Letter to the Community

The ’60s were a wild time. Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon. Counterculture swept the nation. The Peace Corps mobilized.

We are thrilled to have our new and returning students on campus. We are also excited to announce this year’s Student Life and Experience Conference (SLEC).

I stayed awake at 2 a.m. during my first week at Caltech, sitting on my bed surrounded by half-unpacked boxes. On one side was a physics problem set that I didn’t understand, and on the other was this small book everyone whispered about—the little t. I initially thought it was some campus oddity, like an inside-jokes dictionary I hadn’t learned yet. But curiosity eventually got the better of me. I opened it.

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.

As a University whose motto is, “The Truth Shall Make You Free”, in what sense do the actions of the past few months live up to this?

Significant cultural losses seem to be proceeding on at least two fronts — alumni and undergraduate.