Student Faculty Conference

The 2025 SFC will be held in person on Thursday, April 10th in Ramo Auditorium.

The Student Faculty Conference (SFC) is an all-day forum discussion between students and faculty. The conference is held biennially as a review of Caltech education. The feedback and suggestions that come out of the SFC shape the future of academics.

The process of planning the SFC begins in fall. The ARC Academics and Research Committee appoints members of SFC Committees, made up of students and faculty. The committees analyze academics and lead a discussion on their findings at the SFC. Each SFC Committee then works to implement their recommendations and feedback from SFC and writes a short report summarizing their work.

State of the Honor Code (chaired by Sulekha Kishore and Belle Chen)

The purpose of the Honor Code Committee is to survey, understand, and analyze the beliefs and perspectives of the undergraduate and faculty on Caltech's Honor Code and the Board of Control (BoC). The committee will communicate its findings from the 2025 SFC survey on (1) the importance of the Honor Code to the student community, (2) the undergraduates' perception of the effectiveness of the Honor Code and BoC case hearing process, and (3) occurrences of academic Honor Code violations. We hope to improve student and faculty's understanding of the BoC process and the role the Honor Code plays in our community.

Pre-requisites and How Core Prepares Students for Major-specific Coursework (chaired by Sidd Ojha)

Our committee is examining how well Core and pseudo-Core courses (e.g., Ma 2, Ph 2, Bi 8/9, CS 2, etc.) prepare students for option-specific coursework. Using data reflecting both student and faculty voices, the committee is evaluating the relevance and effectiveness of current prerequisites and to identify courses with missing or unnecessary prerequisites as well as gaps in preparation of students. Based on this input, the committee aims to generate recommendations for both updating prerequisite listings and remedying identified gaps in preparation with the goal of ensuring that students enter upper-level, option-specific courses with the appropriate background and that prerequisites reflect actual course needs.