On Aug. 15, the Office of Student Engagement and Well-Being (OSEWB) published its new plan for cultivating health and well-being at Tech and laid out the strategies and goals to be achieved over the next decade.

Officially known as the Cultivate Well-Being Action and Transformation Roadmap, this new report was published one year after the Institute began to implement its Cultivate Well-Being initiatives as part of its Strategic Plan. 

With the creation of the OSEWB and Luoluo Hong joining as its inaugural vice president in 2021, Tech reviewed its health and well-being plans and released the road map following comprehensive research and preparation. 

Expanding on previous plans, the new road map identifies four main goals: cultural change, capacity and creativity, community and connection, and commitment and continuity. 

Together, the goals strive to strengthen prevention efforts and clinical care and raise up positive attributes of the Institute to promote well-being while mitigating the negative ones. 

To inform these goals, the OSEWB surveyed Tech students over recent years and compared their findings to national databases to gauge areas for improvement. During the 2021-2022 academic year, the OSEWB also had many discussions with people across campus and identified 10 main themes in the conversations. 

Many of these themes revolve around the prominent need for improvement in Tech’s well-being initiatives and the disconnect between student beliefs on the Institute’s health and well-being and what the collected data shows. The four goals each contain a number of strategies underneath them, focusing on the eight dimensions of wellness the Institute recognizes. Some tackle advancing students’ physical health, while others target mental health needs for the campus community. 

Together, the strategies take a holistic approach to promoting health and well-being. They also include preventative measures to promote wellness before more involved care is needed. 

While Tech aims to ameliorate its infrastructure for promoting health and well-being, the road map also recognizes that “institutions of higher education can strive to impact and influence the context, climates, and correlates that are known to be associated with higher levels of well-being, but ultimately, the unique and complex array and interplay of conditions that contribute to well-being varies from student to student – and can also vary for any one individual throughout the course of their life.” 

Implementation of the plan and its effects may seem slow, but the road map is designed to be flexible, allowing for unexpected events or findings to alter its course to offer more individualized care. 

The road map’s strategies will be implemented throughout the next three academic years, and the progress on achieving the goals will be evaluated and adjusted until 2030. The report also emphasizes the role social justice plays in achieving overall wellness at the Institute.

Achieving the outlined goals will take time and effort, but leadership on campus remains optimistic about the expected changes.

“We had a lot of complaints of students feeling like some of the programs Tech offers, specifically regarding mental health, they didn’t really live up to [students’] expectations under those goals,” said Julia Johnson, fourth-year PUBP and the Vice President of Well-Being within the Undergraduate Student Government Association (SGA). Johnson highlighted certain changes SGA was excited for, like the creation of the Center for Mental Health Care & Resources from existing well-being departments. 

Johnson also reported that SGA wants to act as a liaison between the student body and administration for concerns about health and well-being. 

A recent example of this was bringing to light concerns students had about the Institute’s reduced COVID-19 response and organizing a town hall to promote discussions on this issue. 

“We don’t want to just be reactive; we want to be proactive in some of the things that we’re pursuing,” Johnson said about other wellness initiatives. 

While she said they have been disappointed in the lack of deliverables from the Cultivate Well-Being goals, Johnson hopes SGA will be included in these and help to promote health and well-being for students going through both good and bad times at Tech. 

Students may also reach out to the SGA Well-Being Board through their website to report concerns or advocate for initiatives on campus. 

Hong, as the Vice President for Student Engagement and Well-Being, is also proud of the road map’s goals and excited for the changes it entails.

“Improving the health, wellness and well-being of students will not just be about initiatives and strategies. It will require deep, lasting cultural change — really taking a hard look at our values, our attitudes and beliefs, and our assumptions about what is ‘normal’ and accepted,” Hong said. 

She also highlighted the importance of the data collection to inform the road map, as “knowing students’ reality helps create alignment between perceived problems and stated goals” and lead to better results. 

Hong’s outlook emphasizes the notion that improving well-being at Tech may take time, but is necessary to create a lasting impact. 

“Cultural change work requires persistence and patience, because it does not happen in one semester, or even one year,” Hong said. “In my experience with other institutional culture change efforts, it generally takes 3-5 years of concerted, sustained effort — and that assumes everyone is onboard with the direction we are headed: students, staff, faculty and administration.”

As the enactment of the road map’s strategies are just beginning to go into effect, students may notice new initiatives and programs popping up around campus. All members of the Tech community can help foster a greater sense of well-being at the Institute, and may find the road map on the OSEWB website.

Tech takes pride in its efforts to increase campus sustainability and engage all community members in environmental initiatives, but how do these measures actually play out?

Coinciding with the Institute’s Strategic Plan, the Office of Campus Sustainability (OCS) created the Tech Sustainability Plan in 2021 and will follow its guidance throughout the next decade to make Tech’s campus a greener place. After many internal assessments and reviews, the Sustainability Plan features six focus areas and will be implemented with $1.25 million in funding from the Institute.

Some focus areas of concern address how members of the Tech community view sustainability and their efforts to be good environmental stewards, and another area of concern pertains to the amount and quality of sustainability research the Institute conducts. The Institute Operations area includes how Tech implements sustainable practices within its own functions.

Objectives in this focus area concern set goals on how much energy and water are used on campus, and how much waste is produced and where it goes. The OCS website outlines how these objectives will be addressed and measured, and some have already been partially fulfilled. 

For example, Tech aims for 30% of faculty and staff to commute using alternative modes of transportation compared to single-passenger vehicles, and a 2021 report shows that just over 32% of employees already do so.

Campus dining is an important part of this focus area, and Tech has more control over its sustainable practices since transitioning to self-operated dining last year. Malte Weiland, the Sustainability Project Manager for Campus Services, highlighted some initiatives on this front.

“One of the things we wanted day one with our self-operated operations was a reasonable to-go container program,” Weiland said. 

Students can now rent a reusable container when they enter a dining hall and they can bring it back to the dining halls later and receive a clean one for their next to-go meals. 

Students on the first-year meal plan can receive the container for free but can only get a to-go meal once a day, and other meal plans require a small charge when first renting a container. 

Many Tech students see the to-go meal containers as a welcome addition to Tech’s sustainability efforts. One such student, Fikayo Oshinowo, 5th year AE, said, “This is a great idea to mobilize the student body to be more sustainable in their everyday practices, especially because many student prefer taking their meals to-go.” 

Weiland said the launch of the project has been delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic in recent years but was excited to see its adoption at the start of the fall semester. He also said there has been some confusion with the one to-go meal per day but says that OCS wants to make sure “it’s still the most sustainable option for that one meal.”

Weiland also stated that Tech Dining is constantly trying to source from local producers.

“I think we can do a lot more of that, in the area, given that Atlanta has such great options for eating and local production,” Weiland said. “Both of these things I mentioned line up with our goals.” 

According to Weiland, the reusable to-go containers “help with a goal of minimizing the waste coming out of dining and their operations … [with] the procurement, there is a goal that a certain percentage of our purchasing in dining is either sustainably sourced or certified organic.”

Houston Freeman, Director of Residential Dining, also commented on sustainability efforts in dining halls.

“The big thing that we do with all of our food waste is we can compost it,” Freeman said. “Another thing is we try to do as many local suppliers as we can,” adding to what Weiland said about sourcing from around Atlanta. 

This also includes connecting smaller suppliers with larger ones to help with distribution of local products.

Freeman also addressed fallacies in the sustainability initiatives around dining halls, like the lack of composting infrastructure for student waste in the Brittain and North Avenue Dining Halls. In previous years, they have given out compostable plates and utensils, but had no marked compost bins for students, making this effort almost obsolete. Freeman views the switch to reusable containers and plates as a solution for this issue. 

The dining halls on campus also donate food to the Campus Kitchen Project, which disperses leftover food to food-insecure students and homeless people in Atlanta. Freeman said that the dining halls will sometimes prepare food specifically for donations, but the majority of the food comes from leftovers so they are “avoiding throwing away product that may not always get utilized.”

Other initiatives from dining include expanding the vegetarian and dairy-free options at dining halls to better meet student requests and serve less resource-intensive products. 

Freeman also hopes to expand recycling and composting at the dining halls over time, and eventually move to biodegradable products in the future. While there are areas to improve in campus sustainability, efforts have been made to reduce the Institute’s toll on the environment. 

Campus dining has put in place certain infrastructure and initiatives to use less energy and water and reduce waste, and has more planned for the coming years. For more information on sustainable changes coming to campus, visit sustain.gatech.edu. 

On April 6, Tech held its annual “When the Whistle Blows” ceremony to honor members of the Tech community that passed away during the previous year. 

Starting in 2001, the Institute has held this ceremony every year, barring COVID-19, to honor active faculty, staff and students that passed away in the last calendar year. Usually held in Harrison Square, the ceremony took place this year in Clary Theater due to rain. The event began with a gathering in the lobby of the Bill Moore Student Success Center, where guests could remember the individuals to be honored at the ceremony to come. As soon as the time struck 5 p.m., bagpipes began to play in honor of the deceased, and the attendants processed into the auditorium, with friends and families processing in last and occupying the front four rows.

Once inside, Ajanta Choudhury, undergraduate vice president of SGA, welcomed the attendees to the ceremony. “We’re here today to honor, celebrate, and pay our respects to the Yellow Jackets whose lives were lost in the past year,” Choudhury said. 

“They have positively impacted us and the broader Georgia Tech community, and nothing can take away the fact that we are stronger and wiser and better for having known them,” Choudhury said before handing the podium off to Kirby Criswell, the current Mr. Georgia Tech.

Criswell gave a brief overview of the event’s history, and acknowledged the contributions from multiple parts of the campus community to the ceremony. He then welcomed President Ángel Cabrera to the stage to give his remarks. 

“We come together as families do to celebrate the lives of the people who we have lost,” Cabrera said. “Just as they were part of your lives, they were part of our campus community,” he said to the attending families and friends of the deceased. Cabrera discussed the contributions of the faculty, staff, and students to the Institute and how they improved our community. 

Cabrera then described the significance of the whistle to the Tech community and how the 21 whistle blows later that evening would honor all those who have passed.

President Cabrera then introduced Luoluo Hong, Vice President for Student Engagement and Well-being, and Criswell to the stage to start the next segment of the ceremony. 

Each honoree had a candle lit at the ceremony by someone close to them. Hong and Criswell called the names of each honoree and their candle lighter, who would then light their respective candle and receive a replica of the iconic Tech whistle on their behalf. 

Starting in 2006, the GTRI Machine Services department has created a brass replica of the whistle for each honoree, inscribing their name and part of the alma mater on the bottom of it. 

In total, 20 candles were lit and 20 whistles were presented at the ceremony, honoring seven students and 13 faculty and staff members.

Choudhury returned to the podium and welcomed the Tech Treble Choir to sing the alma mater, followed by 20 whistle blows for the ceremony’s honorees and an extra one for all the alumni and retired faculty and staff that had also passed in the previous year. “Our main focus is making sure that we do them proud by this tradition,” said Jillian Cruser, Senior Institute Event Coordinator, on the purpose of the ceremony for the families and friends of the honorees. 

“It shows you how much people mean to one another on this campus,” Cruser said.

Cruser also mentioned that the “When the Whistle Blows” Ceremony is the kind of event the Institute does not want to have to host, but is proud of Tech for honoring the community members sincerely each year with it. 

A recording of this year’s ceremony and a list of its honorees can be found online at specialevents.gatech.edu/wtwb.

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, country-pop artist Kacey Musgraves graced Atlanta with her presence on Feb. 9 and offered her audience a whirlwind ride through her past bouts with love and heartbreak.

Musgraves visited State Farm Arena for her tenth stop on her “star-crossed: unveiled” tour, performing the titular album along with a few other songs from her previous albums. 

She also brought MUNA and King Princess along as her opening acts, who performed for the first hour and a half of the concert.

After the openers concluded, the lights dimmed and the uneasy plucking of the strings on a Spanish guitar opened the main act. “Star-crossed” is a very theatrical album, and Musgraves made sure its live rendition conveyed the Greek tragedy she had envisioned.

Its titular opening track features Musgraves offering to “set the scene” for the listener, and live, the show embodied the setup and dramatics of the opening number.

Ending “star-crossed” with a flaming heart behind her, Musgraves then looked at her own insecurities in her marriage and started “good wife,” which was a solid song even without its intentional autotune from the album version.

Musgraves then took a break to greet the audience, screaming “Hotlanta! Y’all are looking fine tonight!”

Musgraves then hit some of the more upbeat tracks for the night. “Cherry blossom” and “simple times” both amped up the energy in the stadium and owed to the apparent fleetingness of her marriage. This section of the concert was rounded out by “breadwinner,” which had every woman in the stadium dancing and their boyfriends sweating.

Musgraves then moved backwards in time to perform songs from her previous album “Golden Hour,” working through her bigger hits and ending with “High Horse” and all of its disco mania. As much as that hyped up her audience, she immediately went to the “I’m sad because I’m divorced” part of “star-crossed.”

She started with “camera roll” and “hookup scene,” and then played her equally depressing and very first single “Merry Go ‘Round.” This part of the concert was more drawn back and intimate, and it honestly seemed like it was just the audience and this woman with her guitar talking about her relationship and life struggles.

After acknowledging the bleakness of the last three songs, Musgraves called on someone in the audience to pick her next song for “Kacey-oke,” which consisted of four possible covers. The attendee chose “Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac, and Musgraves did a wonderful job visiting the often-covered song.

She then returned to her music and performed “justified” and “there is a light” in quick succession, representing the anger and healing parts of her melodramatic divorce. She then concluded her main set with “gracias a la vida,” a truly powerful ending. Musgraves returned to the stage once more to perform “Slow Burn” and “Rainbow” from “Golden Hour,” before finally ending the encore and the night.

Overall, Musgraves had an excellent album to take the stage, literally filling out its intended purpose as a Greek tragedy. The visuals and live versions of the songs were good, and her coverage of old material was also appealing to her longtime fans. As sad as it is to hear someone sing about their divorce, no one could tell the pain Musgraves went through, and she made sure her fans were right there with her in this new and happier stage of her life.

Although COVID-19 continues to take its toll on the nation, it has not managed to stop other diseases from continuing to impact the holidays.

Flu season, for example, is already underway, and while it certainly has not gotten as much press as COVID-19 in the past few months, it continues to be a problem compromised immune systems and those of advanced age, making it imperative that we continue to address it.

In the spirit of working to slow the spread of the influenza virus, the Institute is urging students to receive their flu shot during the next few weeks, citing the importance of safety and staying well.

Each year the US experiences its flu season between the months of October and May, with peak activity occurring in the winter. Per usual, Tech is hosting several flu shot clinics during the fall semester.

There are many thousands of influenza strains that we can contract, making vaccinations a more complicated task for medical professionals.

In order to account for this, medical experts gather prior to flu season and use mathematical modelling and epidemiological predictions to surmise which strains are likely to be more prevalent for the given season. Using this data, they work to create a concoction of different flue vaccines that are distributed to the general public as this years flu vaccination.

The Institute held multiple clinics in October, and most recently held one on Nov. 10.

These clinics do not require appointments and are free for all students who have paid the health fee.

In addition to those hosted and funded by the Institute, Tech has held other clinics on behalf of external pharmacies. On Nov. 3, Tech hosted a CVS flu shot clinic in Exhibition Hall, although this clinic required prior registration and presentation of insurance for students. Tech will hold one more clinic through Stamps Health Services this semester on Dec. 1 from 3-7 p.m. There may be more clinics hosted by external companies as well, and students can always go to a nearby pharmacy to receive their flu shot. While flu season is a normal occurrence, the past flu season was extremely unusual.

Prior to the 2020-2021 flu season the percentage of respiratory specimens testing positive for the influenza virus was between 26.2% and 30.3% according to the CDC.

During the 2020-2021 flu season, the positivity rate was about 0.2%. This drastic decrease has a few explanations: The CDC says that COVID-19 mitigation measures most likely helped decrease the spread of the flu. These efforts include wearing face masks, school closures and social distancing among other preventative actions. They also reported that a record 193.8 million doses of the influenza vaccine were administered, which also could have contributed to the flu’s low prevalence last year. While COVID-19 cases were spiking last winter, flu cases hit a record low for the past several years, but it cannot be said if this trend will continue into this year. Some sources expect a surge of COVID-19 and flu cases later this year as both viruses spread with eased pandemic restrictions, but concrete data is not currently available to substantiate this theory. With the temperatures dropping in Atlanta and forcing people indoors, Tech is maintaining its current COVID-19 protocols to help inhibit the spread of the virus.

These guidelines, along with the flu clinics, could lead to a decrease in campus flu cases over the winter. For more updates on Tech’s efforts to stop the spread of the flu, visit health.gatech.edu to see flu shot clinic dates and information about the flu vaccine.

On Sept. 9, President Biden issued Executive Order 14042, which details how those contracted under the federal government must comply with the president’s COVID-19 safeguards in the workplace, which includes being fully vaccinated against the virus.

Recently, Tech realized that the order applies to many of its employees and started the push to reach compliance with all of its federally contracted workers.

President Biden released a series of executive orders that aim to decrease the spread of COVID-19, with some requiring those employed directly or contracted by the federal government to comply with the orders’ guidelines or risk their employment.

The Safer Federal Workforce Task Force oversees the implementation of these orders, and released further instruction on Executive Order 14042 on Sept. 24.

“These safeguards will decrease worker absence, reduce labor costs, and improve the efficiency of contractors and subcontractors performing work for the Federal Government,” the Task Force said in their report.

They also affirmed that all federally contracted or subcontracted workers must receive COVID-19 vaccination under the order.

Tech sent an email on Oct. 26 to inform all employees of the requirements of the executive order and who is affected at the Institute. The three affected groups are employees working on or in connection with a covered federal contract, employees performing support functions for those contracts and employees that work in the same space as the previous two groups but are not federally contracted.

The Institute held a town hall on Oct. 29 to better explain the order’s effect on Tech employees and answer questions about the vaccination requirements. These were intended to assuage any fears that employees have had about the unknown aspects of the bill, and provide insight into the bill for the good of those it will be affecting in the upcoming weeks and months to follow.

“This federal order is very encompassing, it’s very widespread, and so it applies to us as a federal contractor,” said Mike Shannon, deputy chief business officer at Tech.

Shannon better explained the three categories of affected workers, and also noted that the order includes full and part-time employees and student employees.

In total, Shannon said that there are “about 77% of the Institute’s employees who are affected, so roughly about 15,600 of our over 20,000 employees.”

Employees can request accommodation for the order based on medical or religious reasons, or can opt to decline vaccination and risk the consequences of noncompliance with the order.

While the former is available to those who meet the requirements without any consequence, there will be potential penalties for those who opt for the latter and choose to forgo the vaccine for none of the aforementioned reasons above.

When asked about the consequences, Kim Harrington, associate vice president of Human Resources, admitted that the Institute is still deciding what those will be.

“The corrective action path is still under discussion,” she said. “We’re still working through that; our focus as an Institute is working for compliance.”

The order gives the authority for enforcing these penalties to the employer of those are choose not to be vaccinated, and will instead have the federal government directly fine the organization that employees the individual until they either enforce a penalty themselves.

Shannon and Harrington stressed that Dec. 8 was the deadline for vaccine compliance as set by the Task Force, which is slightly different than the Nov. 22 deadline set by the Biden administration, and recommended all unvaccinated workers to make their decision soon so they can achieve full vaccination by that date, or have time to fill for exempt status should they meet the requirements set forth.

More questions arose regarding what counted as being fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and when the final dose of a vaccine must be received by. “You’re considered fully vaccinated two weeks after receiving the second dose of a two dose series, which will include Moderna and the Pfizer vaccines, or two weeks after the only dose of a one dose [series]” said Benjamin Holton, senior director of Tech health services.

“You are also considered fully vaccinated if you have the complete series of a vaccine that is listed by the WHO for emergency use,” Holton said about other vaccines that are approved abroad.

While Tech moves forward with achieving total compliance with the order, Georgia and multiple other states have filed lawsuits against the federal government over the executive orders, as reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

These states argue that the federal government overstepped its authority in implementing this mandate, and have requested that the order be struck down immediately by the court system.

Tech joined many other USG schools in spreading word about the order last week, and intends to meet the Dec. 8 deadline regardless of any pending challenges to the mandate.

At the end of the town hall, Shannon reiterated the deadline of Dec. 8 for full vaccination and for affected employees to make their decision soon to schedule a vaccine appointment, request an accommodation, or decline the vaccine. He encouraged all employees to visit health.gatech.edu/vaccine-status to check their vaccination status with the Institute, submit necessary documents for compliance, and find more information about the order and time lines for vaccination.

While COVID-19 cases subside on campus and more events are hosted in-person, Tech is currently deciding which video conferencing platform it will continue to use into the coming years outside of the pandemic.

Most Tech students will be familiar with BlueJeans and Microsoft Teams meetings, which have been the primary platforms for video conferences at Tech. These applications have been utilized for classes, club meetings and many more events over the past year, but their services have seen a decline in use as Tech transitions back to in-person functions.

Although Microsoft Teams will definitely remain as a video conference platform, Tech’s licenses with BlueJeans and WebEx, another conferencing platform, are set to expire in 2022. WebEx is currently being phased out of use as it expires after December, and BlueJeans will remain until at least May 2022.

This has spurred Tech to consider switching to a partnership with another service in the spring, with the Zoom video collaboration platform leading the pack. Zoom is very similar to BlueJeans and is used widely in education settings outside of Tech. To test this technology, Tech will hold a pilot with the program from late Oct. through the end of the semester.

“The video collaboration review committee has been thorough in defining requirements of a video collaboration service, in thinking through a migration from BlueJeans, and in considering how best to roll out a replacement for it,” said Michael Smith, senior lecturer of information systems in the Scheller College of Business, in a release from the Office of Information Technology. Smith and the other members of the video collaboration review committee have been evaluating many platforms as potential replacements for BlueJeans and WebEx.

Yakut Gazi, Associate Dean of Tech Professional Education and member of the review committee, added in the same article that the committee has already addressed the cybersecurity and procurement process, which means if the Zoom pilot goes well, they can quickly move forward with switching to the platform.

There are many specifications that the committee will hold Zoom to during its pilot, and the platform will be tested in a variety of applications around Tech.

The Zoom pilot may appear in students’ classes over the next few months, and the committee eagerly awaits the feedback from the trial. Although Zoom may be new to Tech, most students have had experience with it and the other platforms.

“I used WebEx for one class last fall,” said Akshay Karthik, CS graduate student. “We used BlueJeans for basically every class in the spring and last fall, but this semester I haven’t used it once,” said Karthik. His only experience with Zoom has been when meeting with friends because he believes it has a better screenshare function than BlueJeans, but Karthik thinks Tech should just stick with using BlueJeans throughout the next year.

“WebEx, over all for a small setting, was not good in terms of interaction and using the chat,” said Bennett Bush, a second-year EE who also has experience with all three platforms.

In regards to BlueJeans, Bush thought that the platform was very straightforward when making and accessing meetings, which he felt was something that Zoom lacks. “I’d say keep BlueJeans, don’t fix what’s not broken,” he concluded.

“I think we should stick to BlueJeans,” said Chyna McCall, third-year BIOL. “All of us already know how to use it and I feel like switching to another platform would be kind of useless when we have one that’s basically identical,” McCall said.

She has also used all three platforms since the beginning of the pandemic, and echoed Karthik’s and Bush’s sentiments of getting rid of WebEx but keeping BlueJeans over Zoom.

Feedback from students, faculty, and staff will be important to the review committee when making the decision to switch from BlueJeans and WebEx to Zoom, and the upcoming trial will offer insight on these opinions for all to consider moving forward.

Most Tech students will recognize the Gyro Chef food truck that is normally parked outside of the Clough Undergraduate Learning Commons, but the truck has recently been under scrutiny from some students alleging that they have been overcharged for their food.

On Sept. 13, a post was made to the Tech Reddit asking if other students had thought the Gyro Chef food truck had overcharged them when ordering food, and the post receiving many affirmative comments.

“I used to eat at Gyro Chef at least once a week in the spring semester,” said Igor Dito, PHYS and ME ’21. Dito said that they always ordered “a plate of food with a drink [which] would cost me around $13,” but this semester they were charged $18 for the same meal and they have never returned.

Another anonymous user replied that the price of the meal they always order has been increasing each time they go. The user always ordered the chicken shawarma pita sandwich at Gyro Chef, which has a listed price of $10, and always paid with dining dollars.

“One time they did say that it would be $11.50 and I was really confused,” the user said. They later checked their BuzzCard balance and saw that they had actually been charged $12 for the sandwich.

After the post gained some traction, the Graduate SGA VP of Campus Services replied to let the original poster know that the issue had been forwarded to Turq Daniels, the Tech Dining Director of Retail Operations. The VP also confirmed that dining dollars are non-taxable forms of payment, which was brought up by some of the commentors. Daniels did reach out to the owner of Gyro Chef about the complaints, and he was able to offer some explanations for the overcharging and price inconsistencies.

“From what [the Gyro Chef owner] told me, there’s a charge for each individual sauce that students or guests order,” Daniels said. The owner also showed Daniels where the signage explaining these charges was posted, and stressed that any problems with the price should be brought up as students order their food.

Daniels also mentioned that the cost of food does rise every year, and an increase in price between semesters is not unheard of. Food trucks set their own prices for their items, and as long as the price is not obscene, Tech Dining will not interfere.

Ryan Greene, Senior Director of Tech Dining, stressed that Tech does have the power to stop doing business with the food trucks at any moment, and would exercise this power if they suspected Gyro Chef was violating their guidelines. So far, they have not received more excessive reports of the food truck overcharging students after they talked to the owner.

A few weeks after the Reddit post had been made, the Technique visited Gyro Chef to see if the issues were still apparent. Two $13 combos were purchased, one with dining dollars and one with a normal credit card. The meal purchased with dining dollars did result in a $13 charge, and the meal purchased with a credit card had sales tax applied to bring it to a total of $14.81.

These were the expected prices for the two orders, and imply that Gyro Chef fixed whatever problems they may have had. Whether there were actual problems with the pricing or students were not noticing postings on the truck, Greene wanted to stress one last point to students:

“Please pipe up and let everybody know what the concern is” in regards to dining operations on campus, he said. “We don’t want to see people complaining and frustrated,” Greene said, and urged students to alert Tech dining to any issues they may have.

On Oct. 18, Tech will welcome a new chief information security officer (CISO) to its campus to oversee the protection of all of the Institute’s digital assets.

After the resignation of former CISO Jimmy Lummis near the end of January, the Office of Information Technology has been searching for a permanent replacement for the position.

Didier Contis has served as the interim CISO since then, and will return to his previous appointment director of information technology in the College of Engineering soon.

Leo Howell, who currently works as the chief information security officer and interim chief technology officer at the University of Oregon, will assume the role of permanent CISO at Tech later this month.

“The chief information security officer is effectively the person responsible for leading the cybersecurity that’s inside of [the Office of Information Technology],” said Daren Hubbard, Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer.

Hubbard went on to list other responsibilities Howell will take on at Tech: “[The CISO] is basically responsible for both network and general internet security of Georgia Tech,” Hubbard said.

Howell will also handle the “planning and design and implementation of our security infrastructure that we use for cybersecurity, both in student areas and across faculty and staff,” according to Hubbard.

Howell will also oversee the application of the Endpoint Protection Plan that Hubbard kicked off over the summer, which helps users of Institute owned devices to protect their data.

Howell will also assist Tech in constantly evolving to protect campus members from new cybersecurity threats that constantly arise in this digital era.

Hubbard said he was excited for Howell to join the Office of Information Technology, citing his abundance of experience as an indicator of the strides the department will take in the next few years. Before joining the University of Oregon in 2017, Howell worked at North Carolina State University where he oversaw teams for their Internal Audit and Information Security Risk and Assurance departments.

Howell is excited to start the new position later this month, and is aware of the increasing importance of cybersecurity in a digital world.

“I am excited and honored to be joining the Georgia Tech community during this time of increasing dependence on information technology and unprecedented cyber threats,” Howell told to the Office of Information Technology.

“I also look forward to working with my team and stakeholders across the university to leverage cybersecurity as an enabler of excellence by developing a holistic and multidisciplinary approach to defending our digital assets,” he said.

Howell also joins the Institute during National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, which occurs every October.

As he begins his new position this month, he will begin to invest in the cybersecurity of Tech and continue to adapt to a constantly changing digital world filled with an increasing number of cybersecurity risks for both the Institute and the students that call it home, and the increasing size of Tech’s digital footprint makes the job of CIOS that much more important moving forward.

On Sept. 17, Tech students swarmed to Georgia Tech Night at Six Flags for a fun break from school work, but for some students the experience was much less than enjoyable.

With several rides open on the Night at Six Flags, students were able to go on as many coasters as they could during the six hours of the event.

Popular rides included Goliath, Dare Devil Dive Flying Machine (commonly referred to as Daredevil), and Superman, but some attractions at Six Flags experienced a few problems during the night.

Rollercoasters are always subject to intermittent breakdowns at any amusement park, and Six Flags Over Georgia is no exception.

Students may have noticed certain rides being out of order for some period of time, such as the Superman and Georgia Scorcher rides temporarily breaking down with many students in line.

Other breakdowns were more traumatizing for some students as the rides would halt with students in the cars.

“Once they were able to get Daredevil back up, the ride was running normally until it was our turn,” said Macy Khamsa, a guest attending the event from UGA.

Khamsa said that the Daredevil ride had broken down while she was waiting in line with her friends, but she waited until it was fixed and sat in the front seat with her friend. The ride started and they then realized that it was not going to be the fun experience they had expected.

“Right before we get to the top it stops,” said Raneem Rizvi, IE ’22, who sat in the front car with Khamsa.

“We had a few nervous chuckles [and] after about 30 seconds it begins to set in that we are actually stuck.”

The ride stopped while Khamsa and Rizvi were going up the first big hill of the ride before their car would be released and could fly through the rest of the tracks.

The unique feature of Daredevil is that the ascent up its first hill is completely vertical, so the riders stuck in the car were staring straight up at the sky.

“We are there for like 10-15 minutes before [the car] starts moving again and they make us do the ride,” Rizvi said, which surprised the two frightened riders. “We go through the ride and it even stops halfway and is going really slow,” Rizvi said, who added that the Six Flag workers only briefly apologized about the ordeal afterwards and wished them a good day.

While Rizvi and Khamsa were able to finish the ride, other students were forced to dismount their cars when their rollercoaster broke.

“We got to the top and it stops and starts making this weird, worrying sound coming from the motor,” said Daniel Hudson, BMED ’24, who got stuck at the top of the Blue Hawk rollercoaster.

“So we wait there and we kind of just settle in because we couldn’t do anything about it,” Hudson said, and after about 20 minutes Six Flags technicians ascended the staircase along the first Blue Hawk hill.

Hudson said that the technicians intended to check out the ride to see where the noise was coming from but soon realized it would not be a quick fix and instructed the riders to get out of the cars and climb back down to ground level.

Hudson and the other riders walked down the stairs and ended their night at Six Flags there, also a bit shaken.

While the night was enjoyable for most Tech students, problems with the rollercoasters plagued the event for some unfortunate riders.

The random nature of the breakdowns is not unheard of for amusement parks, but it is something to be aware of each time Tech hosts the annual event.