History Links
- http://donut.caltech.edu/about/history/Jou02/
- Ted's paper "History of Undergraduate Self-Governance" can be found here. I consider it to be the mandatory place to begin for learning more about Caltech's history. It talks broadly about the history of the Institute from the renaming of Throop Polytechnic to Caltech until 2002.
- http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~tjou/words/desk/
- His "From the President's Desk" are here. These were his weekly California Tech columns and other writings during his year as ASCIT President and half year as Past-President before graduation. They cover various issues facing students during the year 2002-03. These included: parking, health care, and student unhappiness with ASCIT.
- http://calteches.library.caltech.edu/280/
- http://calteches.library.caltech.edu/281/
- http://calteches.library.caltech.edu/282/
- Confessions of a Genial Abbot (15 or so pages of memoirs from the MOSH, Dr. Robert Huttenback, at the end of his 11 year tenure as MOSH before he started as Dean of Students)
- http://turli.caltech.edu
- http://donut.caltech.edu/about/history/2001/TURLI/
- The TURLI (Taskforce Undergraduate Resident Life Initiative) Report. This report was seen as a divisive factor in student-administration relations around the turn of the century. It was felt by several of the students on the committee that their words were twisted into the meaning that former President Baltimore requested. On the other hand, the report was used as the primary written record for the recent South House renovations that were completed in the winter term, 2006-07.
- http://donut.caltech.edu/about/history/protest01/
- http://donut.caltech.edu/about/history/2001/?SID=
- There was a large student protest in December 2001 regarding changes to the Health Care for students. I'm told this involved changing the primary provider (who is billed) to parents of students. This would mean students getting medicine, such as birth control, would be reported to parents through means of bills. This preceded the 2001 BoD election and resulted in several of the involved students getting elected to the 2002-03 BoD.
- http://gcrweb.caltech.edu/masterplan/MasterPlan.pdf
- Caltech Master Plan (30 year construction plan for the school, updated every 5 years). This paper talks about future (and recent past) expansion to the campus. From this, one can visualize potential future disputes, such as parking spaces. (For example, this dispute would be between the Institute and the community, since plans call for an additional structure to be built eventually) Includes a somewhat-useful map of the steam tunnels, so Honor Code the use of it. (Frosh, you should create your own map of the tunnels)
- http://www.alumni.caltech.edu/
- http://www.gnome.caltech.edu/
- The Gnome Club is a club of active alumni who care about the school. Both the Gnomes and the Alumni Association are useful references in hunting answers for whatever questions you may have about the past.
- http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/
- Oral Histories (I specifically recommend browsing the 'administration' subject). Here is a listing of recorded interviews with various faculty members posted by the Caltech Archives. Many, many interesting tidbits referred to here.
- Tech Archives (Very time consuming, really cool)
- The Tech archives are the students' take on issues around the campus. The California Tech has archives in the SAC (Student Activity Center) underneath the South Houses. I don't remember exactly which room.
- Years
- 1946 - 2004 (some missing, I'll document eventually)
- http://findingaids.library.caltech.edu/7/01/Historical_Files.pdf
- This is what's present in the Archives. Email archives@caltech.edu if you're interested; you need to set up an appointment and have a reason other than 'simply browsing,' which is unfortunate.
- http://homepage.mac.com/ehgoins/papers/caltechs_minorities.pdf
- This is a report from 1993 detailing the history of underrepresented minorities at Caltech. It ran as a series of vignettes in the California Tech. If someone's interested in contacting Dr. Goins, I would be interested to see in what he has to say, 15 years later.
- http://alumnus.caltech.edu/~dzobel/walls/AlleyWallArt.htm
- A collection of student murals in the Houses over the past many years.
History Thoughts
Here's some random ideas to get more people involved, especially after we leave: Oral History of alumni organized by Class of X and also by decade. With this, we can get a range of data from the amusing (stuff that makes it into Legends, various 'secret' activities within the Houses) to the administrative side of things (the mark our various school presidents have left on the school, ASCIT/IHC/Tech stuff, etc...)
Lunch "Caltech History" seminar. I'm planning on asking Frautschi if he'd be interested in this or could recommend a prof to sit and chat with us. Other people good to ask about stuff are: Lorden, Brennen, La Belle, Kousser, Libbrecht. We could also invite alumni to chat with us about their time here.
Liz, any news on the history wiki idea you and Alex were bouncing around at the end of last year?