Caltech Safety Net
The recent tragic suicide of Caltech undergraduate Brian Go is a somber reminder of the importance of an institutional safety net to protect students in need of help. The presentation embedded above is courtesty of Kevin Austin at the Counseling Center. Please take a few minutes to review the information so that you may help a friend, or find the help that you need. Head of the Counseling Center Kevin Austin also has these words for the community:
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Dear Students.
I wanted to write some thoughts to help people cope with the very sad and tragic loss of a Caltech student Brian Go, an undergraduate student who was president of his house, well known, well liked and respected. My thoughts are not meant to take away the very real and necessary experience of loss and sadness people feel about his death, no words can or should do that. These thoughts are meant to help people to not feel so alone, helpless or confused by what they are experiencing. They are also meant to help those who may be concerned about how they themselves or others may be reacting to his death. The reactions to Brian's death have varied depending on how well the person knew him and what his death has brought up for them. Family and friends experience shock, numbness and disbelief, along with a profound sense of sadness and confusion. People who didn't know Brian very well may be experiencing feelings of disbelief and sadness, but can feel uncertain about having these feelings or expressing them. They weren't as close to him so why are they feeling so upset and sad? Do they have a right to feel this sadness when the loss of others' is greater because they knew Brian better? The death of someone so young and by suicide can bring up all kinds of feelings whether they knew the person or not. The way to counter these feelings of helplessness, numbness, and sadness is to talk about what has happened and its effect on each of us. Reaching out to others is a very important way to do something about all the feelings people are experiencing, not to keep us from feeling sad but to keep us from feeling alone and helpless. Talk to friends, health advocates, UCCs, RAs, staff, or faculty, anyone you trust and feel will listen. There is confusion over why this young man, who seemingly had so much going for him, took his own life. We may never really know what Brian's reasons were for taking his own life but he was clear that he did not hold anyone responsible. He went to some lengths to keep his intention from people, including those he knew and loved. While there is some comfort in knowing that he was not let down by those around him, it's still very difficult to understand why he wouldn't let those he cared about help him through a difficult period. The inevitable question is whether this tragedy could have been prevented and this question can bring with it feelings of responsibility. Is anyone responsible for Brian's death-No. Can we say with certainty whether Brian could have been kept from taking his own life? No. What we can say is that while Brian was committed to a plan to take his own life, most people who commit suicide are ambivalent about taking their lives; there is usually a part of them that struggles to find a way to live and intervention at this point can and has saved many lives. How do you know if your reactions or those of someone you know go beyond normal grief? Most people can expect to be affected by the loss of Brian for some time, closer friends for longer. Sleep, eating, and concentration can be affected; tears will come at unexpected times or not at all. Some people will be preoccupied with Brian's life and some by his death ,maybe experiencing thoughts or images of him that intrude when trying to do work or just talking with others. People can have an experience of thinking they see or hear him. These are all normal reactions to loss. After a couple of weeks these experiences should start to diminish. If however after two or three weeks, you or someone you know is still experiencing difficulty sleeping, intrusive thoughts, an inability to concentrate, or sadness that prevents you from doing your work or just enjoying some things in your life then you should consider talking with a professional about these difficulties. We need to grieve but grief can be transformed into depression. Depression can insidiously take hold of a person, coloring their world so they can no longer see what is good. Friends and others can help by listening and recognizing that the state of hopelessness someone feels maybe the result of depression and should be treated. It's also the case that a person can become depressed at the loss of someone they don't know if it brings up a sense of sadness that has not been worked through about other losses in their lives. If you are concerned about your own reactions or those of someone you know please talk with us here at the Counseling Center (x8331) or let others know what you are experiencing. If you are concerned that someone you know is depressed or thinking of suicide start with the assumption that given a chance, the person can be helped. Talk with them about what you see that concerns you. Affirm for them the value of living and what they mean to you. Encourage them to get help and if they won't, talk to us or anyone you trust about how the person might be helped (Counseling Center x8331). No one person bears the responsibility of helping another; it's for all of us to be sensitive and responsive to the needs of each other. There is no way to avoid the grief that comes with the loss of someone you love, just as friends grieve now for Brian. But his loss, even with its unanswered questions, can confirm the value of human life for those he has left behind and the importance of the emotional connections with those you care about. Kevin AustinCounseling Center |
The GSC wishes to express our deepest condolences for Brian's friends and family, as well as the entire undergraduate community affected by his loss. Undergraduates and graduates alike, please do not hesitate to seek out the support of your friends, neighbors, and community leaders to help in the process of mourning and reflection. The Resident Associates in the Catalina Apartments are available always to talk through an issue or to refer you to the appropriate campus resources. Here is their contact information:
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Andy Downard Catalina Apt 450-105 MC 210-41 Office: 218 Keck Office Phone: 626-395-3443 adownard aAT caltech DOT edu
Zeeshan Ahmed
Michael J. (Mike) Shearn
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Historic Gradiators Competition May 30
The time is upon to celebrate our age old tradition and once again enter: the Gradiator Arena. gsc.caltech.edu/gradiators/
Gradiators is a series of games that test the might, wits, and teamwork of you noblest and most elite of scholars: Caltech Grad Students. Alumni, staff, postdocs, undergrads, and community are welcome to participate as well
Does your team have what it takes to emerge victorious on May 30? Will your name forever be exalted in the GSC Hall of Fame for your acts of valor?
Does your team have the accuracy to stay afloat in HUMAN BATTLESHIP? Or the stability to remain quick in the infamous DIZZY BAT or SLIP N SLIDE? Perhaps you think your team has the cleverness to solve the TEAM PUZZLES, which in 2009 will involve your ENTIRE TEAM remaining (safely) 4 feet off the ground (curious yet?)?
To find the answers to these questions, visit gsc.caltech.edu/gradiators/ and REGISTER your team for the big day. This year, the competition starts early as points will be awarded to the teams with the most creative and clever names and descriptions. So talk to your friends, labmates, or club members, and assemble a team of ~10 competitors to be immortalized as champions in GRADIATORS 2009!!
Of course, all are welcome to show up and join the fun without pre-registering!
May 30, Beckman Mall
11am On-site registration opens. To join an existing team, show up before 12pm
12pm Statement of the Rules and Distribution of the T-shirts, Bandanas, and Complimentary Lunch
1pm The Competition begins
5:30pm Awards Ceremony
9pm Mashup Massive Afterparty ft DJ Earworm at the Beckman Institute!
This Year's Competition So Far
Already, several teams have registered. Meet...|
The Slumdogs Affiliation: Grads How can these ~10 Slumdogs win the competition? 1. They will win the games 2. They will cheat 3. It's in their destiny. Find out the answer at the Gradiators. |
Team Party Affiliation: Grads Party has been a veteran of a few Gradiator events. We never brought home the shiny trophy but we sure tried to take the keg home a few times. Partiers like hanging out in the kiddie pool and their specialty is Human Battleship |
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Bigger Better Beavers Affiliation: MIT alumni and friends cause if you say its on, then its on. Bigger Better Beavers is exactly what the name sounds like.. We're just like you, Caltech, but BIGGER, BETTER, and much more BEAVER-Y. Gradiators has been a historic battlefield in the epic Institutes of Technology Battle Royale, where the Bigger Better Beavers nearly took home the gold in 2006, 2007, AND 2008. Maybe this year is their lucky year, unless a home-grown squad of beavers manages to step up... |
Stan Gable, Alpha Beta Affilitation: Paramount Pictures Although we have absolutely nothing to offer the world of academics and even less to offer the world of science or math, we pledge to wreck shop upon the Nerds of the Pasadena. We are here to bully you, and insult your pitiful cancer research and bio-luminescent studies. We drive around in our Mustang convertibles with our blonde girlfriends laughing every time you trip over your untied shoe laces of your orthopedic shoes. We are the football team you could never join. We are the jocks who pulled your pocket protectors off of your shirt and in to the mud. We are the ones who stuffed you in your locker after the lunch lady specifically told us not to. We are the ones who poured the pig's blood on Carrie. We are the bad guys. We are the frat boys from Revenge of the Nerds and we shall have our revenge ON the nerds. NERRRRRRRRRRDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
As you can see, there are heroes and villains, underdogs and favored competitors, newcomers and veterans alike. In addition to these teams, there will be representation by the Alumni Association and the GSC Social Committee. Rumors also abound that there will be PRISM team and a CNS team, but those are currently unconfirmed. So why don't you go ahead and gather a few friends together and register even a partial team? You only get one shot at glory: gsc.caltech.edu/gradiators
RSVP to this event on:
Net Impact Movie: Fast Food Nation
Net Impact will be showing a screening of Richard Linklater's Fast Food Nation, Thursday May 28, in 153 Noyes at 8pm. Light refreshments will be available at 7:30pm. See trailer below:
LINK in case embedded video doesn't work in your browser.
A Dim Sum Comparison
By: The Caltech Taste Buds
Dim sum is at once pleasurable and prohibitively indulgent. Is it right to eat chicken feet alongside fried durian buns, or morsels of shrimp dumplings in the same sitting as ginger custard tarts? The diversity of the selections is awe-inspiring but often a dim sum meal leaves one feeling enervated, as if the palate has been subjected to one too many flavors in a gauntlet of Cantonese temptations. It's culinary overload, and it's not entirely unpleasant, either. But there's something to be said for simple, thematic meals in which each offering has been carefully considered with respect to the next, so that the meal unfolds like a good novel with a cohesive story to tell.
In a way, a dim sum meal does tell a tale, and it is the collective story of the Chinese immigrants who run the restaurant. It's a narrative of taking the opportunities life presents to you and holding on to them no matter what. Only in dim sum restaurants is it acceptable to doggedly chase down an employee, stalking him or her until you get the dish of your heart's desire. Perhaps it is the tofu lady who's been ignoring your persistent flagging in pursuit of a larger company of diners, or the waiter who hasn't filled your teapot in the past half hour. Absent are the normal social conventions governing restaurant behavior, and in their place, a set of street smart rules that facilitate a smoother experience. This is especially true of the first restaurant in this month's tastebuds review, a sprawling complex of a restaurant in a large San Gabriel mall.
New Capital used to be a smaller enterprise in a different part of town, but for years now the restaurant has occupied the fourth floor of the mall where a giant Sam Woo establishment used to be. Droves of customers line up on the weekdays and weekends, partly because the offerings at New Capital are reliably good but also because the restaurant has the cheapest prices in town for dim sum, with most dishes falling into a one-price category that is only slightly more expensive on the weekends. Like Ocean Star, New Capital is so large as to be hazardous, and diners have adapted in response.
First, at New Capital it is entirely acceptable to gently shove your way to the hostess's desk in order to get a ticket. Other people will be shoving you back, and if you're willy-nilly about the process, you may cost yourself an extra twenty to forty minutes of waiting. Second, keep an eye out for what you like to eat. The cart may never pass by your table, in which case you will have to follow the cart lady around with your sheet until she grudgingly hands you a serving and places her stamp on the paper to denote your selection. And third, insist that the servers open the lids in the carts, so that you can really look at your fare before you buy it.
The food is usually worth the frenzy of the place. Staples like chicken feet, pork with black bean sauce, egg custard tarts, and sweet ginger tofu are done well here. The har gow is acceptable, if not slightly bulky. Often enough waiters will circulate the tables with offerings on trays, and it's generally wise to try them if they're warm. Of particular note are the sweet ginger custards. Baked in white bowls with a blanket of flaky pastry dough sealing the top, the custards manage to pull off this fusion of French pastry with Asian flavors and textures. Offal is also cooked well here; a tripe dish gently stewed and served with daikon is a winner.
If you're in the mood for a more courteous form of dim sum, try Sea Harbor in Rosemead. A longtime favorite of dim sum connoisseurs, the restaurant is inconveniently located in an isolated stretch of Rosemead Boulevard, across from a vacant lot. The location doesn't deter the lines of customers who are already waiting for forty minutes to an hour by the time eleven o'clock rolls around. They know that it is worth the wait for the care and craft that goes into the selection at Sea Harbor.
Instead of ordering from carts, diners choose from a menu of truly alluring dishes. The classic dim sum staples are all served here, but Sea Harbor is unique for its special offerings. The chefs work wonders with the yolks of salted duck eggs, folding them into steamed buns or fried shells of glutinous flour. The salted duck egg filling is pureed and sweetened, looking like molten lava of bright yellow as it gushes forth from the first bite. For savory dishes, try the clay pots. Filled with delicate rice noodles and a variety of fillings, the pots are charred to perfection on top, remaining soft and comforting within. Finally, like all good restaurants, Sea Harbor takes care in making the stocks. Whether it's an abalone broth served with tofu or a basic meat broth served with tripe, the liquids are heavenly in themselves.
Prices are higher here but well worth the precision of the dishes. Sea Harbor demonstrates the skill involved in creating fine dim sum, but it also makes the diner appreciate the fare at New Capital. While not as refined as its Rosemead neighbor, the offerings at New Capital are undeniably stellar and so affordable that one wonders how the restaurant is turning a profit. Depending on your budget and your tolerance for noise, make a win-win choice between Sea Harbor and New Capital for your next dim sum outing.
The Caltech Taste Buds wish everyone a wonderful and delicious summer! To be put on our mailing list for the Fall 2009 Eating season, please email caltechtastebuds AT gmail.com, or visit our blog at caltechtastebuds.blogspot.com.
Thoughts on Fundraising at Caltech
By: Evans Boney, URS Advocate, boneye AT gmail DOT com
There's only one Caltech. Well, there is only one coordinated, Caltech-wide effort to raise money. This is in contrast to schools, like my alma mater MIT, which have several coordinated fundraising attacks going at all times. In my opinion, Caltech could benefit from making better use of the self-identified interests of their alums, providing better incentives for callers from underfunded student groups or clubs, and coordinating graduate fellowship fundraising across divisions. These changes are just suggestions to be taken under consideration by the Provost, but I think they are sound suggestions to take advantage of a latent work force with ample motivation to raise institute funds.
First, Caltech must make use of self-identified interests of their alums. This is not meant to address the associates, who are already well called and taken care of by development, and other donors can be excluded to avoid over-calling. However, I think alums who are recent graduates, have never given, or alums who have lapsed are far more likely to respond to students who connect with their interests at the institute. One of the battles fought by development is overcoming the negative attitudes of graduating seniors towards the institute at large (more negative than at other universities at least). However, these kids made it through Caltech, and, for most of them, it's due to something they loved about the place. Therefore, targeting these groups with callers from their prior organization has the potential to raise additional funds, or could at least initially be tried in this capacity. It is an error to view every dollar raised by a student group as one less dollar raised by the institute. Rather, I suggest we view every dollar raised by a student group as one less dollar the institute has to raise to support that group.
Second, how can we get students from these organizations that form the student core of Caltech to actually participate? Well, that one's easy: give them a share of the money they raise. Currently, students working the phone bank, or their representative student groups, see a flat rate per hour they man the phones. From experience in said phone bank... this is not the best motivation, nor are petty prizes. If students were allowed to try to raise restricted funds from these untapped donors, perhaps an exchange would be possible? For instance, if they raise unrestriced funds, a percentage of that amount raised is earmarked for their organization. Likewise, if they raise restricted funds, the phone bank agreement could specify that an equal percentage of that be earmarked for the unrestricted funds bucket. This way I think both institute and fundraiser are properly incented. As is, the phone banks have been a failure and are in need of a change.
Third, Caltech is hamstringing its own voluntary attempts at fundraising. The GSC has now been trying for almost 5 months to get some coordination of grad students with potential grad fellowship donors, who are likely to give more if they encounter the living work they are funding. We have lists of students in every division to help. All we need is a coordinator and a set program on the institute's end. Additionally, sports teams and minority student groups, which are overwhelmingly popular with their alums, are not allowed, ever, to raise restricted funds from the phone bank. Not even from recent alums or people who have never given to the institute. These groups have seen their respective budgets slashed by student affairs, and are exceedingly motivated to find restricted donors, even if they are only allowed to choose from people who have never given before.
None of this is new to collegiate fundraising, it's just lacking here. MIT's policy incorporates most of the above suggestions: web.mit.edu/slp/money/fundraising.shtml
I can vouch that MIT's athletics department, and basketball team specifically, raised tons of money from previously dormant donors without an added penny in institute funding. While I understand that Caltech does not seek to build it's fundraising exclusively on athletics and has a smaller alumni pool, I think it is a major error to not properly incent motivated students to help raise money for the institute.
Caltech Professor as Director of Energy Frontier Research Center
For Immediate Release
Department of Energy Names Caltech Professor as Director of Energy Frontier Research Center Focusing on Interactions between Light and Materials
Caltech also picked to partner in three additional EFRCs
PASADENA, Calif.--The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science has announced that it will fund the creation of 46 Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRCs) over the next five years, including one that will be housed at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). That EFRC will be headed by Harry Atwater, the Howard Hughes Professor and professor of applied physics and materials science.
"It is essential and very appropriate for a place like Caltech to serve as an intellectual center for fundamental scientific research in solar energy," says Atwater. "We have programs that support work on photovoltaic devices, but the Energy Frontier Research Center will address fundamental optical science issues relevant to solar energy. It's the kind of center that is best suited to our strengths."
In addition, Caltech researchers will partner with three additional EFRCs at other institutions.
According to Ares Rosakis, chair of Caltech's Division of Engineering and Applied Science, "Radical new approaches to harnessing solar energy are at the heart of many efforts here at Caltech to help contribute to the world's energy infrastructure with innovative, sustainable, core technologies. This new center brings Caltech one step closer to our goal of providing the resources necessary for some of the best minds in the country to lay the groundwork for a new energy economy."
This $777 million program is a major effort to accelerate the scientific breakthroughs needed to build a new 21st-century economy, the White House said in announcing the initiative. The 46 new EFRCs, which will each be funded at $2-5 million per year for a planned initial five-year period, will be established at universities, national laboratories, nonprofit organizations, and private firms across the nation.
Supported in part by funds made available under President Obama's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the EFRCs will bring together groups of leading scientists to address fundamental issues in fields ranging from solar energy and electricity storage to materials sciences, biofuels, advanced nuclear systems, and carbon capture and sequestration.
The EFRCs were selected from a pool of some 260 applications received in response to a solicitation issued in 2008 by the DOE's Office of Science. Over 110 institutions from 36 states plus the District of Columbia will be participating in the EFRC research. In all, the EFRCs will involve nearly 700 senior investigators and employ, on a full- or part-time basis, over 1,100 postdoctoral associates, graduate students, undergraduate students, and technical staff. Roughly a third of these researchers will be supported by Recovery Act funding.
Atwater's EFRC, entitled "Light Material Interactions in Energy Conversion," will include collaborations with scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of Illinois, and some of the work will be done at the Molecular Foundry at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
"The goal of the center is to understand how to sculpt and mold the flow of light through materials," Atwater explains. "By that I mean we will be working to design structures at the nanoscale that steer and change the speed of light to optimally convert sunlight to electricity and chemical fuels."
The three additional EFRCs that will be partnering with Caltech researchers include
- Rational Design of Innovative Catalytic Technologies for Biomass Derivative Utilization (headed by the University of Delaware), with Mark Davis, the Warren and Katharine Schlinger Professor of Chemical Engineering at Caltech
- EFRC for Solid State Lighting Science (headed by Sandia National Laboratories), with Harry Atwater
- Center for Catalytic Hydrocarbon Functionalization (headed by the University of Virginia), with William Goddard, the Charles and Mary Ferkel Professor of Chemistry, Materials Science, and Applied Physics at Caltech
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Contact:
Lori Oliwenstein
(626) 395-3631
lorio AT caltech DOT edu
The Social Activism Speaker Series and the Graduate Student Council present:
