This one’s a Viennese waltz

[infryq]

Yesterday was #ShutDownAcademia. I met briefly with Indicators to cover any urgent matters, then released everyone to participate or not at their choice. I corrected a bug in autobot that was letting through duplicate respondent IDs, and wrote the first batch of code for adjusting the covidcast API to support issue dates. I tracked a conversation among faculty in my department; there are some ideas for starting an REU program for Black students, specifically designed to support students whose home colleges don’t offer coursework in ML. I was pleased to also read some appropriate counterpoints that there is plenty we can do to correct extant racism at CMU, and maybe it would be good to do that instead of thinking that just bringing more Black students to campus will magically solve the problem. Our approach to admissions and hiring has to fundamentally change, our curriculum has to change, the way we model value to our students has to change, the way our community handles conflict has to change on all levels, if we want to actually effect our stated desire to change the truly mortifying statistic that only 13 Black people received PhDs in computer science last year in the US. Total.

P put the AC in the window in the nest, so we have a Cold Place to retreat to as needed. The weather broke last night (enthusiastically; some places still don’t have power), but this weekend I’ll make a start on creating a space to work.

Dinner, trash, crossword, DS9, snack, sleep. Dreamt of road trips and camping and dingy basement shows, seminars on metaphysics, soft things.

City of Brass continues. I don’t remember how it ends.