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TechNews | Tuesday, September27th, 201 6

    

Student reaction to university handbook edit

Wes Ludwig
ILLINOIS TECH STUDENT

It’s rare that something as mundane
as an amendment to a handbook is such an
illustrative reflection of our time; though I
suppose the true history of power is written
in policy The recent addition of Section II,
subsection A, part 9, clause d to the IIT student
handbook, along with H.A.9.c. opens students
who participate in or organize disruptive
demonstrations to disciplinary actions from
IIT including suspension and expulsion To
most, this would seem an unremarkable piece
of administrivia. It is, But one must ask, why
even go to the trouble of writing it?

Was H.A.9.c. not sufficient to stem
the tides of misbehaving students? It will
shock no one when I say that IIT does not
have a radically mischievous student body
I’m more often impressed by the peacefiilness
and annoyingly good manners of our students.
We sit quietly, take notes, do our homework,
and certainly don’t complain in ways that
might disquiet those who field our complaints;
and only then if we can come to the table
with at least three solutions to the problem
we’re having. It isn’t clear to me that there is
a behavior problem at IIT The diligence and
calm focus required for our chosen pursuits
seem to make the HT campus a place more
for contemplation than action; so why then
do we need a policy to prevent students from
organizing?

The only recent events springing
to mind that may have motivated this
response would be the two demonstrations
of the Undocumented Students and Allies
organization, wherein they voiced their
grievances in a public campus space and
marched to HT tower to advocate for our
undocumented colleagues. I could never
imagine that the administration would enact
this kind of policy in reaction to a few students
in a school recognized organization advocating
for otherwise voiceless members of our
community; to target specific members of an
already vulnerable group would be downright
cowardly and underhanded. For that matter
wouldn’t any popular movement of the HT
student body be legitimized for the sheer fact
that it could motivate us to the point of union
and action? It must be something else.

This issue of TechNews will post

Op,Ed.’s alongside the school’s line on the
policy, so I am not afforded the luxury of
having read HT’s official explanation of their
intent in order to craft a response. However, as
HT is currently not in the grips of occupying
protesters, we can only assume that this policy
is preventative in nature, seeking to fortify the
position of the school against foreseen conflict
with students.

I personally believe in the
importance of civil disobedience and strife
in social discourse, and feel that protecting
disruptive demonstration reserves a platform
for issues that may otherwise go unheard. But
before reaching conclusions, we must clarify
what exactly we think the role of the student
body is in shaping the actions of the university
I find myself quite comfortable having
professional managers handle the everyday
logistics and operations; that is certainly out
of the purview of students. We’re quite busy
enough with the current courseeload, thank
you. Similarly so with matters of academics; I
can’t very well devise program structures and
lesson plans for things I yet know little about,
so I’ll leave it to our excellent professors.

What then of the university is left
to the students? Ourselves, as it were; this is
the philosophy that defines the role of student
government at IIT The only authority that
SGA has is over the regulation of student
organizations, which is quite important, but
does not come close to influencing the actions
of our Institute. While it is true that SGA
members occasionally advise members of
administration, SGA itself (and no student, or
student group for that matter) has any decision,
making power, shared or autonomous. The
administration is fastidious in surveying and
soliciting feedback; however, we as students
have no way of ensuring that important issues
are addressed, or changes made.

In certain cases (the attempted
removal of student rights for example) it
becomes necessary for the student body to
bend administration to their will. Disruption
and bad press are among the most effective
means to both spread awareness of a problem,
and force institutional action. This policy
serves to further limit student agency, at a
point where I didn’t think there was much
left to limit. By intimidating potential actors
with the promise of disciplinary action for
simply wanting change, this policy seeks to kill

student organization far in advance, strangling
even the dim hope that someday there will be a
popular movement at HT to change something.
That’s how this little piece of administrivia
makes me feel: hopeless.

This comes in the midst of an election
that has abandoned all pretense of being
related to policy, effectively reducing citizens’
roles in government to that of consumers and
perpetuators (don’t forget to like and subscribe)
of spectacle and scandal. The message of either
campaign is clear: you will take what we give
you; because you wouldn’t want the other
one to win, would you? HT’s administration,
much like the US government, feels no need to
include its substituents as participants; in fact,
our silence makes their jobs easier. If we don’t
make noise, they don’t have to come check on
baby That kind of relationship allows for s**t
to pile up.

In the university we cannot afford
to be only passive consumers, if only because
then no change will ever be made to benefit
the students. The free market notion of voting
with your dollars doesn’t work here; none of
us will up and leave our university to start
fresh somewhere else because we didn’t like
something about it, We simply don’t have that
kind of financial security We’re a generation
that shoulders astronomical debt before we can
legally drink. And while this situation is not of
HT’s making, it doesn’t seem that they have
any qualms about reaping the benefits of this
trend. When something like this comes along,
it makes me question: are we not already so
thoroughly owned? HT already has most of us
for the next ten years of our incomes; do they
also need to own our scholastic agency and
hopes for shaping the future of this institute?

This kind of policy makes me
question my value to IIT Am I no more than
the debt that I can take on, the numbers that
I can put up in donations after I graduate?
Is our voice as students so worthless to
administration that this kind of silencing can
be codified, and are we so beaten down as a
generation that we will stand idly by while it
happens? I’m a hopeless man, so it is apparent
to me that the answer is yes. But I would so
love to be proven wrong by the unified actions
of the students.

Career Services hosts Fall 2016 career fair

Ahhinaya Iyer
TEC H N EWS W RITE R

Kids dream about becoming
different people in life: starting from a princess
or a prince when they are five, to a scientist or
president when they are ten, an artist or author
when they are fifteen, to finally selecting a
major in college. A student’s major in college
helps them decide a career and what they wish
to be in their professional life. But to be able to
get there, students have to go through a path
filled with learning, interviews, and multiple
jobs; whether it’s an internship or partitime
job, they all take students one step closer to
success. However, finding a job isn’t easy in
today’s world of highecaliber competition.

Illinois Tech makes the jobefinding
task easier by setting up a career fair every
semester for the students, whether they
are graduating students looking for a job
or ongoing students looking for summer
internships. The career fair for the Fall
semester of 2016 was hosted on September
21 in Herman Hall and Crown Hall, the latter
space being specifically catered to architecture
students. The career fair began at noon and
went on until 4 in the afternoon.

Many students spent all
morning preparing speeches and dressing
professionally, be it in suits or in skirts. All
levels of students, ranging from freshman to
graduate students, attended the career fair
with hopes of a promising career. At Crown
Hall a few prominent firms, like Wright
Heerema Architects (who were one of the

    

Photo courtesy of Career Services

crowd favorites) were there, along with the
American Institute of Architects (who have a
student chapter here at Illinois Tech). RGLA
Solutions was another firm that seemed to
captivate the crowd with its commercial work
in the field of designing stores and outlets,
looking for greener ways to design efiicient
buildings. “HT has some bright students and
we are more than happy to be here," quoted

one of the interviewers, while speaking with a
fourtheyear student.

Meanwhile at Herman Hall,
Illinois Tech’s future engineers, computer
scientists, and more were working their
charm on the present companies, trying to
secure an internships or jobs. Grainger and
Exelon, which were set up in the building’s
auditorium, seemed to attract a huge crowd
and were very popular among ITM students.
US Cellular, which was set up in the Expo,
was also very popular among international
students in the fields of programming and
telecommunications. GrubHub was another
employer that was popular among Java
coders and Computer Engineering students.
Hanley, Flight & Zimmerman, whose motto
is “a seasoned intellectual property firm with
innovative value," seemed quite content with
the students’ answers to questions about skill
sets relevant to their technical work A few
graduate schools were present at the career fair,
giving students a moment to ponder further
education and its positive sides. There were
also the US Marines, Army and Air Force
programs present, talking to students about
lucrative programs and career opportunities
open to them.

On the whole, the career fair was
deemed a success by most participants,
opening new professional horizons to many
students for their lives ahead