The Student Defense Initiative is a nonprofit organization that promotes Caltech undergraduate student culture. Strong protection of both students’ civil rights and self governance is an integral part of that culture. We 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. The availability of these funds levels the playing field between student leaders and Institute administrators. The Dean has the Office of General Counsel; the students have the Student Defense Initiative.

We also develop alumni-student relations by organizing events and putting students and alumni in touch with each other. SDI has had a presence at each Alumni Weekend since its inception. We've hosted midnight donuts each year, where students and alumni congregated to discuss the issues of the day.

SDI also works behind the scenes. Because we value confidentiality, we can’t discuss all the issues we are involved with. If you’re a Caltech student who wants to talk to us, please feel free to use our Contact form or email jason@studentdefenseinitiative.org.

Background

The Student Defense Initiative was incorporated in May of 2013 to fund legal consultation for the undergraduates, the bodies of the undergraduate student houses, the student associations, and the affiliated student organizations of the California Institute of Technology.

SDI has its roots in an active and concerned alumni community. These alumni are interested in the nature of the relationship between current students and Caltech’s administration. Many alumni were troubled by some of the administration’s decisions, which have increasingly ignored well-established fair procedures when conducting disciplinary action. A series of incidents created a pattern of behavior that motivated these alumni to take collective action, which ultimately resulted in the creation of SDI.

In November 2011, alumni created a Facebook group called “Active Alums - Techers” to discuss issues and organize a response to Caltech’s administration. The group quickly grew in size. Currently, it has over 2,000 members, which is about 60% of the size of the general Caltech Alumni Facebook group and almost 9% of all living Caltech alumni. There is widespread support across all generations of alumni.

In 2013, another sequence of incidents caused alumni to believe that further action was required. A core group of the active alumni organized SDI to allow concerned alumni to pool monetary resources that were outside the control of Caltech’s administration. The Caltech Alumni Association also interacts with alumni and accepts donations, but their focus is alumni-university relations, and they have closer ties to the university. Their bank accounts are managed by Caltech’s administration, which charges a 15% upkeep fee on all donations. Concerned alumni wanted to organize monetary resources independently of Caltech in order to avoid conflicting interests with the Caltech administration. Caltech has long suffered a low alumni donation rate. Forming an independent charitable organization gives alumni an opportunity to contribute to the school and to foster positive change within the student body without empowering an administration with which they disagree. SDI believes that, when Caltech students are trusted with privileges and given opportunities to meaningfully contribute to leadership and decision making, they are properly equipped to better the world when they graduate.