Entries in "Life at Case"
Saying Goodbye
Well, it's official now. I am no longer a student of Case Western Reserve University. Instead, I am an alumna, an aerospace engineer with honors. My dorm room is bare now: only a few items remain to be packed tomorrow morning. And then I'll drive away from Cleveland with no idea when I'll be back.
It's been a crazy weekend. On the one hand, it's very exciting to graduate and process and don a morterboard--but at the same time the prospect of saying goodbye to so many friends and faculty is depressing beyond belief. I've been cartwheeling between enthusiastic and maudlin since I handed over the last of my research to Dr. White on Thursday. Now that I have my diploma in hand and no more commencement events to look forward to, I have to say that we've taken a definite turn toward the maudlin.
So here's to four years that brought me friends, and knowledge, and challenges; to four years full of laughter, and stress, and learning; to four years in which I learned about who I am and about the person I'd like to become; to four lovely springs and four bitter winters of walking across an ever-changing campus; to the four years of Hundert's reign; and to the best four years of my life thus far.
Goodbye, Case--though perhaps only for now--and thank you.
Newtonian Apples
For once, reading the Case Daily was worthwhile:
"President Edward Hundert and Provost John Anderson will dedicate a very special apple tree on campus in ceremonies at 12:30 p.m. on Arbor Day - April 28 - on the Case Quad between Adelbert Hall and the Rockefeller Building. The tree, already planted, is a direct descendant of the one legendarily used by Sir Isaac Newton in stating his theory of gravity. The tree was donated to Case by Arden Bement, director of the National Science Foundation and former Case adjunct faculty member. Refreshments of apple cider and Fig Newtons will be served. For more information, contact eric.dicken@case.edu, or at 368-3189." #
I may have to check that out next Friday (if I'm not going to the Honors ceremony), both for the sheer geekiness of it and for the apple cidar.
(No, fresh, homemade apple cidar for nine months out of the year was not an influence on my decision to attend Cornell for graduate school. Really.)
Hundert's Resignation
So it seems that the vote of no-confidence ordeal has been bad enough that Hundert has tendered his resignation. I don't know what's going to happen now. I have my suspicions, but mostly I find myself breathing a sigh of relief over the fact that I'll be leaving Case after this May.
That's something that I never wanted to find myself saying.
More on Hundert and the Vote
As a follow-up to my entry yesterday, I found this Plain Dealer editorial on the vote of no-confidence issue to be both informative and well-argued. I think it may be the first piece I've seen that's substantially laid out the reasons for discontent in the university. Like the author, I feel like Case would benefit more from having Hundert at the helm with a few hard-earned lessons than trying to bring someone new in at this point.
Case and Hundert's Bad Press
Along with our unpleasant winter weather, the season of discontent seems to be upon the University. As a member of the Class of 2006, I received an e-mail from my class officers regarding a local news report that was supposedly about the financial problems at Case. Like others, I found the report absurd, and, like much of the local news, grossly misrepresentative of the real issues at hand. All the same, I was shocked to learn a few days later that Lawrence Krauss wants to get rid of Hundert.
Well, okay, maybe I shouldn't say that I'm shocked. I'm shocked that a vote of no-confidence has been put forward, but I'm not at all shocked that Krauss would be the one to do so. It sounds like just his sort of attention-grabbing ploy designed to capitalize on the recent resignation of Harvard's president as well as the poor press we got from WKYC. The campus seems to be relatively quiet about this prospect, with a few exceptions. First there was a message from Hundert in the Case Daily, followed by a message of support from the chair of the Board of Trustees there today. There was an excellent post by Aaron Shaffer in support of the President, and today, what should show up in my RSS inbox but this ridiculous photo on photos.case.edu.
What strikes me about all this doomsday talk is that there's little or no substance or reasoning with it. Just how is Hundert making us "the most failed university in the country"? Yes, we're having some financial problems, but, guess what: other universities are, too. Just because we, as a private institution, have not suffered the sorts of problems that many public universities have had the last several years does not mean that we're going to get off scotch free, especially given the growth we've seen as a university in recent years.
I've been here just as long as Hundert has, and, looking back on that time, I'm astounded by the amount of change I've seen. I won't claim that all of the changes have been for the best, but I firmly believe that Case has improved by leaps and bounds in the last several years. I have full confidence in President Hundert's ability to continue making Case a better place.
A New Semester, A Final Semester
There's something about blogging that makes me feel like I need to have a single, special purpose to each and every post. Back in my days on LiveJournal (Yes, Jeremy, LiveJournal!) I wrote much more frequently, and generally about whatever I'd been up to that day. Somehow having a larger audience prevents me from doing that--which is probably a good thing--but it also leaves me with some feeling of obligation for something meaningful and polished, which, given my life as it is now, doesn't come along as often as I feel it should. Basically, I'm too much of a perfectionist when it comes to such things.
My final semester here at Case has begun. It's difficult for me to think about, to be honest. It seems like freshman year was a long time ago and that, simultaneously, it wasn't nearly long enough ago. Mark and I observe to one another often now that we wish we could go back to being freshmen. As much as we appreciated that time, I don't think that we appreciated it enough.
The semester is promising to be an interesting one. I've limited myself to 12 credit hours, an all-time low for me. There is pressure from certain areas to take more, but I have serious doubts as to whether I could handle another course on top of all of work already cut out for me. So far I have two projects, my senior project (a continued pursuit of all that SOURCE work) and an as-yet-undetermined aerospace design project that will have something to do with exploring Titan, Saturn's largest moon. Beyond that, I'm taking Propulsion and Advanced Fluids II (Viscous, Incompressible Flow) and awaiting letters from the graduate schools to which I've applied.
And, of course, there's always my work with the Writing Crew. (I'm doing office hours as I type, in fact.)
Perhaps this semester's projects will lend themselves to some blogging. In the meantime, I hope everyone's spring semester is going well.
Burning Out
I've noticed a certain sense of complacence creeping into my work ethic when it comes to tests this semester. When it's time to batten down and study hard, the feeling of futility is hard to combat. It's as though my mind is saying, "Well, I guess that you can try to study this for another hour or two, but really, it's out of your hands." Try as I might, I can't find the motivation and concentration to get rid of that. I'd call it senioritis except I do still care about how I perform in class and the sort of shape that I get out of here in.
On the bright side, I was pleased with myself walking out of my Flight and Orbital final on Tuesday, so maybe I can get that to carry over into tomorrow morning's Signals and Systems final. After that I'll be done with every class except EMAE 453, which has a take-home exam so there's no point to studying.
I think I'm just burnt out, and I hope that three weeks of nothingness—and hopefully enough sleep to catch up on what I've lost this semester—will fix that.
Good luck with finals, everyone.
Good Grammar Costs Nothing
I suspect that it's a little sad when I get the urge to buy this shirt for some of my co-workers. What's more: I know that some of them would appreciate it, too.
Feeling Old
Working in the Wade Resource Center three nights a week makes me privy to some interesting questions and comments from students, but this one really caught my attention:
Student: I have this form that says I'm supposed to take it to Baker 104, but Baker is gone and there's a walkway there. So where should I take this?
Now, aside from the fact that the student, as a sophomore, should know where Undergraduate Studies is, the Office of Undergraduate Studies moved out of Baker two years ago, before this sophomore matriculated. It's things like this that make me feel old in the sense of having been at Case a long time, even though my time here still feels too short to be ending in six months' time.
Reverse Halloween-ing
Who knew that dressing up and randomly (and not so randomly) knocking on people's doors and giving them candy (or throwing it at them) would be so much fun? It's a pity that this is my last year at Case, otherwise, I would have to make a tradition out of this reverse trick-or-treating.
Many thanks to Brooke, Melanie, and the Clocktower Suite for offering us candy in return for our efforts!
Hundert's Fireside Chat
President Hundert had an informal "Fireside Chat" (oh the historical references!) in the Village yesterday, and, though I hadn't intended to go, I stayed for the entire time. Part of my motivation, I suppose, was going for old time's sake: I still think the SAGES seminar I had with him and Timothy Beal during my sophomore year was the best class I've ever had. Topics of discussion during the chat ranged far and wide; we hit everything from curriculum changes to how to bring students in the Village closer to our neighbors on E. 118th.
Of course there were moments where Hundert got a little too deeply into his role as foreteller of the future of the University--a stance that doesn't go too far with the 3rd and 4th years who were his audience. The concern in that crowd is really more of "What can be done now?" All the same, I think some excellent topics were brought up. I was especially intrigued by extending the services of alumni to current students for networking and interning opportunities.
In addition to being a sounding board for such ideas, students expressed their own gripes. When asked about life in the Village, the topic of our keyswipe cards immediately jumped out of several mouths at once. "I had no idea key cards were such an issue!" Hundert exclaimed. All that I could think was, "Well, you asked." Glenn Nichols attended, too, and was busily taking notes the entire time, so hopefully some of the student suggestions and reactions will be acted upon.
Hundert ended with a word of advice for those of us getting ready to head out into the world. With the background that most of us have had, he said, we are excellent at rationalizing decisions and creating complicated pro- and con- lists for every decision from what to eat for dinner to how we should write our essays. But there are two decisions in life where we should avoid that and go with our gut feelings: deciding what to do with our lives and choosing with whom we are going to do it. For those two major decisions, sixteen variable regressions aren't going to work. As I was sitting there with the pressure of the German decision sitting on my shoulders again, I realized that that was exactly what I needed to hear.
On Homecoming
Having had my eyeballs assaulted for more than a week now by chalkings screaming for various parties to be elected as Homecoming King or Queen, I have to say that it is extraordinarily tempting to vote, out of pure spite, for anyone whose name I've never seen before.
Seriously, where are these people finding the willing hordes to go out and spend all that time defacing sidewalks and sculptures? I know I'm not the only one with a horrific midterm schedule around here.
Apartment Living
Just when you think that you couldn't possibly have any more silly little arguments with the people with whom you live, you move into an apartment and all sorts of new silly arguments pop up!
- Arguments such as:
- whether it is permissible to use Kraft Parmesan in lasagna
- whether you wrap banana nut bread in foil or in plastic wrap
- whether the apartment door should be left open
- what constitutes "good beer" (or any alcohol, really)
- if it is dishonorable to buy pre-sliced cheese
And, finally, the ever important question: taco seasoning or chili powder?
Moment of Insight
Rarely is there anything as exciting as discovering the answer to a problem with which one has been wrestling. It's even better when that epiphany comes before the homework is due. Here's hoping that this is the start of an excellent day!
Redesigning the Space Shuttle's External Tank
Senior year is already shaping up to be crazy. I have a feeling that I'll be having a hard time keeping up with everything. Recounting all of that, however, is not the purpose of today's entry. I plan to use this entry to keep track of resources, both for myself and my classmates, that I've found for a particular class project.
Our first project in EMAE 360, formerly Engineering Design (now heaven only knows what), involves redesigning the external fuel tank of the space shuttle to prevent insulating foam from detaching and damaging the shuttle during launch. The project itself is an individual project, but I imagine that it will require the combined efforts of many students in order to track down much of the information that we are expected to have. My goal is to use this entry as a repository of relevent information for the project. If anyone has anything to contribute, please feel free to comment or send me an e-mail. I'll update this entry with whatever I get.
Continue reading "Redesigning the Space Shuttle's External Tank"
A Most Exciting Day
Today has been quite a busy and exciting day. I started out by presenting with others at the Second Year Institute this morning. Afterwards, I stuck around for the keynote address from Stephanie Tubbs-Jones, Cleveland's congressional representative. I'm very happy that I did, actually. Her address was enjoyable, and it was refreshing to hear from a politician I don't despise. (As she pointed out, it's only the politicians who misuse politics that anyone hears about in the media.) I didn't know that she was a Case alum. Next time I feel the need to write her a letter, I'll be sure to mention that I'm a Case student. Maybe that will help it get noticed, ha!
When I made it to the Quad, I found most of the biorobotics lab outside for robot filming. The last couple of days have been hectic around there because a crew from Discovery's Animal Planet has been filming between there and Dr. Ritzmann's lab. So I stopped to watch a few minutes of extraordinarily staged shots of Quinn and Ritzmann carrying Whegs II out of Bingham (a building neither works in) and talking. I won't be anywhere in the final show because I had to leave about the time the film crew showed up yesterday, but I'm still looking forward to seeing the final project. Ideally, I think I'd like to watch it with my mother. As a middle school science teacher, there might be something of interest to her there.
When I got home today, I had a couple of important tasks. I wrote a draft of my first letter of recommendation today. A professor asked me to write one for him as a part of a grant for which he's applying. That was a bit intimidating, to be honest, but I think I've got a strong start on it. I'll polish it some in the next few days.
The other important task hanging over my head is an investigation of costs and options for replacing some of the RoboMoth equipment I've been working on all summer with SOURCE. The graduate student who usually works on RoboMoth is back now, and, seeing the problems I faced all summer in person, I think he may be a little surprised at how far I got. A meeting with all of the important parties happened earlier this week, and I was charged with getting cost estimates for upgrading the system. It's a little scary for me, actually, because I know I'm going to end up being asked for a recommendation, and anything we do at this point is going to have a price tag in the 10^3 range at minimum.
And, finally, the last and possibly most exciting aspect of today is this: a friend that I've known for two-and-a-half years online is arriving this evening. Picking her up at the airport tonight will be our first real meeting, even though we've been pretty close since the end of my freshman year. This constitutes the first time that I've met one of my blogger friends that I haven't already known in "real life" as we say in the blogosphere. To say that I'm excited is an understatement. I just hope that we don't make too frightening a scene in the airport tonight!
2005 Common Summer Reading
I picked up a copy of Tracy Kidder's Mountains Beyond Mountains today and started in on it. As most people at Case know, this book was selected as the summer reading for this year's freshman class. I actually have a tradition going here: I've read the freshmen summer reading books every year. (For reference, that means I've read Hunger of Memory by Richard Rodriguez, Oliver Sacks's An Anthropologist on Mars, and Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi.) I'm about two-fifths of the way through Mountains Beyond Mountains so far, and the first thing I can say about it is that it reminds me of Tanzania. In fact, the title alone reminds me of the month I spent in East Africa. Kidder took his title from a Haitian saying: "Beyond mountains there are mountains."
When my classmates and I arrived in the village of Monduli in rural Tanzania, life there was foreign, to say the least. It took time for us to adjust to the attitude of the Tanzanian students with whom we lived. One morning early in my stay, I stumbled out of bed and out to the lavatory to relieve myself and put my contacts in. Though I'd only been gone a few minutes and everyone else had been in bed when I left, I returned to find one of the Tanzanian girls I roomed with making my bed. After biting back my initial (and thoroughly Western) response of What is she doing touching my stuff?!, my thoughts were invaded by another flag of Western cultural ideas, namely: What did she want in return for making my bed? My initial reaction was one shared by my classmates; we needed time to recognize the sincerity of the Tanzanians' actions. They didn't make our beds or offer to wash our clothes for us because they expected anything in return. They did these things because their culture was one that stressed the community over the individual. I'd gone to Tanzania to help teach those students, but, in the end, I think they did a lot more in terms of teaching me.
Three weeks later, as we said goodbye to the students, no one wanted to leave. We felt like we'd been in Tanzania for ages. If anyone wanted to see his/her family back in Germany, it was to show them all the wonderful people we'd met and tell them about the experiences we'd had. On the last day, I passed my journal around to the Tanzanian students so that they could write a few words there. Many left their thanks and best wishes for my future; some left addresses where they could be reached by mail; but the most popular response was a Tanzanian proverb: Mountains never meet but people do.
Mountains Beyond Mountains whispers that to me each time I turn a page.
A Bit of SAGES Silliness
Campus is starting to gear up for the school year again now that August is nearly upon us. In an attempt to prepare, I braved the humidity for a trip to the bookstore yesterday to check on prices for my engineering textbooks, and, as often happens when I get out of my lab, I ran into someone I know through SAGES. In this case, it was Arthur Evenchik, one of the supervisors of my tutoring work with the SAGES Peer Writing Crew (and I will be resurrecting that blog soon). E-mails and such for that job have already started flying and between planning for that blog and contributing to our wiki, SAGES is creeping back into my engineering-fortified brain.
In a fit of pure silliness this morning, I decided to check the Net's Googlisms for SAGES, and here are a few of the gems, (along with the commentary I couldn't resist including):
Continue reading "A Bit of SAGES Silliness"
Difficult Decisions
Life is full of tough decisions, and I've never relished the difficulty of weighing alternatives, gathering thoughts from others, and, in the end, trying to justify to myself what decision I'll make. Some of my decisions have turned out well in the past. Although I agonized over whether to attend the University of Michigan or Case, I've never once regretted my decision to come here. Last night I made another decision that was very difficult for me, one that may lead to me dropping my second degree.
Continue reading "Difficult Decisions"
Happy Fourth of July!
The 8th floor of Howe provides a spectacular view of downtown Cleveland on most days, particularly if it isn't too hazy. But tonight the view is especially nice because it's a direct view out my suite window to the big fireworks display downtown, along with a clear view of at least a dozen shows along the southwest horizen of Cleveland.
I may not always agree with my government and its policies, but I remain proud to be an American and to be fortunate enough to live in a country founded on certain truths and ideals.
Happy 4th of July, everyone!
Incoming Freshmen Update
Back in May I posted with concerns about how Case would handle the influx of freshmen. I had part of an answer tonight when an incoming freshman and his friends poked their heads through my suite door, asking if they could look around. It looks like Housing is filling at least Howe on Southside with freshmen. The next question, of course, is whether they intend to have Fribley open to feed said freshmen. Or, more accurately, whether feeding those freshmen has even been discussed.
Can't Resist The (IT) Meme
Sometimes there are memes worth following, and I think people have the right idea with the top IT services meme (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, etc.) So here are the aspects I love and hate about computing at Case:
Continue reading "Can't Resist The (IT) Meme"
Parade the Circle
Today was University Circle's annual Parade the Circle celebration, and Mark and I went down to watch the parade and explore a bit. The parade got off to a late start--in fact we were on the verge of giving up wandering through booths when it suddenly came--but we caught it. It was really nice to see such a colorful and family-friendly display. I also appreciated the lack of advertising of each group that participated. That made it seem much more like a small community event rather than an event in a big city.
A few photos and links to more pictures are included below.
Continue reading "Parade the Circle"
Blog Version 2.0
In the exciting world of coding, I've spent quite a few hours over the past week moving the backend of my blog around so that it's easier for me to maintain. I have discovered the joy that is Movable Type template modules and maintaining that sidebar of mine is no longer a chore! I also changed my color scheme around, added some information about myself to the main blog index and got rid of the navigation bar along the top. All of its functionality has been moved instead to the sidebar and highlighted with green. (You'd think I was MSN Search with a move like that!)
The dorm has emptied out, which makes life a good deal quieter. It also makes it much easier to cook in the dorm kitchen and take advantage of the tail-end of the 25 cent washing and drying cycle. The weather's actually been nice the last couple of days, so I've been out skating a couple of times, and yesterday Mark, Greg, Brian, and I went to the Great Lakes Science Center. There's nothing like going through science demonstrations and actually understanding all of them.
I finally remembered to take my camera with me to the lakefront, so I got some nice photos of Cleveland, including a panorama of the downtown skyline with which I'm quite pleased. Incidentally, there are also some pictures there of the aforementioned Robot V and the SOURCE Symposium poster I helped create. I'm still thrilled that we earned 2nd place in the Engineering and Computer Science category!
Headline: Freshmen Living in Steam Tunnels, Eating Squirrels
So, Case announced today that we have a record 1,152 students scheduled to come in as freshmen next fall, with increases in the number of out-of-state students, humanities majors (hello, iPod Shuffle issue!), etc. I'm happy to see Case getting some recognition. However, there are some huge issues here. We already have a housing shortage, and the dorms set aside for the incoming freshman don't have room enough for 1,152 people. If Housing decides to leave Southside--or part of Southside--open another year, they have to tackle the issue of feeding the people they stick down here since Fribley is scheduled to close. (The most amusing possibility, in my opinion, is Housing declaring that they will place all freshmen on Southside. Then they'll have managed to exactly turn the tables from what they did the year I entered.)
And then there's the issue of SAGES First Seminars. Since this will be the first year of full implementation, there's quite a bit of pressure to make things spectacular. The university has staked a lot on this program, and I fully believe the program is capable of all that they expect and then some. But only if the proper resources and training procedures are in place. 1,152 freshmen in First Seminar sections of 15, the pre-determined size of a First Seminar, would require 77 sections. The last time I spoke with anyone in SAGES, their intention was to have 55 First Seminars next fall. To me, it looks like they're going to be running around campus looking for more people to teach First Seminars. They have that option, or making a third of the instructors teach two sections of freshmen. (There is theoretically the option of having some students take the First Seminar in their second semester of freshmen year, but that destroys the whole purpose of the course, really.) Short of getting professors to teach multiple sections on top of their established workloads for the fall, SAGES has to face the prospect of having professors with little--or worse, no--training teaching First Seminars. I can tell you now that that is a recipe for disaster.
Our administration here at Case have some great visions, I admit, but if Case can't deliver what it's promised--especially if it can't manage something as basic as room and board--for all these people whose attention they've managed to grab, the university is going to lose what credibility it has. No branding campaign will make up for, "Hey, isn't that the college that had freshmen camping in tents for a couple months because they didn't have enough housing?"