<p>^ Amen on the “hard core” ideology. </p>
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<p>It frequently seems like the majority of students don’t care either way about where an issue may land. If the goal is to make the largest amount of people happy, going with what a large minority wants, and the majority doesn’t care about, seems like a good decision. Of course, there are other considerations, but the point is that I don’t fault the vocal minority if the majority doesn’t care enough to say much.</p>
<p>Though the majority could very well have the opposite views of that very vocal minority. But I don’t really hear about those views if they do exist, and don’t know where to look.</p>
<p>I suppose the most useful thing would be the administration taking a campus-wide vote on student opinion.</p>
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<p>Urg, this. I didn’t feel pressure to join an FSILG when I arrived at MIT, but later on I became curious and checked them out. For many, there’s pressure to make a decision very quickly, and some do push the envelope. Though I will emphasize that this is “some”, not all.</p>
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<p>I will note that simply because the research is outstanding doesn’t make all the teachers bad. Being a good researcher will not make you a good teacher - but being a good researcher will also not make you a bad teacher. We could almost certainly have better teaching if the focus was shifted a little, but I just want to make it clear that it’s not an all-or-nothing case, and our faculty is quite good IME.</p>
<p>(Not saying that you were saying otherwise, skysk, I just want to clarify that teaching being a secondary-ish focus doesn’t make the teaching horrible ^.^)</p>