Early this month and in late March saw two summits which focused on the earth and planetary sciences. From Thursday, March 28 to Friday, March 29, Georgia Tech Astrobiology and the Explorigins Group hosted the Exploration and Origins Colloquium, a conference intended to showcase efforts in developing space exploration technology and studying the origins of life. The OceanVisions2019 summit — which was held from Monday, April 1 to Thursday, April 4 — presented on the current status of ocean science, which includes the study of ocean systems and their interactions, as well as mitigation and sustainability efforts. 

This year’s Astrobiology conference, which is the event’s second iteration following the 2018 colloquium, brought in renowned researchers and faculty. The first day began with a lecture by Dr. Kevin Hand — deputy project scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Hand explained how it is determined if a planetary body is “suitable” for life. Europa and Enceladus — two of the respective moons of Jupiter and Saturn — are promising because they may harbor interior oceans that could possibly be home to life; this has thus sparked efforts to explore the moons’ surfaces. 

Friday’s program consisted of two segments — the morning showcased technologies being developed for space exploration, while the afternoon presented on the study of the chemical and biological origins of life. Plenary lectures were delivered by researchers including Paul Steffes — professor within the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering — who spoke on how radio waves can be used to determine planetary composition and identify intelligent life. Sara Walker — professor and astrobiologist at the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University — lectured on the common patterns and “laws” of life; after all, the ability to identify life’s origins on other planetary bodies is much enabled by research conducted on past and present life on Earth. 

Other talks included those by Zach Siebars and Justin Lawrence, which detailed the development of new spacesuit materials and submersibles to explore interior oceans. Adrian Ildefonso and William Jun talks focused on developing electronics to function in radiation environments and creating methods to determine rover location on the surfaces of planetary bodies. 

The colloquium was organized with the hope of consolidating the interdisciplinary fields involved in the search for life, as well as exposing such topics and research to young career scientists and students. 

Dr. Micah Schaible—postdoctoral fellow in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry and an organizer of the colloquium—noted that there are many technical obstacles to be overcome in travelling to and operating on planetary bodies. Schaible’s own research focuses on studying the effects of ionizing radiation on dust particles, which can pose challenges for astronaut-led space exploration. 

“On the surfaces of these airless bodies, you have this fine powdered dust called a ‘regolith,’” said Schaible. “Those dust grains, during the Apollo era, were seen to stick all over the astronauts … where we are really pushing it into is how these dust grains [will] affect astronauts.”

Schaible works with REVEALS, a multidisciplinary team that partners with NASA in its Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI) program. 

“REVEALS is a bridging institution looking partly at science questions we can answer and also forwarding exploration technology,” said Schaible. “The idea of SSERVI is to be this loose-knit network in which everybody is working on not totally different, but not totally the same, research.”

Dr. George Zaharescu—postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and an organizer of the 2018 and 2019 Astrobiology colloquiums—works to understand the link between prebiotic chemistry and the earliest living organisms. Zaharescu noted that studying the origins of life involve both chemical and biological perspectives; in his research, Zaharescu studies chemical biosignatures and the connection between the biosphere and its abiotic components. 

“The easiest way to find life, to understand what life is, is actually to look at Earth,” said Zaharescu. 

The OceanVisions summit was jointly organized by researchers at Georgia Tech, Stanford University, Scripps Institute of Oceanography, and the Smithsonian Institute. Among the conference’s keynote speakers include academic faculty, researchers, and representatives from environmental organizations and nonprofits. 

The first day featured researchers specializing in coastal climate change—these included Dr. A. R. Siders, Environmental Fellow at the Harvard University Center for the Environment; and Emily Pidgeon, senior director of Conservation International’s Strategic Marine Initiatives. Among the talks included studies of specific geographic regions; observations have been recorded of adaptations made to address saltwater intrusion in the Philippines and Vietnam, as well as the construction of communities resilient to storm surges in Bangladesh.

Tuesday’s keynotes delved into the building of resilient coastal ecosystems, including those of coral reefs. 

The afternoon sessions focused on the effects of biogeochemical processes—like acidification, deoxygenation, and heavy metal accumulation—on ocean ecology. The evening featured an Ocean Visions reception at the Georgia Aquarium, which intended to teach participants how to invest in innovations that can lead to ocean solutions. 

Wednesday’s program elaborated on the spatial planning of aquaculture as a means of efficiently utilizing marine resources. After all, many present-day coastal countries operate off a “blue economy,” which operates through marine activities like fishing and shipping. The day concluded with a poster session at the Environmental Science & Technology building. 

Thursday concluded with talks on information and quantity-driven models, which can be used to create predictions regarding human and climate impacts on ocean ecosystems. 

Ultimately, Georgia Tech has continued to expand its presence within the field of Astrobiology, including by establishing the Oceans Across Space and Time (OAST), a NASA-funded project. 

Students further interested in astrobiology may consider joining the Explorigins Group—a discussion group comprised of students and early career scientists focused on the topics of life’s origins and the search for life both within and beyond our solar system. 

Amid the recent departures and firings of senior administrative officials, Institute heads have pushed to recommit focus on the issue of ethical leadership.

On Tuesday, Nov. 6, President G. P. “Bud” Peterson and other members of the administration communed at the Historic Academy of Medicine to host the Ethical Leadership: A Shared Commitment forum, which was attended by department heads and high-positioned faculty.

This talk comes one week before Ethics Awareness Week, an annual effort by the University System of Georgia (USG) to promote ethical behavior that will take place from Nov. 11 to 17. This week features numerous activities focused on cultivating character and highlighting the themes of community, transparency and integrity.

In the wake of troubling ethics concerns arising across Tech, replete with  conflict of interest issues and abuse of Tech resources, the USG Chancellor Steven Wrigley on July 20 instructed Peterson to make several administrative and policy changes across Tech and to participate in the USG Ethics Awareness Week.

Peterson is scheduled to give Wrigley a second update on progress made by Monday, Nov. 12.

Peterson began his speech by restating the measures taken promptly following these scandals. Administration conducted personnel changes, created additional safeguards and altered the organizational structure of various departments by drafting distinct duties for each administrative position. Policy was changed so that the Chief Audit Officer reports directly to Peterson, while the Vice President of Legal Affairs was expanded to include Ethics and Compliance in its job title. The administration also revised existing policies to ensure they were compliant with Tech system guidelines, and made sure that no one individual can control the entire procurement process.

Peterson discussed the abrupt increase in calls to the EthicsPoint hotline that has occurred in the past months. Since July 1, 2018, 140 calls have been made to EthicsPoint, an amount that dwarfs the 40 calls made in all of 2017.

“It’s bad because we have a lot of issues we need to deal with, but it’s good that people are comfortable reporting things that they’re concerned about,” Peterson said regarding the hotline statistics.

Peterson proceeded to promote Ethics Awareness Week, detailing his participation throughout the week of events.

Three town halls facilitated by President Peterson will be conducted from Nov. 14 through Nov. 16 and various presentations will be delivered, including a Non-Retaliation Policy Presentation directed towards graduate students.

Peterson says the Non-Retaliation Policy Presentation will address how graduate students can handle the compromising situations they might find themselves.

“They’ve got a major professor who has an unusually significant control over their future and success and they feel that pressure,” said Peterson. “You’ve got a situation where a faculty member controls funding, whether the student will graduate, whether they will complete their degree in a timely manner and to some extent, whether they’re going to be able to get a job at graduation.”

Throughout the talk, Peterson repeatedly emphasized the difference between compliance and ethical leadership.

“To me, being in compliance is doing just the bare minimum that you need to do to follow the rules,” said Peterson. “You can think of things where you’ve been in compliance, but have done something that probably isn’t acceptable.”

On the question of what disciplinary action would be taken to address future mistakes, Peterson distinguished between making bad decisions and committing ethical violations.

“We haven’t had people that had lost their jobs because they made [mistakes],” said Peterson. “We’ve had people who lost their jobs because they did something wrong.”

Following Peterson’s talk was a panel presentation by three panelists: Sonia Alvarez-Robinson, Executive Director for Georgia Tech Strategic Consulting; Aisha Oliver Staley, Interim Vice President for Ethics, Compliance and Legal Affairs; and Steve Salbu, Cecil B. Day Chair in Business Ethics at Scheller. The panelists discussed the characteristics of ethical leadership and culture while maintaining equality.

“There is positional authority — those who are designated leaders,” said Alvarez-Robinson. “And then there are those who lead, who really have followership, who have built social capital, who have deposited sufficient funds into the bank of goodwill that people will work with them in moving an agenda forward.”

Multiple questions arose from faculty members in the audience, including concerns on the disadvantages hourly workers face in comparison to high-positioned faculty and non-hourly workers. Faculty without a permanent position would take a risk when reporting unethical behavior.

In response, the panelists highlighted the special obligation that tenured faculty have in reporting and speaking out when they see something questionable occur. Ethics week begins Nov. 11.

On Tuesday, Oct. 2, and Tuesday, Oct. 16, the Office of the Provost hosted two town halls to discuss the ongoing search for deans for the College of Computing and the College of Sciences.

These efforts follow the recent departure of Paul Goldbart, former dean of the College of Sciences, and the announcement this past summer that Zvi Galil, current dean of the College of Computing, would be stepping down from his post in June 2019.

In the wake of Goldbart’s departure, David Collard has assumed the role of interim dean of the College of Science, and will remain in the position until a new dean is found.

Rafael L. Bras, provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs, detailed the timeline for these searches. The process began in Aug. 2018 with the creation of two separate search committees. Up until November, a pool of candidates will be steadily developed and vetted for recruitment, out of which a group of finalists will be selected to visit campus in March 2019. A final decision and announcement regarding the naming of the new deans will be made in May 2019.

The College of Computing and College of Sciences search committees are chaired by Raheem Beyah and Pinar Keskinocak, respectively. Jennifer Herazy, associate provost for Operations, serves on both committees as the search director.

“We wanted to make sure there was representation across all of the schools,” Beyah said. “We wanted to make sure that staff were represented, and that students were represented.”

This process of switching deans has allowed both colleges to reflect on which initiatives should be prioritized under new leadership in upcoming years.

Bras shared several initiatives that both colleges may hope to pursue, including constructing new libraries and working with the Commission on Creating the Next in Education, a group begun in 2015 that focuses on exploring alternative education models.

As noted by Bras, these dean searches will be conducted internally and will not involve an outside search firm.

“To succeed, the committees are going to have to work very hard. These committees are not going to be passive groups reacting to information given to them,” Bras said. “They will have to be proactive in seeking out and convincing candidates that we want them.”

Those who may know individuals interested in these positions are encouraged to forward nominations of possible candidates to committee members.

Names of any candidates will not be released until finalists are announced next March.

“Many of the people we are pursuing are very good at what they [do],” said Herazy. “We would like to make sure that throughout this process, everything remains confidential about their interest in the position, about their candidacy in the position, and [about] why they chose to apply.”

In addition to the College of Computing and College of Sciences, administration has also organized search committees to identify candidates for  several administrative roles vacated due to ethics scandals that surfaced in the summer.

Among these openings are  the executive vice president for Administration and Finance and  the vice president of Institute Communications, as well as the senior vice president and director of the Georgia Tech Research Institute.

One year after the fatal campus police shooting of Tech student and LGBTQIA+ community leader Scout Schultz on Sept. 16, 2017, two separate gatherings were held in memory of Schultz’s life.

The first — a memorial service co-hosted by the LGBTQIA Resource Center and Pride Alliance and held in Smithgall auditorium on Friday, Sept. 14 — had students, faculty and family and friends of Schultz gather to express recollections of Schultz. The other — an open vigil  on Tuesday, Sept. 18, beginning on 8th Street and morphing into  a quiet march to the Campanile — had students in the LGBTQIA+ community share memories of Schultz, as well as a combined conviction to continue to advocate for needs  they feel Tech administration continues to ignore.

During Friday’s memorial service, those closest to Schultz were allowed to share their thoughts. Neither audio and video recording were permitted at the memorial, partly to deter the level of media attention that affected similar memorial services last year.

Each speaker took a different approach when speaking of Schultz. Some directly spoke of their ability as a student and their role on campus, while others took to lightening the mood by interjecting humor into their message to the audience. Every speaker emphasized one trait of Schultz’s character — their activism.

During their time at Tech, in addition to becoming president of Pride Alliance, Schultz led marches to support Muslim students at Tech and started a fundraiser to donate money to transgender homeless youth. Schultz also had mobilized peers to combat white supremacy and worked in events to help prevent sexual violence, speakers shared.

Speakers also mentioned their first experiences meeting Schultz. For some, it was during their first days on campus when they happened across the Pride Alliance booth at FASET. Others first encountered Schultz inside Tech administrative offices, engaged in a conversation with President G.P. ‘Bud’ Peterson. Multiple speakers emphasized that Schultz loved to talk about a range of topics, whether it be campus regulations or local politics.

Faculty described Schultz as an exceptional student both inside and outside of the classroom. One professor praised Schultz’s inquisitive nature during classroom discussions, as well as their activism throughout campus. Along with having a near-perfect GPA, Schultz was known to regularly attend office hours and take the initiative to learn extra material—a true display of curiosity.

Following the Friday memorial service, individual counseling sessions were made available to help those who continue to struggle with the events of last year or simply want someone with whom they can to talk.

A few hours after the memorial service ended, at 3:31 p.m., a Facebook event titled “1 Year Later — We Remember Scout Schultz” was posted  anonymously online, inviting people to attend an “anniversary of the events that transpired  at the vigil meant to honor Scout’s memory,” according to the public event description.

Last year, on Sept. 18, a candle-light vigil around the Campanile was followed by a protest in which a violence subset set a Georgia Tech Police Department (GTPD) cruiser on fire, and multiple demonstrators were arrested by police.

Over the weekend, through social media, Tech students became aware of plans for the anniversary vigil, which would meet at 8th Street at the very spot where Schultz was shot and killed by GTPD police officer Tyler Beck.

Multiple students, many from the LGBTQIA+ community at Tech, chose  to attend.

Huddled in front of the south doors of Eighth Street South dormitory, a group composed of students and other demonstrators held battery-powered candles and spoke to each other through an electric loudspeaker.

Naiki Kaffezakis, sixth year NRE, PHYS, and vice president of Pride Alliance, said they were tired with watching issues relating to LGBTQIA+ students, such as the construction of gender-inclusive restrooms, “be swept under the rug.”

Schultz, Kaffezakis said, had worked to fight to resolve such issues on behalf of vulnerable members of the campus community.

“Scout has inspired all of us to step up, and that’s the reason that we’re here today,” Kaffezakis said. “Scout didn’t need to die for that. Scout had already prepared me, prepared many of us, many of the younger generation here at Tech, to face these challenges, to face the continual bullsh*t that is just piled on queer students, disabled students, any minority student on campus.”

A few seconds later, a white car drove by, honking aggressively, causing vigil attendees to wonder aloud whether the honk was a “support honk or an angry honk.”

The peaceful protest was closely watched by a wary assortment of Georgia Tech Police Department (GTPD), Georgia State, and Atlanta Police Department officers.

Perched on the third floor balcony of West Village, a pair of neon-vested GTPD patrol officers observed from above.

Julia Grey, third year BME aimed her speaker at the West Village balcony, inviting vigil attendees to wave to the GTPD officers.

“Scout was killed by cop,” Grey projected. “We’d really prefer if you’d let us mourn, without your presence. Would you please leave and let us mourn?”

Attendees applauded as the officers retreated into West Village.

“I just want to say that I’ve been thinking a lot these last few weeks about what Scout would think about where we are now, and I just want to say that we need to continue to recognize how gaslit this community is, because our suffering is real,” said Anna Harrison, EE ‘17. “This is not normal. This is not okay, and what the school has been doing is not what we should be just okay with.”

After sharing their words with one another, a group of demonstrators marched down  to Hemphill and stood outside of GTPD headquarters. A second group, composed almost entirely of  students, also marched, but kept their distance from the police headquarters.

After police cruisers surrounded Hemphill,  both groups continued to march south to the Campanile,  where the demonstration dissolved peacefully.

On Thursday, Sept. 6, and Tuesday, Sept. 11, the last two of three town halls were held by administrative staff to share progress on the A Path Forward initiative. The forums, titled Health and Well-being and Academics respectively, were coordinated to present updates on the effort to improve student life and enhance mental health resources and academic programs across campus.

Some changes completed include new offerings by the recently expanded LGBTQIA Resource Center and Tech Health Initiatives.

“We will be offering HIV testing, pet therapy and our VOICE advocate Jennifer Gagen will be on hand to meet with students who [have] experienced sexual violence, partner violence and stalking,” said Aby Parsons, director of LGBTQIA Resource Center. “We are also having our episcopal campus missioner come in providing spiritual counsel for [those] who want more faith-based support.”

Starting this fall, Health Initiatives will start offering group wellness coaching. The program is largely student-oriented as students are grouped with peers with similar aspirations and work alongside a coach to progress towards a determined goal.

“We will be offering six different groups this fall as a pilot,” said Tiffany Hughes-Trotman, director of Health Behavior at Health Initiatives. “Students who are interested need to preregister and talk about their goals for group coaching. Students come in with some idea of what to focus on.”

The construction of the Intake Center is a longer-term goal the administration has pursued. The center, which is estimated to be completed in 2022, will focus on streamlining the process of planning and scheduling counseling and psychiatry sessions. A temporary center will be opened at the Smithgall Building starting Spring 2019 and will run until the permanent center is opened.

“This is a very new initiative and I think one that has great potential for us,” said Dean John Stein, vice president for Student Life. “We don’t have all the answers. Right now, we are still working out the logistics, but we have months to do that.”

One new permanent source of funding for mental heath programs is the Brandt-Fritz Endowment for the Dean of Students. The endowment, totaling $2.5 million, is expected to generate $100,000 per year.

The allocation of funding is at the discretion of the Dean of Students, currently held by Stein, though it can only be used for specific purposes per endowment restrictions.

“[Brandt and Fritz] wanted it for students and student support services. [It] cannot be used for salaries or to hire new therapists,” said Stein. “What it can be used for is any initiative around mental health, around sober living and recovery.”

In the upcoming semesters, the administration also plans to establish a Mental Health and Well-Being advisory board composed of both students and faculty.

“[The board] will meet a few times each semester and look at the whole health and well-being piece at Georgia Tech and the progress we’re making and find ways to stay in communication with students, faculty, and staff,” said Stein.

Nate Knauf, third-year CS and SGA CoC representative, was keen to point out the issue of permanent staffing and hiring during the open discussion. In 2017, the Mental Health Action Team Report recommended the student to counselor ratio be lowered to the nationally recommended ratio of 1000 to one—it stood at 1578 to one in last year’s report.

The Mental Health Action Team was one of three teams assembled by President G.P. “Bud” Peterson in Oct. 2017 to gather recommendations and identify key issues regarding mental health and community support. These action teams reported their findings in Nov. 2017, and all of them have been published online.

Currently, there are ten full-time certified clinical staff, a number significantly smaller than the 30 recommended to account for the entire student body.

“One of the first blocks to that is having sufficient space. I do not have thirty offices in the counseling center,” said Dr. Carla Bradley, who became the new director of the Counseling Center in July.

As for changes in academic course offerings, certain core and elective courses will now incorporate LGBTQIA-relevant course material. Within the upcoming year, the Office of the Provost aims to simplify the GT1000 curriculum to emphasize the diversity of individual strengths. To address the graduate student population, a graduate student equivalent of GT 1000 was created, called Grad Group, with the intent of promoting resilience and reviewing student stress. Administrative staff will also review institute health requirements impacting first-year physiology courses.

On Friday, Sept. 14, a memorial will be held for Scout Schultz at the Smithgall Center in Room 117. Schultz’s death a year ago prompted administration to begin to prioritize mental health and academic resources across campus.

On Tuesday, Sept. 4 at Clough Commons, administrative staff and members of the Path Forward Advisory group held the Student and Community Life forum, the first of three town halls organized to present updates on the continuing initiative to enhance student life and mental health and strengthen resources for the LGBTQIA community. Among the changes completed include the recent Aug. 23 opening of new office space for the LGBTQIA Resource Center.

“This was after a summer-long renovation project using funds committed by the president and from a gift to Tech the center received earlier this year,” said Aby Parsons, director of the LGBTQIA Resource Center. “Now what we have in the center are two professional staff offices, a meeting room, a lounge study reception space and a smaller room called The Oasis geared to provide as a mental health resource space.”

The Oasis comprises one of two mental health resources expected to be expanded within the next six to 12 months. The other is Rising Up, a program funded by the Joint Allocations Committee designed to help develop resiliency in its LGBTQIA-identified members. The program, which has started this fall, is centered on a small student group that meets every Wednesday at the resource center. Enrollment in the program is open to both undergraduate and graduate students.

To increase accessibility to LGBTQIA resources around the Institute, a cohort of 25 faculty and staff have also been recruited from a variety of departments to serve alongside the Resource Center in developing collaborative programs and relaying information about the center and its initiatives to their respective departments. The training of this cohort is expected to be completed by next week.

“We are hoping this will extend our network further across campus, so students don’t have to seek out the center but rather seek out people in their home department,” said Parsons.

To attain the initiative’s goal of addressing all members of Tech’s student body, the administration has also worked to extend campus resources to graduate students. The biweekly Grad Buzz e-newsletter promotes events and resources geared specifically towards graduate students. Following their undergraduate counterparts, graduate students will now also have their own convocation, followed by an annual graduate student picnic.

“Right on the onset, for onboarding and graduate students, we want to welcome them into the Tech family and make sure they know they are part of the larger campus community,” said Marla Bruner, director of Graduate Studies.

In the upcoming semesters, efforts are being made to complete the designation of gender-inclusive bathroom signs across campus and to continue training Stamps Health Service providers in providing care for transgender students. Parsons also discussed proposals for further-reaching policy change, including the implementation of gender-inclusive housing options.

“For transgender students in housing, there is no way for them to indicate on their application that they want a gender-inclusive housing space,” said Parsons. “We really want to look at ways to change that system.”

President G. P. “Bud” Peterson originally started The Path Forward initiative in Oct. 2017 following the death of Tech student Scout Schultz. Schultz’s death prompted the administration to seek out more effective ways to improve student mental health.

In response, President Peterson assembled three action teams to acquire suggestions from the community and identify key issues to address.

Over 180 recommendations were submitted, out of which 55 objectives were created. Given the large amount of suggestions by the community, the Path Forward Advisory group was created in Dec. 2017 to help prioritize and respond to recommendations.

“The main role for this group was to monitor progress, serve as a liaison to senior leadership, and help communicate all of the progress to the campus community,” said Abheer Bipin, fourth-year ME and member of the Advisory group. “We reviewed all these 180 recommendations and consolidated duplicates or recommendations that were similar.”

In the discussion following the presentation, some students displayed concern that the initiative, in its attempt to promote mental health resources in the general student body, had become diluted in its aim to address certain critical groups of students, including the LGBTQIA community and those faced with disabilities.

A second Path Forward town hall, with a focus on Health and Well-Being, was held on Thursday, Sept. 6, and a third town hall on Academics is scheduled for next Tuesday, Sept. 11, at 11 a.m. in room 102 of Clough Commons.