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One of MIT’s greatest points of pride arrives each January: Independent Activities Period.
Many university staffs use January to rest up for the coming semester. But MIT doubles down on its need for caffeine with IAP, allowing anyone associated with MIT to teach or take any class they want, so long as it has a department sponsor and can fit, time-wise, within the month.
This gives CMS staff in particular a chance to show off their passions.
For example, our own Mike Rapa launches “The Life and Death of John Carpenter” tonight, featuring the Carpenter film Dark Star, and continues a couple evenings each week through the month. It’s your chance to sit with fellow fans and watch Carpenter flicks like Assault on Precinct 13, The Thing, and Big Trouble in Little China.
Meanwhile, Generoso Fierro will teach a one-evening course next Monday on “checking levels, making a segue, cueing vinyl (vinyl-what’s that?)”—all the basics an MIT student needs to be a DJ for WMBR. Not much of a fan of rest, Gene will also host a three-night film series featuring the work of young Japanese director Nobuhiro Yamashita.
Other CMS-sponsored IAP classes include ones on video games—from making audio-only games as an intro to game design, to learning how to be a game master for an alternate reality game.
For the full listing of CMS Independent Activities Period events, check out our IAP page at http://student.mit.edu/iap/nscms.html.
