Ducky
or lucky
To the rest
are WE best
Are we #1 (accordioning to US News) and will stay there because we are so much better than others? Or are we lucky because a few in the past (Killian, MacVicar) set the tone and now that others have caught up, and we just think we are best? And what does “best” mean anyway?
Stanza 2
Finest in land
mens et manus
Create opportunity
and build community
We are a land grant college. The TFUAP might have done well to have an appendix that explains what that is and also review MIT’s charter and how it is relevant today. It could reveal how can we create new opportunity for mens et manus to not just survive, but thrive? Just like Purdue! (TFUAP page 78). Or . . . hmmm what does the acronym FUAP also mean? (hint all acronyms check urban dictionary). Oops, Are we doing it again? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CduA0TULnow . Maybe it’s time to cast aside our prejudices and listen to Prof. James Williams who proposed our motto become mens et manus et cor! (FNL Vol. XVI No. 4 February / March 2004)
Stanza 3
So Greatest Of Degree
What should change be?
Future control & predict?
By gathering docs edict?
Can a committee of a few that claims to be representative but selected by those in power, actually predict the future so well? Will they play dice with our future? (pun alert!: Greatest Of Degree).
Stanza 4
Or with all the huffling,
And deck chairs shuffling,
& making sure to benchmark,
Just another squirrel in the park?
Huffling: 7 dozen page report with a two-page executive summary that does not actually explicitly say what is being done, so one really does not have to read the rest of the report (maybe the authors should take some of the communication subjects espoused?). How is Figure 2 really that different than Figure 1? All too often since the realm of Paul Gray brought in a new era of the Corporation thinking we are too insular and should be more like others (in particular with bigger endowments) and benchmarking has become the norm, and indeed MIT has become more normal, more like the others, each benchmarking against the other . . . . If only we could be more like Purdue (TFUAP page 78)?
Stanza 5
Repeat, another squirrel in park?
Chasing after nutty benchmark
While deck chairs shuffled
and dissenters muffled
Self-explanatory (but hey, that’s what tenure is for, to help us actually all be able to work as a team!)
Stanza 6
Do we want change
and expand our range?
MASS Institute of Technology
To General Institute of Panology?
The TFUAP does have some very good points, like the math for LLMs is critical, as well as the ethics, else https://www.youtube.com/shorts/1FtKsa29FT4? But what if they get there first?! Ponder this riddle: does MIT become a GIP? Do we become fat and lazy as in Glucose-dependent Insulinotropic Polypeptide (GIP) secreted from the small intestine in response to food intake, now used in combination with GLP-1 for weight loss ORRR in other words, will the world wake up to our slow dissolution into mediocrity driven by AI is much better than we are so in the world of slang, “gip” (or “gyp”) means to cheat, swindle, or defraud someone, but in construction it refers to drywall or gypsum board, which is cheap and easy to punch through.
Stanza 7
What two change to compete?
and rather than just delete,
beware what is spoken
too fix truly broken
The spelling of “2” is critical here, and I will let the reader ponder in the context of previous stanzas and noting the TFUAP does NOT anywhere address that in addition to looking at the GIRs, we need to look at admissions which are symbiotically coupled. We can seek to teach what we think must be taught, but will there be students who actually want to learn IT? Or are we just imagining we the new knowledge drink in town? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jt8uNG02ixA
Stanza 8
1/2 learning shallow
in an ear then fallow
Plant knowledge deep
Grow memories to keep
Is our current trend a student body with an ever more diverse set of interests that are less interested in earning an MIT degree than getting one? In the case of the latter, whatever we set for the GIRs is irrelevant. Fast intro courses are no better/different than on-line learning by using AI to answer the simple question of the moment (GOTO Stanzas 7 and 8).
Stanza 9
Students focus with zeal
problem sets then real
Maybe turn 2 CATE
4 GIRs some hate
To teach, we must know: Deep learning means engaging with teachers who not only really know the topic, but practice it as experts in their profession. Do our hiring practices reflect the need/desire/passion to teach the core for what it is, true foundation for all that is to come? IHTFP has many meanings that need to be explored, but we come back to do we admit those who truly want to train hard for the marathon that awaits them, or do we tend towards electric scooter learning?
Stanza 10
LLMs upset carts
be not torn to parts
Communicate d’fine
Language => divine!
Contemplate this: “D-FINE” (Fine-grained Distribution Refinement) is a high-performance, real-time object detection model designed to improve upon existing Transformer-based detectors (DETRs). It is known for its ability to balance speed and accuracy in computer vision tasks. AND “d’fine” (or “D is fine”) is slang used to describe someone as extremely attractive, beautiful, or physically appealing. How we teach students to use (and create) LLMs will be critical to the future of us all: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Wlsd9mljiU 2:36/4:21
Stanza 11
∴ change not just GIRs
Reach high & remove bars
Raise up language requirement
Minor to invest half of what is spent
Ask any set of students seeking to learn and master a new “foreign” language at MIT and you will find they find it is very difficult. Ask the teachers what they think. Are language classes considered more of a service than a “true” class that teaches breadth and depth of thinking? This is true in SHASS as well as well as SoE. Ponder learning a new language exposes one to new cultures and ways of thinking like no other experience.
Stanza 12
4 of 8 SHASS for new language learn
6 of 12 major’s math of LLM’s turn
Build the true core of mind
MIghTy one of a kind!
Mathematics is the language . . . in all tongues. Language of all types is the key to success, especially for mit to realize true GHY (note the reversal of text case, what does GHY mean to you!?)
Stanza 13
| 1st + 2nd law|
+> S awe!
XelaleX
3.14
Only a few absolute laws are needed for core understanding that then leads to the others to create true awe, including the baker’s dozen law :-): I wrote this poem on pi day, while thinking about this and admissions: we do NOT admit legacy people, but I happen to know of one extraordinarily brilliant talented applicant, head and shoulders above many who I see admitted every year. This person was not admitted. I am sure many of us can point to such an anecdote, and hence perhaps understand the full meaning and intent of the above shared with true admiration and love of/for our wonderful community. Forwards or backwards, around and around we go, all paths lead to a future. QED.
