On Jan. 6 the United States Capitol building was stormed by supporters of President Trump, in an event that highlighted partisan disagreements across the nation, even on Tech’s campus.

The siege, fueled by claims of election fraud from the President and conservative media outlets, claimed the lives of five people, including an officer of the Capitol Police who was beaten by the rioters, and later died in the hospital.

The riot was conceived as a protest against the certification of electoral votes from the 2020 presidential election, won by former Vice President Joe Biden. Despite the riot, which resulted in death and extensive damage to the Capitol, the Senate returned to certify the election.

In the wake of the riots, the federal government has arrested many of the individuals whose pictures were taken. The FBI enlisted the help of the general population to identify those involved in the riots.

The violence contributed to the heavily increased security presence in Washington D.C. before the inauguration, as thousands of national guard soldiers patrolled the streets.

As of the Wednesday inauguration of President Joe Biden, there were nearly 30,000 guardsmen in the city, far more than the around 5,000 soldiers present in the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Stop The Steal” protests took place at various state capitols around the country, including here in Georgia.

Protestors roamed the halls looking for Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger who has been the target of attacks by the president for his handling of the presidential election and the senate runoffs, both of which were won by Democratic candidates. Governor Brian Kemp mobilized the National Guard in response to the threat.

The Georgia National Guard has recently been a constant sight in the city, as the governor also mobilized them to respond to protests in the summer.

Even closer to home than the state capitol, partisan disagreements came to a head on Tech’s campus.

On Jan. 6, the GT College Republicans tweeted, and then subsequently deleted, two messages regarding the U.S. Capitol riots.

One read “All cops are b*ds.”

“Cops let Black Lives Matter riot and kill people in the streets for 6 months. If you’re white they shoot you in the neck,” another said, referencing the death of a rioter at the hands of the Capitol police.

The account also responded to a tweet from GT Young Democratic Socialists of America about the capitol riot. Both compared the riot to a Black Lives Matter protest and contrasted the police response.

President of the GT Alumni Association Dene Sheheane, MGT ‘91, responded to emailed student complaints about the College Republicans’ tweets in an email later circulated on Reddit.

“We understand your concern that many of the posts may have reflected divisive views or inaccurate information,” Sheheane wrote.

“This is a student group that was registered on campus by students. Their views do not reflect those of the Institute, which is a public university and does not take political positions.”

According to the email, the Alumni Association continues to monitor the situation.

Additionally, the faculty sponsor of the group has been asked to meet to discuss “appropriate language to discuss in the spirit of civil discourse and protected free speech, as well as educate them about what crosses a line in that regard and will not be tolerated.”

In response to the attacks on the Capitol, President Ángel Cabrera released a statement the day after the incident, condemning the violence and drawing on his own experience of domestic unrest in Spain.

“Yesterday’s disturbing images of a mob storming into the U.S. Capitol brought me back to scenes 40 years ago in my native Spain when I was a teenage boy,” Cabrera wrote.

He continued, “I never imagined I would witness something remotely similar in the U.S., a nation I have always admired for the strength of its republic and its culture of democracy — and which I now proudly call my own. Yet, as painful as yesterday’s events were, I know American democracy will emerge stronger.”

Socially-conscious students have begun pushing for the Institute to reevaluate how it invests its multi-billion dollar endowment fund. Sponsored by a group called GT Divest, students are circulating a petition calling for the Institute to divest from fossil fuels and other polluting industries.

The group, which has a heavy online presence, has a three part call to the administration, asking them to disclose, divest and reinvest.

“The Georgia Institute of Technology’s mission statement aims to ‘improve the human condition’ and acting on climate change will do just that,” reads GT Divest’s website.

“Our graduates are currently located across the globe and are fighting on the front-lines to solve the world’s most complex and challenging problems. We therefore ask the Board of Trustees to support the efforts of our students, staff, faculty, and alumni to divest from one of the most environmentally destructive industries accelerating climate change: fossil fuels.”

If the Institute chooses to follow the petition, it would have to begin disclosing what companies or funds the endowment is currently invested in. As of 2019, Tech has a 2.17 billion dollar endowment fund, and there is very little transparency regarding how that fund is invested.

The Institute would also have to remove investments from polluting industries. Colleges across the country in recent years have pushed to divest from fossil fuels, with Stanford, George Washington, Johns Hopkins and Cornell, among dozens of others, having partially or completely divested their endowment from fossil fuels.

Finally, if the Institute chooses to adopt the petition, it would have to work toward green investing, the practice of attempting to advance green industries through investing in them.

Various Wall Street investment funds have recently adopted this strategy in order to pursue additional social good as well as profit.

Overall, the divest campaign aligns with a larger grassroots climate movement, where groups like the Sunrise Movement and Extinction Rebellion have lead concerted efforts of protest and awareness.

Last spring, the Student Government Association (SGA) discussed two separate resolutions to call on the administration to divest the endowment away from fossil fuel industries. However, neither of these resolutions were passed by the SGA, following contentious debate and a survey of campus which returned results of a split student body, with around half of the students supporting divestment.

Students who opposed the resolutions pointed to the nature of the Institute’s relation with fossil fuel extracting companies. Many engineers that graduate from Tech go on to have careers within the industry, and some students were worried that divesting would endanger graduates’ ability to find work.

The Institute also recently renewed their contract for their fleet of diesel buses, which was met with resistance from the student body. Tech explained that due to the nature of the contract, however, it was not possible for the Institute to renege on the agreement and invest in a fleet of electric buses. The cost of acquiring new buses was also cited as a reason.

The divest movement has some similarity in technique to the BDS (boycott, divest, sanction) movement targeting Israel. For example, they both attempt to enact a social change through withholding money from an entity. As this movement has been played out across college campuses, some denounce it as anti-Semitic while others laud it as an effort similar to the divest movement against apartheid South Africa.

It is nearly always a source of intense debate, and as common with divesting from fossil fuels, it is often argued that it could harm the relationship with the party being divested away from. Despite the debate, GT Divest believes that Tech, as a university that has always focused on the creating the next scientific breakthrough, we are capable of being a leader in the area of green investing and a champion of divestment of fossil fuels.

“We can choose to lead during this pivotal moment in human history, leveraging our culture of innovation and partnership, and make good on the commitments we have made to equity and social justice dating back to the civil rights movement,” reads the conclusion of the petition, which has over 340 student signatures so far.

To find out more about the organization and to read the GT Divest petition, visit https://sites.google.com/view/gt-divest-from-fossil-fuels/home.

Even before classes began last Monday, the Instagram account Jackets Infect Jackets became an active participant in the debate surrounding in-person classes and on-campus housing at the Institute. The name of the account is a play on the Institute’s tagline for this semester, Jackets Protect Jackets.

The account posts pictures of students violating social distancing norms and some of Tech’s relatively lackluster approaches to enforcing physical separation and cleanliness. The accound also posts first hand accounts from RAs and PLs who document their treatment by the Institute and the behavior of first year students.

Along with similar posts on the r/gatech subreddit, the posts have received hundreds of likes and many comments, both positive and negative.

After seeing the effectiveness of callout posts on platforms like Twitter, the creator, a student at the Institute who has asked to remain anonymous, decided that the bold, in-your-face format would be well suited to calling attention to Tech’s lapses in COVID-19 protection.

The Instagram account collects tips and pictures from students and then reposts them, giving students an anonymous platform to voice their concerns.

The submission-based format has also opened up the account to criticism, as people who dislike the abrasive nature have left rude and hateful messages attacking the account’s content and its creator.

First year students have been the target of many of the Jackets Infect Jackets online posts. This is for good reason, as these students are living in communal housing where COVID-19 is more likely to spread among inhabitants.

Though the housing department decided to completely do away with quad rooms for safety purposes, this has not stopped gatherings inside of dorms, often with social distancing and mask regulations thrown to the wind, an accusation documented on the Jackets Infect Jackets page itself.

Submissions from RAs and PLs are frequent on the page and serve as a primary source about the conditions in on-campus residence halls.

“Went on a duty round tonight and encountered multiple people not wearing masks in the dorms,” wrote an anonymous submission to the page, published on Aug. 18.

“I had to break up a group of 10+ people playing poker in a tiny lounge, barely any wearing masks. Extremely frustrated that this type of behavior is what’s going to land us with Covid clusters in residence halls and there’s not much we can do about it,” the post continued.

Fraternities and sororities present another possible hotbed for the coronavirus, both as communal housing and as a possible source of parties.

Certain Greek organizations have already been called out by the Instagram account, for events such as off-campus parties in the Home Park neighborhood and an alleged party at a Midtown bar, Churchill’s — one that “had a $5000 tab … with tons of people (girls and guys) getting drunk and not social distancing obviously,” according to an anonymous submission published Aug. 19.

The Jackets Infect Jackets account’s creator said that the situation was “not ideal, especially with the lack of people wearing masks or social distancing, it’s putting us all at risk”.

From March to August, Tech’s campus has seen more than 350 cases of the coronavirus, among students, staff and faculty.

To combat further increases in COVID-19 numbers, the Institute has implemented a testing policy based on the large scale surveillance testing of saliva samples with follow-up nasal swabs for people with samples showing signs of the coronavirus.

Tech also suggests that students and anyone on campus download the contact tracing app NOVID onto their smartphones, so that interactions can be logged and exposed individuals can be notified.

Despite these precautions in place, the Jackets Infect Jackets Instagram account’s creator said that they hoped the administration would continue to take notice of the failings being pointed out by the account.

The creator wishes the Institute will begin to transition to fully online classes, instead of a combination of online, hybrid and in-person classes.

The anonymous creator additionally hopes to see the Institute be more forthcoming with information about how the administration is working to keep students safe.

Hopefully, administration will get the message and will start being more transparent about how many members of the campus community have been infected by the novel coronavirus so far this semester.

Professor Krishnendu Roy, the Robert H. Milton Chair in the School of Biomedical Engineering, and his research team were recently awarded a grant by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to further their research on adjuvants. Adjuvants are molecules that may trigger beneficial responses in humans when used in conjunction with vaccines, in this case for use in vaccines targeting the novel coronavirus. 

This latest grant from the NIH comes as an extension of previous grants awarded to Roy and his team through the Molecular Mechanisms of Combination Adjuvants Grant, now specifically tailored to further research that combats the pandemic. 

Professor Roy’s research into adjuvants consists of examining previously-known adjuvants to identify the one best equipped to respond to the genetic makeup of COVID-19. When added to the vaccine mixture, the adjuvant can trigger a person’s immune system response more quickly and improve the chances of fighting off the infection. The adjuvant Alum has been mixed into vaccines since the 1930s to make sure that the body does not overreact to the vaccine in a potentially harmful way.

The NIH is currently expanding grants to researchers developing vaccines or treatments to combat the novel coronavirus. This includes the streamlining of funding guidelines and of grant application processes, as well as providing more funding to propel pre-existing research in microbiology and epidemiology that is now more pertinent.   

Currently, more than 100 different vaccines are in some phase of production, but none have yet been approved for widespread use in the United States. There are two vaccines in Phase III large-scale efficacy trials, where the vaccine is distributed to thousands of volunteers along with a placebo in a blind trial. A further seven vaccines are in Phase II trials, where the safety of the vaccine is tested across different demographic groups. 

Five promising vaccines were selected by the U.S. government to participate in Operation Warp Speed, a fast-tracked funding and approval scheme. Even with this accelerated track, the earliest vaccines are only expected to become available for widespread use in early-to-mid 2021.  

So far, there have been more than 7 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 internationally. The U.S., at 2 million cases and over 100,000 deaths, holds the morbid title of world leader in both cases and deaths. The state of Georgia has almost 56,000 confirmed cases and approximately 2,000 confirmed fatalities. Fulton County has more than 4,000 confirmed cases, the most of any county in the state. 

In spite of the social distancing measures undertaken by the state, many of which are now being relaxed, there are still hundreds of new cases of the respiratory infection being reported every day.

Outside the Kendeda building on Monday, two identical black Chevy Suburbans with government plates were parked in the bus lane, underscoring the fact that a high ranking federal official was inside. That official was the sole member of the newly formed United States Space Force, General Jay Raymond, formerly of the Air Force. Raymond is also a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, one of the highest ranking bodies in the armed forces. 

Raymond spoke at the Kendeda building, giving a nearly hour long lecture about the formation of the Space Force, and what the service will do going forward. The lecture, titled “Space as a Warfighting Domain”, began with a video, where soldiers reenacted a drone strike on a target in the “middle east”, although the video was recorded at a base in Colorado. The video ended with a question, “what would we do without space?” intended to underscore that the Space Force is supposed to be an important component of the armed forces. 

The General then delved into the organizational structure that had been created, describing how the Space Force and the Air Force were related in a similar way as the Navy and Marine Corps are related. Both the Air and Space Forces are under the auspices of the Secretary of the Air Force, much as the Navy and the Marines are under the Secretary of the Navy. 

This also applied to the warfighting commands that operated in the environment of space. They were taken out from underneath other commands and elevated to a more important station. One of the new warfighting bodies created along with the Space Force was a coalition force of countries such as Canada and the United Kingdom who have also elevated their own national space services. 

Over the course of the lecture, Raymond underscored that one of the central jobs for the previous Space Command, and the current Space Force, will be the tracking of space debris and satellites so as to manage the orbital traffic and ensure that no objects are colliding with each other. Part of this job was underscored when the General asked if any of the students in the audience were studying data science, as big data analytics and data visualization is a key part of the Space Force’s purview. He went on to joke that he would “hire you on the spot” if you were pursuing that particular course of study, met with laughs from the students present. 

Another point highlighted by General Raymond was the growing gap between private space exploration companies and the federal government’s own efforts. He related an anecdote of a tour of a SpaceX factory with Elon Musk, where the billionaire had no machines in the building, only tape on the floor indicating where they would go. Within four months, according to the General, the factory was fully operational and had produced around 60 satellites. 

This was contrasted later in the lecture by Raymond’s assertion that to procure a satellite identical to an existing one would take nearly six years through the current federal processes, which he used to highlight how private industry was one of the new driving forces in the race for space technology. 

He illustrated this through a brief discussion of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite constellation, as well as how they had automated many of the safety procedures surrounding rocket launches, a technology that was beginning to be adopted by the armed forces.  

One of the key points that Raymond underlined in his lecture was the shift of space from a benign environment to one in which conflicts could reasonably be fought between state actors. This grew out of the fact that in 2007 China blew up one of their own satellites with a rocket, which

served as an alarm for the US armed forces, and spurred the creation of the US Space Command, a warfighting group within the armed forces that was tasked with the tracking and operation of the satellites of the US armed forces. 

General Raymond opened the floor for questions following his lecture, letting students ask about the direction of the Space Force.

Students asked about things such as how the Space Force would limit its environmental impact, and how one could get involved with the organization. The service has been the butt of countless jokes online, from the fact that its logo is reminiscent of that of Star Trek’s Starfleet, to their likely use of existing camouflage uniforms despite the lack of foliage in space. 

Students have been left in limbo this week, as rumors circulating have alleged that 60 Peer Leader (PL) and Resident Advisor (RA) positions are being eliminated for this coming academic year. These Student Staff Members (SSMs) have been informed, either by rumors or by their Hall Directors, that the Housing Department will not be re-hiring 60 of them, with the positions to be filled by new applicants. This has come as a shock in the face to many SSMs, as although they are contracted yearly, they are almost always rehired. 

According to figures given by a Residence Hall Association (RHA) representative, almost 80% of SSMs have been re-hired for the coming year. However the lack of communication regarding the elimination of SSM positions as well as the lack of support for SSMs felt by some has ignited a firestorm in the campus community, led by a number of recent speculative posts on the r/gatech Reddit page. 

A large issue has been that the communication about the hiring of SSMs for the coming academic year has been haphazard, according to SSMs. Some were told that the reason that fewer SSMs were being hired was due to budget cuts for the Housing Department, whereas others were told that the decrease was to lessen the burden on Hall Directors. According to the Student Government Associations’s (SGA) Vice President of Campus Services, Kelly O’Neal, third-year BA, the reason that SSMs were not rehired for the coming academic year was due to individual performance issues, and not due to budget cuts. There is ire among SSMs with this explanation, as it blindsided them. According to an SSM, “the issue lies in the fact that [the Housing Department] has set a precedent that SSMs will be rehired as long as they meet expectations and never communicated that the expectations had changed,” highlighting the communication fallthrough. 

According to RHA President Emmet Miskell, “There was a plan  … to notify SSMs of these changes on January 3rd, 2020, but … that plan fell through because further approvals and considerations [were] needed.” This lack of communication has left many SSMs feeling confused, especially due to the fact that the application for Institute housing closes on February 23rd, leaving SSMs who are not rehired with an incredibly short window to figure out their living arrangements for the coming academic year. 

According to numbers given by a representative of the RHA, the Housing Department is only hiring 233 SSMs for the coming year, down from 293 this year. Out of the current number of 293 SSMs, 177 have applied to be re-hired for the coming year. This would leave 116 spots that would be filled by new applicants. However, due to the Housing Department’s decision to decrease the number of SSMs, only 56 will be hired. Some of the controversy comes in as not all of the 177 returning SSM applicants will be re-hired for the coming year, and the lack of communication regarding this has hindered their ability to seek other housing, whether with the Institute or off campus.  

SSMs have been voicing their concerns about the coming changes to the RA hiring process through a variety of avenues like speaking to the Undergraduate House of Representatives (UHR) of the SGA. “I feel insulted, I feel overlooked, and I feel like I am not important in [the Housing Department’s] eyes anymore,” said an anonymous SSM to the UHR on Tuesday night. In the same session, another SSM asked, “who does this benefit?” in regard to the decrease in the number
of SSMs. 

One of the main concerns that SSMs appear to be having with the changes being implemented by the Housing Department is that although fewer SSMs are being hired, those SSMs are also being restricted more heavily than in previous years, with the Conditions of Employment provided by the Housing Department listing that, “the RA’s principle non-academic activity is their position,” as well as that they “may not assume or continue any paid responsibilities,” with the exception of research or teaching assistantships. The conditions also state that RAs “must be given prior approval from their direct supervisor to be unavailable to assist or respond to the building during duty hours (Weekdays from 7:00 PM – 8:00 AM and 24 hours on weekends).” This heavily restrictive list of duties, among others, led one SSM to ponder how “maintaining personal balance,” a requirement in the job description can, “be achieved when RAs are not allowed to participate in other activities?”

Another concern voiced by SSMs is the lack of mental health support that has been provided by supervising employees such as Hall Directors and Area Managers. According to one SSM, following an incident of a mental health crisis of one of their residents, the Hall Director “took 2 weeks to reach out and … see if [they were] coping well emotionally,” When that same SSM asked for an extension on paperwork due to mental health issues stemming from their resident’s crisis, their Hall Director told them that “having mental health issues should not be impacting [their] ability to do [their] job.” This SSM also stated that they had “[been a] PL for three years and housing has been a huge contributor to degrading my mental health and increasing my stress.” Another SSM asserts that, “[the Housing Department] asks for and then shuts down discussions of mental health struggles. I feel like I have to lie to my bosses or fear repercussions.”

This is not the only area where SSMs have cited a lack of support from the Housing Department, as one SSM attested that they had submitted around “30 maintenance requests and only 7 have been completed”, including lack of working toilets as well as long waits for maintenance to remove mold from living spaces. 

Additionally, despite the fact that the nominal stipend for SSMs is increasing from $300 to $1000 in the coming year, according to calculations by one SSM, that amount only works out to approximately $3 per hour after taking into account the duties of an RA as well as the 15 additional hours of resident contact that they are required to have. The full compensation of an SSM, which is to say their housing, meal plan and stipend, counts as a scholarship on financial aid applications and can end up becoming “more of a financial burden” on SSMs with financial instability. 

Moving forward, several groups have been discussing steps to try and resolve the concerns that have been voiced by SSMs. The RHA, in conjunction with several SSMs, delivered a fifteen page document to the interim director of the Housing Department, Sheree Gibson, outlining some of their concerns and possible next steps. Following the testimonials of SSMs at Tuesday’s UHR session and subsequent special issue session, the SGA has also begun looking into how to address the concerns of SSMs through the formation of an executive
committee. 

In an email sent to current SSMs at around 8 p.m. this Wednesday by interim Housing Director Sheree Gibson, the Housing Department informed current SSMs of actions that would be taken in attempt to assuage some of the concerns raised by SSMs. 

“Today, all current and new candidates will receive our decision to hire or rehire,” wrote Gibson, before going on to say that they “will allow RAs who have not been asked to return to resubmit the application for the 20-21 academic year.” Gibson’s message goes on to say that the Housing Department is, “giving [SSMs] more time … to apply for housing by February 28.” This is a five day extension from the regular application deadline of February 23rd, giving SSMs just under two weeks from the sending of the email to apply for on campus housing in the case that they are not re-hired. 

This explanation has been met by questions from some SSMs. “There shouldn’t be any positions opened for the SSMs who are appealing the decision to not be rehired since they released all positions today,” said one SSM. The SSM also said that Gibson’s message, “said nothing about the aggressive language regarding personal time and extracurricular activities other than what [Gibson’s] interpretation of the documents is,” raising questions about whether the measures taken by the Housing Department are more than topical stopgap efforts. As one SSM pointed out, those SSMs “using greek housing as a backup have already missed the [housing] deadline,” and they “hope for more transparency in the future.” 

Mental health has been one of the central focuses of campus debate for the last few years, both in the administration as well as among the student body. In the wake of the death of Scout Schultz in 2017, the Institute shifted its focus towards improving the mental health services offered on campus. 

This was done in a number of ways, such as taking input from student advisory groups and attempting new solutions as a mental health initiative. This has resulted in changes such as the creation of the CARE center as the single entrance point to the Institute’s mental health care network, as well as an increase in the number of mental health professionals employed on campus and the offering of trainings such as QPR and VOICE peer advocacy. 

Many of these steps were part of the Path Forward Initiative, which was one of the response plans formulated by campus administrators and student leaders to address the perceived lack of mental health infrastructure provided by the Institute. 

The Student Mental Health action team, created as part of the initiative, published a report in the fall of 2017 chronicling the progressive worsening of mental health indicators at the Institute. Examples included an increase in the percentage of students who had previously attempted suicide from 5.9% in 2014 to 9.5% in 2017.

These reform and improvement efforts have been informed by a series of surveys conducted on Tech’s campus, such as the Healthy Minds survey, which is being conducted again this year with a sample of 8,000 undergraduate members of the student body. The survey is used to determine the sentiments and mental health histories of the student population, in order to determine the conditions of the campus community. It is also used as a barometer for what changes could be made to the Institute’s mental health services.  

The mental health network on campus consists of the CARE center, the counseling center and Stamps Health Services. The three organizations work together to provide mental health resources to the campus community. In the past year, the Institute has hired 10 additional mental health professionals, increasing their numbers from 31 to 41.  

The CARE center was introduced in the fall of 2019 to serve as the entrance point for the Institute’s mental health infrastructure. It provides initial consultations and referrals to the counseling center, as well as a session with a licensed therapist following the completion of the intake paperwork. 

Questions still abound about the effectiveness of the Path Forward Initiative and what effect it has had on the overall environment at the Institute. The answer is that we don’t entirely know as of yet what the effectiveness has been, as the CARE Center will be assessed by the ongoing Healthy Minds survey, and the previous Healthy Minds survey that was conducted in the spring of 2018 did not give sufficient time for the changes and programs that were initiated in the fall of 2017 to affect the campus population as a whole. 

The 2018 survey did yield recommendations; however, the main point of the recommendations was that the mental health environment on campus had been steadily declining from the previous Healthy Minds survey in 2016, and that further surveys should be conducted, complete with comparisons to peer institutions as a barometer. 

The current Healthy Minds survey, upon completion, should provide a better look at how the efforts of the administrations and student leaders have affected how the Institute addresses mental health concerns, as well as how the student body’s condition has changed. 

A new effort is underway to collect the opinions of the campus community as the administration is launching a new strategic plan to determine the direction of the Institute over the next ten years. It will be replacing the strategic plan of 2010, put in place by President Peterson and intended to last until 2035.

The effort to collect opinions and views of students is lead by the Department of Strategic Consulting, a relatively new addition to the administration. The group is described as “an internal team focused on advancing organizational effectiveness.” It was founded in 2013 in order to increase the efficiency of the administration through implementing enterprise solutions.  

The “Visioning Sessions,” as they are called, are intended to collect student opinions about what they would like to see from the Institute in the future. This is only the first stage of the plan, which is intended to generate an idea of the direction for the strategic plan. The next stage will involve the plan’s creation and eventual implementation. 

During the visioning sessions, representatives of the Strategic Consulting department ask students what their vision (hence the name) is for the Institute in ten years. Answers are recorded through an online form on
an iPad. 

The visioning sessions are held in various locations around campus, such as in the Clough atrium and the Student Center ballroom, as well as through online webinars. An online RSVP is required for entrance into the sessions. They are offered in two flavors: one that is open to the entire campus community, including faculty and staff, and one that is restricted to students, both graduate and undergraduate. 

The previous strategic plan was released in 2010 under President Peterson. It was intended to provide guidance for the Institute over a 25-year period, out to the year 2035. It consisted of five overarching goals, which focused mainly on improving the administration, elevating the Institute’s ranking and prestige and continuing to excel in scholarship and research. There is not a reference to the campus community in the five goals, and many of the measures undertaken under the old strategic plan did not focus on those issues.

Some of the advancements under the plan include the launching of Create-X, launching the Institute’s program at the new campus in Shenzhen, China and launching innovation centers in Tech Square with companies like NCR and The Home Depot. 

So far, there has been little official communication from the new administration regarding the new strategic plan, although representatives from the Department of Strategic Consulting have presented to campus leaders, such as the Student Government Association in an attempt to spread the word. A Google search for “gatech strategic plan,” however, will yield information exclusively on the strategic plan from 2010, and none regarding the new iteration.

Following the shooting of Scout Schultz in 2017, the administration responded with the Path Forward, which was essentially a smaller and more specific version of the overarching strategic plan that focused on the campus community and campus mental health. Advancements under the plan include the opening of GT Care in the Student Center, the increased number of mental health counselors and the expansion of the LGTBQIA Resource Center.

Some of the concerns voiced by students at the visioning sessions have centered around the perceived lack of progress coming out of the Path Forward initiative, with additional comments discussing the Institute’s poor communication skills as publications intended to inform students on Institute happenings like the daily and weekly digests are frequently ignored.  

On Monday, Oct. 28, Ángel Cabrera, the twelfth president of the Institute and the first Spanish-born president of an American university, was officially invested in a ceremony at Ferst Theater. 

The ceremony, known as an investiture, marked the ceremonial start of Cabrera’s tenure at the institute, although he has been in the job since Sept. 3, almost two months ago. It was attended by more than 100 specially-invited guests, who represented sister educational institutions, such as Harvard, Duke and Emory, and came from as far away as Charles III University of Madrid in Spain. 

Before the actual investiture took place, various stakeholders in the campus community had the opportunity to deliver speeches addressed to both the incoming president and the Institute’s community in a packed theater filled with students, alumni and special guests.

The first speaker was Undergraduate Student Government Association President Pooja Juvekar, fourth-year ISyE, followed by Dean of the Scheller College of Business Dr. Maryam Alavi on behalf of the faculty, Chair of Staff Council David Brown on behalf of the staff and David Brown (IM ‘79) on behalf of the alumni.

Following the Institute’s representatives were speeches by the special guests, namely Georgia Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan, Valdosta State University President Margaret Venable and George Mason University (GMU) professor Gregory Unruh. Congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis, who represents Georgia’s fifth district, was scheduled to speak at the ceremony as well; however, due to a conflict, his remarks were instead read by the event’s master of ceremonies, Dean of the College of Computing Charles Isbell. 

Unruh’s speech revolved around his long friendship with Cabrera, starting at the IE Business School in Spain, where Cabrera took on his first administrative position, and moving on to Cabrera’s previous job from 2012 until 2019 as the president of GMU, Virginia’s fastest growing public university in terms of enrollment.

The investiture itself was conducted by University System of Georgia Chancellor Steve Wrigley, and went relatively quickly. After brief remarks, Wrigley invested Cabrera and placed the Institute’s presidential medallion around his neck.

After his investiture, Cabrera made his grand entrance onto the stage, riding the Reck out onto the Ferst stage, a sight which was heralded by the sound of the Reck’s iconic horn from off stage. 

Outside of associating Cabrera with the visual symbology of Tech, the automotive entrance also had the effect of making the entire auditorium smell of exhaust.

Cabrera, wearing a suit instead of his formal academic attire, delivered his speech not from behind a podium, instead choosing to walk around the stage. The speech was intended to be casual and friendly, highlighting Cabrera’s long-term familiarity with Tech.

He thanked his family and spoke about research occurring at the Institute, before going briefly into his story and stating that, “America is prosperous because it built great universities.” 

He also took the opportunity to address the Institute’s enrollment statistics, especially among women and people of color, noting that although they were good among engineering schools, they were, in his estimation, not yet good enough, and that he intended to raise them during his tenure. 

Cabrera also devoted time to his predecessors, the eleven previous presidents of the Institute. He calculated the average term length to be eleven years and three months, and referenced the longest serving president, Marrion Brittain, as well as the shortest serving, Arthur Hansen, before going on to say that he wished for a “fruitful term of average length”.

Following Cabrera’s inaugural address, members of the National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC) performed a step routine. 

The dance was one of the most energetic moments in a serious and lengthy ceremony, providing a welcome change of pace. 

The ceremony itself was punctuated by student performances, with the national anthem sung by the treble choir, the alma mater sung by the Glee Club and music provided by the marching band for the procession of the special guests onto the stage, as well as their procession off after the end of the ceremony. Unexpectedly, the band played a version of Outkast’s “Hey Ya!” during the latter procession.

Cabrera, his wife Elizabeth Cabrera and his son Alex, are all alumni of the Institute, and Cabrera served on the Georgia Tech Advisory Board, including a term as its chair in 2011. Cabrera received an M.S. and Ph.D. in cognitive psychology, in addition to a B.S. and M.S. in computer and electrical engineering from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.

The Eco-Commons project is entering its first phase this fall with the start of construction of a communal green space on the north end of campus. 

The area in question is directly west of the recently completed Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design and shares some of the goals of that building, namely minimizing the impact of the Institute on the
local environment. 

The section of the Eco-Commons under construction will consist of “a performance landscape and passive green space.” In the department of Capital Planning and Space Management’s Landscape Master Plan, a performance landscape is a location where “man-made and natural systems work together in an ecological way to benefit the campus.” In practical terms, this will consist of an open, communal space for use by the campus community. It serves to both beautify the Institute’s campus as well as improve its links with the local ecosystem.

More than just beautifying the area and providing a place for students to relax in a pleasant natural environment, the Eco-Commons is also intended to provide a place for students and faculty to carry out environmental research. The Eco-Commons will be fitted with environmental monitoring equipment as part of its construction in order to facilitate data collection and ensure that it is completing its objective of reducing storm-water runoff. 

Construction will also entail a series of delays and closures in the surrounding area. On Oct. 7 is the demolishment of the Beringause Building, the former headquarters of GTPD prior to their move to new offices on the corner of Hemphill Avenue and Tenth Street. The east sidewalk along Hemphill Avenue has also been shut down, from Ferst Drive to Eighth Street, for the duration of construction. These impediments, along with changes in access to parking structures and residences, and increased traffic from construction vehicles, will replace many of the obstacles that came along with the construction of the Kendeda Building. 

The project was first announced in 2016 as part of the Institute’s Landscape Master Plan, which lays out the proposed additions and changes to campus natural spaces over the course of several years. The Eco-Commons follows the path of several streams that ran through campus as recently as 1930, before construction and development routed them into a drainage system and underneath much of campus. 

The idea behind Eco-Commons construction is to begin reducing the amount of stormwater runoff that the Institute produces by introducing green spaces on campus that will both slow the flow of water as well as use water as a nutrient. It is attempting to turn the “one-way” flows of rainwater out of the campus system into “cyclical” flows where a portion of the water remains in the plants and reservoirs on campus.

One of the key provisions of the Eco-Commons plan is that man-made and natural systems will work together to mitigate the flow of stormwater into the sewer system of the city of Atlanta. The natural portions of the plan are provided through the expansion of green space and tree canopy, both of which can absorb and diffuse rainwater. Man-made additions include reservoirs and hydroponic wetlands for the holding and processing of wastewater. 

Part of the inspiration for the Eco-Commons plan was drawn from reforestation efforts in other urbanized areas. A key example given in the Landscape Master Plan is that of the Boston Fens, a more than a century old project that involved altering a watershed area that routinely flooded in order to improve the management of water flows by increasing the collaboration with the ecosystem.