Among the mammals of Caltech, they’re arguably the happiest and freest. While Homo sapiens are burdened with homework and deadlines, and coyotes stick to moonlit hours to avoid the crowd, the fox squirrels roam wherever their paws take them. Stroll across campus and you’re guaranteed to spot one: foraging randomly in the grass (no, they don’t remember where they bury their nuts), lounging on a branch, or chasing a friend in spirals around tree trunks, like a dazzling ribbon in the hand of a gymnast. Even if you don’t see one, just look up: the treetops are decorated with their nests, ready for year-round breeding.
Last Monday, in celebration of Cinco de Mayo, a special dinner in Browne Dining Hall was held from 5-7:30 p.m. The event was a collaboration between Caltech Dining Services and the Caltech Wellness Center.
Hello everyone, my name is Camilla Fezzi, and you probably know me, always running around, without any free time, and I am kind of recognizable because of my Italian (fashion style) 😜. I’m a freshman at Caltech, with the goal of double majoring in biology and chemistry and dreaming, one day, of becoming a doctor and researcher in the oncology/neuroscience field. But before I am any of those things, I am Italian—a daughter, a sister, a friend. I grew up beneath the Verona sun, in a place where the dinner table is sacred and where family is the compass that guides everything. I have always known warmth—of home-cooked meals, of laughter echoing through ancient streets, of a mother’s arms around my shoulders. I know what it is to feel safe, to take fresh water and a doctor’s appointment for granted.
On April 12th, as part of Make-A-Difference (MAD) Day with the Caltech Y, seven other Caltech community members and I joined Lila Rodriguez-Aceves at the Chief Ya’anna Regenerative Learning Village—12 acres of unceded land in El Sereno, about 20 minutes from campus, where we helped tend the land. The Ya’anna Village is the first parcel of land returned to the Gabrielino Shoshone Nation, one of the original Indigenous peoples of Los Angeles. It is stewarded in partnership with Anawakalmekak, the first and only Indigenous public K-12 school in California.
According to the lawsuit, a reduction in the NSF indirect cost rate to 15% would result in an “annual loss of approximately $14.8 million to Caltech’s planned research budget.” An awarded grant consists of direct costs, which fund the research itself, and indirect costs, an added percentage that covers overhead such as infrastructure and administration. Caltech currently has 210 active awards and subawards from NSF. In Fiscal Year 2024, the Institute spent over $93 million on NSF-supported research, including nearly $22 million in indirect costs.
The proposed 47% single-year cut to NASA’s science budget eviscerates our nation’s leadership in space science: ending missions already in space, halting those in build, and defunding telescopes and instruments of the future.
The Student Shop is opening! The Student Shop is an undergrad run machine shop which allows students to work on personal wood and metalworking projects. We had our grand opening yesterday (Monday May 12th). The shop is located near the big LN2 tank, right next to the loading docks and CES (near murder alley).
If you stroll past the Olive Walk on a sunny Pasadena day, you might see something magical in the air. Is it the scent of freshly pranked upperclassmen? The echo of the Fleming cannon? Or perhaps it’s just the spirit of Caltech’s brand of wizardry—a house system that would make even J.K. Rowling jealous. At Caltech, the hallowed tradition of “houses” isn’t just about where you sleep; it’s about forging family, engineering pranks, and unleashing a level of creativity that would make even Dumbledore drop his lemon drop.
My reign of terror is over, and my era as ASCIT President has come to its end. Through this opportunity, Caltech and its community have taught me countless lessons that I wouldn’t be able to learn in any classroom, and I thank each and every one of you for the faith you’ve put in me as the ASCIT President and the ways you’ve helped me grow.
It is no secret that America’s leadership in science and technology was not born by accident—it was built through public investment, public partnerships with academia, and government sanction of private sector monopoly. From the Apollo program to the Human Genome Project, from the internet to the transistor, the United States once treated research and development (R&D) as a cornerstone of national security and economic strength. For some time the facade has been quietly crumbling away, but last week’s FY2026 Discretionary Budget Request rocked the foundations of that legacy hard enough to bring down its edifice.
