Blog

Help Us Help the Students through COVID

As the school year begins with the pandemic still spreading, our students need help now more than ever. The Institute is attempting to reopen and they are clearing out space that was used to store students' belongings over the summer. Ideally, students would collect their own belongings, but given the ongoing pandemic, most of them aren't returning to campus. Without anywhere else to put their things, the students and Houses risk having their stuff thrown out. 

The good news is that there is a solution. Student leaders have secured storage space near campus, and are arranging transport. SDI is providing funds to help pay for this storage. That’s where you come in. We need your recurring support to help the students on campus through these unprecedented times. For convenience, we've already set up a Patreon account. 

Please join our Patreon to help our students keep their belongings in storage instead of the dumpster. Click the link below to donate. Hopefully we can get back to spending the money on donuts again soon. 

Thank you all for your support. As a reminder, we are a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, and your donation is tax deductible.

Student Rights Handbook

First, thank you for a very successful Midnight Donuts this year. We went through over 14 dozen strawberry donuts, and there were more students and alums than ever. It was wonderful to have students hear from alumni about how things were back in the day and for them to hear about what it’s like being a student now.

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Secondly, we are pleased to announce that the first chapter of the SDI Student Rights Handbook is now live. We chose Fair Procedure as our first topic, given its importance to the rest of students’ rights. Check out the chapter on our website here. Learn what fair procedure is, its relationship to due process, when it applies, and what it means. We have more chapters on the way, and next up is Housing Rights.

Finally, we are excited to unveil our Patreon page. Supporting us through Patreon will create recurring revenue for SDI and provide a stable base of support for us to continue our work. We have a few rewards, including access to a private channel on our Discord and some swag. You can find our page here. Of course, you can always donate directly via our website.



Double the Donuts

Join us for midnight donuts with SDI this weekend. We'll be in the RF courtyard at 11:59 pm on Saturday, May 18. It was so popular last year, that this year we'll have at least twice as many donuts. Most of the SDI Board will be around this weekend as well. See you there!

Statement on the Bechtel Decision

We are disappointed with the unilateral nature of Joe Shepherd’s decision to make major changes to Rotation and the House System at Caltech.  The House System and strong undergraduate self-governance are unique aspects of Caltech and critical pieces of the pipeline that turns Caltech students into future leaders and innovators.  Strong undergraduate self-governance can only thrive if the Administration is willing to work collaboratively with students to address issues that directly impact the undergraduate experience, particularly the aspects of that experience that mold us into a community that survives long into our years as alumni.

Contrary to these principles, Dean Gilmartin has confirmed that the Rotation changes made in the Bechtel memo were deliberately made without input from current students, and that Shepherd intended to withhold that aspect of the plan from students until its public release.  What is worse, the Bechtel memo claimed student support for the proposed changes that simply is not present.  Many students who were quoted in the Bechtel memo have stated that their words have been taken out of context to misrepresent their actual position.  Reviewing the original source material confirms that these student complaints are well grounded in fact.

IHC has confirmed that it was unaware until the night before release that Rotation would be addressed in the Bechtel memo and was “surprised by the proposed changes.”  IHC’s members “were not expecting the rotation procedures to be unveiled in the” Bechtel memo.  This failure to solicit student input has harmed the relationship between students and the Administration.  Caltech should be working hand-in-hand with students to find solutions to common problems, rather than blindsiding them with potentially profound changes to a central aspect of the Caltech undergraduate experience.

In 2016, substantial changes to the structure of Rotation were implemented.  These changes were made with the help and support of the faculty (particularly the social science faculty) and are supported by academic research.  The goal of these changes was to prioritize the preferences of Caltech’s arriving freshman as they enter our community.  These changes are a model of how the process should have worked.

IHC and other student representatives, with the visible support of a large fraction of the student body, have expressed dismay with the process used to reach this point, wedded to a continuing commitment to work with the Administration to identify and address issues arising from Rotation, as well as other aspects of Caltech life.  The Student Defense Initiative supports those efforts and stands ready to lend assistance as needed.

More Midnight Donuts

SDI is hosting Midnight Donuts again this year during Alumni Weekend. Join Jeff and Jason on Saturday night, at or near the RF courtyard. Come get a strawberry donut, meet with students and alumni, and learn about the Student Defense Initiative. Jason will be available to answer questions throughout Alumni Weekend as well.

Saturday, May 20, at 11:59 pm, RF courtyard

As always, you can get in touch using our website form.

 

Midnight Donuts

Join us for midnight donuts with SDI board member Jason Cerundolo ‘09 on Saturday night, at or near the RF courtyard. Come get a strawberry donut, meet with students and alumni, and learn about the Student Defense Initiative. Jason will be available to answer questions throughout Alumni Weekend as well.

Saturday, May 21, at 11:59 pm, RF courtyard

As always, if you need to get in touch, you can use our website form or email jason@studentdefenseinitiative.org. See you this weekend.

Ask a Techer Live Again

Do you ever wish you could go back to the time when you were a Caltech student so you could give your younger self some pointers? Want to give advice to the current generation of undergrads at Tech?

Ask a Techer Live is Sunday, April 10th, at 1700 PDT.

A group of alumni, in association with the Student Defense Initiative, is hosting a live Q&A event for Caltech undergrads. This session is the second such event, and our topic for the evening will be “Regret,” where we’ll talk about decisions we made at Tech that we wish we could redo. You can help us warn current students against making the same mistakes.

This session will be a live-streaming event. You can view the stream on YouTube. If you want to participate as an alum on the live stream, email Jason at jason@studentdefenseinitiative.org. Although YouTube allows an unlimited number of viewers, we have space for only eight alum panelists. If you have ideas for future discussion topics, you can email Jason or use this website form for anonymous submissions.

We look forward to having you join us for the live stream.

 

Happy Holidays

Thank you for your support this year. With your backing, we’ve been able to support Caltech undergrads in many ways.

  1. At Alumni Weekend, we hosted midnight donuts to bring together alumni and current students over dozens of strawberry donuts.

  2. We hosted Ask a Techer Live, during which alumni offered their stories and advice to current students. You can view the recording here.

  3. Behind the scenes, we engaged one on one with students that needed assistance. The details are confidential, but we have had great success so far.

Please consider making an end-of-year donation to SDI.

We are a completely volunteer organization, so 100% of your money is used to further our mission. As a reminder, we are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, so your donation is tax deductible. If you require any further documentation, please don’t hesitate to contact us at jason@studentdefenseinitiative.org.

Ask a Techer Live

Do you ever wish you could go back to the time when you were a Caltech student so you could give your younger self some pointers? Want to give advice to the current generation of undergrads at Tech? Ask a Techer Live is Sunday, December 13th, at 1600 PST.

A group of alumni, in association with the Student Defense Initiative, is hosting a live Q&A event for Caltech undergrads. This session is the first such event, and our topic for the evening will be “Life After Tech,” where we’ll talk about how we got jobs after leaving Tech. Others will discuss staying in academia and what that process was like.

This session will be a live-streaming event. You can view the stream on YouTube. If you want to participate as an alum on the live stream, email Jason at jason@studentdefenseinitiative.org. Although YouTube allows an unlimited number of viewers, we have space for only ten alum panelists. If you have ideas for future discussion topics, you can email Jason or use this website form for anonymous submissions.

We look forward to having you join us for this inaugural event.

Betteridge's Law

Dean Dabiri's article in the January 12, 2015 edition of The California Tech deeply worries us. The title “Does the House System Violate the Honor Code?” is aggressive and incendiary. SDI takes the Honor Code very seriously; it is written into our governing documents. We believe that Honor Code violations must be addressed, and the implication that a violation has occurred deserves discussion. However, systems do not violate the Honor Code; people do. Dragging the Honor Code into this discussion is an unfair way to provoke a knee-jerk reaction and makes productive conversation about the underlying issues difficult.

Putting aside the inflammatory language, we are not certain what, exactly, the problem is or if there is a problem at all. The statistics quoted in the article are rudimentary at best. To have a proper, science-based discussion of the issues, we need access to the data. Without such access, the results are not repeatable, and that's not science. Full data are needed because the limited data that are available are very noisy, as shown in the graph below. Any conclusions are not obvious and will require non-trivial analysis.

SDI is tax exempt in CA

We are pleased to announce that the California Franchise Tax Board has recently recognized the Student Defense Initiative as exempt from California income tax. This change in status doesn’t affect you directly; however, achieving this status is the final step in the process of founding SDI. Now that the process of establishing SDI is complete, we can focus on our mission of defending Caltech undergraduate student culture.

Please consider SDI when planning your end-of-year charitable donations. As a reminder, SDI is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Our tax ID number is 46-3015803. We are 100% volunteer supported, which means that more of your money goes toward helping students and improving student-alumni relations.

Happy holidays,

Student Defense Initiative

SDI is 501(c)(3)

We are pleased to announce that, as of August 11, 2014, the IRS recognizes the Student Defense Initiative as a 501(c)(3) public charity, which makes your donations deductible from your federal income tax. This status is retroactive to May 20, 2013. If you had made a donation previously, that donation may be deducted from your 2014 taxes. SDI's federal tax ID number is 46-3015803. Please contact us if you need documentation for past donations. If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation, click here.

There is still work to do. We have now applied for tax-exempt status in California, which is a separate process. We are also developing a relationship with a lawyer who will provide students with legal advice if they need it. Additionally, we are looking into new ways to keep alumni informed about issues on campus. Your donations make these efforts possible. Thank you.

Sincerely,
Student Defense Initiative

SDI at Alumni Weekend

We hope to see you at Alumni Weekend. Join us for a midnight donuts Q&A session with Jason Cerundolo, President of SDI, on Saturday night, at or near the RF courtyard. Come get a strawberry donut, meet with students and alumni, ask questions, buy a t-shirt, and/or make a donation. Jason will be available to answer questions throughout Alumni Weekend as well.

We are also happy to announce that you can now donate easily on our website. We accept all major credit cards. We also have t-shirts available for sale through our online store. We are 100% volunteer supported, so all your money goes toward helping students and improving student-alumni relations. 

See you this weekend.

Sincerely,
Student Defense Initiative

T-Shirts Now Available

We are proud to announce that “I Believe in the Honor Code” t-shirts are available for sale in our online store. Click here to get your t-shirt. All proceeds from the sale of these t-shirts will go toward funding our efforts to support Caltech undergraduates.

We have ideas for other shirts and even a hat. Stay tuned for more updates. If you have ideas for merchandise, please feel free to contact us. In the meantime, we are working diligently toward the redesign of our website -- complete with a new logo -- for the end of February.

Thank you for your continued support. We also value your feedback. If you have comments, questions, or concerns, you can email Jason Cerundolo at jason@studentdefenseinitiative.org.

Sincerely,

Student Defense Initiative Board of Directors

501(c)(3) Application Filed

Happy New Year from the Student Defense Initiative. We’re starting off the year with an update on our status as we work toward becoming a fully operational 501(c)(3) charity.

We held our second Board of Directors meeting on December 21. At that meeting, we adopted a Compensation Policy and a Conflict of Interest Policy, went over details of our application for 501(c)(3) status, and discussed our plans for the coming months.

On December 31, we mailed a completed Form 1023 to the IRS. This form, along with its many attachments, is our application for 501(c)(3) status. Once we have received a Letter of Determination from the IRS, we need to file a few forms with the California State government before we can start accepting donations. The time it takes for the IRS to process an application for tax-exempt status can vary. Optimistic estimates range from two to four months, but some sources claim the process can span as many as two years. As SDI does not qualify for expedited service, we have to wait in line with all other applicants. Regardless of the wait ahead of us, as soon as we hear back from the IRS, we will let you know.

While we wait for 501(c)(3) status, we intend to continue spreading the word about SDI and to continue raising funds. Be on the lookout for more activity on our website. We plan to have “I Believe in the Honor Code” t-shirts for sale by the end of January, and a redesign of the website -- complete with a new logo -- is expected by the end of February. As always, you can stay up to date by subscribing to our newsletter and following our blog at studentdefenseinitiative.org/blog.

Thank you for your continued support. We also value your feedback. If you have comments, questions, or concerns, you can email Jason Cerundolo at jason@studentdefenseinitiative.org.

Sincerely,

Student Defense Initiative Board of Directors

Formation Update 2

We at the Student Defense League wanted to update you on our status as we work toward becoming fully operational.

Earlier this summer, we received the certified copy of our Articles of Incorporation. We are now officially a nonprofit public benefit corporation under California law.

On Saturday, August 10, 2013, the Student Defense Initiative held its first Board of Directors meeting, where we passed our bylaws (which are now posted on our website). We also discussed our next steps toward cementing our nonprofit status. At the top of our list is achieving 501(c)(3) status from the IRS, which will allow us to register with the State of California and begin formally accepting donations. A long process stretches ahead of us, and we will keep you updated as we make progress.

Please welcome the first Board of Directors:

  • Jason Cerundolo (Blacker/Ricketts ‘09), President
  • John Hasier (Blacker/Ricketts ‘09), Vice President
  • Ashley Potts (Dabney ‘09), Secretary
  • Michelle Hasier, Librarian
  • Jimmy Kuo (Lloyd ‘82), Director at Large
  • Andrew Hsieh (Blacker/Dabney ‘04), Director at Large

We are still looking for a strong candidate to fill the position of Treasurer. The Treasurer is responsible for accounting for all SDI revenues and expenses and for ensuring that all necessary tax forms are filed on time. We also hope to broaden the perspective of our Board by incorporating representatives of different houses from different years. Ensuring diverse representation is crucial to SDI’s mission of supporting undergraduate student culture. If you’d like to volunteer or if you have any suggestions, please email jason@studentdefenseinitiative.org.

Alumni Weekend 2013

SDI will have a presence at Alumni Weekend. Some of us will be around to answer questions and collect donations for t-shirts. You can find us following the Student Life Q&A (Friday 5/17 3:00pm-3:50pm in front of Beckmann Institute) and at the discussion in Ricketts Lounge (Sunday 5/19 12pm).  

During Alumni Weekend, SDI will gladly take your cash donations to start up our fund.  We will be offering t-shirts with donations of $20 or more.  We will also be taking mailing list sign-ups for those wishing to be notified when our incorporation is official and we start accepting tax-deductible donations by check. 


Formation Update 1

We are the Student Defense Initiative. We are committed to the defense of undergraduate culture at the California Institute for Technology.

From our Articles of Incorporation, our purposes include...

(a) Provide funding to make legal consultation available to the undergraduates, the bodies of the undergraduate student houses, the student associations, and the affiliated student organizations of the California Institute of Technology.
(b) Provide funding for other activities related to the preservation of student culture and life.
​I have mailed the Articles of Incorporation to the California Secretary of State. I expect they will be filed in 6 weeks. This is just the beginning. There is much work ahead. I will post updates on this blog as we achieve milestones along the way.