My job at the Technique often has me steeped in the less-than-shiny side of life at the Institute. I’m prowling subreddits daily, combing through police reports, listening in on SGA meetings and talking to students from every area of campus to hear their experiences. From my time investigating and reporting, I’ve seen a lot. This year more than ever, students are struggling.

Just since February, there have been 25 police-involved incidents reported due to a mental health or welfare concern. Dozens more have posted to online forums expressing how they are “about to low-key lose their minds” or that things “feel impossible.” It may sound alarmist, but multiple posts from incoming students have expressed enough concern about not wanting to attend a school if students are this unhappy. Even my parents have expressed this, and have mentioned that they would be nervous for my younger brother, a junior in high school who loves to code, to come to Tech because of the stressful, high pressure culture.

For the sake of the Tech community and for any prospective students, I hate that this stress culture is normalized, even romanticized at times. I especially hate that it is well-documented online, from police reports to subreddits to media coverage. I say this not as a girl who has it all together, but from a place of empathy for the strained student.

At Tech, I’ve dealt with my share of mental health struggles. Freshman year was a storm of emotions thanks to a life transition at an unfamiliar school (the suburbs didn’t prepare me for this!) and a breakup with a high school romance (I thought we would at least make it to Thanksgiving!). Even more catastrophic in my mind, for the first time ever, I was a borderline B-student.

I quit a part time job I loved due to feeling overwhelmed. I took fewer credits than seemed possible for an on-time graduation. Eventually, I sought outside help for anxiety levels that I later learned were far from normal.

While all this unfolded and my mental health was at its worst, Tech gave me groups of friends who made all the difference. Community can look different in a lot of ways. Sometimes, it’s a group project team that not only gets work done but will laugh along the way with you. Or perhaps a structured organization is where you will meet like minded friends. My community started freshman year, when a fellow LMC major conveniently adopted my dorm room as her dedicated hangout spot, becoming a best friend during a time when I was “too stressed’’ to meet other people.

Sophomore year, I decided to expand my social circle at Tech and committed to trying one new club on campus. I had read the Technique fairly often, and I took note of their advertisements for general meetings for writers (with free pizza). I loved writing (and free food), so I took a deep breath and decided to find this “Flag Building room.” There I found a group of students enthusiastic about journalism, and I was hooked.

In fact, I loved it so much that when I was a junior, I got an internship at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution as an online reporter of breaking news. Many of the responsibilities were the same as my time at The Technique: I took article assignments from my editor, I googled AP Style and over-relied on spellcheck, and generally reported on the goings-on as it related to the AJC.com audience.

What was missing from that job though was the sense of community I had built with the other students in the shabby Technique office. At the AJC, I did my assignments at my desk and maybe exchanged a few pleasantries with my co-workers. At the Technique, co-workers became friends. We overused emoji reactions in our slack channel, took selfies when the office flooded and pegged each other with questions about our layout software. Outside the office, we also studied together and rejoiced when our schedules aligned to take classes together.

While my time at the AJC was an educational experience and certainly boosts my resume, it was the community at the Technique that made my college journalism experience more meaningful.

I highly encourage anyone at Tech to drop a class or two, to join the campus organization over boosting your resume, to invest time in relationships over chasing the perfect grades. When else in life will you have those choices other than college?

This stage of life is precious for its ample opportunities to learn together and to participate in a community just for community’s sake. The stress and workday grind will exist for years to come. It doesn’t have to start in college too.

“What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured,” American author Kurt Vonnegut wrote.

A community is made up of individuals, and I thank each individual in mine for sticking close to me through hard times, laughing away bad test grades and crying with me through feelings of failure.

It’s because of you, friends, that I know I will remember my college experience as one worth missing, not just escaping. Lastly, for the rest of you facing future semesters at the Institute: keep your friends close.

And then, once that box is checked, go out and invite others to join you. If it prevents one welfare check or even helps one first-year feel a little bit less lonely, it will be well worth the effort.

On March 21, the campus community received the heavy news of the death of undergraduate student Chengming “Julian” Gu, third-year CS.

After the Division of Student Life sent the memorandum, a group of friends started working to memorialize his impact on the computer science community on campus.

“An academically high achieving student, Julian was a teaching assistant in computer science and was passionate about machine learning and systems architecture and loved sharing these passions with fellow Yellow Jackets,” wrote Dean John Stein, vice president for Student Life.

Gu worked as a teaching assistant (TA) for CS 2110 and 2051 for multiple semesters, where he used his teaching skills to help students navigate some of their first courses in the computer science discipline.

A testament to Gu’s presence on campus, a Reddit post sharing the original email almost immediately began collecting student’s well-wishes and received more than 400 upvotes.

Katherine Shen, first-year CS, created a digital scrapbook open to the Tech community, where more than 30 friends uploaded photos and wrote letters to him.

The letters were translated into both Chinese and English, so family members in Shanghai could also read them.

“Julian was one of the first people I became friends with when I matriculated into Tech, and he became one of my best friends,” said Shen.

“He never failed to lend a helping hand to anyone who needed it, and he was the type of person to brighten up any conversation he was a part of. We usually would talk throughout the day every day about shared interests like e-sports and anime, and he’d always lend an ear if I needed to vent.”

Four students including Shen attended the Undergraduate House of Representatives meeting (UHR) on March 23 to share their requests for remembering Julian Gu.

One of the students used his time to share on behalf of a friend’s negative experience at Tech’s Center for Assessment, Referral and Education (CARE). Arvind Srinivasan, third-year CE, described feeling worse after visiting CARE, like he was “just another case to be closed as quickly as possible.”

“Thankfully, with the support of my friends, I managed to secure an appointment with an actual therapist who worked with GT psychiatry to get me the help I needed. How many people at Tech are not as fortunate as me?” Srinivasan wrote.

“How many people at Tech lack the resources necessary to help them, rough out the initial intake? How many people at Tech look at the daunting road ahead of them at GT care and simply give up looking for help?” Srinivasan wrote.

“The Georgia Institute of Technology and its student body failed Julian, but he is only one of many. Let’s try to make sure we don’t fail, anyone else.”

Alice Zeng, second-year CS and a friend and fellow TA, also echoed these sentiments.

“Some friends and I, who were friends of Julian, have been talking on changes that we wish to see, and we’ve come to the conclusion that what we want is essentially a change in GT CARE.”

Dean Stein, who also attended the meeting, held a moment of silence for Julian Gu and promised to escalate the student speakers’ concerns to the director of CARE.

After these comments were heard, undergraduate and graduate legislative bodies both unanimously passed resolutions remembering his legacy and offering condolences.

A few representatives agreed to work on legislation to help make a physical memorial.

“In the past there have been things done to memorialize students who have passed, and I would be happy to work with the students who are the friends of this student in order to try to get something like that to happen,” said Kelly O’Neal, fourth-year MGT, “so this isn’t just like kind of a dry political statement, and that we’re not just like passing this and then forgetting about it.”

Aditya Diwakar, first-year CS and MATH, envisioned a memorial plaque after hearing the impact he had on other students as well as himself.

“Julian left a positive impact on everyone that he interacted with. Regardless of my relationship with Julian being mostly online due to COVID-19, he left a positive impact on my life,” Diwakar told the Technique.

“He was one of the first people that I met and talked to at Tech … We bonded over simple things: math and cooking, but those conversations remain to have a special place in my heart,” Diwakar said.

“None of this is unique to me, Julian had a positive impact on much of the community whether it be through teaching, computer science, cooking, or one of the other dozen things he was interested in.”

Through their friendship, Gu became the reason Diwakar decided to stay in his major and even inspired him to want to become a TA.

“Our goal with the physical memorial is to create a plaque with his name and a short quote. This would, ideally, be placed somewhere in the College of Computing which is where Julian TA’d for over the course of many semesters,” said Diwakar.

In the aftermath of Gu’s death, Diwakar expressed thankfulness for the Dean’s office in helping to communicate with him and other family members.

According to a student, Gu’s emergency contact information on file for family in China was incorrect, but friends were able to collaborate with the Division of Student Life and reach the family.

Friends in the states plan on checking in with the family members to assist in the days ahead.

“The response coming from the Georgia Tech community after his passing has been astounding,” Diwakar said.

“It gave us a great deal of closure to be able to see how much of an impact Julian left on the people he talked with.”

Note: The Technique would like to offer our condolences to the friends and family of Julian Gu. We truly wish we these circumstances were not the reasons we were writing an article highlighting his impact under. If needed, students should find grief counseling and mental health support for students through care.gatech.edu. Students can also reach support by calling the phone number 404-894-3498 and selecting option 1 to speak with the after-hours counselor and receive immediate support.

Last week, elections were held for Student Government Association (SGA) positions for next term. Those running for office campaigned throughout the week, from meeting students at Sting Break to handing out stickers on Tech Green.

3,534 undergraduates voted in this year’s elections, more than a thousand more than last year’s vote, which coincided with campus closing due to the pandemic.

Current President Brielle Lonsberry credits the higher turnout to advertisements across campus and the special referendum.

Executive Ticket

Samuel Ellis and Ajanta Choudhury won the undergraduate student body vote for president and vice president, beating out current Vice President Kyle Smith’s and Salmata Barrie’s ticket by almost 700 votes (21%).

Ellis, third-year INTA, and Choudhury, third-year BIO, ran a campaign with the motto “choose forward.”

Their platform highlighted mental health as their number one priority. They also advocated for institutional support for BIPOC students, fair pay for TAs, transparent curving policies and, perhaps most intriguingly, fewer parking tickets given to students.

“Thank you to everyone who voted. Regardless of who you voted for, we are thrilled and humbled to serve y’all,” the ticket’s Instagram posted after the winners were announced.

“We cannot wait to celebrate yesterday’s win with tomorrow’s work!”

Constitution change

The ballot also held a proposed amendment to the SGA Constitution, which would allow the option to pass future amendments without putting it to a vote in the student body.

This change comes as SGA plans to undergo a restructuring process later this semester. The changes to how student government operates, financially and structurally, will likely need several Constitutional amendments to implement.

The amendment did not pass, as it failed to get the two-thirds majority needed.

Cheer or join?

The ballot included a referendum collecting students’ opinions on proposed fight song changes. This vote would not actually change the wording, from “cheer the brave and bold” to “join the brave and bold,” but served to gauge students’ reactions to the wording change.

2,061 students, both undergraduate and graduate, answered questions on the referendum. The results were split, with 49.5% in support of the change and 50.5% opposed.

The results broken down by gender were also divisive, with a majority of female-identified students voting in favor, but a minority of male-identified students.

Additionally, the referendum asked whether or not students agreed that “there is a pertinent issue of gender equality on our campus.”

Over half of the male undergraduate students surveyed said there was not an issue out of 992 voters. Female students disagreed, with 63% or 583 claiming there is a pertinent issue.

Mourning, fear, stress, anger, skepticism, hope: the aftermath of the spa shootings in Atlanta and Woodstock last Tuesday provoked diverse responses in the Tech student body.

Of the eight victims killed, six were of Asian descent. Regardless of the assailant’s stated motive, the event devastated members of the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community.

The violence exploded just blocks from campus. Many students say national conversation about racism and hate crimes highlighted preexistent issues within the Institute.

“Yesterday’s senseless acts of violence in metro Atlanta are heartbreaking and incomprehensible. Together with recent reports about increased violent acts against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders across the country, they raise deeply concerning questions about racism in our country.

Violence against Asian Americans is violence against us all,” wrote President Ángel Cabrera in an email response to the shootings last Wednesday.

“There is much we can do to combat racism. I urge us to use these events to come together, support all members of our community, and engage in action to eradicate racism and hate from our community.”

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, hate crimes are defined as “a criminal offense that is motivated, in whole or in part, by the perpetrator’s bias against the victim(s) based on their race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or disability.” Hate crimes continue to plague college campuses, with more than 900 individual instances reported in 2017. The most reported bias was race.

This week, students from various facets of campus have voiced that racism remains prevalent even within an ethnically and racially diverse student body.

Students shared experiences both online across social media outlets and in interviews with the Technique. “Even though Georgia Tech is one of the most diverse places I have ever stepped foot on, it is not diverse enough,” said Devianni Connor, second-year MGT.

“As a person who is both Black and Asian, I shared my sentiments about the sickening racism and violence against both Black and Asian people happening today. I shared … how frustrated and heartbroken I am with how there’s not only overt racism from whites against BIPOC [Black, Indigenous and People of Color] but even within the BIPOC community itself (ie: colorism, stereotypes, etc).”

Residence halls

On Feb. 4, an email was sent to residents of the North Avenue East apartment complex that began, “We wanted to share with you that an incident occurred a few days ago outside an apartment in your community that we have reason to believe may be connected to the race of the individuals who live in the apartment.”

According to a tweet by SGA representative Kelly O’Neal, the incident in question involved bananas hung outside the door of an on-campus apartment.

“Bananas were hung outside the door of an on-campus apartment in what is suspected to have been a racially-motivated bias incident earlier this week,” O’Neal said.

She was informed of this by Kasey Helton, VP of Campus Services, who declined to comment on the specifics of the case.

Historically, bananas have been tied to racial epithets against the African American community.

Four years ago, Temple University made headlines when a banana was left on the door handle of a Black student’s apartment, prompting a school-wide statement.

In 2017, the F.B.I. was called upon to investigate bananas with racially descriptive messages hung around the campus of American University in Washington D.C.

In the weeks following the North Avenue Incident, the Tech Housing department was unable to comment on whether the Office of Student Integrity was yet involved or if a suspect was identified.

However, communication from Jenny Cotton, Director of Housing and Residence Life, did maintain that the incident had the potential to be more than a prank between friends.

“While we understand that friends and roommates often play pranks on each other, when those pranks are in public or are harmful in nature, either physically or emotionally, we must take action in order to protect the integrity of the entire community,” wrote Cotton in an email about the incident in February.

“If a resident reports an incident with racial connotations, the primary concern is supporting the residents who were affected by the incident … Any incident that may be interpreted as racially motivated or as racial targeting is reported to Georgia Tech Police to be investigated fully. Pending the outcome of the investigation, conduct or, if warranted, criminal charges may be filed,” Cotton wrote. The Technique reached out to GT Housing for comment again this month and was told on March 23 that no specifics could be shared on the still active investigation. No administration update has addressed hall residents or the larger campus community on the incident. RAs in the building remain unsure of how the situation resolved.

“I’m disgusted to see things like this happening at GT, and I hope to see the admin take swift action to condemn acts such as this,” O’Neal tweeted.

Public areas

Multiple students on Georgia Tech’s subreddit in the past few days have voiced warnings to others about safety and awareness of harassment targeted towards Asians and Asian Americans on campus and in the surrounding areas.

EuFeng Chow, a second year graduate student studying cybersecurity, shared such an incident. Last Saturday afternoon, Chow left after a workout at the CRC, when someone yelled “F—k you, yellow dog,” at him as he walked down the sidewalk.

“I was on the phone with my friend and … a white Kia came over at the sidewalk. The guy on the passenger side yelled at me, I suppose. I mean, I’m assuming he’s yelling at me because nobody is around,” Chow said. He even checked security footage with GTPD to confirm the event and to get the story straight. It was not officially determined, but Chow guessed the man yelling was not a student who yelled the racial slur.

“You, the Americans, don’t really use the term dog to insult people, but maybe he just came up with the word in his head. I don’t know. That was kind of weird, a little bit offensive, but I didn’t particularly get mad.”

When telling the story, Chow pulled out a card showing the crime report taken by GTPD, pepper spray, a flashlight and pocket knife that he always carries around.

“Already I’ve been seeing people saying they feel unsafe. And I tried to share my story to tell people ‘get prepared.’ And that’s the world we’re dealing with, get prepared. Don’t get scared, get prepared.”

On Thursday, a GTPD officer contacted Chow to inform him that they had located the owner of the Kia. The person who instigated the verbal harassment studies at another university. The officer did not relay which university, but Chow was informed that “the officer filed a report to their dean’s office” for handling any further disciplinary action.

Chow, an international student from Hong Kong, aims to use his experiences to prepare and educate others in the Chinese community at Tech. He works in the Cyber Forensics Innovation Lab, which he describes as a very diverse community of students. His peers in the lab contrast with his perception of the Chinese community at Tech, where he’s witnessed discrimination against other students of color, especially against Black students.

“Sometimes I don’t want to admit that there’s systematic racism against Asians. Maybe that’s more about my subjective feeling … I want to lay low sometimes. I don’t want to get involved. And also, I don’t want to feel like America hates you,” he said.

Chow said that the incident, beyond normal Atlanta crime concerns, did not discourage him from walking around campus in the future. However, he plans to use this story as an opportunity to “focus more about the racism within my community and not only racism, the entire culture. I will try to influence people as many people as possible.”

Student orgs.

In the face of tragic breaking news, Tech students find solace in a multicultural community or other student organizations. However, these same student organizations often highlight systemic disparities that occur between student groups on campus. Angel Hsieh, second-year MGT, found her community on campus through Delta Phi Lambda (DPhiL), an Asian interest sorority at Tech.

“Coming to college, something that was really important to me was my Asian heritage, because it was something that I definitely struggled with throughout my middle school years,” Hsieh said. “[DPhiL] is not Asian-exclusive, but it is Asian-interest, so as a result, pretty much all of our members are of Asian descent. It’s been really cool to learn about different cultures within the Asian community outside of my own, and then also it does help me be more proud of my heritage and to embrace
it more.”

In her involvement in her sorority as well as GUIDE, Greeks United in Inclusion, Diversity and Equity, Hsieh learned of eye-opening instances of discrimination against people of color in Greek Life at Tech, even when racism has only minimally impacted her own college experiences.

According to Hsieh, multicultural sororities and historically black sororities and fraternities are discounted on campus. “They’re really not seen as important as the ones with houses,” she said. “It’s kind of like, because we don’t have a house and we’re culturally based, it’s not real Greek life. And that can be kind of frustrating sometimes.”

Within the Collegiate Panhellenic Council (CPC) and Interfraternity Council (IFC), known on campus as social Greek organizations, Hsieh noted how members will pay thousands of dollars to be a part of a house, which is already prohibitive to many students. On top of that, “legacy” systems often discourage first generation students or students of color from even considering the organizations.

“Part of recruitment, part of Greek life, and even honestly going to college, part of that is the fact that ‘are you at legacy or not,’” Hsieh said. “When a lot of minorities don’t have parents who have backgrounds with college education, especially not college education in the States, especially when they’re immigrants…that almost sets them up for failure. It makes it more difficult. It makes it more obvious that a minority is an ‘other,’ and unless you’re white, you’re other.”

Devianni Connor has found a lack of representation at the Institute, both in the classroom and in multicultural organizations. As someone who often finds herself as the only woman of color in many of her STEM classes, Connor calls this missing diversity “subtle racism.” She calls for the administration to not only increase its admission rates of Black students, but to create a biracial or multiracial organization to provide a space to tackle difficult issues that stem from this identity.

“It’s hard for me to just solely relate to one aspect of my identity. I sometimes feel excluded from each side of my race because there’s parts where I relate with both of them, and people expect you to only relate to one,” Connor shared.

“It’s a complicated concept to explain, but I have experienced that sense of misunderstanding and confusion of my identity for all my life.” She also thinks that support is lacking for students arriving at Tech as a first-generation college student. Connor described difficulties in relating to peers, when she comes from a poor, single mother household.

“I know that many first-gen students experience many of the same hardships and backgrounds, and it would be wonderful if there was a strong community for us to form. It’s nice to know that we are not alone in our life story!”

Close to home

Chloe Lee, fourth year NEUR, was at her home five minutes away from Highway 92 in Woodstock, when her mom called to tell her that there had been a shooting nearby.

Her mom was at work at her family’s business, a liquor store also located in the area. At the time, they didn’t know if the shooter was targeting other Asian-owned businesses along with the massage parlor, but her mom told her to be careful as the shooter wasn’t yet caught.

“At the time I didn’t know how long ago the shooting had happened so I was really nervous about if any of us were in danger, especially because all I knew at the time was it was an Asian-owned business,” Lee shared.

“I feel like if it was a different year it wouldn’t be a thought that would have crossed my mind, but because of the recent rise in violent trends against Asian people, it became one of the first thoughts that I had.” Lee lives with her family in what she considers a “very conservative area,” a suburb about 30 miles from Midtown, and commutes to Tech as needed.

“Something that my mom and I talked about last night, she offhandedly was like, ‘you can’t really go anywhere by yourself anymore,’” Lee said. “Although I haven’t had any issues in the past, I don’t know what that’ll look like now.”

She mentioned that if she goes to the grocery store, she would likely find someone to go with her. She said she is “a little more nervous” about taking trips to campus.

Back at school, many students, administration members, and organizations vocally addressed the shooting and supported the AAPI community at Tech. Some organizations issued an official statement, while others circulated learning resources, personal experiences or GoFundMe pages for the victim’s families. A group of about two dozen Tech students attended a solidarity march together on Saturday, March 20. They started walking with the March Against Hate in Woodruff Park, then joined another rally at Liberty Plaza. Students carried signs with slogans and hashtags such as #StopAsianHate and #RacismIsAVirus.

“I appreciate that there has been an acknowledgement of the issues that have currently become prevalent, and now that there is attention being called to the issue. I know that a lot of Asian people like myself included have been talking about their own personal experiences with racism, mostly in the form of microaggressions,” Lee said.

Despite the hope she felt hearing this acknowledgement, she did express skepticism that many of the postings on social media could come across as disingenuous, even performative, drawing parallels to social media activism with the Black Lives Matter movement this past summer.

“I feel like the best thing for people to do is to actually listen to us whenever we talk about things we’ve been through,” said Lee. “I think what most people can do moving forward is to acknowledge that there are problems, and to try, at the very least, to face it on an individual level.”

For students who lack a community in which to feel heard, Tech does provide resources through the Institute Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (IDEI) department. The department, which houses multiple offices, offers not only academic resources but also counseling services, advisement and educational diversity and bias workshops. Their services are open to all but are targeted at students of color.

Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer Dr. Archie Ervin shared that, “Beginning last summer [after George Floyd’s murder and ensuing protests], President Cabrera and I met with Black students, faculty, and staff to listen to their experiences with racism. We heard the voices of those who have lived with racism here in our own community and it prompted us to take action to address what we had heard.” From those conversations, the two leaders committed to creating platforms for broader conversations about race and racism at Tech.

Dr. Ervin describes the aspiration for Tech to be an “inclusive community where people of all backgrounds are valued and respected.”

Since the summer, IDEI developed an anti-racism leadership and professional development training for all senior members of the Tech’s leadership. Similarly to last summer, Dr. Ervin says he plans to meet with members of the AAPI community this week to listen to concerns and plan further action to support them going forward.

For more information on how to get involved in diversity initiatives at Tech through IDEI, students can visit csdi.gatech.edu.

Nine screens, a 200-year-old 43-room farmhouse and a dozen performers all singing and playing together in different places in the house. Someone plays electric guitar in a bedroom with a woman asleep next to him. A cellist is poised on a chaise. A drum kit takes up a faded entryway, and an acoustic guitarist doesn’t seem to care that his bathtub is getting his instrument wet.

No one seems to be taking the lead; the song’s phrases flow into each other in a decisive way that makes you not quite able to tell if you’re listening to a folk band, attending a new age ceremony or just watching a casual jam session unfold.

These are the sounds of Ragnar Kjartansson’s exhibit “The Visitors,” which opened at the High Museum last weekend.

Kjartansson finished the audiovisual project in 2012, featuring nine channels of sound and video shot at an old upstate New York farmhouse.

The music played on screen is adapted in part from lyrics by his ex-wife Ásdís Sif Gunnarsdóttir and features many prominent Icelandic musicians.

Each musician is trapped in their own screen, connected only through the hallways of the house and pairs of wired headphones. For an exhibit created a decade ago, the melancholic feeling of the musicians performing alone yet together will ring true to visitors today.

Tech student Kathryn Higinbotham, fourth-year LMC, visited the exhibit this past weekend. For Higinbotham, it was her first time returning to a museum since before the pandemic.

“I was expecting to enjoy the exhibit going in, especially since I haven’t gotten to the museum in a little over a year. But I think what was unexpected for me is how emotional the whole thing made me,” Higinbotham said.

When first entering the special exhibit section in the High’s second floor, a bright room greets you filled with hundreds of postcards. Kjartansson wrote these notes daily from April 2010 to June 2011, all addressed to Marguerite Steed Hoffman, art collector and patron, just before his work on “The Visitors.”

Most of the notes have a mixed media illustration and block letter caption that ranges from everything from banal to profound, often with misspellings sprinkled in.

“House where happy could be,” reads one, while the next just says “Soup.”

“Asdis bought new shoes and I betrayed a friend.”

“we are all so alone, it’s so rad.”

Each card was actually stamped and mailed, which grounds even the most symbolic in a distinct time in Kjartansson’s life.

While you look at the walls of postcards, the ebb and flow of the music beckons you from the next room.

If the postcard wall is like a life-sized Instagram feed of illustrations, then the next darkened room feels like an immersive zoom call with its nine-screened musical experience. Ragnar Kjartansson describes the music as a “feminine nihilistic gospel song.”

For the most part, each musician performs from their own rectangular confines, playing repetitive strains.

“There are these really beautiful swells in the music where it would be really quiet for a while and you can hear more of the individual artists, but then all of a sudden there’d be this build,” Higinbotham said. “There was one point in particular where I remember that they built up to this crescendo and it was just this almost overwhelming noise. And as it was building I just felt the swelling in my chest and felt intensely emotional in a way that’s kind of difficult to describe.”

At times, a performer would leave their screen and wander into the next room over, to listen or have a smoke, but most of the time they stay connected only through the headphones.

On the front porch, a group listens and sings faintly along as well.

Words, if present, come sparsely and repeatedly. “There are stars / they are swirling around you / and there’s nothing you can do,” the group sings at one point. At another, they sing “once again I fall into my feminine way.”

If you stay until the video loops through to the end (the run time is 64 minutes), you see the musicians one by one begin to join together, continuing to sing as one, some carrying their instruments. The group goes outside, and you see them walking away into the distant countryside dusk.

Eddie Bryant, a museum security guard who has been stationed on the special exhibits floor for several seasons now, described the exhibit as “very different” from anything that the High has hosted so far. After seeing it three times through during its inaugural weekend, he said, “I finally understand it. It’s the pandemic, and the end when all of them were walking away together means it’s over.”

Indeed, while observing the characters play off of each other and connect musically while apart in the crumbling farmhouse, it’s hard to imagine that this idea came about in a pre-pandemic world.

“I can’t even really tell you exactly what I was feeling I think it was some joy, but also some sadness at the same time, which I think speaks to the emotional power of the exhibit in general,” Higinbotham said. “Particularly now that sense of community and our voices together I think is particularly powerful, in a time that has felt really isolating.”

This type of immersive exhibit has the potential to draw much more traffic to the High, as attendance is still significantly lower than pre-COVID-19 times. In the past, high-traffic visiting exhibits like Yayoi Kusamain’s Infinity Mirrors drew as many as 9,000 visitors on a weekday.

When the museum reopened in July 2020, the museum saw less than 100 people total across three weekdays.

“I’ll take it to silence,” said Bryant with a laugh on listening to “The Visitors” so many times in a row. “Many people want to come to the museum and like it to be quiet. You can hear a pin drop. This is catchy and I love it.”

He mentioned how this alone-together musical concept could really do well across genres like blues and jazz.

Students can visit high.org to reserve tickets ahead of time. The second Sunday of every month is free, with limited quantities of time tickets available to maintain social distancing. “The Visitors” will be on view until May 9.

The Tech community reached a milestone on Jan. 29, surpassing 200,000 individual COVID-19 asymptomatic surveillance tests since the program began.

The surveillance testing program, developed by a team of Tech researchers, aims to detect coronavirus infections as early as possible and stop asymptomatic spread. Tests are free to the Tech community.

All they require are a Tech login to the mytest.gatech.edu website, two minutes of time and a small amount of saliva.

“More than 75% of young people with Covid-19 may not show clinical symptoms — but can still be contagious and easily spread the coronavirus to others,” said Jess Hunts-Ralston, current co-chair of the GT Testing communications group.

To incentivize frequent testing, Hunts-Ralston organizes mass deliveries of Tiff’s Treats, Insomnia Cookies and possibly King of Pops again this semester.

At the return to campus in August 2020, students began getting regularly tested and case numbers rose to a peak seven-day average of 57 positive cases a day. As contact tracers began isolating infectious individuals, the averages dropped to the single digits and stayed low thanks to the surveillance testing.

“Through the work of the logistics and laboratory teams, we are now at a stage where rapid surveillance testing is being used as a form of mitigation to help control viral spread,” said Dr. Joshua Weitz, whose research on epidemic models helped to inform Tech’s testing plan. “Thanks to the incredible work of the logistics and testing community, we have the capacity for comprehensive surveillance testing, so we are getting early warning signs that allow us to detect and respond to outbreaks earlier rather than later.”

Or, put more simply as says the incentive sticker, “Science works, y’all.”

Currently, more than 1,300 positive cases have been detected through the asymptomatic surveillance testing program.

Compared to other Georgia communities, Tech’s participation in surveillance testing soars. On UGA’s health dashboard, they reported just over 44,000 surveillance tests since August 10, under a quarter of Tech’s sum. On a larger scale, the state of Georgia’s federal monthly testing goal is just 4% of the population, compared to the 70% goal of Tech students living on campus. In practice, just over half of residents are participating according to an email update from Housing and Residence Life.

“That number [200,000 tests] means a lot for our community’s health and safety, and we could not have reached this impressive point without our residents who test weekly,” read the Housing department’s update. “Our data shows that about 60% of residents are keeping up their testing routine – the other 40% of you are missing out on cookies and stickers! As a reminder, having 70-80% of our residents test weekly is necessary to identify and stop clusters from spreading in the halls.”

Yellow Jackets can continue to participate in weekly testing in seven main locations across campus. Even as vaccination rollouts puts herd immunity within reach, continuing these safety practices through the remainder of the semester is vital.

“The current recommendations from the CDC are, even if you’ve had two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, you still need to wear a mask and practice social distancing, because we don’t know yet if you can spread the virus after being vaccinated,” said STAMPS Director Dr. Ben Holton. “We are encouraging people to continue getting tested after they have had the vaccine.”

Casual sports followers will recognize Serena Williams’ name amongst the many playing at the upcoming Australian Open, but she may not be the most exciting, even for American fans. The tennis legend will face a number of younger rivals, potentially including the reigning U.S. Open Champion Naomi Osaka. This Japanese-Haitian-American athlete holds three grand slam singles titles at age 23. Even this early in her career, the question arises: how much will this tournament help Osaka cement her place as the next household name of the tennis world?

At age 39, Williams continues to stand as an objectively elite athlete while reaching the upper age limit on athletic ability. Analysts have long held that between the pressure of the solo sport and the commercial distractions that come with it, Williams would need a consistent rival to keep herself motivated. In the past, it’s been Maria Sharapova, her sister Venus Williams, Victoria Azarenka, Kim Clijsters, and many others in her long career.

She currently sits at No. 11 on the Women’s Tennis Association charts.

“You win everything in sight for a couple of years, and congratulations: You’re Martina Hingis. So what does it take to become Martina Navratilova?” posed ESPN’s Mark Kreidler in a 2003 article about Serena. “Genuine rivalry, it says here. And what’s so fascinating about that notion is it is one of the very few areas on the court Serena Williams honestly cannot control.”

Osaka, currently ranked No. 3 by the Women’s Tennis Association after winning the U.S. Open last fall, had her first clear moment in the spotlight as a potential William’s rival in the 2018 U.S. Open. In the memorable match, Williams received three disputed coaching violations including a point penalty for crashing her racket in the ground in frustration. The game ended in boos from the crowd and tears from Osaka who was understandably overwhelmed at beating her tennis idol in the contested match.

“I’m someone who grew up playing tennis and wanted to become good enough to play on a global scale, and somehow, I did it,” Osaka said in an interview about her tennis idols.

“My family will always be my number one influence, and I really admire Serena Williams. I have quite a few role models, actually. Having many role models is great because you can draw traits from each of them and build your own ideal,” Naomi Osaka said.

The two have faced each other twice since, with Osaka and Williams taking a win each.

In the meantime, Osaka became the highest paid female athlete ever, earning $37 million from 2019-2020 according to Forbes. Beyond earnings from prize money, Osaka receives endorsements from several companies both in Japan and America.

Last March, the pandemic halted the 2020 tennis season in its tracks, along with Osaka’s training schedule. The downtime allowed Osaka to raise her voice beyond that of a shy underdog who unseated a tennis legend.

“I think I confuse people because some people label me, and they expect me to stick to that label. Since I represent Japan, some people just expect me to be quiet and maybe only speak about Japanese topics,” Osaka told Vogue while gracing their cover in January.

“I consider myself Japanese-Haitian-American. I always grew up with a little bit more Japanese heritage and culture, but I’m Black, and I live in America, and I personally didn’t think it was too far-fetched when I started talking about things that were happening here. There are things going on here that really scare me.”

She credits the pandemic for forcing her to look at things happening in her home in the U.S., when normally she would be too busy travelling for tennis. She has remained outspoken in efforts for racial justice since, both in attending protests locally and using her worldwide tennis platform.

In the 2020 U.S. Open, Osaka wore masks printed with the names of Black victims of racial violence.

“I was just thinking that I had this opportunity to raise awareness,” she said.

“Tennis is watched all around the world, so people who might not know these names can google them and learn their stories. That was a big motivator for me, and I think it helped me win the tournament.”

Williams and Osaka recently faced each other in an exhibition match in Adelaide in preparation for the Australian Open, where Willams won 6-2, 2-6, 10-7 in a super tiebreak victory. Fans across social media loved seeing the friendly interactions between the two stars though, as the two spent time mingling after the match.

“Even after all she has achieved, I can’t imagine Naomi Osaka is used to these moments with her idol. Nice to see,” tweeted tennis writer Tumaini Carayol.

Williams looks to become the world’s oldest grand slam singles winner at next week’s tournament, which would eclipse Margaret Court’s record of 24 titles.

Meanwhile, Osaka will enter the tournament seeking to add a second Australian Open and fourth major title to her trophy case. When asked in the days leading up to the tournament how it felt to be “seen as the face of women’s tennis these days,” Osaka answered in her hallmark modest fashion.

“There’s so many interesting new people. I think I’m one of the new people,” said Osaka. “As long as Serena’s here, I think she’s the face of women’s tennis.”

The Australian Open Grand Slam tournament airs on television on America’s East coast at 7 p.m. on Sunday (11 a.m. on Monday, Feb. 8 local time) through Feb. 21. Players had to quarantine for 14 days upon arrival to Australia due to coronavirus restrictions. Unlike the most recent U.S. Open, fans will be allowed to attend matches in a limited capacity.

I arrived back on campus after the break on Friday morning, and less than 48 hours later I got the notification: I had been exposed to someone who tested positive for COVID-19.

Since moving in, I still hadn’t unpacked my bags from home from Christmas break, visited Barnes and Noble to grab my textbooks, or walked to my favorite Midtown coffee shop.

As campus wraps up its first month back since the break, more than 400 positive cases have been reported in the Tech community. Last semester the count totaled 1,600.

Due to the coronavirus’s infectious nature, every one of those positive individuals sets off a chain reaction of exposure, but up until now, I had somehow assumed I was immune.

Last semester, I vividly remember passing judgment on friend’s houses who were exposed or campus organizations that experienced outbreaks. After getting the message Sunday morning, my critical tendencies and judgment had nowhere to turn but to myself.

Even if exposure on an American college campus has become practically inevitable, for me the notification set off waves of anxiety.

Aware of my potentially infectious incubation period, I stressed every interaction for which I could be responsible for continuing the exposure chain. To me, carrying the virus was not just the potential annoyance of a couple of flu symptoms.

The past months have embedded news stories of overflowing hospitals, terrified healthcare workers, and family members unable to properly mourn loved ones. As a college student, I didn’t ever envision myself as the patient, but now I saw myself as the cause of someone else in a hospital bed — who had I been in contact with?

Terrified and embarrassed, I Facetimed my apartment-mates to tell them the news, and then contacted my RA, launching a long days’ worth of phone calls and surreal protocol emails. Worries were soon out of my head, made concrete, and investigated by contact tracers.

I ended the day in one of Tech’s quarantine beds, a solo room on the third floor of a chain hotel near campus.

If the skyline did not have the familiar collection of Atlanta buildings, I would have believed that I was on a trip to a city far away from school.

The professional and smooth way Tech handled the entire quarantine process truly would make the engineering department proud.

First, I had a housing staff member contact me and explain the process, acting as a sort of case member for my personal quarantine timeline. A doctor at STAMPS also called a couple of times to confirm my exposure period, symptoms, and answer any medical questions about the coronavirus.

A driver transported me from my apartment building to the hotel with hip hop music and a plastic sheet to separate my germs from his seat (I later found out from a friend that they fumigated the van after each trip).
In the hotel lobby, a key card and check-in envelope was waiting for me, giving a new meaning to the phrase “contactless” check-in.

At the hotel, staff delivered anything from meals to COVID-19 test kits to the pillow I forgot at home to the outside the door. They’d then call my room phone to tell me I had a delivery once they were safely downstairs again. For academics, my professors were also notified on my behalf so my coursework would be accessible remotely.

Even my hall director called to check in and make sure I had everything I needed during my stay. The whole time, all I had to do was stay put and see if the virus would show up in my system.

Between the quick accommodations and kindness of the staff members I was in contact with, my emotions towards quarantine changed from shame to thankfulness.

As an on-campus resident, I did not have to pay for the hotel or transportation there. When I raised financial concerns over the cost of the meal delivery, my case manager worked with me to discuss alternatives.

The fact that my classes had online accommodations and that my work let me take time off after exposure are immense privileges.

Even the PCR test kit that I was personally delivered on day 5 after exposure would be inaccessible anywhere else without waiting in long lines or having good insurance.

And after my quarantine time was up, I was able to safely return to campus, something that still sobers me considering the plausible alternatives.

Whether you lay in a hospital bed, quarantine bed, or your own bed safely at home, I wish you health, peace and the reminder that you can only control one next right action.

For me, the next action is this — thanking my case managers at Tech for their tireless work keeping campus safe.

Say what you will about the Tech administration’s handling of the virus, but after my experiences to start the semester I more clearly saw their efforts at work.

To those individuals that helped me when I was possibly contagious, I see the work that went into it, and I am so appreciative.

Oh, and for anyone reading who should embark on a stay in the quarantine hotel, here are some quick tips: the rooms are about eleven steps long so consider bring a yoga mat for at-home workouts.

My room had a mini-fridge, but no microwave. Pack your own coffee. The Chrome extension “Teleparty” allows you to watch your favorite shows with friends remotely.

Finally, know that on the other side of your stay, you’ll never be more thankful to walk around campus in your mask, free.

Remote synchronous or asynchronous? Hybrid touch point, split, or hands-on? Registration season nears for spring 2021, and meanwhile Tech administration have been devising a plan for class instruction for a semester ahead that still looks largely unknown.

Dr. Kayla Ross, Assistant Vice Provost for Advocacy and Conflict Resolution, and Dr. Casey Chaviano, Assistant Director for Assessment & Planning for the Office of Undergraduate Education have collected both quantitative and qualitative data from about the classroom experiences this past fall, whether that be residential, hybrid or remote.

They held 28 focus groups in which students and faculty spoke to personal experiences with lab and lecture hall etiquette, classes getting moved online last minute and flexibility for students.

To better understand what worked and what did not, they also sent out a survey through email to collect data from the Institute at large, which received 6,853 responses.

The surveys and focus groups found that students enrolled in residential courses reported the highest levels of engagement compared to hybrid or online courses.

“While all course modes appear to provide similar opportunities for students to effectively learn the material, technology challenges and dual mode instruction often detracted from the learning environment, particularly in the hybrid course,” read the report.

At the beginning of the fall, many students wondered what hybrid classes would entail. With pandemic-related concerns, the answer has been “it depends.”

For the current semester, the registrar’s office announced on July 20 that every course would be as residential (in-person with physical distancing), hybrid with limited in-person attendance, or remote.

“The majority of courses will have some in-person attendance. The health and safety of our students and faculty are our top priority in setting all class modes,” the registrar’s site said at the beginning of fall semester, but students argue that this has not been the case.

Any course designated as hybrid or residential has an assigned classroom in OSCAR, however many professors have opted to teach remotely regardless of the hybrid format.

Fifth-year ENVE Elisabeth McDonnell’s schedule exemplified the conflicting requirements for hybrid classes. Her classes were all designated as “hybrid,” but none of them have met in person the whole semester. While some professors did say that there would be an optional in-person component later in the semester, none have announced more.

“One of the hardest things is monitoring student engagement,” said McDonnell. “It’s a lot easier for me to sit in my room and get distracted because I don’t have the teacher looking at me.

“I would have 100% choose to do in person. I think that’s partially because it’s my last semester of college, and my last chance to take regular classes. At the same time, having some sort of variation to your life, even just getting out of your room and walking to a class, is so important for your mental health.”

“Communications weren’t explicit enough,” said Dr. Laurence Jacobs when discussing course modes for this fall. “A student wants to register for a course and asks ‘Can you tell me what the expectations for this course are?’ Or ‘what exactly does a hybrid course mean?’ ‘Do I have to come to campus? Can I take this course remotely?’ So, how do we do a better job in that, how do we do a better job of defining what hybrid means?”

When looking towards spring, the Office of the Provost tries to balance defining course requirements for spring while still allowing faculty flexibility.

Of course, decisions like this take time.

The course schedule for spring semester originally was scheduled to come out this past Wednesday, Oct. 12, but students will now have to wait until Nov. 2 to see course offerings.

The Provost’s staff discussed concerns with course modes next semester so that remote students can begin to evaluate whether or not it would be time to return to campus. According to Dr. Colin Potts, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, the three formats from fall will remain the same with a focus on better guidance for students on what courses will look like during the spring term.

“We are rolling out a better version of the course expectations tool, so that you should see a brief description linked from Banner before registering for a course,” Dr. Potts said.

In addition to clarity on course expectations for hybrid or residential courses, the provost’s office also said that hybrid split, touch point, or hands on will no longer exist as designations.

“Students deserve to understand at the beginning of the semester what they’re signing up for,” said Dr. Potts. “We’ve heard from many people that students are not experiencing the class they thought they would, and we want to do a better job of that as an institution next semester. That doesn’t mean that everybody’s going to be doing it the same way, it just means that we want to communicate in advance more effectively so that you know what you’re going to experience in class.”

The new course description tool will aid students in managing expectations during registration. In the coming weeks, Dr. Potts encourages students to utilize their academic advisors to discuss their options in extenuating circumstances.

On Tuesday, Sept. 22, President Angel Cabrera delivered the Institute Address to update campus after his first year in office. While the tradition of annual addresses runs throughout Tech’s history, this may be the first given by a Tech president wearing a mask.

Many were able to tune in live on YouTube, and 80 faculty, staff and students from different campus organizations were invited to attend in-person in the Clough Undergraduate Learning Commons (CULC).

The address intends to provide information on the past year, including new initiatives and school leadership hires.

“President Cabrera’s Institute Address was a beneficial time to look back and celebrate all of Georgia Tech’s accomplishments this past year and also a time to appreciate and recognize all of the work that there still is to be done,” said Student Body President Brielle Lonsberry, fourth-year BME, after attending the event.

“In a semester like the one we are currently in, it is so important to pause and celebrate the achievements that deserve to be celebrated while still remaining focused on our end goals.”

From pandemic response and surveillance testing to racial injustice and Atlanta protests, Cabrera addressed current events as well as campus updates in his speech.

He started the speech by acknowledging the “storm” of the past six months during the start of COVID-19.

“It is impossible to exaggerate how devastating COVID-19 has been around the world. The novel coronavirus has cost the lives of about 1 million people globally, 200,000 just in the U.S. — some in our very own families,” Cabrera stated.

“In some important areas of human development, like access to vaccines in the developing world, COVID-19 has also set us back 25 years in about 25 weeks.”

He acknowledged that the months since March have not been easy, expressing how proud he was of not only Tech staff’s response but also of students in how they’ve adapted to changes in housing and instruction.
Related to the pandemic, Cabrera also took some time to update on surveillance testing.

“Georgia Tech doesn’t have a medical school or experience in clinical testing, but that didn’t stop us from developing a large-scale process for asymptomatic testing. Our faculty and staff designed a reliable process to extract RNA from saliva samples, established innovative pooling protocols, procured and coded robots and lab equipment, developed an information system to handle the data, deployed testing sites, recruited and trained personnel, obtained all certifications, and quickly reached a capacity to process 2,500 daily samples,” he said.

“All this, within a few weeks. This is, in a nutshell, the Georgia Tech way.” According to the address, while the battle against COVID-19 is not over, he believes that testing and protocols are keeping the virus under control, allowing Tech to stay “open for business.”

Students agree that it was important for Tech to acknowledge its accomplishments during the address.

“I will be the first to admit that I was skeptical about this Fall, and I think that we all had our bets as to how long it would be before we were forced to go fully remote like we did in the Spring … I appreciated President Cabrera’s candid expression that this next year at Georgia Tech will continue to be tough as a result of the pandemic and interruption of normal operations,” said Lonsberry.

“However, I left the Institute Address optimistic for the future and thankful for a Georgia Tech community that has rallied together to support all of our members.” Also present along with pandemic updates and future school strategy were candid remarks on racial injustice.

“When our country was shaken by a series of heartbreaking acts of violence that cost the lives of several Black people across the country, when many, including here in Atlanta, took to the streets to protest and demand justice, we at Georgia Tech came together as a community to figure out what this means for us,” Cabrera said.

He then listed several new initiatives that come as outcomes from discussions from Black colleagues, students and alumni. These include a Diversity and Inclusion Council, Police Community Council, new roles for underrepresented minorities at GTRI and anti-bias training for Institute leadership.

Cabrera concluded his address by listing six areas of strategic priority. Research portfolio funding, the new school of cybersecurity, CREATE-X, the Care Center, GT Lorraine and Shenzhen campuses exemplify resources on campus that the Institute hopes to expand into the next year. Cabrera also committed to expanding access to a Tech education to underrepresented populations.

“While we have seen growth in the number of Black students at Tech, their enrollment is still less than 7% of undergraduates and 5% overall and far below the city of Atlanta’s and the state of Georgia’s demographics. And while we’ve had increasing success in enrolling women, they are still a minority in our student body.” Cabrera finished his address with a charge for the Institute’s motto, Progress and Service.

The applause may have been more scattered in previous years due to social distancing, but his message still rang clear to Tech’s campus.