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December 3, 2024

Issue 26 of 2078

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News

In a recent national survey of 257 colleges and universities, Caltech ranked overall 111th. 92 Caltech undergrads were surveyed on a number of questions including how often they felt the need to “self-censor,” their comfort expressing their views on different topics, and administrative support. The report was published by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a nonpartisan group supporting free speech on college campuses. The data in this report were collected between Janua

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Opinion

I’m Antonio. I matriculated as a Caltech undergraduate in 2019. I will not graduate. I write to share my perspective. “As scientists, I think we need to own our perspectives rather than pretend that we have some omniscient neutral view of reality.” (McGlynn, Terry. “It’s really hard to see things from other perspectives.” Science for Everyone. 2024 August 19.) My story will not reflect the experience of most Caltech undergraduates. The message I want to communicate may fail to resonate with m

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Culture

It was a bit of an enigma as to why he had chosen to speak at Caltech. A world famous luxury shoe designer, Stuart Weitzman, seems an unlikely visitor. After graduating from the Wharton School in 1963 at the University of Pennsylvania, Weitzman pushed his job offer at Goldman Sachs to pursue women’s shoe designing. In 2019, UPenn named its school of design after him

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Satire

A SATIRE advice column about alive, ahaha, and everything in between! Hello quail, I’ve recently been feeling quite lonely. I feel like none of the people at this school truly understand me. Theyre always telling me I’m too “wild” or am acting “feral”. I dont really know what to do, they all seem so tame and boring. Greetings wild child. Ah, well you see, theres your problem. You’re trying to interact with people. I have some good friends around campus I can let know to in

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Culture

This past summer I was walking on campus when in a window I saw something I would not expect to see at a technical school – a flyer with the following poem printed on it: I don’t care how God-damn smart / these guys are: I’m bored. / It’s been raining like hell all day long / and there’s nothing to do and a photo of Caltech’s first and only poet in residence, Richard Brautigan. The more I thought about it, however, I realized that there is a strong connection between science and po

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Culture

In “The Ballad of East and West,” Rudyard Kipling states that “East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet.” On the contrary, Raqib Shaw demonstrates how art can unite the two with striking effect. Last month, Raqib Shaw: Ballads of East and West opened at the Huntington Art Gallery. Organized by the Frist Art Museum and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, along with curator Zehra Jumabhoy, the exhibition culminates its national tour at the Huntington. It is the artist’s f

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Culture

At the beginning of the fall term, the Caltech Pond Bridge was transformed by artist Lita Albuquerque into a gold foil installation — the largest she has made to date — dubbed This Moment in Time. It’s part of a larger art exhibit at Caltech called Crossing Over: Art and Science at Caltech. Presented as part of the Getty’s PST ART: Art & Science Collide program, Crossing Over spans six distinct indoor and outdoor venues on Caltech’s campus, featuring an array of scientific drawings, painti

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Culture

Hi! It’s me again, your sleeper buddy who has been hung up on the Getting Better Sleep Workshop by SWS ever since it happened. But it doesn’t stop there – now my YouTube algorithm has been suggesting videos about sleep too. And honestly? I’ll take it. I am now invested in getting better sleep, and hopefully you are along for the ride. Now, I’m not here to preach to

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Philosophy Column

Well yes, I am more than sure that all of you have already heard of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, the masters of ancient classical philosophy. There would not have been a beginning without them and none of the greatest philosophers, even of the contemporary age, would have managed to develop a single concrete idea, think of Immanuel Kant who still criticized Plato during the period of the Enlightenment (1750). Many think that Caltech is a completely STEM university, where there is no room for huma

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The Outside World

Grab a friend and go holiday light-seeing! Holiday Light Spotting in the Neighborhoods: Christmas Tree Lane Free, drive or walk 5:30 pm - 12 am Santa Rosa Avenue, Altadena, CA Come enjoy the true holiday spirit at one of the oldest Christmas light displays in a tradition going back over a hundred years. The all-volunteer group bedazzles nearly a mile of the street with lights lining all the trees in a beautiful display of community. Be sure to come to the Lighting Ceremony an

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News

In our annual review of the ASCIT Bylaws, ASCIT Board of Directors has decided to propose the following amendments. These propositions have been approved unanimously by the Board of Directors, and we now bring them to the undergraduate students to be voted into action. We will have the Review Committee send out voting procedures at the beginning of next term (as to avoid having an amendment election during finals). Before then, we will release another reminder in The Tech, but prior to this, we

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Editorial

The Committee on House Assessment, Support, and Experience (CHASE) was formed in Spring 2023 and “charged by the Vice President for Student Affairs Kevin Gilmartin to develop strategic recommendations to ensure that the undergraduate houses remain supportive living and learning environments, where current and future Caltech students can thrive and succeed,” according to an email sent to undergraduates last spring. The Committee was composed of current students, faculty, staff, and alumni. As par

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News

On November 13, JPL laid off 325 employees, or 5% of its workforce. This is the Lab’s third round of layoffs in 2024: first was the January reduction of 100 on-site contractors, followed by the February layoffs of 530 employees and 40 additional contractors. As a result, the JPL workforce currently stands at roughly 5,500 employees. These reductions stem from a funding crisis for the Mars Sample Return mission, which intends to

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