THE NEWSLETTER
June 2002	gsc@caltech.edu
Volume XVI, Number 9	www.its.caltech.edu/~gsc
Copyright © MMII Graduate Student Council of the California Institute of Technology

Mike Fleming, GSC Vice Chair

For the first time ever, graduate students were invited to make a presentation to Caltech's Board of Trustees. The 20 minute presentation, focusing on issues currently facing graduate students, was delivered last month to a receptive audience of about 40 Trustees, President Baltimore, and Provost Koonin.

Parandeh Kia, Associate Dean of Graduate Students, brought together several students to design the presentation. In addition to the presenters listed below, the following people offered substantial help in preparing the presentation: Jason Cohen, Heather Cox, Diego Dugatkin, Florian Gstrein, Elizabeth Mayo, Steve Pracko, Alex Tobias, and Tashica Williams. Significant input came also from the general graduate student body in response to an e-mail request sent out by the GSC. Quotes from student e-mails greatly enhanced the presentation.

The presentation was delivered to the Trustees by Gabriel Acevedo-Bolton, Martin Basch, Mike Fleming, Sarah Heilshorn, Rachel Niemer, and Chip Sumner. A key concern expressed was the lack of communication by the administration regarding several recent decisions, such as planned changes to student health insurance and the introduction of dial-up modem charges. Other topics of focus were

The shortage of on-campus housing, compounded by rising rents and the low availability of off-campus housing.

Concern over proposed changes that might weaken our currently excellent health insurance plan.

The large variation in experience (workload, stipend, quality of classes and advising) that depends heavily upon one's advisor and department.

Difficulties in supporting a family at Caltech. Dependent health insurance is very expensive and child care prohibitively so.

Issues of diversity on campus. Low numbers of women and minority students often discourage more such students from coming here. Also, there has been no institute statement of support for international students still unable to return to the United States from their home countries after September 11.

The presentation suggested ways that the Trustees could help students with each of these issues and also called for the administration to take more initiative in seeking input from graduate students.

Reaction from the Trustees was positive. Several mentioned that they identified with the issues presented, having experienced the same themselves. Benjamin Rosen, the chairman of the board, said that he believed this would be the beginning of a dialogue between graduate students and the Trustees - a statement that hopefully reflects a growing interest by the Trustees in student life. The board meeting concluded directly after our presentation, so students do not yet have feedback as to what action the Trustees might take in response.

A copy of the presentation slides, including the script used by the presenters, is available at www.its.caltech.edu/~gsc/bot_presentation.html.

Many of you have probably heard about this from earlier announcements and/or the rumor mill, but earlier this year the Graduate Studies Committee voted to require that all Caltech Ph.D. students submit an electronic version of their dissertation that will be made available online by the Caltech Library System (CLS). This requirement goes into effect on July 1.

In order to assist students in uploading their dissertations, the CLS has created a web page. Following the directions provided there should allow you to proceed with a minimum of difficulty. The URL for this site is library.caltech.edu/collections/etd. Most students already prepare PDF versions of their dissertations, so this should involve little additional effort. If you run into any difficulties, however, please call the Graduate Office at x6346. We do not intend to be compulsive about this. If there is some reason that makes it altogether impractical for you to put your dissertation online, we will just accept that as the way things are.

I know that this may seem like just one more hoop (albeit a minor one) that you’ll need to jump through. To be honest, it is. But I think it is something that makes a great deal of sense. All too often, dissertations are read by the four or five members of the committee (hopefully), microfilmed by UMI, archived in the basement of the library, and henceforth remain unnoticed and untouched. In contrast, the 40 or so dissertations that are already present in the Caltech Electronic Theses Dissertations Archive (ETD) are accessed online at truly remarkable rates — over one hundred hits a day in some cases. True, many of these hits may be the consequence of the indiscriminate use of search engines, but anyone looking for something like “methane-bearing brown dwarfs” probably knows what they are doing and what they are looking for.

Below are the top five most-accessed electronic theses from May 1–31, 2002. Visit library.caltech.edu/collections/etd.

The GSC has formed new committees, open to all graduate students, to focus on specific areas of graduate student life. If you feel strongly about any issue on campus, the GSC would like your input on a committee! The new committees are

Academics: Advisor relations, library, TA experiences, ITS dial-up fees, workload, quality of education, Everhart Lectures, lab reviews.

Social: New Student Orientation, GUSH, Gradiators, term parties, ice cream socials.

Quality of Life: Health insurance, child care, parking, athletics.

Housing: Survey of housing lottery participants, Ethernet for the Catalinas, new housing construction.

Underrepresented students: Issues faced by women, minority students, students with disabilities, families, and international students.

Budget: GSC budget, clubfunding.

Students are also invited to join the Graduate Review Board, which educates students about and enforces the honor code.

If you are interested in joining any of these committees, please contact us at gsc@caltech.edu.

Summer is here, and so it is time once again for Gradiators. This year, Gradiators will be held on Saturday, August 3. For those who don’t know, Gradiators is a day of fun activities like Inner Tube Water Polo, Obstacle Course, and Slip n’ Slide. Check out the photos from last year’s event at www.its.caltech.edu/~gsc/gradiators2001. There will be an organizational meeting at 3 PM on Tuesday, July 9, outside the Red Door Café. If you would like to help us plan the event, referee a game, or have an idea for a new game, please come! All organizers will receive a free Gradiators T-shirt. We need your help to make this a success! If you have any questions, please e-mail me at johnsonm@caltech.edu.

After last month’s newsletter, many students wrote to us to say that they were worried about the recommendations that were proposed by the Faculty Committee on Health, so I would like to expand on some of the important points from my previous article to address those concerns.

It is true that the committee recommended that health insurance premiums should either be included in tuition or charged as a separate fee to students. However, this should be done in a way that does not result in any increased cost for students. If the administration chooses to follow this recommendation, the details of the implementation will still need to be worked out; however, I anticipate that it would be similar to the way in which tuition is currently charged to student accounts. Each term, every graduate student receives a bill showing the cost of tuition, but this is immediately offset by a corresponding credit to his or her account, with the net result that advisors and/or departments actually pay tuition. A different approach would be to increase student stipends enough to cover the health care premiums, although that would require careful consideration of the income tax ramifications.

This recommendation was not intended to make things more complicated or more difficult for students. Rather, its goal was to help Caltech with its internal bookkeeping. By explicitly including the cost in tuition or by establishing a separate fee, we would be able to establish a pool of money that would be dedicated to paying for student health insurance.

Several students also expressed concern about the idea of implementing a minimal co-payment for each service. The committee felt that this would be a better alternative than the current system, which requires students to pay a $150 deductible before receiving any insurance coverage. We were concerned that the deductible creates a significant barrier to service that might keep some students from pursuing needed medical care. A co-payment would essentially allow students to pay off the deductible in installments. In order to prevent economic hardship, these payments would need to be capped at some maximum value, preferably one similar to the current deductible. Just as an example, it might be appropriate to have a $10 co-payment for the first 15 treatments, with no co-payment after that. Under this example, students would face a maximum cost of $150 per year, just as they do now. However, the feasibility of this idea, as well as the exact amount of the cap, would need to be worked out in negotiations with the insurance company.

I would like to thank everyone who took time out of his or her busy schedule to send us an e-mail regarding last month’s article. I hope that this information addresses many of those concerns. If you have additional concerns, please write to me at sumner@caltech.edu or to Fok-Yan Leung at fok-yan@caltech.edu. I would also like to point out the article on the formation of new committees within the GSC. These committees (including one that will address health care issues) are open to all students, and I would encourage anyone who is concerned about the current status of health insurance to join.

The Computing Advisory Committee (CAC) has adjourned for the summer, having held its last meeting of the year on Wednesday, June 12. The outlook is good for students. In particular, the campus has acquired site licenses to a number of useful software packages, including select Microsoft products and Adobe Acrobat (the full version — good news given the new PDF thesis requirement). These will soon be available to students for download; however, the Microsoft CDs will not be available for checkout by students, so buddy up to your system administrators. A campus-wide announcement is expected soon. ITS is also planning to implement some new services: pay-by-the-hour system administration and web development (more database creation rather than content), and server hosting for files/backup purposes. These are probably not relevant to students, but the GSC wishes to pass along the information.

In other ITS news, the campus e-mail system is being improved in order to avoid previous problems (people may recall some e-mail failures last year). The maximum message size was recently increased from 5 MB to 10 MB, and the maximum home directory size went up to 60 MB. The campus mail servers are also now running SpamAssassin (see www.its.caltech.edu/its/services/internetapps/email/spam.shtml for details). In conjunction with your e-mail program, it can be used to filter out spam.

Dial-up news:
1) ITS will soon begin billing for the general dial-up service. There has been some confusion lately about who is going to be charged for dial-up. The decision, as it currently stands, is that students (both undergraduate and graduate) will NOT be charged, but everybody else (staff, postdoctoral scholars, faculty) will. The decision to exempt students will, however, be reevaluated, probably this fall. The charge will be yearly ($120/year) rather than monthly, to avoid the increased administrative costs of monthly billing. This is obviously not a good deal for anybody who only dials in once a year. NOTE: There is another petition circulating to give exemption to postdocs as well. If you want to declare your support, please contact Raad Nashmi at raad@caltech.edu.

2) The 800 dial-up service is currently still restricted to faculty (ITS is in the process of collecting PTAs.) They expect to open it up to other users who can bill to PTAs within the coming months. There is at least the intention of opening the service up to Caltech ID accounts and credit cards as well, but the timing on that remains to be determined.

Wireless connections on campus:
Currently, the following places are connected: Beckman Institute (auditorium and courtyard), Keck (second floor), Parsons-Gates, Steele Lab (first and second floors), Jorgensen, Lauritsen (second and third floors), Robinson (basement and first floor), Thomas (first and second floors), Moore, Millikan boardroom, and Fairchild Library. In progress: Millikan, Dabney, ATC, East Bridge, and Winnett/Red Door. Contrary to popular belief, you will not be able to go wireless in the new Broad Center (among its other problems).

Do you live on campus?

There have been three major developments in Caltech housing over the past few months. The first, and likely most relevant, was the new housing lottery process this year. Although the total number of people who applied was larger than last year and the total number of available spaces roughly the same, so far there have been no audible complaints about the process. The GSC Housing group spent a few meetings talking about issues that seemed to cause contention last year and worked out some ideas which the BOD then approved to help solve the situation. The lottery rules this year were much clearer and were worked out in conjunction with Linda Chappell to help make them fair to all students applying and to maintain a diverse environment in the Catalinas.

The second topic which has been worked on recently has to do with the housing shortage from a long-term volume perspective. Caltech is in the process of revamping the undergraduate houses and in order to do that needs to build temporary housing for the undergrads for a year. Now you are likely asking, what does this have to do with graduate student housing? And the answer is . . . everything! Why? Because as soon as the undergrads leave that housing, it will be converted in large part into graduate student housing. However, there is a catch here; the housing is being designed and planned mostly by undergrads at the current time. If you are interested in contributing your ideas as to what type of housing you would most prefer or for the location (the last I remember hearing was that there were a few potential sites — all off-campus but not more than one-third of a mile away), please get in contact with us. This is still a bit of a way into the future, but current first and second year grad students may get to see it some time before they leave Caltech.

The third issue addressed was one specifically raised by Avery residents and coupled into the housing application process. They suggested that, given the special nature of their community, any people who wanted to remain in Avery, if they won a spot in the lottery which allowed them to live somewhere in Caltech housing, should be given preference over new students, many of whom often may not like the environment that Avery provides. Since this only involves a small number of cases each year, the change was incorporated into the lottery rules and has created a very happy group over at Avery!

If you have any issues or concerns relating to housing policies or issues, please get in contact with me at jasonbc@caltech.edu or with Steve Pracko at sepracko@caltech.edu.

What is hot-wired and speeding into your room? (Ok, ok, something that the GSC can actually get for you?)

Well, the answer to this question is being resolved as you read this article: Ethernet! There has been a plan worked out by the Faculty Committee on Student Housing, in conjunction with the administration, to transform the idea of wiring the Catalinas into a reality. Do not get too excited yet, since the final outcome will not be complete for a year or more. However, the fact that there is a plan on the table bodes well for all of us who dream of actually being able to work efficiently at home on weekends or of whatever other benefits that could become us thanks to a network.

The nitty-gritty is that Associate Provost Dan Meiron, the faculty member in charge of Information Technology, has agreed to find the money in order for Physical Plant to come and make an estimate (this is no easy chore!) Although no one knows for certain how much the final job will cost, now that the money has been allocated for an actual estimate, that stage of the process will occur. This is expected to take place in the Fall Term of 2002. In tandem with that work, Tom Mannion, the director of CABS, will be talking with Vice President Al Horvath to see if the full installation may be added to a campus bond issue in order to be funded.

Since the entire project will need to be self-supporting, the periodic cost per student will be calculated once the estimate is made. At that point we will have to put this issue to a vote before the graduate student body.

If you are interested in helping to construct or promote the poll regarding the cost to students, thinking of ways to help facilitate the administration’s support in achieving the goal, or are just interested in this or other issues which impact students in Caltech-affiliated graduate housing, please get in contact with me at jasonbc@caltech.edu or with the GSC chair, Chip Sumner, at sumner@caltech.edu.

For almost ten years now, the GSC has been recognizing members of our community who distinguish themselves in teaching and mentoring — those people who go out of their way to make classes more stimulating and rewarding, to guide us through the difficulties of research, to show us the ropes, and to lend us their experience as we begin our careers. In addition the GSC shows appreciation for teaching assistants who put in extra effort to help students through a class.

The recipients of this year’s GSC Teaching and Mentoring Awards

For classroom teaching
Dr. Oscar P. Bruno, Professor of Applied and Computational Mathematics, for ACM 201
“His love of mathematics affects everyone in class.” — Ke Wang

Dr. Yaser S. Abu-Mostafa, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, for CS 129
“He is an inspiring teacher.” — Leila Reddy

For mentoring
Dr. Oscar P. Bruno, Professor of Applied and Computational Mathematics
“My rewarding academic experience . . . is due to a large degree to Professor Bruno’s mentoring.” — McKay Hyde

For teaching assistants
Charles D. Camp, Graduate Student in Applied and Computational Mathematics, for ACM 95/100.
“The effort that Dave puts in teaching is truly impressive.” — Zhiming Kuang

Isaac Vikram Chenchiah, Graduate Student in Applied Mechanics, for AM 125.
“[He finds] extra examples and develops new methods of teaching the concepts to reach those of us who ‘just don’t get it’ the first time around.” — Stacey Boland

The GSC congratulates all of this year’s recipients and thanks everyone who submitted a nomination.

The upcoming GUSH will be a little late this year: Friday July 12 at 5:30 PM. We will once again have our annual Canada Day GUSH, so please join us for the usual, and some not so usual, snacks, beverages, and entertainment. Oh yeah, there will be a special surprise too . . . See you there!

From left to right: Michael Fleming, Jeff Bergthorson, Chip Sumner, Heather Cox, Isaac Chenchiah, Marisa Mock, Alex Tobias, Michael Johnson, Ileana Carpen, Tim Lesko, Graeme Smith, Ying Gong, Steve Pracko, Benedict Hebert.
Not pictured: Harish Bhat, John Choi, Jason Cohen, Deepshika Datta, Terrell Neal, Theofilos Strinopoulos, Christopher Veazey.

The GSC voted at the June meeting to experiment with having two meetings in July. Therefore, the next GSC meetings will be on Tuesday, July 2, and Thursday, July 18. Both meetings will take place at noon in Winnett Club Room 1 and, as always, are open to the public.

Contributions for the next GSC Newsletter should be sent to gscnews@caltech.edu by Thursday, July 11. The July Newsletter will be published on Monday, July 15.

No letters this month — Ed.

Letters to the Editor must include the author’s name. This will allow the BOD to contact you in the event that we would like to follow up on your comments. Upon request, the editor will withhold publishing an author’s name. Anyone from the Caltech community is welcome to write: students, staff, faculty, or alumni. Please keep letters relevant to subjects involving the GSC or Caltech. The editor has final authority to decide which letters are suitable for publication.

Letters should be sent to the editor at gscnews@caltech.edu or on paper to “GSC Newsletter, MC 146-58.” Please indicate in the subject line that your message is intended for the Letters to the Editor section. The next Letters to the Editor deadline is Thursday, July 11.

There seems to be a new intramural sport at Caltech. We have petitions protesting numerous issues, we have articles appearing in the Pasadena Star-News, and I clearly heard the word “dictator” used at one of the public hearings on the Serra sculpture. The administration, in turn, has moved from the position of not talking to the rest of campus to saying that they care about our concerns and will seek greater consultation in the future; and yet, after several months of sending that message, they have yet to follow through with significant action. Did you ever see the Bugs Bunny–Yosemite Sam cartoon in which they fire cannons back and forth between two forts in the desert, with flags that read “US” and “THEM” flying overhead? Does it seem that we’ve been reduced to that level? In case I haven’t made this clear enough in previous articles, the time for delays and counterproductive behavior should come to an end.

Last month I received a letter from a member of the administration, suggesting that graduate students should address their concerns on student-related issues either to the Dean of Graduate Studies or to the Vice President for Student Affairs. Those are the indeed the correct places to start. Nowhere in the Caltech catalog does it state that Caltech is a democracy in which administrative decisions are made by popular vote; we must trust that those who hold office or sit on committees will faithfully listen to their constituencies and then advocate their will with a passion. While it has yet to be determined who will hold the offices in the future, I promise the administration that I will definitely have a great deal to say to the new Dean and Vice President, and I will follow up to make certain they act upon it. As a matter of fact, I encourage every graduate student to do the same. That is not a threat; rather, we must have everyone’s concerns out in the open, so that we can all start working on them.

If you go back to that Caltech catalog, you’ll find a list of all the Nobel Laureates associated with Caltech. Within that list, which encompasses 29 Prizes, there is a rather interesting pattern. Of the 14 Prizes awarded before 1975, half went to recipients whose Caltech association began as students. For the 15 awarded since, that fraction jumps to two-thirds. It doesn’t take a master statistician to conclude that, if Caltech wants to continue its tradition of excellence, it should jealously guard the well-being of its students.

The administration has made it clear that research is their top priority at Caltech, with a focus on the quality of the faculty as the key factor in their approach. While that is one valid approach, it not only marginalizes the historical fact that Caltech’s most-acclaimed research has come from former students, but the approach itself may be selling Caltech short.

In The Color of Money, Tom Cruise’s character is ecstatic when he wins $150 from the top player in a pool hall. Why not be happy? He’s $150 ahead of where he was before he started. Except, as Paul Newman’s character points out, in winning the $150 they scared off the person with $5000 whom they had been planning to hustle. From that perspective they lost money.

In much the same way, while the approach of focusing the majority of attention on the faculty might yield incremental benefits to Caltech with each new hire, the institute may be sacrificing far greater benefits that could be had if everyone were treated with as much regard. Depending on whom you ask, you’re led to believe one of two possibilities about the people in the picture below.

Either they’re naturally inclined toward disruptive behavior and have little respect for hierarchical authority or, having been made to feel that their opinions were irrelevant on campus matters broader than student issues, they felt this was their best and perhaps only chance at being heard. Inclusion in the process from the start would have allowed the research activities of the institute to proceed more smoothly — and possibly produced a better result on the matter at hand as well.

I can’t control whether the administration will actually follow through on their promises to have greater communication and consultation with the campus community, although I intend to keep asking every chance I get. It’s amazing what the power of suggestion can accomplish. Many of you have never been to a GSC meeting, even though they’re open to the public, but the other directors seem to take pleasure in teasing me about Jennifer Lopez every chance they get. Have I mentioned that, as a Pasadena entrepreneur, she would make an excellent Commencement speaker next year? Since she’s recently single again, she may need an escort. Something subtle has happened, though; whenever they hear her name, they immediately think of me. Now imagine the Caltech administration, and every time they hear the words “diversity” or “married students” or some other issue, they can’t help but automatically think of your name and the points that you keep bringing to their attention no matter how many times they tell you that student concerns are not a top priority.

There is at least one level of communication that I can control, and that is this newsletter. At the last GSC meeting, the BOD voted to award the editor a bonus each month. In my view, each month that there are no letters or submissions from students outside the board and no actions precipitated by something written here, I haven’t done my job well enough to deserve that. So, I’m working on a few ideas for how to use the additional money to change that situation, and hopefully in the months to come this publication will become more of a nexus for inclusive and productive communication, with the goal of improving Caltech for everyone.

CPA Careers Brown Bag Lunch Series
Friday, June 21, at noon
Beckman Behavioral Biology, Room 3
Diane Clemens-Knott and Sally Pasion will be discussing what it’s like to teach and run a lab at a California state university. Dr. Clemens-Knott is an Associate Professor of Geological Sciences at Cal State–Fullerton. Dr. Pasion is an Assistant Professor of Biology at San Francisco State. All are welcome to attend. Questions: cpa-career@its.caltech.edu.

Interested in learning more about the Caltech Women’s Center? Join our e-mail list and receive updates about programs, announcements, and resources at the Caltech Women’s Center and in the community. To join, visit our web page at www.womenscenter.caltech.edu.

Backpacking in the Sierras and Yosemite
On June 20–23, join other Caltech students for three days and three nights of backpacking in the wilderness of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, followed by a day in Yosemite National Park.

For more information on these programs or others available through the Caltech Y, contact us at x6163 or e-mail caltechy@caltech.edu.

The Career Network of The Chronicle of Higher Education is looking for doctoral students in all fields who would be interested in writing a year-long diary of their job search in 2002-03. I am editor of the Career Network, a web site devoted to academic careers, the job market, and nonacademic careers for Ph.D.’s.

I am looking for graduate students who are going on the job market starting this coming fall and who have a flair for writing. Over the last four years we have featured the stories of more than 20 such grad students from different fields, who wrote regular accounts of their attempts to find academic and non-academic jobs. You can take a look at their columns at www.chronicle.com/jobs/archive/firstpersonarch.htm.

The good news: we pay for each piece ($500 an article), and the income has been a nice supplement for the grad students. Each piece is about 1000 words and should be written in a conversational, journalistic style. Humor is a plus. The writers should be able to reflect on their own situation in the broader context of the job market and academic culture. Many of our diarists use a pseudonym; some write under their own name — your call, but I will need to know your name, institution, and field.

To apply, interested students can submit a sample column (deadline: August 5) that would serve as the first published entry in their diary. Please send the column in an e-mail message to me at denise.magner@chronicle.com. You can paste it in the e-mail or send it as an attachment. Based on those submissions, I will pick five to eight columnists for the year. Each columnist would then write approximately five pieces over the course of the year.

Please feel free to check out our site, which is free to everyone, at www.chronicle.com/jobs/jobs3.htm, and contact me if you have any questions. I look forward to hearing from you by the August 5 deadline.

Most of us have had the experience of seeing that a friend may be in trouble but not being sure how to help. Often, the most helpful thing we can do is to give our friends our undivided attention and to encourage them to talk about whatever is bothering them. At other times, helping a friend may mean getting them connected with resources or professionals who can help. This article is meant to help you identify signs that your friends may be in trouble and to provide you with ways to help them.

Trust your instincts
Friends don’t always come right out and tell us when they need our help. Often, we have to rely on our instincts (and what we know about our friends) to help us identify when they are in distress. A general gauge for distress is a noticeable change in a friend’s behavior, personality, or mood. It’s common to exhibit multiple symptoms, because our emotions can affect us physically, cognitively, and behaviorally.

Some symptoms of distress may include:
• Change in appearance or grooming
• Change in weight, sleeping habits, eating habits, or interest in sex
• Apathy toward activities or schoolwork
• Problems with schoolwork or concentration
• Sudden withdrawal from friends and social opportunities
• Difficulty getting along with others
• Unusual mood swings, anger, or depression
• Increased use of alcohol or drugs

Listen and attend
When talking to your friend about a problem, one of the most effective ways of helping is to try to understand his or her situation. Let your friend know that you care and that you want to help. It is important to find a private place free from interruptions to talk with your friend and to give your undivided attention. If your friend feels it is “safe” to talk, he or she will be more apt to open up to you.

Start by asking questions that will help you and your friend get a clear picture of what is going on. Try to put your feelings aside for now and focus on what your friend is telling you before you jump in with advice. Although you may want to normalize what your friend is feeling (“It seems like lots of people feel the way that you do . . .”), people often shut down if they feel that their problems are being minimized or that the focus is on you telling your story instead of listening to theirs (“I remember when a similar thing happened to me.”)

Some things you can do to be a good listener:
• Ask questions. Get a good idea of what is going on so that you can best help your friend.
• Be attentive. Give your friend your full attention. Let him or her know that you are listening by summarizing what he or she has just shared with you.
• Be aware of how your body language (crossed arms, minimal eye contact, bored facial expressions) may be experienced by your friend.
• Be careful not to minimize. Everyone experiences situations differently. What may seem trivial to you may be very important to someone else.
• Try not to judge or to jump to conclusions. Allow your friend to have his or her own feelings and try to be as supportive as you can without judging his or her values and beliefs.

Setting and recognizing limits
It is important to recognize when a problem is more than you can handle. If you are feeling overwhelmed, depleted, or even resentful, the support your friend needs may be beyond what you can provide. Also, if you have tried to help, but the problem has not improved or has gotten worse, it is probably time to consider other options.

Getting help
You can help a friend by connecting him or her with outside resources. For example, you might offer to escort your friend to the Counseling Center or tell him or her more about the tutoring available at the Dean’s office. Sometimes, when a person is in distress, the easiest tasks (e.g., finding phone numbers or making appointments) can be overwhelming. There are a lot of people on campus who are here to assist students.

Some campus resources:
• Counseling Center x8331
• Security x4701
• Graduate Dean x3480
• Minority Student Affairs Office x6208
• International Student Programs x6330
• Women’s Center x3221
• Ombuds Office x6990
• Health Center x6393

Helping a friend can be a challenge sometimes. Trust your instincts about signs or signals that your friend may be in trouble. Also, pay attention to your own limits and your sense that a problem is too much for you to tackle. If you are trying to help a friend and you need additional support or have questions, feel free to contact us at the Counseling Center. Other information on helping a friend can be found on our web site at www.counseling.caltech.edu. Helping your friend doesn’t have to be something you struggle with on your own.

To reach Security:
In an emergency, x5000 (on-campus)
395-3000 (off-campus).

For information or to make a report, call x4701.

On May 9, 2002 at 9:30 AM, Security encountered a suspicious male picking up scrap metal by the Recycling Center. He was Hispanic, 5’6”, 110 lbs., with black hair and wearing blue jeans, work boots, and a blue work shirt. He was escorted off campus.

On May 9, 2002 at 4:52 PM, Security responded to a fire in a trash dumpster in the Student Activities Center. The fire was extinguished by Pasadena Fire Department.

On May 10, 2002 at 2:16 AM, Security responded to a report of a vehicle break-in. The vehicle was parked on California Blvd., south of Dabney House. Pasadena Police Department was notified and arrived to take a report.

On May 10, 2002 at 1:00 PM, Security responded to a report of a suspicious male at the bookstore. He was described as a White male, 5’6”, with gray hair and a beard. He was escorted off campus.

On May 11, 2002 at 3:48 AM, Security responded to a fire alarm from Winnett Center. The alarm was triggered in the basement by a student smoking a cigarette.

On May 11, 2002 at 6:34 AM, Security responded to a fire alarm at the Catalina Apartments. The alarm was triggered by a burning candle.

On May 11, 2002 at 4:32 PM, Security received a report of large number of bees along Olive Walk. Pasadena Health Department was notified, and they exterminated the bees.

On May 11, 2002 at 11:15 PM, Security discovered a broken glass door in Baxter Hall. The door was secured and the area was taped off until repairs could be made.

On May 12, 2002 at 10:28 AM, Security received a report of a slip and fall that occurred on May 9. A staff member slipped and sprained her ankle walking down some stairs in Baxter.

On May 14, 2002 at 7:24 AM, Security received a report of a suspicious male sleeping in the Fleming House lounge. He was about 5’7”, 165 lbs., and wearing gray pants, an orange shirt, and a baseball cap. He was escorted off campus.

On May 18, 2002 at 9:10 AM, Security received a report of a visitor who slipped and fell in Dabney Hall. The visitor was transported by a family member to Huntington Memorial Hospital for evaluation.

On May 21, 2002 at 6:15 AM, Security responded to a medical emergency at the undergraduate student houses. A student was experiencing shortness of breath and chest pains. The student declined emergency medical attention and went to the student health center.

On May 21, 2002 at 7:15 PM, Security responded to a fire alarm from Blacker House. A motorcycle was in the dining lounge and its exhaust pipe triggered the alarm.

On May 22, 2002 at 12:30 AM, Security received a report of a stolen bike. The bicycle was a dark blue Marin and had a rack over the rear tire. It was last seen in the breezeway between Blacker House and Ricketts House.

On May 22, 2002 at 10:46 AM, Security received a report of a suspicious person in North Mudd. The person was contacted and escorted off campus.

On May 22, 2002 at 10:11 AM, Security received a report of a student who had twisted an ankle. The student was treated with an ice pack and transported to the Health Center.

On May 22, 2002 at 5:15 PM, Security responded to a report of a hit-and-run by the athletic facilities. The car was damaged on the right front quarter panel of the vehicle.

On May 26, 2002 at 7:00 PM, Security received a report of a stolen bike. It was a blue women’s Eddie Bauer bike and was locked on the bike rack on the south side of Noyes.

On May 27, 2002 at 11:08 AM, Security responded to a fire alarm in the Student Activities Center. The alarm was triggered by a faulty smoke detector.

On May 28, 2002 at 4:21 PM, Security received a report of a student who accidentally splashed a chemical in her eye, causing some minor irritation. The student was transported to the Health Center.

On May 29, 2002 at 1:18 PM, Security received a report of a stolen bike. The bike, a red Trek 990, was last seen locked on a bike rack by Dabney hall.

On May 30, 2002 at 11:30 AM, Security received a report of a staff member who got his hand pinned against a pipe. He was transported to the Occupational Health Center for evaluation.

On May 30, 2002 at 1:00 PM, Security received a report of a staff member who was trimming a few bushes when a palm tree limb he was cutting broke apart and injured his left hand. He was evaluated by the Occupational Health Center.

On May 31, 2002 at 9:18 PM, Security responded to a report of a suspicious person using the computers at the undergraduate student houses. The individual was an Asian male, 5’10”, 195 lbs., with black hair and black eyes. He was escorted off campus.

On June 1, 2002 at 8:30 PM, Security encountered some vandalism at the Fairchild Library. The handrail to the main entrance was bent.

On June 2, 2002 at 2:17 AM, Security encountered two suspicious individuals entering the campus from California Blvd. The individuals quickly left campus after seeing the officer. They appeared to be two White males of medium build in their early 20’s.

On June 3, 2002 at 10:27 AM, Security received a report of a staff member who slipped and fell while in the basement of Chandler. She was transported to Occupational Health.

On June 3, 2002, Security responded to a report of a staff member experiencing severe back pains. The paramedics were notified and evaluated the individual’s condition.

On June 3, 2002 at 7:39 PM, Security received a report of a stolen DVD player from Avery House. The item was last seen two to three weeks ago.

On June 3, 2002 at 6:00 PM, Security received a report of a stolen bike. It was last seen on the bike rack east of Beckman Institute.

On June 4, 2002 at 3:00 PM, Security observed a delivery truck damage a tree on the north side of Winnett Building. A large branch was broken but not separated from the tree.

On June 5, 2002 at 3:20 PM, Security received a report of a suspicious person trying to sell books in North Mudd. He was described as a Caucasian male, 6’2”, with curly brown hair, in his mid 30’s and wearing a blue button-down shirt with beige pants.

On June 5, 2002 at 8:00 PM, Security received a report from a student of an auto burglary. The vehicle was parked on California just south of Synchrotron. A report was filed with the Pasadena Police.

On June 6, 2002 at 12:14 AM, Security assisted a student who was stuck in an elevator at Keck Lab. With the help of Central Plant, the situation was resolved.

On June 6, 2002 at 9:10 AM, Security was notified of an injured staff member. The individual hit his head on some pipes and was taken to the Occupational Health Center.

On June 6, 2002 at 10:10 AM, Security was notified of a theft in the Braun Athletic Center. A woman’s swimsuit was stolen from the women’s locker room.

Degrees were formally awarded on June 14, 2002.
Congratulations to all!

The Freshman Science Institute (FSI) research mentoring program provides graduate students, post-doctoral scholars, and other research faculty a great opportunity to mentor the incoming minority freshmen during a four week research experience (August 19-September 19) as part of the FSI. The deadline to apply to be a FSI Research Mentor is June 24. The program information and application form are available at www.its.caltech.edu/~gsc/docs/FSI.pdf.

The FSI research program was initiated in 2001 and has received rave reviews from both students and mentors, as documented in a third-party evaluation of the program. The goals of the program are to

• Introduce students to the research-based culture of Caltech.
• Convey the excitement of discovery and critical rigor necessary in doing research.
• Connect students with members of the Caltech community via research interests, which will improve the integration of incoming students into Caltech research programs.
• Foster relationships between students that will enhance the development of community at Caltech.
• Provide graduate students and postdocs with an opportunity to develop mentoring skills.

As a part of the Asia-Pacific Cultural Week here at Caltech, there was a first-ever Iron Chef contest on campus! For those who do not know, Iron Chef is a cooking contest in which each team is given a certain amount of money to purchase food and to cook as many wonderful dishes as possible. However, there is one catch; there is a secret ingredient which must be incorporated into each dish.

This event was well attended, with four of the six participating teams being graduate student teams. All food had to be Asian or Asian Fusion in theme. The grad students cooked food ranging from Indian to Thai to Korean to Japanese to several variants of Chinese food. All the food was great, and the participants had a wonderful time trying to incorporate cucumber, the secret ingredient, into each and every dish.

A large panel of staff, faculty, and students judged the contest in two categories: creativity and best taste. We are pleased to report that a graduate student team won both of those categories! The winning team, Team Prufrock, consisted of Shanti Rao (Physics), Chi Wang (Biology), Martha Kirouac (Biology), and yours truly (ESE).

This was a great event and hopefully more of these will be held in the future. After all, our ability (or inability!) to cook is really important for many of us in this new-found graduate student existence.

Think you are the only researcher to have lost your files when your computer died? Think again. “500 Tips for Research Students,” by Sally Brown, Liz McDowell, and Phil Race offers some sound advice.

1. Don’t panic! Most disasters have happened before; it’s just not talked about. Ask other researchers what they did when things went wrong. Experience is a great teacher.

2. Take a break. Try to regain your perspective.

3. Have a fall-back position. Try to plan for other approaches or try to build in some redundancy so that you are not dependent upon every single part of your work.

4. Review and take stock. Even if you lost some data, you may still be able to achieve a good outcome.

5. Two steps forward–one step back. This tends to be the nature of research. This particular step back may be a natural part of eventually successful research.

6. Do not pretend to have no problems. Talk to your supervisor and colleagues; most people are genuinely interested in helping someone who is experiencing difficulties and will offer useful advice.

7. Get an extension. Most academic departments will give extensions to a deadline.

8. Do it better this time. Take this opportunity to improve on what you did the first time; this disaster may end up sharpening the final product.

9. Capture what you learned from adversity. This setback may provide rich discussion material for your thesis.

10. Remember that what did not work is often as interesting as what did work. Any thesis has room for a critical account of what did not solve the problems, as well as the approaches that finally paid off.

If you are looking for help to think about what to do if you find yourself in the middle of a potential “disaster,” remember to contact the Ombuds office at x6990. We can offer a quiet space to think about the consequences that you face and help you determine the resources available to assist you.

Amnesty International Group 22 will have the following events this month:

Thursday, June 27, 7:30 PM: Monthly meeting in the Caltech Y in the Center for Student Services building.

Tuesday, July 9, 7:30 PM: Letter-writing in the Athenaeum basement in the Rathskeller (or on the patio if the Rathskeller is closed). Join us for actions on human-rights violations around the world, talk, and refreshments.

The Ballroom Dance Club is offering two new class series over the Summer Term (both of which are currently big in L.A.): Lindyhop and Salsa.

Lindyhop will be taught by professional instructor Doug Silton. Lessons will be on Mondays from June 24–August 12.

Salsa will be taught by professional instructor Andre Fortin. Lessons will be on Thursdays from June 20–August 15.

The cost for either class is $40/series or $6/lesson for all Caltech students; $56 (series) / $8 (lesson) for others. There is a special $1/lesson discount if you sign up for both series, in full, before the start of the second Salsa class. All lessons take place in Dabney Lounge and start promptly at 7:30 PM. The lessons tend to end somewhere around 9 PM and are often followed by an informal practice session after class for another hour or so. No partner or experience is necessary. If you miss the first class, feel free to come the second week, as our instructors will review material from the first class during the second! Refreshments will be provided.

For more information, please visit our web page.

Caltech’s Shorinji Kempo Club will be hosting North America’s West Coast Shorinji Kempo Seminar at the Brown Gym on July 5-7. (Friday 10 AM–5 PM, Saturday 9 AM–5 PM, Sunday 9 AM–1 PM). The seminar includes study sessions, lectures, tests, and demonstrations. The seminar will be conducted by three visiting senseis from Shorinji Kempo’s headquarters in Japan.

Need a break from your homework or your lab? Like to enjoy coffee in the afternoon? Want to meet other people from Club Latino? Then join the Club Latino Coffee Club every Thursday at 3 PM at the Red Door . We’ll be at one of the tables outside the Red Door. Be sure to stop by for a coupon so you can get a half-priced specialty coffee, sponsored by the Red Door and Club Latino.

Looking for a fun and enriching activity for your child this summer? Sign him or her up for “Fun with Movement,” a class sponsored by the Caltech Dance Troupe. Your child will be dancing, skipping, bouncing, and turning in no time! This class is for four- to six-year-old children and will teach the basics of rhythm, balance, coordination, and interpretive movement in a fun social setting. It will be held Saturdays from 1-1:45 PM in the Caltech gym for seven weeks, starting July 13. The fee for all seven sessions is $45 (only $30 for grad students). For more info, grab a flyer from the front desk of the Caltech gym or from the Children’s Center, or go to troupe.caltech.edu and click on “Current Class Offerings.” Hope to see your child dancing this summer!

The Caltech Dance Troupe will also be offering fun, free, and informal ballet classes this summer. To attend classes, simply show up with a Caltech ID or gym membership card. The advanced beginning/intermediate class will meet on Saturdays from 2–3 PM and the intermediate/advanced class will meet on Thursday nights from 8–9:30 PM. Both classes meet in the Braun multipurpose room. No special clothing or shoes are required for the beginners’ classes. For more info, please see our web page.

Do you like the sun, water, and speed? Then you'll love kiteboarding. In case you have not seen it on the beaches already, kiteboarding is a relatively new sport that involves surfing on a surf board, with straps for your feet, while being pulled by a sail/kite similar to parasailing sails. The sails are larger than windsurf sails and thus allow for greater speeds. If you are interested in learning how to kiteboard or simply in getting equipment that you can borrow, e-mail kite@caltech.edu with your name and your option.

Whether you are out and proud, exploring your sexual identity, coming out, or anywhere in-between, we invite you to our discussion group, which meets on the first and third Tuesdays of each month from 8:15 until 10:15 PM in the Health Center Lounge. The group is a great place to meet new friends and the atmosphere is generally very relaxed; at the same time, more personal and "serious" discussion topics can be addressed. This is a confidential meeting and attendance does not imply anything about a person's sexual orientation; supportive students and staff are welcome as well. And refreshments are served! For more information call x8331. To find out about LBGT events on campus, please visit the Caltech Student Pride Association (CSPA) calendar at www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~cspa .

Caltech Rugby Football Club plays 15-a-side rugby in the Southern California Rugby Football Union. Please come out and support the team! We are always looking for more recruits. No experience is necessary, just enthusiasm and intensity! Full-contact training is on Tuesday and Thursday nights at 6 PM on the South Field. For more information send an e-mail to rugbyclub@its.caltech.edu or check out our glorious web page.

Caltech's Student Shop is a full metal and woodworking shop open to the entire Caltech and JPL community, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Check out our website for more details.

The Water Polo club is looking for a few good men and women!!! Come out and play water polo with us; the more the merrier. Beginners are welcome, and no experience is needed. We will teach you everything (but you must at least know how to float!) Come and experience the joy of water polo and you will learn how to dunk people under water... or just come to watch hot semi-naked guys running around on the pool deck. That will get your attention.

We meet regularly every Tuesday and Thursday night at 8:30 PM at the Braun Pool. It's an all-year-round affair. So come out, bring a swimsuit, and drag your friends with you!!!

Women in Engineering, Science, and Technology (WEST) held an Open Forum with David Baltimore and Steven Koonin on May 23. We are in the process of typing up a transcript from this event to add to our web site. Also, we will be holding a Lunch with Faculty for female students sometime during July. Please check our web site for up-to-date information on this event.