A group of graduate students and postdocs at Caltech have begun the process of unionizing. They have collected over 450 union cards, a supermajority of the grad students. While union cards are not a guarantee of a vote in a union election, they are a good predictor. The next step in the process is filing for a union election, where the graduate student body and the postdocs will vote on whether they want to unionize.
Following the C/GPU majority support rally at Caltech Hall, discussions about grad and postdoc unionization have become increasingly urgent. We are writing to endorse the movement to form a labor union for graduate students and postdocs at Caltech. Our research is diverse, spanning microbiology, environmental science, systems biology, quantum optics, and gravitational physics. Forming a union would empower us to negotiate better working conditions, which in turn will improve our ability to produce world-class research and teach world-class students. We can learn from our colleagues at institutions like University of California Los Angeles, University of Southern California, and MIT to build a strong union that supports all grads and postdocs—both by making concrete gains at the bargaining table and building a stronger community.
On October 1st, the day of move-in, an email was sent out by Emily Sanger, the Bechtel RLC (resident life coordinator). The email contained 63 temporary room codes, opening every frosh’s private room in Bechtel. These temporary room codes, while allegedly only lasting a few days, gave access to many student’s personal belongings. It’s unknown how many students these codes were sent to.
After arriving at Caltech, one of the first things I noticed about the campus once I finally had time to wander around was that, from what I could tell, this place lacked a consistent architectural style. There’s a mix of Spanish-style architecture like Beckman Institute, more modern-looking buildings like Chen, and silly guys like the Beckman Hall (and also ugly ass ones like Downs-Lauritsen). This mixing of styles continues inside, with some buildings like Bridge keeping their old-fashioned style but Gates-Thomas deciding to modernize. That’s all neat and cool, but it goes a little further than what you see walking up and down the halls. The place I noticed these tiny details is a sacred place where you have time to yourself, a place free of distraction, a place of relief: the bathroom.
After over two decades ofcontinuous operation, Caltech Administration has banned the firing of the potato cannon as part of Blacker Hovse’s rotation events. Built in 2002 as part of a Ditch Day stack, firing it has been a Blacker Hovse tradition ever since. “The potato cannon was my favorite rotation event last year. I’m disappointed that this year’s frosh [weren’t] able to have the same experience as I did,” says Ethan Labelson (EE ‘26, Blacker/Dabney).
While houses throw a significant portion of the social events during the year, ASCIT throws events open to the entire student body every term. We’ve listed an overview of the events that we both host and help out with, often with our advisor, Tom Mannion, the Senior Director of Student Activities and Alumni Engagement.
Last Wednesday, September 27th 2023, the Caltech Grad Researchers and Postdocs United (CGPU) held a New Year, New Union rally to demonstrate that a supermajority of graduate students and postdocs at Caltech support forming a union.
Last year, members of ASCIT, which is the entirety of all undergraduate students at Caltech, voted to raise dues from $33 per an academic term to $40 per an academic term by an overwhelming margin.
In 1988, Mobil Oil Field foreman Michele Judd stood on top of an oil platform in Paso Robles, California. She did not give much thought to the day ending or the stars coming out. To Judd, this simply signified that the workday was finishing and most of her workers would be heading home, leaving just a skeleton crew to work through the night. But years later, she remembers looking up into the darkening sky, wondering what it would be like working on projects high in space rather than working with materials deep in the earth.
SPECTRE library has long featured a life-sized mannequin of Anakin Skywalker. Short, remarkably detailed, and notoriously startling, Anakin is an iconic part of Caltech’s sci-fi library and well-known among South Hovse students.
Attention all fans of fresh produce! On June 1st, Caltech Dining Services (CDS) hosted their first ever Pop-Up Farmers Market in the Little Browne Dining Room!
Caltech Students: Please fill out the IHC’s feedback forms about Housing and Rotation before July 1st, 2023! thanks :) When the news broke that 271 students committed to Caltech for the Class of 2027, current students and faculty panicked. How would Caltech accommodate around 40 more freshmen than expected? Suddenly, the rules for upperclassmen picking rooms on campus were changing and students scrambled to update their plans. But why did so many students feel cheated, and is there really a housing crisis on campus?
At around 9:10 PM on Wednesday, May 17th, the façade of our beloved Red Door Café was damaged by a piece of thrown debris. This author got to the scene in time to interview key witnesses, take photos of the incident, and grab a smoked tofu sandwich before 10 PM.
“Go to a Nordic country and commit a crime that will get you a school term of jail time… do your work remotely from there in luxury and comparative extravagance,” says Josiah Miller (Ay ‘24, Venerable).
“I can say that when I was first asked about it, it obviously seemed like a challenging role, but I genuinely believe that I can stand up to the challenge,” chimed Dr. Jennifer Jahner, newly appointed Dean of Undergraduate Students.
As we barrel towards the end of another academic year and prepare to say “au revoir” to our soon-to-be-graduates, I hope we can all take a moment to appreciate the time that we have been able to spend together and reflect upon what we have overcome in the past few years, both as individuals and as a community.
“I planned accordingly.. based on the rules of the lottery”, says Hannah Fisher (ME ‘24, Unaffiliated) “If they had stuck with the original rules, I would have gotten housing in Bechtel. But now I don’t have on-campus housing.”
