A Brief Overview: Title IX

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Title IX is a phrase each of us has heard at some point during our time at Olin, whether through conversation or back during orientation. However, we also know that the process and what Title IX actually is can be hard to digest. Here, the PA’s attempt to break it down.

What is Title IX?

According to the U.S. Department of Education, Title IX states “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” The discrimination includes, but are not limited to: sex-based harassment, discrimination, and sexual violence. Other concerns, including hazing, should be reported to the Interim Associate Vice Provost, Marc Johnson.

What do I do if I wish to report something?

Great question! There are two paths, the first step is often submitting a Title IX report which can lead into filing a formal complaint. We outline both, and it is important to note that these can be submitted anonymously. If you decide to do so, your report stays on file and may aid Title IX in identifying patterns in future related incidents.

You can submit a report through Olin’s Title IX reporting portal, EthicsPoint to have the option to remain anonymous, or contact the Title IX Office, currently Erin Clark and Guilene Prepetit. PA’s and R2’s can help you find resources, complete a reporting form, and explore available support options.

Filing a Title IX Report

A report is when a Title IX Coordinator is informed indirectly, directly, or anonymously of a potential Title IX related concern. They respond with information about resources, options, and provide opportunities to meet. This allows for a discussion of supportive measures and next steps like for housing and academic support. Making a report does not automatically start an investigation. Your preferences matter, although the College may sometimes need to act to address safety concerns or legal obligations. 

Filing a Formal Complaint

A formal complaint can be a next step or sometimes a starting place, depending on the situation. It is the process for initiating an investigation into whether a Title IX policy violation occurred. Olin’s full policy can be found here and this is the path to any form of disciplinary outcome. Reports can be made through EthicsPoint or you can choose to email Olin’s Title IX coordinator asking for a meeting, sharing information, or simply to ask questions including hypotheticals. 

Once you meet with the Title IX office an investigation can be started. At this point the respondent (other party) is notified and an investigator is assigned. An investigator is not someone on campus, it can be another school’s coordinator or another neutral party. The investigator does the “fact-finding” and is neutral, and a decision maker determines whether someone violated Olin’s policies and appropriate disciplinary measures.

Who are the mandatory reporters?

Mandatory Reporters are Olin employees who are required to share information about sex discrimination or sexual or interpersonal misconduct with the College’s Title IX Office no matter how or who they hear it from. 

Current Mandatory Reporters: R. May Lee, Anastasia Crosswhite, Linda Canavan, Shayla Armand, Rick Osterberg, Yoi Tanaka, Sam Michalka, Chris Lee, Jennifer Edmonds, & Marc Johnson. 

What and who are the Confidential Resource Providers?

A Confidential Resource Provider (CRP) cannot report what you tell them so long as you are safe. This makes them a resource if you are unsure about reporting or talking to Title IX.

Current CRPs: Jeanne Haley and Dr. Jonathan Adler, or other counselors at Olin’s Counseling Center, but only during a counseling appointment. 

Supporting Our Community

Navigating Title IX can feel overwhelming, but you do not have to do it alone. Peer Advocates are here to listen, answer questions, and help you understand your options. Whether you wish to report something or just want to talk with someone.

Unjaded: I Want to Keep Reimagining Olin

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TL;DR: If you had a magic wand, what would you change about Olin?

As a first year, I used to hear the word ‘jaded’ being thrown around when referring to the seniors. I thought, “I’m never going to let myself become jaded. I’ll keep caring… keep aspiring for change”.

Fast forward to the beginning of my senior year, and I was feeling pretty… ‘jaded’. Probably because I’ve started thinking about life after Olin, or because I’ve done all the fun things to do in Needham, or maybe I miss Olin traditions that have been lost to the force of change.

If you haven’t heard, Ertug has started a Debate/Discussion Club. As someone who grew up in an argumentative household, I really look forward to these Wednesday lunches. This week, the topic was: “What’s the purpose of Olin?”

As we spoke about Olin’s core principles and goals, I realized the Olin I’ve grown to know is different from the Olin I thought I was deciding to attend in 2023. I thought Olin would empower me to practice sustainability through engineering. At the debate, I heard similar feelings of Olin not meeting people’s expectations.

Whether or not you share this resentment about sustainability with me, I’m confident that you were also disappointed by something you thought Olin was. Maybe it was a more structured E:Bio degree, maybe it was more whimsical student clubs, maybe it was more spontaneous parties. I’m sure you can think of something, big or small.

Luckily for us, Olin uniquely was designed by students, and according to the 2026-27 Catalog, “Olin’s collaborative culture actively involves its students as partners in the creation and ongoing development of the curriculum.” Which brings me to the actual point of this writing: How to realize this power we have as students. Well, from what I understand, you can schedule a meeting with May herself. But if you’re like me, and don’t have time to follow-through on a long-term project by yourself, then collaborating with others who have similar qualms might be a solution.

So here is a simple framework for the sake of my next point:

  1. REIMAGINE: Conceptualizing New Systems 
  2. REFORM: Working Within the Current System 
  3. RESIST: Working On the Current System 
  4. RECREATE: Generating New Systems

Source: “The Theory of Transformation” by Spirit in Action

According to this framework, the first step to changemaking is reimagining. I think many of us do this already. In the dining hall, in classes, on the great lawn, we talk about what we wish Olin was like. Next comes reforming, resisting, and recreating, which I think Olin has started to teach us through its design classes like CD. We’re equipped and capable of actualizing the change we want to see.

I’m hoping that those of us with images of what Olin can be, can come together to share our thoughts with each other. To do this, I’m planning to schedule a conversation in the upcoming weeks to discuss our visions. Then, with a set of shared goals, we can start to reform, resist, and recreate. Until then, keep reimagining.

Rare Friendslop Game Pulls

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I am here to recommend some friendslop games. In case you’re wondering what friendslop is, it’s a type of video game usually made by independent developers (usually just one person) that are silly and full of multiplayer chaos. If you’d like to know my credentials, I personally love video games and am an avid watcher of the popular Canadian streamer Northernlion (known for being bad at video games, constantly spouting intellectual-pilled banter, and being bald). He has been playing lots of friendslop games with his friends lately, and I have developed opinions on his various undertakings.

All in all, my hope is to put some games on your radar that hopefully you haven’t heard of!

Super Battle Golf ($12.99)

This is definitely my strongest recommendation. It’s basically regular golf! Except you can shoot, run over, stomp on, shoot, freeze, vaporize, distract, give a good swing at, shoot, send an orbital blast at, summon a thunderstorm over, or hit a landmine at your friends (I probably forgot a few options here). It’s a miracle anyone ever sinks the ball in high-player-count lobbies, and that’s what makes the game so wonderful. Tee up alongside up to 7 friends and try to hit the shot of your lifetime while being shot. If you can learn to masterfully navigate the indubitable chaos this game will plunge you into, you’ll probably achieve inner peace. Good luck!

Shift at Midnight ($9.99, currently $8.99)

Have you ever wanted to take care of a gas convenience store (think 7/11) with your friends by keeping the shelves stocked, cleaning up your customers’ messes in (and out) of the bathroom, and blast (pew pew) doppelgangers who aren’t who they say they are? Shift at Midnight offers all of this for just $10. It mixes Papers, Please’s attention to detail with the chaos of Overcooked and a bit of horror (but it’s not really that scary, moreso comedic) into a truly entertaining experience worth some of your time this spooky season. Did I mention the machine where you can gamble for silly hats in the back while your friends are getting chased by the entity? Just make sure you save some money for the weapon arsenal in the garage, and also for your cats’ medicine. Play this game (ideally unspoiled) and you and up to two friends can have one of the midnights of all time :)

Lego Party ($39.99)

Lego Party is like Mario Party, but rebranded and with new minigames that I can say are innovative, exciting, and indubitably lego-esque. It is cheaper than Mario Party (albeit somewhat smaller and with less mini games), but rounds go faster, randomness is reduced to allow for a bit more skill expression while maintaining the chaos in minigames, and you can vote for what the bonus star (brick) category is at the end instead of them being randomly assigned. Will one of your three friends inevitably fall behind because you’re stealing their bricks over and over? Yes. Will they get upset? That might depend on how close you are. Regardless, get ready to battle for those bricks against up to three friends while the announcers crack jokes about anything and everything that happens.

Big Walk ($19.99)

Big Walk is a curious one. You explore a large world as a style of bird people with in game proximity chat. There is almost no story. Instead, the world is full of puzzles that get increasingly more difficult and creative as you work through them. Get a bunch of friends (and I mean it, like around 8-10 is probably best even though it suits 2-12) and enjoy a very well crafted environment and even better puzzles. Oh, and definitely don’t spoil yourself on what you’re supposed to do, because then you ruin the escape room vibes of the game. Happy walkin’!

Okay, that’s all from me! Knowing that you’ve read all the way through, I’m filled with determination and I hope you are as well. Do let me know if you enjoyed this style of article and whether or not you’d like to hear some more about video games :)

Cheers,

ELDN

Our Thoughts on Shoes and Feet

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Our Thoughts on Shoes and Feet

In this article, we would like to discuss an important topic: SHOES. More specifically, why are we always wearing them?

Olin has somehow inherited a broader societal assumption that shoes must be on in public—that the dogs can’t breathe? BUT WHY?

 Shoes are tools—perhaps even (occasionally) fashionable ones. They protect our feet from sharp, hot, cold, and gross stuff, as well as the ungodly amount of salt that Massachusetts dumps onto the ground in the winter. But when none of those are present, the shoe’s mission has been completed, and they should be laid to rest. 

Do you put shoes on at home when you eat dinner? Why are we expected to wear shoes in the dining hall? 

Do you put shoes on when you go to your room to study? Why are we expected to wear shoes in the library?

To fully understand our position, it must be contextualized. It is common knowledge that Olin is a very small institution; indeed, it is one of the smallest institutes of higher education in the country.  We have 400 people who live, eat, study, build shit, procrastinate, crash out, and somehow all know exactly who you mean when you say “that one person from the class of ‘27”. At this point, it’s less a college than one giant, slightly dysfunctional house.

So why are we applying the same social rules here in our home that we would in a random public building? Let’s break down our NEW, IMPROVED classification system.

As a preface, we must note that SMELL and SAFETY do trump this entire article. Odor is a hygiene problem, not a footwear problem. Either keep the shoes on or (gasp!) take a shower. On the topic of safety… Shop? Shoes. Lab? Shoes. Rooftop climbing? Shoes. This is a pro-feet-and-toes article. We would like you to keep all of them. 

Now, onto our system. 

First, we should discuss the professional/academic settings: put the dogs away [ish].In the MAC, professor’s offices, formal meetings, etc., wear shoes. But in the classroom sitting at your desk? Eh. your call. 

There are some considerations with this rule. Showing up barefoot to office hours has a certain energy that some of us may already be achieving. Your professor taking their shoes off halfway through class? It has happened before. Still, we would argue that while there are relationships where that level of comfort is totally normal, “person currently grading my capstone” probably does not need to see the dogs. 

On the topic of mixed use spaces: read the room. The library, dining hall, team rooms, academic lounges, and other communal spaces are where things get interesting. During the day, when they are full of professors, staff, and visitors, maybe we can act professional and wear shoes.

But at 1:37 a.m, when six students are sprawled across the library doing homework, someone is eating Easy Mac, two people are asleep, and the only thing keeping you conscious is the knowledge that your assignment was technically due yesterday… Whose quality of life is being improved by your shoes?

This is the family living room. Get comfortable. Kick them off. Let those puppies breathe. Shoelessness should not automatically be treated as weird just because society decided at some point that feet must be contained whenever another human being is within visual range.

Finally, the dorms: FREE THE FEET. RELEASE THE DAWGS. This is our home. Literally. If we can walk through the hallways in PJs carrying laundry at 2AM, or sit on the floor in the dorm lounge eating something horrifying out of a microwave while having a minor existential crisis, we think we’ve moved past the formality of mandatory footwear.

Dorms are our living area of our family home. Shoes are optional. Comfort is the point.

Honestly, wearing shoes in a lounge is weirder.

FREE THE DAWGS!!!

The Evil Gerri (A Fairy Tale)

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Once upon a time, there was an ordinary guy named Jerry, who lived in a fancy house in a small town, in the middle of a forest. Life was great for Jerry, he made a decent wage from his job as a weapons designer for Flockneed Guardin’, enough to support his comfortable lifestyle in addition to letting him save up quite the stockpile of gold coins. But one day, when Jerry was in the middle of perfecting his new invention: Spray Pepper, a pigeon landed on his window sill; It had a tiny scroll fastened to its leg. Curious, Jerry unfurled the scroll, and began to read: 

To the citizen reading this,

You have been suspected of committing the crime of Pickpocketing. Upon receiving this message, you will be arrested, with punishment of 1 year in the dungeons. 

*If you believe you are innocent of this crime, give this pigeon 1 Gold Coin, 

and we will cancel the arrest and punishment.

King Gregory

Jerry was undoubtedly shocked at this development; he had never pickpocketed anyone, never so much as littered. He had the cleanest reputation in town! And now this! How could he be suspected of such a terrible crime? And so, Jerry placed a gold coin into the pigeon’s beak. A small price to pay to uphold his reputation, what with his 6 big bags of gold coins, it hadn’t made a dent.

This was not the last time Jerry would hear from this ‘King Gregory’, far from it actually. Over the course of about half a year or so, Jerry received 5,999 more messages from this man, in the very same format: You’re suspected of Littering, Arson, Murder, or Treason, but if you give the pigeon 1 Gold Coin, you’ll be perfectly fine. “This is some bullshit,” Jerry thought to himself, as he placed the very last one of his gold coins into the beak of a pigeon. “Well now I’m broke, time to go sell a kidney,” he thinks. And so he goes to visit his old friend Bobiathan, who he remembered used to run a surgery business a few years back before he’d been sent to the dungeons, but he got released about 6 months ago, so Jerry thought he could get him to buy a kidney. When he’d arrived at Bobiathan’s hovel, Jerry asked to sell a kidney. But Bobiathan said he had a daily special where if you sell both kidneys for the price of 1, he’d throw in 4 extra legs for free. So of course Jerry was like “Hell yeah!” and let Bobiathan perform the surgery. When Jerry awoke, he had 6 legs, 0 kidneys, and Bobiathan handed him a sack of gold coins, which Jerry, feeling a sudden, uncontrollable urge of hunger, devoured in mere seconds. When Jerry finally came to his senses, he was back at home, feeling normal again, and he felt all was well.

Once upon another time, about a week later, there was a wealthy merchant named Gregory, who just moved into a fancy house in a small town, in the middle of a forest. While carrying his 6 bags of gold coins, which he’d earned through his very lucrative business, into his house, his pet pigeon perched on his shoulder, he met his new neighbor, who introduced himself, “Hi neighbor! I’m Jerry. Wow, that’s a lot of gold coins you have, I had that many once. Anyway, you’d better keep an eye on your gold coins, because i’ve been hearing rumors around town that there’s this evil creature going around town and eating peoples’ gold coins, they call it the Evil Gerri, cute pet pigeon by the way”. But Gregory just laughed it off, thinking Jerry surely must be joking, and stored his gold coins in his home. 

This went on for about a week, with Jerry warning Gregory about the Evil Gerri every single morning, before Gregory finally saw the Evil Gerri with his own eyes on an ordinary Tuesday afternoon. It was a terrible creature, sprinting toward him on all 6 of its legs, with its gaping maw hanging wide open as it screamed a terrible sound that rattled Gregory’s nerves. The Evil Gerri ran right up to his face, and stopped for a moment, its monstrous stare lingering on the now cowering Gregory for a moment, before it swung out its legs and tripped Gregory. Laying on the ground, Gregory watched it in paralysing horror as the Evil Gerri crawled right over him and into his door, and then guzzled down 2 bags of Gregory’s gold coins before running back out and disappearing into the forest. Needless to say, Gregory was still a bit shaken up the next day, so knowing Jerry works for Flockneed Guardin’, he asked him for a weapon. Jerry happily handed him the state of the art monster deterrent: “Spray Pepper 2000” which Jerry assured him was some powerful stuff, as it had taken him 2000 iterations to get the formula just right. Gregory thanked Jerry for all the help and for warning him about the Evil Gerri before going to bed for the night, with the Spray Pepper 2000 clutched in his arms as he slept. 

Then suddenly in the middle of the night, Gregory awoke to the sound of footsteps, not just one set, but 3 sets of footsteps, in his home. So naturally, Gregory got out of bed to say hello, as they were probably just his 3 best friends, Drarrie, Jary, and Gairee paying him a surprise visit at 3:06am, just like old times. So he walked out into his dining room, but where he had expected to see Drarrie, Jary, and Gairee, his gaze was met with that of the horrible, terrible, despicable, Evil Gerri. He quickly fumbled to arm the Spray Pepper 2000, and pointed it right at the Evil Gerri’s face and jarringly open mouth. But he was too slow, and the Evil Gerri snatched the Spray Pepper 2000, and to Gregory’s shock, sprayed the entire thing directly into the Evil Gerri’s own mouth without even the slightest flinch. Gregory, frozen after that act of pure intimidation from the Evil Gerri, could only stand there helpless, as he watched the Evil Gerri slurp down two more bags of his gold coins. The Evil Gerri, upon finishing those two bags, turns to speak to Gregory as it’s leaving, “You want to know why I eat gold coins, don’t you?” it said in a sickly, sinister voice, “I’ll only tell once I get the last of my gold tomorrow,” it said ominously, as it scuttled off into the forest. 

The next day, Gregory was fully on alert, and he wanted to be ready for when the Evil Gerri returns. So, naturally, he, while clutching his last 2 bags of gold coins to his chest for safety, went to consult with his neighbor Jerry for weapon contracting advice, with his pet pigeon still perched on his shoulder. Jerry looked especially happy today, and looked a little less mentally and physically crushed by the looming dread of his overwhelming poverty after having been scammed out of his life savings of 6000 gold coins, which was a topic Jerry would like to regularly fit in as part of his everyday greetings. “So, Jerry, do you have any advice on how i can deal with this Evil Gerri?”

“What’s the pigeon’s name?”

“What, why?”

“Tell me its name.”

“Geez, okay, her name is Jerry.”

“Spelled J-E-R-R-Y?”

“Yea—”

“There can only be one!” Jerry screeched, as he began to do jumping jacks, and Gregory watched in terror as all six legs emerged from under Jerry’s robes, and his jaw unhinged to reveal his terrible 10 rows of jagged teeth. “I–It’s you! You’ve been the Evil Gerri all along!”

“You’re right, It was me Gregory, or should I call you King Gregory, but wait, you never were a king were you?”

“What? How do you know that name? That’s the name I used for my Medieval Pigeon Call Center™!”

“I always knew it was you scamming me! I’d recognize that ugly ass pigeon anywhere, especially after the 6000 times it landed on my windowsill in the last six months!” It reaches out to grab the Jerry (the pigeon).

“Nooooo! Leave Jerry alone! It’s not our fault, I didn’t mean to scam you 6000 times!”

“You know how many times this stupid pigeon would show up at my house? 34 times a day! 34 fucking times! And never again!” the Evil Gerri squeezes Jerry tight, and forces her down Gregory’s mouth, held open by two of the Evil Gerri’s legs, and forces him to chew.

Gregory’s screams of disgust, terror, and betrayal, were never heard. Drowned out by the pigeon, Jerry, that he died choking on, and by the sound of the Evil Gerri, chomping away at his last 2 bags of gold coins. The End.

Gratitude

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This morning, I got a large latte at Caffè Nero. Last night, several politicians I like got elected. Right now, I am sitting in my room with a warm breeze flowing in through the window. In other words, I am feeling grateful. There are a couple things at Olin that have been bringing joy into my life recently, and I wanted to take this chance to express them. 

First on my mind is the new flowering lawn in the loop between the dorms. This new space feels so different from the traditional lawns covering campus and the towns around us. Vibrant, green, and untouched by the obnoxious whine of lawnmowers and leafblowers, I can’t help but smile when I walk past. I am so thankful for all who contributed to bringing it to life. 

Second is the sun. I love the feeling of waking up with the sun shining through the window onto my face. Equally as enjoyable are sunsets from the memorial lounge balcony, turning the sky soft pinks and fiery oranges. As the days get shorter and eventually colder, these beautiful displays of color help break up monotonous hours of work for a moment of amazement and warmth. 

Third is The Dump. Like many others here, I like to make things, and nothing inspires my making as much as going to The Dump. Many of our courses here use a lot of resources and produce abundant waste, which has always been hard for me to grapple with. It brings me a lot of hope that reusing the waste of others is such a ubiquitous part of Olin’s culture.

While I often find myself being a critic of Olin, I think it is equally important to express gratitude for the things that we love about it. It is these things that hold our community together and will help us grow to be better.

How to plan an event

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Planning sucks. Events don’t. At Olin, it’s remarkably easy to do things, but also remarkably hard to make them happen. We know this from experience, so we’ve collected an encyclopedia of advice. Now, from the two guys on campus that talk the loudest and think the least, here’s what we’ve learned from our mistakes. And if your attention span is really that cooked, we’ve bolded the best tips.

POINT 1: Plan in advance. Easier said than done, we know, but really, the more time you give yourself, the less stress you’ll have. Unless you procrastinate it all until the last night anyway (not that we’d know anything about that, of course). 

Get the things you need, and plan on having them for the time leading up to your event. If it’s food, figure out what fridge(s) it’s going into. Don’t forget the plates, utensils and napkins. For that matter, any event should have a detailed budget—just make a simple spreadsheet with everything you need to buy, how much it costs, and where you’re getting it. You might be getting your food from Costco , your decorations from Amazon, and your prizes from Lovehoney. You have to keep track of it all, stay within budget, and make sure you don’t forget anything when you go shopping (which is the worst).

But you can’t just have the things. You need the people there to enjoy them. That is why you’re throwing an event, isn’t it? Surely, it’s not to embezzle school funds… Get the event in front of your audience. In multiple forms. Send an email. Attach an iCal (but not like Lindy Hop did…). Make a poster. Make lots of posters. Bump the email. Get word of mouth going. Be annoyingly present. And present yourself early. If it’s a big event, you might want your poster and email out as much as a month before the big day, an RSVP form 2 weeks beforehand, and bumps at one week and the three days before. (Try not to be too annoying… Remember you can always get a friend to bump your email, so you don’t look like the bad guy.) And if you can, don’t plan over the big clubs. Talk to your local Formula, BAJA, FWOP, and other reps. 

And finally, plan, plan, plan. At the end of the day, the average attendee might will not know the difference between a well-planned and poorly-planned event, but the burden on you will be less if it is planned out well. Here’s an attempted summary of tips: Set up always takes longer than you expect. Really. Move your stuff early. Know where it’s going before, during, and after the event. Does your space have enough tables? What are you doing about leftovers? That sort of thing. If you’re working with vendors outside of Olin or catering (which must be done through Rebecca’s), these people are going to need a plan well in advance. Call them (so they can’t ignore you), and do it early. Same as vendors, people on campus will be willing to help, but they need advance. You can’t just ask someone to help with no notice and expect them to be able to.

POINT 2: With that said, you should still ask many of your friends, if not all of them, for help (just with plenty of advance notice). The amount of help you can source from any single person is not the most important factor to consider. Rather, it’s the fact that you should be begging so many people that surely some of them will feel bad enough to help out. So, shower your friends with  event iCals and make your shift spreadsheets, because you are going to need them. Make sure to stress to them the importance of this event to both you and the community, guilt trip, peer pressure, learn the Voice from the Bene Gesserit sisters, and use whatever that’s at your disposal to make sure your friends are as committed to this event as you are, because, again, you are going to need them when time comes. 

Once you’ve secured a good batch of samaritans to perform your deeds, it’s time to put your Project Manager hat on. Unfortunately, planning an event is not unlike managing a complex project. Divide up your tasks, and don’t be afraid to delegate to people—this is presumably what you wore out your knee pads for. And once you have them in your grasp, be sure to check in with them on their progress periodically, and never let an important part of the event hinge on one single person, unless you truly, truly trust them.

Some common themes of help include finding a friend who has a car (book them early), or one who commands the ever elusive, yet highly coveted Costco membership (though the school can now Instacart from Costco—email Nichole). And sometimes, they’re just some plain old muscles that will help you move event supplies, clean up, and be there to support. The cleaning crew is important, because you’re going to be tired from setting up and running the actual thing. You will NOT want to clean up. Make sure you get help with this because no one else is going to want to do the dirty work unless you look them in the eye and ask them as they consider how saying no would make your face contort into a facade of indifference masking your disappointment.

POINT 3: Coming back to the Olin-ness of it all, it is (relatively) easy to do stuff on campus! But, there’s a lot of idiosyncrasies about our campus that are also easy to forget, especially since quite a few things have changed in the last few years. We like to think about it in terms of spaces, bureaucracy, and students.
As for spaces, it is crucial that, for any space you would like to use, you reserve the space and check in with the people that run that space. Sometimes, it’s just inviting the space via iCal, but other times, you should do a little more due diligence. If it’s the library, email the librarians. The dining hall? Talk to the kitchen staff and facilities. Above all, reach out to the people in charge of the spaces so you can stay in good standing with them for your four years here. Some other quick tips: Don’t use the workroom sink for dishes—there’s a nice little kitchenette on the first floor of Milas Hall for you to use! (Or for your cleanup crew, which I’m sure you’ve so diligently assembled after reading the prior tips.) Also, there are unimaginable wonders closeted on this campus. Wait. There are unimaginable wonders in the closets on campus. There’s the SAC closet, the clubs closet, the crafts closet, the closet full of large scale cooking supplies. The list goes on. Like I said, unimaginable wonders await. Ask the SAC representatives if they have speakers, lighting, poker sets, a chocolate fountain, or five unopened clothing irons for you to use. (Hint: they have all of this and more!) Ask around, and you’ll find there is a never ending supply of random crap on this campus. And as for asking, luckily, everyone at this school really is just an email away.

Those people just an email away? That’s your ticket. They hold the red tape. Get ready to limbo. The tips here don’t have much of a narrative, unfortunately, so this paragraph is a little bit of a word vomit. Getting a p-card should have at least a day in advance, and requested online purchases need two weeks to get bought, not even to mention waiting for shipping. Purchases over 1000 dollars need to be approved by the Dean of Students. (In writing, that is… having a dean of students to approve them is another thing… for now, check in with Ciara.) A single purchase that large may very likely have a contract associated. Contracts need at least two weeks notice to the Dean of Students. Their recommendation on the vendor side is to start getting the contract at least 1, if not 3 months in advance. It all comes back to planning well and planning early. Some other advance you have to give: party forms should be submitted at least a week prior to the event. You can get things from facilities (tables, chairs, desks, moving things, …), but in our experience, you should give them at least two weeks notice, and you should be hyperspecific in your request. Generally, when it comes to vendors, admin, or any other sort of bureaucracy, you should just plan on everything taking longer than you expect. 

That being said, these people support you each and every day in ways you don’t even know. Be kind, respectful, and flexible—facilities is helping you, not the other way around. Say good morning, hold the door for them, and offer them extra food/drink if you have some. It helps to be on good terms with the people doing you a favor. And on the flexibility side, they’ve been doing this longer than you have and might know something you don’t—instead of statements like “I need you to do this very specific thing,” it can be helpful to allow them to do it how they feel is right: “Hey, would it be okay to do this?” or “I just need XYZ to happen, do whatever is the easiest!” Having good email etiquette can go a long way. And speaking of which, emails are your friend!! Get things in writing. Genuinely. If facilities agreed to something, you want a record of it. If admin agreed to something, you want a record of it. If a vendor agreed to something, you want a record of it. Email them early, and keep the receipts. And one last thing on emails: Send summary emails. I know it’s annoying and you could just forward the whole email chain, but think about how lazy you are. That laziness is probably typical of any other person on Olin campus, including the full grown adults that work here. If you figure something out that seems important, it can be helpful to send a summary email to everyone involved that says everything in one place to get everyone on the same page.

We know that’s a lot. Luckily, there are people to help you. If you’re doing this through a club, check in with your club advisor! (The default club advisor is Ciara, but you may have a different one.) If you’re not, check in with Ciara or Nichole (the StAR assistants). We are lucky to have these people that want us to have a good time. And if all else fails, you always have our lovely student body to help you out. 

That same lovely student body is the one you’re planning for, too. So figure them out, and plan around them. Don’t freak out when no one shows up to your event right away. Plan on them being a little bit late. It’s just Olin nature. And if you want people to show up a little quicker, say the words “free food.” Trust me. At Olin, food sells, not sex. Same with music (especially live music).. Make a playlist, get a band, hire a DJ—the world is your oyster. Remember that SAC has speakers. (and remember that you should give them notice if you want them…) If all that fails, DM Roger on Instagram, and you can get Babson’s cutest public safety officers at your event. (No, really. It’s that easy.)

POINT 4: Planning an event is never easy, even less so at a school so damn small. After washing over you with this deluge of information—though hopefully not so much that you’ve decided to be done with this piece once and for all—we want to tell you that it will always be alright. 

Once you’ve advertised a time and a place for your event (we sure hope you remembered to put those on your poster…), you’ve irrevocably set in stone something larger than you. This event is happening no matter what now, so find peace in the finitude. Stop stressing over your event. It won’t be pretty. There will be plenty of times when you stare into either the bottomless void or distant sky and wonder why on God’s green earth you would ever choose to throw yourself into this whirlpool of mess. But the event is happening now. You’ve solicited help. That one friend who said he was busy will somehow find himself by your side. And once everything has left the bounds of your human capabilities, accept the outcome in tranquility, and know that you aren’t alone.

At the end of the day, if you commit to host something, you’ve joined a small cadre of Oliners who have enough drive and care to do anything for the community. Oliners enjoy any and all occasions to hang out with each other, and you help make it happen. The inseverable pact we signed as we became a part of Olin is ultimately what matters. You, as an event host, are providing yarn for Oliners to spin ourselves in a tighter web. Enjoy the ride. 

On Taking the LOA

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Mantas, beach sunsets, and random side-quests are what anyone who opened my insta story would’ve seen last year. Many friends and peers have confused my time away traveling with a study abroad, but alas it was a LOA (Leave of Absence). I’ve been back on campus since last spring, and I am so incredibly happy to be back. Now I want to reflect on my experience and offer pieces of advice from my adventure.

I learned that you’re allowed to step away from Olin for a semester, and what you do doesn’t have to be career or academic focused. Have you ever wanted to try something random? Wanted to spend a few months doing something new? Or just needed to get away from engineering for a little bit? Those are all valid reasons to take an LOA – and the beauty of it is that Olin is still waiting for you when you come back. (Small side-note: if it’s more than a semester it’s considered a withdrawal.)

Why did I do it? Two reasons: 1.) I needed a break from Olin. While I’ve never regretted coming here, I knew that being awaythat being away would allow me to come back a lot happier. 2.) I’ve always wanted to solo travel and dive a lot, and that is exactly what I did. I primarily traveled around Indonesia, Vietnam, and Singapore, but also visited Hong Kong and Malaysia.

How well was this planned? Well, I decided on my LOA in the middle of sophomore fall, which was early, but the plans themselves were very loose. I locked in my divemaster (professional scuba certification that allows you to lead certified divers and work in the industry) for a specific timeframe, but everything afterwards was up to the wind. This truthfully was a little scary, however that flexibility is how I spent two weeks at a resort for free, hitched a ride on a liveaboard boat, met fellow Germans that I stuck with for a few days, and many other little adventures. My only real anchor was my flight home on December 24th and that flexibility was incredibly freeing.

We are all chasing insane timelines and employability – I am guilty of it too – and yet, taking a break may actually be helpful. I spent two months in Indonesia completing my divemaster, falling asleep to the sound of the ocean, learning to drive a moped on the wrong side of the road, sharing meals with strangers, getting small second degree burns (yes, really and yes, it was a stupid reason), and tearing up when Country Roads played. Stepping back didn’t set me behind; it reconnected me with my curiosity.

We all chose Olin – a nontraditional school where we chart our own paths. Once here, you don’t have to stop choosing that nontraditional path. We are all well-rounded people with interests beyond engineering, and I encourage you to keep exploring them.

An LOA is not an exit; it is a temporary pause. This article is not to encourage you to take one, but to remind you of a non-traditional path.of a non-traditional path. You can learn to farm, or hike the PCT, or travel, or pursue some other side-quest or or or or… the options are endless. There are financial and logistical hurdles of taking an LOA – it is not a path everyone can take without careful planning. But if it’s something you yearn for, check in with campus resources early to see what’s possible for you and your situation. I’m also always happy to talk about my experience :)

Make the Project Worth the Portfolio

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As part of a class on portfolios and learning, I looked into Hampshire College, which, before its recent closure, built its educational model around student-directed learning, reflection, and portfolios. While not perfect, they’re a great lesson on alternative assessment methods.

If Olin were to take inspiration from Hampshire, I would use their learning model as a set of learnings about how portfolios can support student ownership, reflection, and demonstration of learning, while still building something uniquely Olin.

Our project-based curriculum creates a strong foundation for portfolios. Projects give students a meaningful problem to encourage learning, while the portfolio demonstrates their competency.

We already use portfolios to showcase our work for applications, but class projects often don’t make the cut. Many students instead favor large-scale personal work and project teams, which seem to provide more opportunity for deep learning, integrating disciplines, and developing an engineering mindset. 

Bearing this in mind, I think we should use a small number of large, intentional projects for learning, assessment, and portfolios. We then use small projects as opportunities to practice and validate critical skills.

I would follow this path to design a successful education using portfolios:

1. Define competency. Decide what skills students need to earn their degree. Ensure this meets ABET requirements and Olin’s educational philosophy.

2. Define evidence. Decide what portfolios must demonstrate to prove successful learning and competency to internal and external audiences.

3. Design the projects. Identify project-portfolio pairings for each degree that require students to learn and demonstrate the desired competencies. Size projects to give students enough time to deeply engage with the problem, bridge disciplines, iterate, and produce something substantial.

4a. Provide direction. Give students a project goal, constraints, recommended resources, and a mix of group and individual support, while leaving freedom in how they approach the problem.

4b. Use just-in-time instruction. As students encounter a technical problem, provide the necessary mini-lecture, example, or resource and then have them apply it. 

4c. Allow ownership. Encourage self-directed pacing and learning, with guardrails to ensure necessary technical competencies are still developed.

4d. Track individual learning. For group projects, require students to document their own design decisions, analysis, implementation, testing, failures, and contributions. Pairing students with different majors could also encourage interdisciplinary work and natural delegation.

5a. Assess competence. A portfolio entry should demonstrate skills through clear design choices, research, and (maybe) calculations. A clean final product isn’t enough to demonstrate learning.

5b. Preserve external legibility. Use the portfolio assessments to create subject-specific grades (Linear Algebra, Statics, Design Thinking, etc). This would make easy to understand transcripts for applications.

6. Iterate projects and requirements. Ask whether students developed the intended competencies, whether their portfolios provide convincing evidence of those competencies, and whether employers or graduate schools can understand and use that evidence. Update the projects as needed.

Instead of just another assignment, portfolio entries can be a tool we use to demonstrate the depth of our skills and the extent of our capabilities.

The opportunity isn’t to make portfolios work. It’s to make the work worth a portfolio.

A PSA On Laser Safety

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You may know me as the person who likes lasers a little bit! Given my reputation, it may come as a shock to many of you that I don’t own any high powered laser pointers! Yes, I own high powered laser diodes, but turning those on requires reconstructing the power supply from scratch every time. None of the lasers I own that can be turned on at the drop of a hat are particularly eye-unsafe. The main reason for this is because I’m not STUPID.

If you are lucky and introduced to hobbyist lasers through proper channels, the first thing you will learn is how easily lasers will cause you permanent and irrecoverable eye damage. Human eyes are amazing and intricate machines, but they too have their limits. They are meant for things like daylight and the occasional glance at the sun, not beams of light that are focused down into spots far more intense than direct sunlight.

Sunlight has an intensity of roughly 1,000W/m2. Staring into the sun directly is dangerous, and can cause all manner of eye conditions, including burns if you keep looking too long. As a point of comparison, I was working with a 20mW fiber laser over the summer. One day I got curious and pulled out a calculator to do some back of the napkin math. At the beam focus point, the intensity of the laser pointer was roughly 77,000,000W/m2. Seventy. Seven. Million. Watts. To be fair, this was a fairly high-quality laser that had a small focal point, but your eyes do their best to focus down any laser that enters them. 

So, for all of you reading this article, please stick to the low powered lasers. Your eyes, and the eyes of everyone around you, will thank you. 

P.S. Especially avoid cheap green laser pointers. They sometimes use IR diodes upconverted into green light, but cheap ones often don’t have IR filters and leak many times more (invisible!) IR light than the green output you can see.