51 articles
Ashlyn Roice - ASCIT President Hello! My name is Ashlyn Roice, and I am running for ASCIT President. Here is my statement and my picture: Hey, everyone! I’m Ashlyn Roice, a current junior and Lloydie studying Computer Science and Information & Data Science. You may know me as the current Social Director of ASCIT. This year, I am honored to be running for the ASCIT pre
ASCIT Board of Directors Announces New Student Life and Experience Conference (SLEC) alongside 2025 Student Faculty Conference (SFC) The Associated Students of the California Institute of Technology (ASCIT) Board of Directors (BoD) has announced that, for the first time, both the Student Faculty Conference (SFC) and the newly established Student Life and Experience Conference (SLEC) will take place in April 2025. These two conferences, scheduled back-to-back on April 10 and April 11, 2025,
Man Edition By Unknown TL;DR: Gus’s is a fantastic BBQ restaurant not far from campus. Upon arrival, I noticed that the place was lively and a bit noisy, with tables feeling somewhat cramped. However, the service was impressively fast, with waiters frequently checking in on us. There’s free parking available in the back, but it’s worth noting that the restaurant tends to get very crowded, so making a reservation is definitely recommended. Appetizers: Cast Iron Cornbread: This d
Elizabeth, Jeb, Santiago We are running to be your Senior Class Co-Presidents. Throughout our time at Caltech, we have been dedicated to building a vibrant, in
Hello everyone! In case you haven’t heard, Professor Dana Murphy, Associate Professor of Black Studies and English at Caltech, was recently terminated. We, the students of Caltech, are writing a petition to request that the Caltech administration reinstate Professor Murphy and recognize the importance of Black studies at Caltech. We are collecting signatures and/or comments about Professor Murphy to present to these administrators. If you would like to contribute, please fill out the following G
Members of Caltech PBU with the banner they painted for the PBU Launch event in January. When I sat down with Elena Priesen-Reis, a 2nd-year graduate student in Material Science, to discuss Plant-Based Universities (PBU) at Caltech, one word frequently reappeared: “community”.** **Elena brought the idea of PBU from her experiences at her undergraduate institution, the University Coll
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. Step 0. Find a topic (optional). Find something you’re passionate about or something you think
There has been a lot of buzz about the vague spectre of “admin” banning undergraduate house events, both during and outside Rotation this year. In continuing this discussion between tradition and inclusivity, the Tech interviewed Dr. Kevin Gilmartin, Vice President for Student Affairs, to get his perspective on the matter. Our conversation focused on two specific issues: Blacker Hovse’s Potato Cannon, and Ricketts Hovse’s Rotation Dinner Skits. Blacker’s Potato Cannon, built for a Ditch Day s
Caltech’s rigorous academic environment is well-known, but to shed some new light on the actual daily grind of undergraduates. At the California Institute of Technology, a campus known for its intense academic focus, the life of an undergraduate is often seen as a mystery of time management and intellectual endurance. To understand this better, I decided to conduct an unofficial survey (N=12) to shed some new light on the actual daily grind of undergraduates. It focused on their academic worklo
From the athman of a house that never shows up Interhouse basketball just finished, and I would like to reflect on the season. Dabney showed up to a full 3 out of our 7 games and proudly lost all of them. Personally, I scored a whole one point for my team which is more than I ever could have imagined given basketball is my least favorite sport and I don’t actually know all the rules. Despite all this, I still had a lot of fun. Sure, getting dunked on repeatedly across
Hey Caltech! Ever wanted to mess with MIT, the city of LA, or the entire school but never knew how? Look no further than the Caltech Prank Club—pranking the Mid Institute of Technology since 1891! (probably) What do we do? Pranks! (Duh) Caltech has a long history of prank culture: https://www.admissions.caltech.edu/why-caltech/student-life/traditions-pranks/pranks [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calt
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.” Though th
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
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. From the very first day, the staggering amount of waste generated on t
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 produ
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. After the union election, Caltech will have an opportunity to contest the resu
It’s been a month since Rotation ended and I’m finally ready to talk about it again. Damn, that sounds so dramatic. It’s like I’m some celebrity breaking their silence about why the band broke up. Let me start by saying, it’s not that deep. It’s just exhausting (as I’m sure you all are aware). As we all look back on Rotation, I imagine there are common themes and experiences we all can identify with. For many, if not all, of the returning students this was our first exposure to a “covid-free”
It’s the beginning of term, and the new frosh class are met with their first challenge of the year: attempting to socialize with random upperclass students. Each night for their first week at Caltech they rotate, attending events from all the houses, trying to find the perfect fit for their four years at Caltech. Then comes the cannon fire, and rotation comes to an end. The end of rotation brings every frosh a new housing assignment they have to move into. A very exhausting day follows as frosh
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 st
Tik Tak… Tik Tak, it is almost 1 PM. Lengthy queues of visitors inundated Caltech’s halls, eager to immerse themselves in Caltech’s scientific event “Sci-Fi to Sci-Fact”. The atmosphere in Beckman Auditorium crackled with anticipation as Caltech Science Exchange organized an evening where science seamlessly merged with the silver screen, igniting imaginations and sparking AI-focused conversations. Moderated by Latif Nasser, co-host of Radiolab, this event provided a unique opportunity for its
I was eating lunch outside Broad Café with my labmates. When the time grew closer to 12:30 PM, we got up from our table to head to the rally. I was surprised—we weren’t the only group of people getting up from their table at this time. Grad students and postdocs all around got up from their tables, like us, and started heading south in unison. We were all heading in the sa
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. A number of events are also held by the academic branch of ASCIT, the Academics and Research Committee (ARC), but also has numerous ways to connect with professors in more social
PASADENA, CA — It was June 2021. Caltech was preparing to welcome students back to campus for the first time since the pandemic, and tensions were high. Needless to say, these were Unprecedented Times. For incoming frosh and their families, most of whom had never had the opportunity to visit Caltech before committing, the next few months looked especially uncertain. Questions like “Will I have to sleep in a different place every day for rotation?” “When do I register for classes?” and “Will my a
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. This past year, Anakin was used in Dabney’s interhouse party as a decoration in the fabric maze, and has played a key part in several hilarious pranks. (Mole
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. Despite this amendment passing, as ASCIT Treasurer, I feel the need to further detail the previous and current states of ASCIT’s finances, the implications the dues increase will have in the future for the corporation, and the further justification of increasing dues last spring. 
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 in
The Caltech Turtle Club is happy to showcase the turtle-y terrific winning entries from our Spring 2023 Photo Contest! We had 50 submissions this year and 9 winning entries. The Caltech Turtle Club is a casual, low commitment club that hosts activities primarily in the spring. If you like snacks, visits to local areas with turtles, and chilling or basking by the Turtle Ponds, this club is for you! We are open to all individuals associated with Caltech and JPL. Interesting in joining? Email [calt
“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). From burst pipes leaking noxious fumes, to six weeks without hot water, residents of Marks House, myself included, have experienced a seemingly unending stream of problem
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. Security was called to the scene by quick-thinking Red Door employee Martha, who witnessed the responsible party “try to get [a friend’s] attention” by tossing a “small rock” at the window while on her break. Worried about student and