[January 28] CGPU Misleads in Compensation Gains of Proposed Tentative Agreement

[January 28] CGPU Bargaining Team Statement in Support of our Groundbreaking Tentative Agreement

[January 28] Aristotle: The Philosopher of Reason, Reality, and the Tangible World

[January 28] Betsy Mitchell to Step Down as Director of Athletics

[January 28] From Wicked to Wickedly Fun: Caltech’s Off-Campus Adventures

[January 28] Rare 17th-Century Portrait Comes to Pasadena

[January 28] The Bubble

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I have gathered union petition signatures, organized vote parties for union authorization, sent mass emails in support of the union, and spoken in person to most grad students and postdocs in Schlinger, Church, and Crellin for Caltech Grad Researchers and Postdocs United (CGPU). I’m about as pro-union as they come. But right now, CGPU is at best misleading and at worst outright lying about compensation gains in the recent tentative agreement (TA).

The CGPU-UAW Bargaining Team is a group of eleven Graduate Student Workers and five Postdocs democratically elected to represent their peers in collective bargaining with the Caltech administration.

If Plato was the dreamer with his head above the clouds, Aristotle is the realist with his hands in the soil. He’s the philosopher of practicality; the one who took the abstract musings of his teacher, Plato, and said, “Alright, but how does it really work?”

After 14 years as Caltech’s Director of Athletics, Physical Education and Recreation, Betsy Mitchell announced earlier this month that she will be stepping down in the spring.

If you’ve recently heard students humming show tunes, hyping up hockey games, or debating the best rides at Knott’s Berry Farm, you’ve probably stumbled upon the buzz surrounding Caltech’s Off-Campus Programming Series… I recently had the chance to chat with Steven Metzmaker, Assistant Director of Residential & Student Experience, who has been orchestrating these off-campus escapades.

Last month, the Norton Simon Museum in Old Pas received this portrait: Diego Velázquez’s “Queen Mariana of Austria” (1652–53). On special loan from the Museo del Prado, the famed Spanish national art museum in Madrid, this painting is being displayed on the West Coast for the first time.

During my time at Caltech, I’ve noticed that I often use the term “BUBBLE,” as in phrases like “I’m in my bubble of things to do,” “Caltech Bubble,” or “problem sets bubble.” Essentially, it’s a closed, limiting space, even though deep down, I know it’s not.

Most visitors to Caltech’s newest residence were probably surprised when they first found out that the 212-room building has just one entrance, an issue which, as a resident of Bechtel myself, has been more inconvenient than I originally anticipated…

$130,000. That is my estimate of waste at Bechtel.

In the midst of procrastinating yet another set, I am seized by my obsession with the godforsaken company Nintendo. Ever since the official announcement of the Nintendo Switch 2 (yes that is actually its name), I have not known a day of peace. I seem to be physically incapable of lasting 24 hours without thinking about this new console. With a supposed price of around $400-449, it is important to see if it will match up to the high price point.

We must confess that artificial intelligence has changed the planet. Once upon a time, the man was surprised by the discovery of fire, then metal, cultivation techniques. Then we arrived at more scientific realities such as during the Middle Ages when extraordinary cathedrals were built using heavy tools, pulleys, a form of engineering, right? With the Enlightenment, the greatest scientific discoveries were made such as light with Edison or more specific analyses at an anatomical level.

I just finished reading the new book Star Bound by Emily Carney and Bruce McCandless III (shoutout to my friend Paige Kaufman who released a podcast interview with the authors yesterday – Space Spiels, wherever you get your podcasts). In the book, the authors discuss – among other things – how we have successfully grown plants in lunar regolith brought back from the Apollo missions. This is especially relevant now, as Artemis is aimed at establishing a permanent base on the surface of the Moon.

When I sent out my university applications it was as if my entire country was against me, no one wanted me to leave the traditional circle of the native student, and yet, here I am. I believe I owe this story to many people, but especially to that little girl with dark curls who, as soon as she set foot in the United States for the first time, felt a calling, felt totally a daughter of the American dream.

Caltech is, by most accounts, a demanding place. Students work too hard; professors stress too much. Lunchtime should come as the universal comfort blanket to us all. A chance for our basement-ridden folk to remember what Vitamin D feels like; an opportunity for Caltech students to practice a social encounter; a time to sing Katy Perry to both halves of my grilled chicken sandwich. And yet, it is my frequent jaunts into the Browne dining hall that prove the most demanding of all.

we build rockets, not firefighters, but we are still talking about fire…right? A combination of abnormally dry conditions and powerful wind gusts have fueled Los Angeles with destructive wildfires.” This was the subtitle of the first article published by the L.A. Times, and I think you have all read about what is happening, which areas are affected, and how hard they have tried to put out the fire and contain it, but it is a machine that does not stop.

Cast of Earth Data, from left to right: Kathryn Bikle, Ellis Spickermann, Cai Tong Ng, Jocelyn Argueta, Joony Kim, Anya Janowski, Armin Kleinboehl, the author, Maria Azcona Baez, Eric Smith, Joey Jefferson, Julian Wagner, Solvin Sigurdson, Jessica Kilgore, Josef Svoboda, Leslie Maxfield, Boyuan Chen, Maat Braaten. Just out of frame are Joži McKiernan and Michael Gutierrez.

It is now Monday January 13^th 2025 and the Eaton Fire is 14,117 acres and 27% contained. 3,155 firefighting personnel are assigned to this fire. The Eaton Fire is one of the worst natural disasters in United States history, and Southern California’s deadliest wildfire disaster. Ten miles of foothills from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to Santa Anita Avenue is just destruction. Caltech students, postdocs, faculty, staff, and the surrounding community have been impacted by this traumatic and devastating fire. At least 200 Caltech community members have lost their homes to the fires. Thousands have been displaced. Ash contamination, poor air quality, and loss of power and water utilities remain to be additional issues we face.

Contrary to what our pseudonym suggests, we are but college students. Thus we spent all of this past fall hoping and praying for a single miracle: Caltech’s Three Week Winter Break. This break is a time of rest, a time of relaxation, and a time of rejuvenation. During these three weeks, we slowly gather back up the energy needed for the upcoming winter term, whether that be through spending time with friends and family, going out and having fun, or simply just doing nothing. For this reason, we wanted to share with you how our respective winter breaks went.

I promised you Plato, and here we are. I would say that, after a period of rest where we fantasized about the future and especially about what we should and could have done during the following term, the philosopher I am going to write about fits perfectly. A Mediterranean illumination that I had trying to understand how to find a connection, but it allows us to see the world of Platonic ideas as a parallel reality truly capable of transforming the simple idea of ​​thought, with the intellectual search for being. Mamma mia! What big words—well, let’s delve into the connections that can be seen between the world of science and research with Plato.

Nintendo is arguably the largest gaming company in the world. From the Legend of Zelda to Mario, it’s amassed an impressive repertoire of successful franchises. Even more so, the success of these franchises becomes even more impressive considering how they are only available on a Nintendo console.

This article will be updated with the latest information as it becomes available.

It was a bit of an enigma as to why he had chosen to speak at Caltech. A world famous luxury shoe designer, Stuart Weitzman, seems an unlikely visitor. After graduating from the Wharton School in 1963 at the University of Pennsylvania, Weitzman pushed his job offer at Goldman Sachs to pursue women’s shoe designing. In 2019, UPenn named its school of design after him, and now seven years after stepping down from creative director, Weitzman travels around the country lecturing at various universities— and Caltech was next on his list.

In our annual review of the ASCIT Bylaws, ASCIT Board of Directors has decided to propose the following amendments. These propositions have been approved unanimously by the Board of Directors, and we now bring them to the undergraduate students to be voted into action.

In “The Ballad of East and West,” Rudyard Kipling states that “East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet.” On the contrary, Raqib Shaw demonstrates how art can unite the two with striking effect.