Ah, springtime! The melting of snow! The chirping of birds! The wonderful return of warmer weather and longer days! Spring break has come and passed, and now life has returned to how it’s meant to be! Stressful, chaotic, yet in many ways serene.

But what’s this?! Off in the distance! ‘Tis a storm brewing, threatening to engulf us all! It is the harbinger of broken promises, shattered friendships, and destroyed souls! Ah! We should have known this day was coming, as it does every year! This enigmatic force is known simply as “Room Draw”.

Although embellished, the scene I’ve described portrays Room Draw fairly accurately. Whenever the topic is brought up, it’s almost always accompanied by several sighs or “Ugh”s. It consistently appears as a returning source of malice, fear, hatred, and disappointment. Yet, this seems odd to me; aren’t we, as a school, supposed to acknowledge what needs changing and “do something”?

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Passion for the Welfare of Olin College

“I will be a steward for the welfare of Olin College through a spirit of cooperation, concern for others, and responsibility for the reputation of Olin College.”

Openness to Change

“I will be receptive to change, supportive of innovation, and willing to take risks for the benefit of the community.”

I want you to think about those two statements and think about how you may or may not have applied them to your life at Olin. Over the past few years, I’ve noticed an increase in the lack of stewardship towards the college with each incoming class. I remember as a first year that the senior class was very vocal about things they wanted to see happen, namely the change from the half-tuition scholarship back to the full-tuition scholarship. In contrast, at our last town hall meeting, the student body was practically silent. In general, even though we’ve been paying more for our education than past classes, we are not nearly as vocal or persistent about the change that we’d like to see happen at Olin. Professors have also commented that current students do not take as many risks as students did in the past, especially in partner year. This is probably indicative of the times we live in, but it still leaves me wondering if other Oliners are aware of our changing culture and how we’re maybe not taking as big a risk as students before us.

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CORe, Honor Board and SERV are all having elections for important leadership roles, and you should run for a position! Step up and have a say in directing Olin next year. Help to shape the student experience and continue to improve Olin! Come to open “office hours” on Wednesday, April 2nd at lunch to talk with current leaders about why they love their positions and why you should run. If you’re at all interested in a position, talk to us, learn what the role would entail and RUN!

While they may sound daunting, all these positions are all extremely rewarding, and only take a couple of hours of work per week. Every student who holds a leadership role in these various organizations is proud of the direct impact his or her actions and opinions have on the Olin community.

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This semester we (Berit Johnson and Sarah Strohkorb) set out to answer some predictive questions about Olin courses, students, and majors. More specifically, we’re attempting to answer the question, “can we predict what one student will take for any given semester based on their course history?” which easily expands to, “can we predict Olin’s total course enrollment for Spring 2014 based on all of the students’ course histories?”

Our preliminary results show promise, but there is significant room for improvement. We’d like to share our work with the Olin community and also welcome feedback and suggestions.

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