I’m in the library and a staff member downstairs is having a very loud and long conversation via speaker phone. I don’t want to interrupt her call, I don’t know who she is (so I can’t email) and I’m shy. What should I do?
-Tryin Ta Study
Why Do Our Leaders Lead?
I am currently the Project Manager of the Olin Robotic Sailing team (ORS). However, in choosing my successor for next year, I had to ask myself: Why does anyone lead a large design team? What do the leaders get out of leading, and moreover, what do the participants get out of participating? I set out on a mission to interview leaders from the other project teams, REVO, HPV and Baja, to get a feel for their team cultures and their motivations behind leading these teams.
A Puzzle by Midnight Math: May
The passel of math students from the first ever Midnight Math puzzle again find themselves held captive by that rascally hyper-intelligent, pan-dimensional being.
This time they are each held in separate cells and each day, one is chosen at random to come to a special room to work on a generalized integral transform problem (each selection is completely independent of any of the previous choices).
Editor in Chief Announced
For real this time! I hope you enjoyed our April 1st article last month, introducing Nick Tatar as Editor in Chief.
Although we at Frankly Speaking appreciate Tatar’s good humor in nodding along to last month’s April Fool’s Day article falsely instating him to the role of Editor in Chief, Frankly Speaking remains unofficial, unaffiliated, and quintessentially student-run.
As I will be graduating in less than a month, I am very pleased to announce that Lyra Silverwolf will be taking over my role as editor in chief starting this September.
Olin Quirks and Disorders
In case you didn’t know, April is the National Month of Autism Awareness. Why is this relevant? Autism and its milder form Asperger’s, representing 80% of Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD), provide the basis for an important discussion on how we perceive other people, ourselves, and the world around us. Especially in regards to some here at Olin.
Green Space: Dumpster-Diver’s Dilemma
co-authored by: Maggie Sue
Everyone at Olin has come into the dorm lounges only to find themselves surrounded by piles of bread, post-Valentine’s day candy, pizza, and other miscellaneous foods. There exists a small group of Oliners who regularly collect these treasures from local stores that run low on shelf space, find packaging imperfections, or dispose of food nearing its sell-by date. However, there is much more to this practice than happily collecting a dumpster’s contents.
Green Space: Life in the Context of Development
Take a bucket shower. Better yet, take a bucket shower in a small tub with no drain. Feel how much water is needed to cleanse your body as the weight of the bucket in your hand diminishes. Note how filthy you are capable of becoming without ever noticing, and wonder how the dirty water feels so refreshing on your feet, swollen from walking miles on uneven grounds. In this moment, this bucket of water is my most cherished treasure.
Sustainability Skill Sharing
In an ever more technologically complex world, we struggle and strive to understand the vast supply chains and innovate. Not often enough to we step back and think about what we know that is simple and tangible. We are all teachers and we are all students.
Collectively, we have an incredible amount of life experiences and knowledge that has taught us and shaped us. On Saturday April 6th Olin will be hosting the Three-College Skill Share. It is a day of workshops, discussions and expos around the idea of learning and teaching practical skills to reduce our impact on the environment.
Foundations of World View
Last month, I presented you with three questions that form your world view: “How did we get here?” “What is wrong with the world?” and “How does it get fixed?” I argued that these questions are fundamental to how you understand the world, that your answers affect your very identity, and that we each have answers, even if unarticulated.
Now I would like to share the answers I have found in hopes that you might understand my world view better and consider whether it accurately explains the world in which we live.
Living by Olin’s Core Values
In case you haven’t heard, Olin is ten years old now. With that, there has been a lot of self-reflection and discussion about where the institution has been, where it’s going, and how it’s going to get there. A few effects of that shift can already be seen with new faculty, a new dean of student life, new partnerships with outside institutions, and a push to redefine the E! curriculum.