Reflections on an unprecedented year
Gratitude, aspirations, and recommendations to enjoy
Looking Back, Looking Ahead
Wow, y’all - we made it. I have so much respect for the perseverance and strength of all of you, both students and colleagues. So much work went into making this year possible, and a great deal of the most important work that kept us going was the kind of stuff that all too often goes unnoticed or underappreciated. As we celebrate our victories in finding innovative, Olin-worthy solutions to keeping things going since March 2020, we also should champion our maintainers and caretakers, the infrastructure that makes this place possible not only in abnormally difficult years but all of the time. I’m thinking specifically of staff members at the dining hall, IT, and facilities, and all of the work that was poured into making the campus as safe as it could be - testing, cleaning, creation of special protocols, remote learning, and support for the grief and trauma that devastated us at both local and international levels.
I also want to reflect on the death of Austin Veseliza, a beloved Olin student who thought deeply about the potential harms his work as an engineer could inflect on the world and what he might do to not only help himself mitigate that, but to help his classmates grapple with it as well. Austin was my mentee in Context & Consequences and we had an immediate, though tragically brief, connection. I hope we can carry his memory with us always, building a future for the college that takes into account both his aspirations and his fears. He was exactly the sort of person I wanted to learn from and with at Olin. He was exactly the kind of engineer we need to work on the hardest problems we face. Austin cared about people and our planet, and I think he wanted us all to do and be better.
As we approach the culmination of this academic year—that being Sunday’s very COVID-influenced Commencement ceremony—I think it’s important for us to temper our enthusiasm and excitement for what lies ahead with the loss we have all experienced in the last 14 months. That’s not to say we should depressively navel-gaze instead of partying - rather, we should feel OK about not feeling OK after the enormous load we have all been carrying since we evacuated the campus at the start of the March 2020 spring break. In addition to the staggering worldwide death toll of COVID-19, we have seen countless incidents of racialized violence in the United States. We have had family visits, vacations, holidays, celebrations, and so much more cancelled or transformed into disembodied Zoom calls; we went months without being able to blow off steam or entertain ourselves beyond the walls of wherever we were sheltering in place. All of this takes its toll.
That said, I’d like to share some of my hopes and aspirations here and encourage you to reply with your own if you’d like. On a personal level, I’m hoping to do way more bicycling this summer than I did last year and very much looking forward to a vacation to Provincetown in early August. I’m planning on way more family visits, trips to the zoo, and relaxed outdoor meals with friends I’ve been missing. On a professional level, we are reopening our doors on June 1. I’m excited to be joining the advising team at Olin and intending to stay on the Context & Consequences teaching team if I can. The library is slowly transforming into a place that’s more welcoming and user-friendly than ever—I’m keeping my focus on that, and I’m hoping we’ll have something amazing to show you by the time (presumably) everyone’s back in the fall.
Recommendations
Movie: The Mitchells vs. The Machines (streaming on Netflix)
This movie kind of had it all for me: poignant criticism of Big Tech, a misunderstood female protagonist, a floopy dog, evil Furbys, and wholesome moments of familial growth. Big thanks to Mckenzie for bringing this to my attention. I think it’s definitely fodder for a future Olin movie night - whaddaya think?
Book: Autonomous by Annalee Newitz
I’m not done with this one yet, but am enjoying it immensely. A sci-fi dystopia(?) with patent pirates and interesting bio-robots, viscerally described and fascinating. I recently read a book by Newitz’s partner Charlie Jane Anders, All the Birds in the Sky—it was one of the most original, weird reads I’ve experienced in a long while, and I recommend that heartily as well. Check out my list of tech and society books and feel free to send me your suggestions.
Music: Dare! by The Human League
Most people who know The Human League know their biggest hit, “Don’t You Want Me,” which is incidentally the last track on this album; they never knew it would be the smash success that it was. But Dare! is a banger through and through, offering up glorious dancefloor-ready nuggets as well as introspective ballads. I know it’s 40 years old this year, but this record felt extremely lyrically relevant this year - “Being an island / Shying from trying / Seems the easy way / Such an easy way / But there's no future / Without tears” sounds like the musings of someone who’s afraid they’ve lost their ability to socialize after over a year in quarantine.
I hope you all have a great summer, and if you’ll be around on campus, please come spend some time in the library! We’ll be happy to have you back. <3