Institute Acronyms Defined

Alley: Student houses are organized into alleys, or smaller units according to their hallways. For an example, see the Lloyd House Alley Map. Most houses assign a UCC for each alley and the alleys within a house may compete in challenges or meet together for fun.

ARC - Academics and Research Committee: This is a student run committee that serves as a liaison between students and faculty, promoting interactions through organizing the Student-Faculty Conference and the ASCIT Teaching Awards. ARC also has an Upperclass Option Mentoring Program, surveys the student population, meets with the Deans once a term to offer feedback on core classes, and appoints student representatives to the Faculty Board's Academic Committees.

ASCIT - Associated Students of Caltech: This is the undergraduate student governance body. There is a Board of Directors (BoD), made up of a President, Vice President/BoC Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, ARC Chair, CRC Chair, IHC Chair, Social Director, FDAL, and UDAL, that meets every Wednesday at lunch to allocate funds for Take a Professor to Lunch, parties, clubs, and other events for which students request money; to plan for events like Midnight Donuts; and to talk about important student issues on campus. Check out minutes from these meetings in each week's Tech newspaper.

Ath The Athenaeum is a private membership club that, as a faculty member, you can join. You are encouraged to invite students to eat lunch with you here and give you feedback on classes you teach; Nate Lewis does this with Chem 1a. Also, Humanities faculty meet with Humanities majors every year at the Ath to solicit feedback. To encourage faculty to socialize with undergraduate students over dinner, the Dean's Office will reimburse expenses up to $15.00 per undergraduate student. There is a limit of twelve students per class, or advisor, per term. Or, students may ask ASCIT for money to take you to lunch at the Ath.

Averyites: Members of Avery house, one of the eight student houses, are called Averyites. This is the only undergraduate house that also houses faculty and graduate students.

Big T: This is the student yearbook. ASCIT sets aside a budget for the Big T and hires a student editor to put this yearbook together as well as a student business manager who fundraises through selling advertisement space. The yearbook for a given year comes out in the fall term of the following academic year.

Blue Slips: These are midterm deficiency notices that are mailed out to students who are failing a class. Students can turn in their blue slips to get blue slip milkshakes each term.

BoC - Board of Control: This is the governing body, composed only of undergraduates, that deals with undergraduate academic violations of the Honor Code. The BoC investigates when an undergraduate is accused of violating the honor code and then facilitates the decision for punishment when an undergraduate is found guilty of the violation.

Broad Cafe: This cafe is located near the Broad Center, and serves some sandwiches and snacks similar to those at Red Door, in addition to barbecue foods and alcohol.

BUSAC - Biology Undergraduate Student Advisory Committee: This committee meets once a month for lunch at the Ath so that students and faculty can sort through and address any weaknesses of the Biology Option. The division funds these lunches as well as the student-organized socials held twice a year, which are all in the spirit of promoting student-faculty interactions. Students in BUSAC also obtain course survey information, act as ombudspeople, and host a Freshman Info Night to give biology freshmen information about which classes to take.

CAPSI - Caltech Precollege Science Initiative: This initiative is a collaborative effort to promote interaction between science and engineering professionals with educators, teachers, and school administrators in order to improve precollege science education.

CCAP - Caltech Corporate Affiliates Program: This program allows collaboration between people in industry and Caltech, promoting science and technology breakthroughs. Corporate affiliates may attend faculty meetings, have faculty present seminars at their companies, engage in Research Roundtables with faculty, be invited to Caltech-selected networking events, have access to priority campus recruiting, receive technical research service, be invited to Caltech conferences and seminars, and receive Athenaeum privileges, Caltech publications, and an annual activity report. Based on all of the different ways in which Corporate affiliates are invited to interact with the Caltech campus and community, you will most likely interact with affiliates while working at Caltech.

CCAP - Caltech Childcare Assistance Program: This program helps eligible faculty, postdoctoral scholars, students, and staff with childcare costs of dependent children.

CCC - Children's Center at Caltech: This center, a non-profit organization for Caltech and Pasadena communities, provides quality early education for infants, toddlers, and preschool age children as well as resources for child, staff, and parenting development. Each child is viewed as an independent and individual learner, whose needs while developing awareness of the world and readiness for learning are attended to. The center organizes activities for children to explore new ideas, solve problems, and develop/expand social skills, language, and concepts, with emphasis on active, hands-on learning in pre-math activities (shape identification and shape/quantity of numbers) and pre-reading activities (alphabet bingo, dictation, and storytelling), or computer activities for older groups.

CDC - Career Development Center: This center helps students and postdoctoral scholars find a career path that works for them. The center provides individual career counseling (i.e. finding an option/internship, changing one's career, gathering alumni contacts, finding a work study job, working on a resume/cover letter, etc.) as well as workshops and seminars focused on those topics. The CDC website has job listings, and the CDC hosts multiple career fairs and meetings so that students and scholars can talk to on-campus recruiters. There are facts and figures about life after Caltech, and there is information about programs coordinated by the CDC, such as the Premed Program, PhD/Postdoc Programs, Career Council, and the Japan Internship.

CEC - Child Education Center: This center is a non-profit, full-day childcare center. It is supported by Caltech and JPL.

Chandler: This is one of the most popular on-campus places to eat lunch. Frequented by students, faculty, and staff alike, it is lively and serves a range of food, such as Mongolian barbecue, wood-fired pizza, salads, grilled items, and more.

CLUE: This site has grade distributions and reviews for the classes at Caltech for all years since the 1998-1999 academic year. Many students check this site when trying to choose between classes at registration time, or to find out how the grading curve works for a class in which they are currently enrolled.

CPA - Caltech Postdoctoral Association: This association is set up to foster a sense of community among postdocs, enhancing their Caltech and JPL experiences through providing career and personal development resources as well as fun events in which they can participate. The association board meets every month and has a Social Committee, Career Committee, Advocacy Committee, and Outreach Committee to facilitate its mission and purpose.

CRC - Conduct Review Committee: This committee, composed of undergraduates, faculty, and administrators, investigates and determines punishments for non-academic violations of the Honor Code.

CWC - Caltech Women's Center: The Women's Center offers services and educational programs such as confidential consultation, presentations, workshops, support groups, and cultural events, which allow for discussion and greater understanding of issues related to women and gender. Specific programs/resources that you can find more information about at the Women's Center Services and Programs page are: the Lending Library, JUMP, MentorNet, Women Mentoring Women, Graduate Women's Lunch Group, Self Defense Workshops, Real People/Real World, Reading Women, and Women's History Month.

Darbs: Members of Dabney house, one of the eight undergraduate houses, are called Darbs.

Ditch Day: This is a day that seniors prepare for many months in advance by making elaborate scavenger hunts, puzzles that underclassmen have to solve, and games that underclassmen can play. The games and puzzles serve as a distraction so the underclassmen will not prank the seniors' rooms while the seniors are off campus for the day. This is an Institute Holiday, meaning that classes are canceled, and even for people not participating in the events for the day it is fun to watch as groups of students walk around in silly costumes and big smiles.

E&AS - Engineering and Applied Science

ESW / CIT - Engineers for a Sustainable World California Institute of Technology Chapter: This group works to find science-based solutions to problems in developing communities around the world. Goals of the group are to make scientists and engineers aware of the role/responsibility they can take in solving development issues, coordinate research opportunities in this field, bring students together for forums and workshops related to this topic, and support students/faculty/professionals working to design and implement technology that can help developing communities.

FDAL - Freshman Director at Large: This member of the ASCIT Board of Directors (BoD) takes on different jobs each year depending on what the BoD decides to accomplish. Most recently, the FDAL's job has been to organize the ASCIT movie library.

FERPA - Family Education Rights and Privacy Act: This federal law is meant to protect student education records from being made public. For example, all financial aid application materials are confidential, as are related conversations with the student and family. Different offices on campus have different ways of ascertaining how student records are kept confidential, but the link for this acronym gives you an example of how the Financial Aid Office handles this act.

Flame: This is when an undergraduate fails too many classes in a given term. (Part of the saying: U Flick, U Flame, UASH)

Flems: Members of Fleming house, one of the eight undergraduate houses, are called Flems.

Flick: This is when undergraduates choose to do other things (get too involved in sports/student government, party, play video games, etc.) besides work such that their coursework suffers. It is an excess display of procrastination. (Part of the saying: U Flick, U Flame, UASH)

FMLA -Family Medical Leave Act: Caltech has a policy in accordance with this federal requirement that allows eligible employees to leave work if they experience a serious health condition or disability, have a family member with a serious health condition or disability, or are pregnant/need to bond with their child after the pregnancy. Contact the Human Resources Disability and Leave Administration for more details.

FSI - Freshman Summer Institute: This is a summer program for incoming freshmen to enhance their transition from high school to a research-based education, which includes participation in laboratory research and intense academic preparation in core ideas and the language of math and physics.

Ghosting: After ditch day, it is Caltech tradition that the seniors are called ghosts. Once the seniors have graduated, they are no longer called ghosts.

Glomming: This is when many male undergraduates hang out with the same female undergraduate as if they are all wanting to date her. This happens more often at Caltech than other colleges because Caltech has only about 30% female undergraduates. This environment can be uncomfortable for female students at Caltech. You can refer women to the Caltech Women's Center if they want to talk with someone about glomming. In addition, Caltech has a sexual harassment policy that applies to all students, faculty, staff, and others on campus.

GRB - Graduate Review Board: This is the graduate student group that makes sure graduate students follow the Honor Code, by educating the community about the honor code as well as investigating and determining further action to pursue if there is a suspected violation of the Honor Code.

GSC - Graduate Student Council: This council is the graduate student governing body with a mission to "work to maximize the quality of life for the graduate student community at Caltech." The GSC accomplishes this goal by working with faculty and administrators, as representatives on committees and other campus activities; organizing social activities; producing a newsletter; and dividing the work among various committees and subcommittees (Academics, Athletics, Budget, Bylaws, Housing, Publications Board, Social, Quality of Life, Underrepresented Students, GRB).

GSC - Graduate Studies Committee: This committee is composed of all the graduate studies option representatives, the Graduate Studies Dean, and graduate student representatives.

GPS - Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences

Health Ad - Health Advocates: These students are trained, through a year-long course, in First Response and Counseling to help with emergencies. There are at least a couple Health Ads in each undergraduate house, and you may see them toting orange bags around at events where large groups gather are prone to injury, such as sports matches.

HR - Human Resources: This office can answer questions you have about Caltech policies, and assist you in solving a personal issue on campus. Also, contact HR to voice your opinion regarding an Institute practice or policy.

IAC - Institute Administrative Council: The council members are everyone on the IACC in addition to the Caltech Vice Presidents, the Secretary of the Board of Trustees, and the Director of JPL, all of whom advise the President on academic and administrative matters of the Institute. The back of the Caltech catalog has a list each year of who is a member of this council.

IACC - Institute Academic Council: It is not clear why there is a second C, except to distinguish itself from the IAC (see above). IACC members are the Division Chairs, the Caltech President, and the Provost. They make recommendations regarding important academic and Institute issues. The Caltech catalog has a list each year of who is a member of this council.

IHC - Interhouse Committee: This committee is the governing body for the eight student Houses on campus. It is responsible for providing a forum for communication between the houses and determining a solution to common problems, organizing Rotation, overseeing House sports and Discobolus, and selecting student members to some of the Faculty-Student Committees.

IMSS - Information Management Systems & Services: This group takes care of Administrative Applications (Oracle, Parking, E-PAN, ASI, Performance Appraisal, WIC, PIC), Financial Systems (FAMIS, PCard, TechMart), Student Systems (Exeter, REGIS), Human Resources (KRONOS Timekeeping, Recruiting Solutions), Reporting Tools (Data Warehouse, Discoverer, Webster), Email & Calendar (B&F Exchange, HENGE, IMSS Exchange, Webmail, Standard Unix Email), and Miscellaneous computing items (License Servers, UNIX Cluster, VPN). There are also various software programs that you can download.

Interhouse: This is anything conducted between the Houses, such as Interhouse athletics or parties, making usage of the term sometimes ambiguous.

IRC - Industrial Relations Center: This center offers executive management courses to help people who want to be more successful in a technology-oriented place like Caltech. There are classes offered in Leadership Training and Management Development, Product Development, Project Management, Strategic Planning and Performance Measurement, and Technology Management, to name a few.

JPL - Jet Propulsion Laboratory: This is one of our closest neighbors and collaborators. Caltech staffs and manages this federally funded research and development NASA center.

LGBTQ - Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Questioning: A LGBTQ Discussion Group is open to all Caltech students, faculty, and staff, and is meant to establish and maintain a community in which people can feel comfortable sharing their feelings and in turn, receive support and friendship from others who are similarly sensitive to the issues they are facing. Discussions include a range of topics from the personal to the technical and scientific.

little t: This publication, supported by ASCIT, acts as a guide for Caltech undergraduates, including helpful hints for how to graduate and a comical dictionary of some Caltech slang as well as information about where to eat off campus, how to get a south master key, clubs and annual campus activities students can participate in, where to go off campus for attractions and museums, and more.

Lloydies: Members of Lloyd house, one of the eight undergraduate houses, are called Lloydies.

Metro ARTS Bus - Pasadena Area Rapid Transit System: This is a bus service that goes through Pasadena residential neighborhoods and retail/business/entertainment centers. Regular fare is 50 cents.

Moles: Members of Blacker house, one of the eight undergraduate houses, are called Moles.

MOSH - Master of Student Houses: This faculty member acts as a liaison between undergraduates, faculty, and staff and organizes events that bring students and faculty together outside the classroom. The current MOSH hosts open houses to encourage discussion regarding housing policies between students, faculty, and staff, and also hosts option teas to encourage student-faculty interactions.

MSE - Minority Student Education: The Office for MSE builds and supports the community of underrepresented students and does so with retention programs (Freshman Summer Institute, Excel Retreat, Academic Support & Guidance, Community Building), helping students work through their daily concerns and issues as well as gain leadership skills and educational support that will promote their greater success. MSE interacts with other communities through diversity education and by reaching out to high school students (Young Engineering and Science Scholars Program--YESS).

NSBE - National Society of Black Engineers: The Caltech NSBE helps undergraduate and graduate students on their way to achieving academic success and personal excellence. Students in any major, and other people in the Caltech community, are also welcome to join.

Options: Here at Caltech, we call academic majors "options."

OSR - Office of Sponsored Research: This office can help you with the review, submission, negotiation, and acceptance of grants, contracts, and agreements in research and training. They have Caltech information for proposals, links for agencies, sponsored research project Institute policies and procedures, and information about agency policies, Federal regulations, and the Institute research and compliance committees.

Pageboys: Members of Page house, one of the eight undergraduate houses, are called Pageboys.

Pranks: Students and faculty like to play tricks on other students and faculty, or even people outside of the Caltech community. As long as people leave a note (that says who pulled the prank and what their contact information is) and do not cause any damage to people or property, these are all in good spirit. An example of a prank that MIT pulled on Caltech is the story of the Fleming Cannon, which was MIT's way of getting back at Caltech for first pranking MIT's preview weekend the previous year--the prank that involved handing out t-shirts that say MIT on the front and "because not everyone can go to Caltech" on the back.

Prefrosh: The admitted students who have not yet enrolled at Caltech are called prefrosh. They are invited to Prefrosh Weekend, and may or may not have already indicated they want to attend. Students entering their first year at Caltech are also technically prefrosh until the cannon fires at the end of the first week, marking the end of rotation.

Prefrosh Weekend: This is when all of the recently admitted prospective students come and visit campus to see if they want to attend Caltech. The three- to four-day weekend event occurs sometime during spring term, often in mid- to late-April.

RA - Resident Associate: Every undergraduate house, on and off-campus, has at least one RA, who can provide support and help for students whenever it is needed, as well as communicate between the student body and administration.

Red Door: This cafe, a popular meeting place located next to the bookstore and across from Chandler, has coffee, smoothies, ice cream, sandwiches, and bakery items that students, faculty, and staff can enjoy.

REGIS: This is the Registrar's information system where students can register for classes and faculty members can view and check for which classes their advisees have registered. Freshmen progress reports are posted on REGIS and students can order and view transcripts, update their calendar year or look at their degree audit form.

RF (Ricketts-Fleming) Courtyard: This is the area of courtyard between Ricketts and Fleming where undergraduate social events are sometimes held.

Rotation: The process by which freshmen have a chance to look at all eight houses, meeting the people in them and getting some idea of their culture, rank the houses, and finally are chosen into a house. The process happens in the first week of first term each year, during which students eat lunch and dinner in each house and then are invited to house social events in the evenings. This is a really bad time for scheduling homework.

Rudds: Members of Ruddock house, one of the eight undergraduate houses, are called Rudds.

Scurves: Members of Ricketts house, one of the eight undergraduate houses, are called Scurves.

SEED - Science for Early Educational Development: This is a collaboration between Caltech and the Pasadena Unified School District regarding K-6 science education, and bringing science to life for kids through hands-on experimentation.

SFCC - Staff & Faculty Consultation Center: This center was designed to help Caltech employees and their families with assessment, problem-solving, counseling and/or referral services. Free services offered include: up to six assessment/counseling sessions to explore and define the problem, crisis intervention, development of a confidential plan of action, referral to appropriate treatment/service providers, and follow-up as needed.

SFP - Student Faculty Programs: The SFP office coordinates the Undergraduate Research Programs at Caltech such as SURF, MURF, Exchange Programs, HHMI, LIGO, NASA USRP, NASA Space Grant, NASA PGGURP, and Amgen Scholars.

South Master: This is the key that all students should have so they can enter buildings such as Sloan and Bridge after hours in order to turn in homework or to attend office hours. There are clear directions for how to obtain one in the little t.

Stacks: Each major set of puzzles/games/etc. used during Ditch Day is called a stack. Often they have themes that may be anything from Harry Potter to Pirates.

Student Houses: These are where the undergraduates live, and include Avery, Blacker, Dabney, Fleming, Lloyd, Page, Ricketts, and Ruddock. Houses are the Caltech equivalent of dorms.

SURF - Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship: This is the most heavily utilized undergraduate research program at Caltech. Modeled on the grant-seeking process, it requires that students interested in participating work with potential mentors to develop a project idea, write a proposal, have their proposal reviewed, carry out 10 weeks of summer research, submit a technical paper, and give an oral presentation at SURF Seminar Day.

SURFSAC - SURF Student Advisory Council: This group of students coordinates social and cultural activities during the summer for students doing research on campus. For example, they invite faculty members to attend weekly SURFSAC Suppers, which allows students to interact with faculty at a small, informal dinner.

SWE - Society of Women Engineers: This group is part of a national organization that works to help women in science and engineering achieve their greater goals in education. The Caltech section organizes dinners with professors, Dress for Success, receptions with industry, workshops, speakers, and monthly meetings. Members can go to national and regional conferences, participate in community outreach events, and be a part of the Freshman Mentoring Program.

TACIT - Theatre Arts at Caltech: Whether you want to act or help build/work behind the scenes for a play, all members of the Caltech community are welcome to join TACIT.

TA - Teaching Assistant: Often a graduate student (although some introductory physics courses have faculty TA's, and other courses have undergraduate TA's) who provides support for a course in a manner that the TA and faculty professor agree upon. The TA can sometimes write homework/exam questions, grade homework/exams, lead recitation sections that supplement the lectures, hold office hours to answer student questions and provide homework help, and/or lead a review session for the exams. The work a TA does depends on whether it is a lecture-based, lab-based, or discussion/seminar-based course and on the style of the professor teaching the course.

The Tech: This is the student newspaper that comes out every Monday (excluding holidays and examination periods), which includes news and commentary sections.

Tunnels: Undergraduates sometimes lead tours through the tunnels during prefrosh weekend or other special events. There are murals and other intricacies in the tunnels which make them an interesting spot for touring. Some seniors incorporate the tunnels in as part of a Ditch Day stack, and Ricketts uses the tunnels as an entrance to their main annual party.

UASH - Undergraduate Academic Standards and Honors: UASH awards academic honors (e.g., graduation with Honors, and the Green, Frohlich and Sigma Xi prizes) and ensures that a consistent set of standards is applied in undergraduate academic matters.

UCC - Upper Class Counselor: Nearly all of the student houses have UCC's, about one per alley, and they help when students in the alley need someone to talk to, or they can organize social activities to forge a sense of community within the house.

UDAL - Upperclass Director at Large: Like the FDAL, the work done by the person in this elected position is determined by each year's ASCIT Board of Directors. Often, the UDAL keeps track of student reports from non-academic Faculty-Student Committees.

Wired: This is the Caltech computer store where you can get educational discounted computers and computer accessories.

YESS - Young Engineering and Science Scholars: This program brings talented high school students to Caltech to experience the rigors and joys of scientific investigation through development of analytical and experimental skills. Participants take two research-oriented science courses led by graduate students where they attend lectures, conduct hands-on experiments and project work, and give research presentations. Participants also go on lab tours and attend faculty speaker series.