Opinion

When I pinged off my Caltech grad application, a little over a year ago, it started something like: I am passionate about applying to the California Institute of Technology in order to escape the effing rain. I herald from a small, mountain-ridden, Jet stream-bitten island, quite far East of our Californian Eden. Such topographical (mis)-fortune means that Brits are a little more accustomed to the weather of late than many of you West Coast folk. If I had a buck for every time someone had a

A Reflection on Student Leadership Lily Coffin | Opinion In the two years that I have been a Social Director for Ricketts Hovse, I have had more than a few opportunities to explore undergraduate student-administration relationships at Caltech and where they have broken down. I have watched my peers in student leadership be ignored and shut down by members of administration. As a frosh, I asked my seniors what could be done to be heard; to get our events back; to improve our relationship w

Page House’s Mural Saga Continues Ankita Nandi (ASCIT Director of Operations) | Op-Ed Each undergraduate house has a unique culture. Pretty much every Caltech student ever would agree. Parts of what makes house cultures unique, since they are so intertwined with their physical spaces, are the murals in each house. The murals can range in theme throughout each house and the campus as a whole. In the case of Page House, the murals on some doors and hallways are often associated with past ye

Caltech’s Core Problem (You’re not ignorant, the system is) Jessie Gan | Opinion The class that plagued me the most during last Fall term was Ch 21a, Physical Chemistry, which is an introduction to Quantum Mechanics for chemistry-related majors. My freshman and sophomore years were honestly pretty rough, but these were all supposed to build my skills as a science student here. As a Junior, I was hoping to excel in courses directly related to my major. You can then imagine my disappo

Caltech Graduate Students and Postdocs Will Vote on Unionization David Abramovitch, Sam Whitehead | Opinion _ _ On November 30, 2023, Caltech grad students and postdocs filed union authorization cards with the National Labor Relations Board (NRLB). Earlier that day, around 100 grads and postdocs joined together to deliver a letter to Provost Tirrell, signed by over 500 grads and postdocs, requesting a fair union election process and that the Institute remain neutral rather than engaging

Free As In Speech, Not As In Laundry Alem Snyder | Opinion The laundry machines in all Caltech Undergraduate Housing have recently switched from an ID card-operated payment system to a smartphone app-based system. Previously, users of laundry machines could swipe their student card and the bill was charged to their bursar account. Bechtel Residence and Avery House have had this new system for a few years, but the decision was recently made to retrofit the existing North and South House was

Feel Free to Cancel Me It’s ok Umran Koca | Opinion In true Caltech fashion, the content for this article came about over midnight coffee at Red Door Café. I was sitting with a group of friends when the topic shifted to freedom of speech on campus. The atmosphere grew heavy and quiet. We were all afraid of saying the “wrong” thing. Finally, I broke the tension. “Have I told you about the time my East Asian friends canceled me?” We burst out in laughter, and the conversation got going.

The most fundamental tenet of a Caltech undergraduate education is training students to collaborate effectively in order to solve the most difficult problems in science and math today. And yet, the sanctity of every common lounge space in every undergraduate house, the home of collaboration, is at risk due to a recent renovation effort by the Housing Office. House stewards are students responsible for facilitating communication between the houses and the Housing Office. Stewards were initial

On Friday, September 29, 2023, the Caltech Graduate Students and Postdocs United (C/GPU) hosted a rally to celebrate reaching a majority of signed union authorization cards. For those unfamiliar or just confused about the process, this was not a vote. Those in charge of the union effort made it clear that according to their recorded numbers, enough graduate students and postdocs currently support moving forward to a vote to force the issue. These same leaders have also been very vocal about the

[TW: Eating disorders, starvation] For me, it was a comment from my dad that planted the seed. My friends watered it. Social media gave it light. I nurtured it myself at times, until it broke through the one thing I swore I would protect: my curiosity, my joy, my desire to learn. I couldn’t focus. I had to eat to feed my mind, so I started cutting its branches, not realizing that like a weed, it would not go away until I came for its roots. I justified my eating by the amount of work I was get

Warning: Review contains spoilers. Over this summer, the blazing-pink cinematic nuclear warhead that is Barbenheimer – the sobriquet of the dual releases of Barbie and Oppenheimer – hit theaters worldwide. In its anticipated descent and eventual blast, various memes have dominated the internet (“One ticket to [Barbenheimer], please!”) It’s fair to say that Barbie is one of the biggest cultural phenomena of the summer. Barbie got viewers showing up to the cinema as if it was a festival and a c

The firing of the Fleming Cannon is a tradition that is supposed to bring pride and joy to the hearts of students every year and mark the progression of time from the end of rotation to the end of every term. However, for many students, the sound of the Fleming Cannon carries a heavy burden, evoking memories of a past they had hoped to leave behind when they came to Caltech. "Coming to Caltech was one of the most exciting moments of my life, but the sound of the Fleming Cannon sometimes reminds

On January 21, the Caltech graduate student body received an email entitled “Campus Poll to Protect Wildlife”. The email, for those unfamiliar, provided a link to a poll where students could report concentrations of Fox squirrels on campus so that “yield to wildlife” road signs could be put up in strategic squirrel locations. The email set off a colorful Reply-All debate about road

Editor’s Note: This article contains discussions and mentions of sensitive topics, including rape and sexual assault. Reader discretion advised. The Caltech experience for women and non-binary folks is undeniably influenced by the fact that the majority of people at this school are men. Only in the past few decades has the undergraduate gender ratio at Caltech approached some semblance of balance. Enrollment statistics for Fall 2022 show that 55% of undergraduates are male. Not too shabby for a

I spent my first night at Caltech deciphering runes. Earlier that day I had been exploring the SAC and happened across an alcove with black runes painted inside. I was informed it was called the Sacrifice Room, and that the runes originated from a stack some years back. But the student I was talking to didn’t know what the runes said, so, determined to find out, I recruited two other curious prefrosh. We spent the evening huddled around iPads and scribbled notes, trying to decode the message.

As a Caltech student, I do tend to eat at least some of my meals on-campus. And, like any other living person, I have likes and dislikes. Being the chair of the Food Committee, I feel the urge to give some shout-outs to the best food on campus served recently, so I thought I’d write an article for the Tech doing so. Without further adieu, I’d like to present my foolproof one-hundred percent unbiased take on what I think the best foods at Caltech have been lately. Red Door corn dogs I love

It’s a beautiful day outside… the birds are singing, flowers are blooming… and it’s cloudy??? That’s right people, it’s cloudy here in beautiful Southern California. Where is the “almost 365 days of sunshine” I was promised by the Admissions Office in my acceptance letter a year ago? So here, dear reader, I write to you during a cloudy June evening in beautiful Pasadena, where I will recall to you my experience here as a frosh (plus bonus prefrosh adventures from FSRI, previously known as the F

Dear Editor, This issue contains a review of several so called “tasty” food options on campus. While I cannot speak to most of them as my pallet tends towards the cautious and new things frighten and scare me, one item mentioned made me extremely opinionated. The article gives an honorable mention to two different garlic breads, the garlic bread from red door and the garlic bread from house dinner. I pride myself as a garlic bread aficionado and I am not sure either garlic bread deserve this h

Well, it may have taken 1171 days, but the Tech has finally given me my long-awaited compensation. I’ve been around as one of the Tech’s editors for over three years at this point, but I can comfortably say that this paper is in the best state it’s been since I’ve started working on it. The paper’s biweekly publication schedule doesn’t require the editing team to not sleep the night before publication (Editor’s note: *), revenue from advertising is finally returning, and the pay rates have incr

“The meal plan should not be required in our housing contract. It is a financial burden—eating out and buying groceries would be cheaper.” – A Freshman Skurve A Caltech student’s bursar bill is riddled with large numbers. $19,493 for one term’s tuition. $795 for “Student Fees”. $60 dollars for parking per month. $3,605 for one term’s housing. And last but not least, $2,597 for the “Anytime plan”. That is $7,791 per year. And next year, it will be $8,259–a whole 6 percent increase. 93 percent

Studying abroad at Caltech has been an experience, to say the least. Before coming, I had heard that students do not leave campus at all during term time, and I was confident that that would not be me. It was. Well nearly. This was especially true during my first term when I took arguably the most difficult class with the highest workload I had ever seen. I think that shocked me into an ‘I’m going to struggle with keeping up with the workload here for a whole year’ mindset; however, I am pleased

Where do you go when you’re hungry and it’s 2 am on a Friday? Well, if you ask me, it’s Arturo’s taco truck. A bit over a mile away in a parking lot near Huntington Hospital, Arturo’s Taco Truck is an unofficial Pasadena staple. I’ve been going there almost every week for my fourth meal whenever I’m pulling late nights. Their meats are just as good as any other taco place