(Un)Fortunately, We Now Have an H-Index

Dear reader,

The California Tech is at once delighted and horrified to announce that we have, as of October 2nd of this year, been cited in another publication. Namely, by the National Association of Scholars (NAS), a conservative 501(c)(3) founded in 1987 for the preservation of “Western intellectual heritage.” In other words, we happened to wind up in an alt-right think piece that, while using an LLM to make its own case against DEI (as an editor, I can confirm diction and syntax speak volumes), happened to dig up our own reporting for Caltech statistics.

The pieces in question are Michael Gutierrez and Ling-Yi Wu’s report on last year’s peaceful Palestine sit-in, and Troy Zhang’s article on DEI-related threats to federal education funding.

While I briefly considered issuing a rebuttal, I feel awkward enough dignifying the NAS piece with even this many paragraphs. Its title alone—“Diversity Rocket Science at Caltech”—is emblematic of its stupidity.

The following advice will suffice: Don’t engage fascists. Nothing comes of it. Ever. These people spend their lives peddling a mythologized version of America that never was—and, if we stay alert, will never be. To insinuate they belong to any genuine intellectual arena by indulging this nonsense would be a crime of which this paper refuses to be guilty.

May we all immerse ourselves in better stuff. Reader, I hereby redirect you to any other part of this issue.

Warmly,

Damian R. Wilson
Editor-in-Chief