If you are a friend, an enemy, or even a vague acquaintance of mine, you have likely heard me tell you to write for the Tech. And yet my research has shown the vast majority of you have never written for the tech! What utter disgrace, frankly I’m disappointed. So in an effort to convince more of you to write for the tech I have written a very comprehensive guide about how to write for the tech.
Arriving at this institution from Denmark many tropes of the American, and indeed the Californian life seemed confirmed. Breakfasts of waffles, sweltering temperatures and affable attitudes.
However, there’s one aspect that has struck me more than any other - the complete disregard for environmental concerns.
At Caltech, a distinctive biology course introduces a new way students approach the life sciences. “The Biomechanics of Organismal Design,” taught by Professor Michael H. Dickinson, merges the concrete principles of physics with the dynamic patterns of biology. This integration offers a new perspective to students, particularly appealing to those with interests in mechanical engineering.
The course tackles intriguing questions like how penguins swim, why maple seeds spin to the ground, and the comparative strength of spider silk versus steel. While the course focuses on the organismal level, it also incorporates molecular, cellular, and tissue-level scales, painting a comprehensive picture of biological mechanics.
In the North and South House undergraduate residences, the walls are filled with colors and murals. The murals have been put up continuously over the years and represent a history of student life.
In order to put up a mural, the design has to be approved by both the members of the house and by housing. Caltech Housing’s website states that their mural policy is in place to “support self-expression and also help foster an enjoyable and safe living environment for all house members.”
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.
