Click the image above to view the spread in high resolution.
Posted in Sports
Leave a comment
THE NEWLY APPOINTED GM, RUSSELL BROWN ’14, SITS next to the RPI seal wearing the traditional top hat of his position.The 42nd Student Senate met this past Monday to elect a new Grand Marshal; the former Grand Marshal Lee Sharma, is no longer a student at RPI as of the beginning of this semester, and an interim GM was needed to bridge the time between now and the upcoming GM elections to be held the week of April 8.
There are very few precedents in RPI’s readily available history of GMs having to be replaced mid-term, the last of which occurred during the 80s. The process for electing a new GM mid-term is to have a closed election where the public may attend but only Senate members may vote. The Student Senate then has a series of speeches by the candidates and votes on which candidates seem best, slowly eliminating the candidates down to one. Once this one candidate is found, there is a vote of confidence in the candidate to finally see whether or not the Senate is willing to accept the GM candidate. Of all of these votes, only the final vote must be won by a two-thirds majority; every other vote is won by a simple majority.
Five names were put forward at the meeting’s beginning for candidacy; one, Reilly Hamilton ’12, immediately declined, another was not a senate member, and therefore was ineligible, and the remaining three were Russell Brown ’14, Andrew Labunka ’13, and Paul O’Neil ’14.
Russell Brown began the round of speeches by talking about his experience in the Senate and his interest in student government in general. He talked about his accomplishments as the chair of the Senate Communications Committee, and his experience with RPI’s club system. He brought up that he is a good communicator and that he is very organized, and stated that he has “good relations with the administration, not perfect, but good.”
Labunka’s speech followed Brown’s, and began with Labunka talking about where he was in school at the moment. He stated that he would be graduating in May, and therefore could only be GM in this interim period. He also spoke of his experience in the Senate, saying that he had been in the Senate for two years and had first joined in an effort to make a difference on campus. Since then, he has been the chair of the Academic Affairs Committee. Labunka claimed that if elected he intended to better structure committees, and to better structure and schedule the Senate in general. He would work toward improving the Senate’s meetings, fill vacancies in the Senate roster, and finally to improve/streamline the Senate liaison network.
Paul O’Neil rounded out the group of speeches, which he also began with talk about his experience and qualifications by mentioning that he has spent time at the chair of the Finance, Facilities, and Administration Committee. O’Neil stated that he wants to improve the Senate and he wants the Senate’s publicity to get better. He wants to increase the general student body awareness of what the Senate does and he wants to increase accountability in the Senate and its committees.
The speeches were followed by a short round of questions. The first question was about last semester’s recommendation for the reorganization or replacement of President Shirley Ann Jackson, and what each candidate thought of it. Brown responded that he thought the report the motion was based off of was a good idea, but that he did not like that the report was not voted on by the general Student Senate, and the Senate at large had no approval or deniability when it came to it. Brown went on to say that he thought it was rushed, and that the Senate did not have all of their work completed before they were forced to go public, as well as not having enough or high enough quality communication between the Senate internally and their constituents. Labunka said that he felt that the report was created to justify a group of ideas, and not the other way around as it should have been. He also felt that the Senate was very rushed throughout the whole process, and that the students and the Senate were all not well enough informed about the entire deal. O’Neil responded by saying he was part of the committee that made the report the motion and he felt the entire process was very rushed, and that there were definitely portions of the report that were not ready for publication when it was released. He mentioned that he thought communication surrounding the report was awful, and that everything about the way the Senate handled the issue was rushed.
The second major question was about how each of the candidates was connected to the Alliance for Responsible Government. Brown said that he was briefly a part of ARG, but had since left the organization. Labunka stated that he was involved at the starting of ARG, and that he was initially a part of it but over time their agenda no longer reflected the opinion of the majority of students, and as a result of that he left. O’Neil said that he initially joined ARG because he thought that they were an involved and interested group of students that he might be able to bring into the Senate, but when he went to the meetings he saw they could use his help with publicity and data collection; despite this, he “did not get in on a personal level.”
Following this round of questioning was the first round of voting, during which Labunka received 10 votes, Brown received nine votes, and O’Neil received two votes, with one senator abstaining. With this vote, O’Neil was eliminated and there were a few more minor questions. Another round of voting took place between Brown and Labunka, which Brown won 12–10. After this vote, there was a final vote of confidence in Brown, which he won 19 to three with no abstentions. These votes made Russell Brown officially the Grand Marshal for the interim period between now and the installation of the next GM after the elections the week of April 8.
Posted in News
Leave a comment
We here at The Poly would like to congratulate both the Student Senate and Russell Brown ’14 for Brown’s appointment as Grand Marshal this past Monday night. The speed with which the Senate acted to recover from the loss of former GM Lee Sharma ’12 is commendable.
After Sharma’s somewhat mysterious disappearance at the start of this semester and last semester’s motion regarding President Shirley Ann Jackson, the Senate has taken a hit to their public image in the past few months. Their efficiency in filling the vacant Grand Marshal position helps quell those sorts of sentiments, and the fact that the meeting leading to this appointment did not last six hours also points to a Senate more focused on its mission of representing the interests of the students.
In each of their campaign speeches, the candidates spoke of working to make the Senate better for the students it represents, and of trying to recover and move forward. We at The Poly support this. A stronger student government is better for the students, and a student government with a leader is a stronger student government. The Grand Marshal is a crucial link between the student government and the administration, a link that is even more crucial now than it has been in the past. Relations have been strained between the students, the Students Senate, and the administration since the events that occurred at the end of the last semester, and The Poly sincerely hopes that the new GM—and the GM elections coming up in May—will go a long way towards repairing and improving those bridges.
Posted in Editorial/Opinion
Leave a comment
THE JET CLASS, PERCHED on a downed lander, launches a volley of rockets at a large group of spiders across the ditch. Its speed and ability to fly make the Jet an extremely versatile class.James’ Take
Heads up, fellow humans. We are being invaded by giant alien bugs from outer space, dubbed Ravagers. Ants and spiders the size of vehicles, in both organic and robotic varieties spawned from anthills and crawling up from underground, make up the majority of their ground forces, complemented by smaller spiders known as Ticks, which grab onto their victims and then explode. Somehow, these mutant insects have air power as well, for they are supported in the air by gunships, carriers that spawn massive numbers of enemies, and even wasps, again coming in metal and organic versions. Bigger foes occasionally accompany these grunts, fearsome in their power and stature. Bomber Spiders, bigger than tanks and with about 50 times as much health, spawn Ticks from their attacks, which makes them frightening and extremely annoying. Hectors are giant robots that shoot lasers in beam and machine gun modes and have rockets as well. They can only be harmed by shooting them in their giant glowing red chests. Mantises jump around and release explosions of energy which knock back everything that gets too close. Daddy Long Legs spawn enemies, shoot lasers, drop bombs, and are only vulnerable while their spawning bay is open. And of course there are bigger versions of the Hectors, which do more damage, have more health, and wear armor over their weak spot which must be shot off before they can actually be hurt. Heading up the swarm is the queen ant, the biggest bug you will ever see.
All that stands in their way is the Earth Defense Force. Comprised of four types of specialized troopers, this battle-hardened bastion must ensure humanity’s survival by destroying the hordes of bugs threatening our planet. In Insect Armageddon, you play as a member of Strike Force Lightning, some of the EDF’s most elite troops. You can play as the Trooper, an all-around soldier type class with slightly augmented medical abilities. You can play as the Jet, a superfast flying unit with plasma weapons that light up enemies with pretty colors and explosions. You can play as the Tactical, a support unit who puts down turrets and radar. Or you can play as my personal favorite class, the Battle. The Battle has ridiculous amounts of health, heavy weapons, and a plasma shield which, in addition to blocking attacks, can be used to zap nearby enemies or release an energy pulse which will temporarily drain the shield’s batteries. The Battle gets assault rifles that are more like machine guns—the better models do as much damage per shot as several of the missile, rocket, and grenade launchers. (The Battle also gets excellent missile, rocket, and grenade launchers, by the way.) Other weapons in the game include shotguns and sniper rifles, which I personally don’t like as much because they seem to be less useful for the massive amounts of killing the game requires.
The game also offers a few vehicle type weapons, including an incredibly powerful plane turret, a mechanical assault robot, a tank, and anti-ground and anti-air base turrets. These, while fun to use, cannot match the damage output of the better weapons in the game, and so if used amount to little more than extra health (which is admittedly important).
The one gripe I have with the game is that it only allows for three-player co-op. The multiplayer campaign is quite a lot of fun, and I would love to enjoy it with more than two friends. Up to four can play Survival mode, but that’s not as fun as the main storyline. Despite this drawback, however, Insect Armageddon is a great game and tons of fun to play. I heartily recommend it to anyone who likes the idea of shooting lots and lots of bugs. It’s hard to go wrong with that.
David’s Take
Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon is a fun and hilarious spiritual successor to Earth Defense Force 2017, both published by D3 Publisher and released in 2011 and 2007 respectively. I say that it is a spiritual successor rather than a true sequel because of the vast differences between the games mechanically and in terms of story continuity. Having said all of that though, both games have a fairly small demographic, so no one really cares.
Both games are an absolute hoot, especially when played in a group with friends. Insect Armageddon adds classes, class specific weapons, and a heck of lot of fun to the original through an expansion of co-op. Each of the classes are unique: one is a walking tank (side note, your tank can also drive a tank if you’re feeling like Xzibit), one flies, one can drop turrets, and one doesn’t have anything special about it. That last one is the soldier and no one loves him. I’ve been playing as the Jet class for the most of my experience with the game, and it has confirmed to me the fact that jetpacks are the greatest thing ever conceived by any man ever for life, the universe, and all time. Full stop. Problem solved. Give that man a Nobel prize, a crown, and a solid gold toilet. Glorious victory.
Anyway, moving on from that, I had a lot of fun flying through the air with infinite ammo shooting infinite missiles at what seemed like infinite enemies. I enjoyed playing the flying character because its guns all fired plasma projectiles, as opposed to the straight missiles and bullets of the other classes. While that means nothing mechanically in the game, it does mean that all of the projectiles were very different and interesting colors. My class added a lot of fun colors to all of the situations, spreading blue, green, teal, and glorious purple explosions around the map with somewhat wild abandon.
As a rule, the game at no point takes itself seriously. The dialogue was nonsensical, stupid, and funny. The army intelligence group had no idea what it was talking about, the operations officer was standard, which is to say calm, collected, and female, and the pilot you run with is as though you mixed the movie Airplane! with an actual airline pilot. His lines are the best part of the game in terms of dialogue.
The enemy design is not what I would call inspired, but it is alright. It included enough difficulty to keep the player interested, with small hit boxes in some places, and extreme mobility in others, but had very little originality. They didn’t really stray from their source materials, which is to say their bugs looked like bugs, and therefore kind of boring.
Overall, buy the game. It’s pretty fun the first time through alone, and it keeps being fun if you can do it with friends. If you have a completionist spirit then you can keep at it for a long time as well. I think it’s a good time, and you should consider investing in it.
Wesley’s Take
So the terror and aversion I typically experience when encountering giant insects or spiders in movies or games was strangely absent from this experience. I thought that, with the game portraying the titular event with thousands of the six- and eight-legged buggers, I wouldn’t be able to play that much of it, and would wind up watching my friends playing while they blasted away at the onslaught.
I was pleasantly surprised that this was not the case. In fact, the game’s myriad machine guns, rocket launchers, and grenade launchers meant that my many-legged foes never got near enough that their ugly insectoid features bothered me. In fact, this might have helped me get over my hatred of insects, at least a little bit.
The game is pretty fun to play with friends, though I think that without the co-op, the game wouldn’t be that much fun. However, with friends, it’s a blast going through the game coordinating with people in the same room as you to fight the deluge of giant insects.
The difficulty is well-scaled and the challenge ramps up in a satisfying way as the campaign progresses. Overall, it’s fun to play with friends, but I’m not sure it would be that great to play alone. So if you can find a few friends who want to join you, grab a few copies and spend a night fighting seemingly endless forces of insects.
Posted in Features
Leave a comment
FRESHMAN RYAN HAGGERTY RIPS a shot on net in the Engineers’ 2-2 tie with Cornell University on Friday. Haggerty scored the game-tying goal early in the third period of the match.After pulling a stunning 2-2 tie with No. 13 Cornell University on Friday night, the men’s hockey team faltered in its biggest game of the season—an 8-3 loss to Colgate University in the 35th annual Big Red Freakout!. The Engineers are now 7-19-2 overall on the year, and 4-10-2 in league play with only a few weekends left in the regular season. Cornell, ranked second in the ECAC, moves to 11-6-6 overall and 8-3-5 in conference play, while Colgate rises to 15-10-3 overall and 9-6-1 in ECAC action.
Friday night’s matchup against the Cornell Big Red—which was also broadcast nationally on the NBC Sports Network—saw the Engineers bounce back from a two-goal deficit in the third period to force overtime. However, neither team was able to score in the five-minute sudden death frame, leaving both deadlocked in a 2-2 decision.
Cornell senior Sean Collins opened the match at 6:34 of the first period with his eighth goal of the season. Collins grabbed a rebound off a shot by senior Sean Whitney, and flipped the puck over junior RPI goaltender Bryce Merriam.
The Big Red’s second goal came off a strong individual effort by sophomore Dustin Mowrey, who weaved through the Rensselaer defense and ripped a shot that bounced off Merriam’s pad. However, junior Greg Miller was waiting on the doorstep to bury the biscuit at 15:00 of the second period.
Trailing by two goals to enter the third frame, the Engineers fought back to knot up the contest. Junior C.J. Lee beat sophomore netminder Andy Iles at 2:54 of the third off a one-timer feed from senior Alex Angers-Goulet. Senior Joel Malchuk earned the second assist on the play after winning the puck battle deep in the Cornell zone.
Less than two minutes later, freshman Ryan Haggerty made it a 2-2 match with his sixth goal of the season. Senior Patrick Cullen carried the puck into the offensive zone, and flipped Haggerty the puck near the hash marks as he stuffed the biscuit into the Cornell cage.
Despite a late Cornell penalty, the Engineers couldn’t find the go-ahead goal in the overtime frame. Merriam stopped 23 shots, while Iles made 22 stops for the Big Red.
The next evening wouldn’t end as well for Rensselaer, as Colgate senior Austin Smith netted four goals in an 8-3 rout of the Engineers. Smith, the nation’s leading scorer with 30 goals netting one in the first period, two in the second, and a single goal in the third frame.
Smith’s first of the night came as he received a pass from junior Robbie Bourdon and buried the puck from the bottom of the left face off circle at 9:37. Shortly after at 17:09, Bourdon made it a 2-0 match as his centering pass deflected off the stick of an RPI defender and over Merriam’s shoulder.
Rensselaer pulled within one early in the second period off sophomore Guy Leboeuf’s third goal of the season, with the assist going to classmate Brock Higgs. However, the Raiders responded with three goals in the frame, including the eventual game-winner.
Just over a minute and a half later, Smith scored his second of the night after capitalizing on a turnover in the RPI zone. Senior Nick Prokaw made it a 4-1 match after his shot from the far side boards slid into the net at 16:44. Smith then closed out the period with a hat trick at 18:40 after grabbing the loose puck and flipping it into an open net.
Colgate didn’t stop there, and added four more tallies in the third period. Junior Thomas Larkin made it a 6-1 contest with a power play goal at 6:07. Smith netted his fourth of the night at 7:36 after fighting off a stick check and sending the wrist shot to the back of the RPI net.
Despite replacing freshman Scott Diebold—who had already replaced Merriam earlier in the match—with Merriam once again, the Raiders still managed to hit the back of the cage once more. Bourdon made it an 8-1 match after scoring his second of the game at 14:17. Rensselaer tried to soften the loss with an unassisted goal from freshman Zach Schoeder and another from Cullen, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the five-goal deficit.
Merriam, who played just over 49 minutes of the match, made 18 stops, while Diebold, who played the remaining 11 minutes, blocked seven Raider attempts. At the other end of the rink, senior Alex Evin made 28 stops in the win.
The Engineers travel to Harvard University and Dartmouth University next weekend in some of their final ECAC matches of the season. Rensselaer takes on the Harvard Crimson on Friday at 7 pm, and then take on the Dartmouth Big Green on Saturday at 7 pm.
Posted in Sports
Leave a comment
In a couple of weeks, a new feature is going to be available in the current laundry service program at RPI residence halls. Alexandre M. da Silva, director of Auxiliary, Parking and Transportation Services, described the new feature, LaundryAlert, as a web-based alert system that “enables the user to find out the in-use status of a washing or drying cycle.” It is a student initiative that began two years ago. The idea came from the students wishing for an efficient way to monitor their laundry throughout the laundry cycle. The idea was good enough to warrant the Student Senate to push for more development on this project.
Currently, the vast majority of the washers and dryers in the residence halls are already outfitted with “web-based controllers on the back of the machines” that connect to the website http://laundryalert.com/, said Senior Administrative Coordinator of Auxiliary, Parking and Transportation Elizabeth Preston. So far, three-quarters of the washers and dryers are outfitted already; the rest, mainly apartments and family housing, are awaiting the last shipment, which is due to arrive in the coming two weeks.
Students are able to view all the available washers and dryers through the website, and see how much more time a particular cycle has left. There is also a feature on LaundryAlert that allows users to sign up for a message sent out via SMS or e-mail to notify them upon the completion of the cycle. This feature is not only just for alerting users of when the load is finished, but can also notify them when a certain number of washers or dryers are available.
One drawback to this is if a particular machine is open, someone might already be loading in their laundry before the site updates. But since this service is mainly used to notify users of when there are laundry machines open; users can’t reserve a machine for their use.
Another plus to this new feature to the laundry service program is that FIXX is connected through the website. The student can report a particular machine to ASI Campus Laundry Solutions, who in turn notifies FIXX to service the broken machine. This eliminates having to go through FIXX and Auxiliary Services before notifying ASI Campus Laundry Solutions to send a technician out to fix the broken machine.
RPI is not the first to have such a program. Many other schools have created similar programs in the past. But this is an improvement to the current laundry service program pushed forward by the Student Senate that began with a student initiative. It is now currently available for these residence halls: Barton Hall, Blitman Commons, Bray Hall, Cary Hall, RAHP-Colvin, Crockett Hall, Davison Hall, Hall Hall, the Quadrangle, Nason Hall, North Hall, Nugent Hall, Sharp Hall, and Warren Hall.
Instructions on how to use this new feature will be distributed when all the residence halls have been outfitted with the web-based controllers. To access this feature now, go to http://laundryalert.com/ and put in the code “rpi2012” and a list of residence halls with the washer and dryers in use and available will appear.
Posted in News
Leave a comment
Hello, world.
Well, kind of.
Each Poly Editor in Chief typically writes a notebook in their first issue to introduce themselves to the RPI community, and outline plans. However, there are two problems with that statement.
First of all, I’m not really your Editor in Chief. I’m only acting at it, filling in by default (which isn’t good; I’m a pretty lousy actor). See that box to the left? Yeah, for some reason it has my name at the top. I’m not sure why, but I guess that is the risk one takes when running for the second highest position on The Poly’s senior board.
Second, this isn’t my first issue. I’ve been “Acting” Editor in Chief for all three issues this semester. Why am I waiting this long to write my first notebook? Well, besides really hoping that everything would be worked out and return to normal (which is unlikely to happen at this point), I don’t really know. I’m sort of just winging everything. At least I have a pretty full Senior Board (including our previous EIC) to back me up.
Anyway, hello. I’m T.J.. The Acting EIC of your friendly neighborhood campus paper. I’m also apparently the de facto Editorial and Opinion Editor, the Systems Director, and the Web Director.
Normally, a new EIC uses most of this space to outline their plans for the coming year. Having prepared an entire platform for use at elections, these plans are usually already laid out and well-defined, and simply needing rewording in notebook form.
I, on the other hand, was elected to be Senior Managing Editor. I have no plans, except maybe to rule The Poly with an iron fist of justice and awesomeness.Whatever that means.
If I did have plans, maybe they’d be something along the lines of trying to increase editor efficiency by pushing to have content submitted earlier. After all, the more sleep editors get (or at least, the fewer lost hours of sleep blamed on The Poly; I can’t ensure that an earlier closing actually means more sleep), the better.
Perhaps, if I had some sort of vision for this fine paper, it might also include soliciting feedback from students. We’ve tried it in the past (and by “tried,” I mean we put a survey in the summer issue when no one was on campus and pretended to be surprised when we received very few responses). Having been the person working on getting our web site back online, I enjoyed the feedback I saw in my interactions with RPI’s sub-reddit whenever I posted an issue online.
Maybe, had I been given time to think about things, I would have decided that I want to improve this paper by making sure everyone can read The Poly online. Oh wait. I already sort of did that. “Sort of,” because I’m not done uploading all of the issues from the period where we didn’t have any sort of Web Director/didn’t bother posting things online. I hope to get around to that, but, with recent craziness (see above), I hope people can understand if that doesn’t happen in a timely manner.
So instead of having a well-defined platform, I find myself in the position of Editor in Chief, with no real plans, and an awesome, competent editorial staff. I guess I have no choice but to make things work.
P.S. My apologies if anyone saw the headline and was disappointed that this wasn’t a notebook about computer science.
Posted in Editorial/Opinion
Leave a comment
Woe to the college student on a budget who leaves the toasty warm residence halls in search of food in the dead of night; for lo, the Rathskellar closed at 11 pm, Father’s closed at 2 pm, Big Apple Pizza has closed at 3 am, and by 4 am The Ruck will serve you nothing but alcohol (or nothing at all, if you’re under 21). With those depressing hours in mind, it is no surprise that The Brown Bag has quickly become the go-to place for late-night eating in downtown Troy since opening last November.
Chances are, if you’ve wandered around downtown Troy, you’ve noticed the small, brown brick corner building that was empty except for a green sign in the window, proclaiming “Enjoy Troy.” The so-called “Enjoy Troy” building at 156 4th St. is now home to the only downtown restaurant that’s solely open for nighttime business—they’re open Monday–Sunday, 9 pm–6 am, eat-in or take-out.
The setup is simple: a few mismatched tables and chairs were scattered along the walls, with long cushioned bench running the length of the front window; a bar with some stools, and the open grill and kitchen area extending to the back. A stack of board games, ranging from checkers to Connect Four, are piled up in the corner to play while you wait for your food (or while you eat). The evening’s menu is written on a tall blackboard next to the bar. If you look up, the original tin ceiling from the early 1900s is still up there and in pretty good shape; any holes have been patched up with loose change. It’s not meant to be a fancy place, but it is homey. Take-out is packaged in familiar brown paper lunch bags.
Offering $4 hamburgers and cheeseburgers (with or without “the works,” an assortment of toppings including lettuce, tomatoes, onions, pickles, ketchup, and mustard); grilled cheese sandwiches; well-seasoned french fries; breakfast sandwiches; coffee, and an assortment of local soft drinks; the Brown Bag is definitely one of the best deals in town. I guarantee that no meal will cost you more than $10. They also have specials throughout the week, ranging from special menu items like hot soup and sausage and peppers (last Tuesday’s special was free bacon, if you used your smartphone to check in on Foursquare or Facebook) to home-baked chocolate chip cookies. Everything is made fresh and to order, so there can be a wait (especially if there’s a large crowd), but it’s worth it.
The first time I ventured there was with a friend during finals week of last semester. It was a bitterly cold night, and business was pretty slow. We ordered hamburgers and a side of fries, which were hand-made by the owner, a friendly guy who brought our order over to the table and stayed and chatted with us for a few minutes until the next customers came in. At first, everything was a little bit greasy for my tastes, but the extra grease gave the food a classic American diner-food feel.
Since then, the Brown Bag has installed free Wi-Fi and set up a credit card machine for those of us running low on cash. The walls are now decorated with artwork by local artists, all up for sale. Now, it’s not uncommon to find the place full of all kinds of people, ranging from workers on the graveyard shift to college kids. I went there last Sunday night, and while I waited for my take out, I watched a crowd of people come in and order, some sitting at the bar to chat, others setting up a game of chess while they ate.
Honestly, the food is still really good; I wouldn’t go so far as to say they’ve got the best burgers in Troy, but it’s certainly the best late-night food within walking distance of campus. The burgers are well-cooked but juicy, the toppings are fresh, and the grilled cheese sandwiches were perfectly melted. (The chocolate chip cookies, when available, are also delicious and served warm.) The fries are probably my favorite: they’ve gained some extra seasoning and pepper over the last few months, which only makes them tastier.
So whether sober or inebriated, in a hurry or just in need of a study break, the Brown Bag is worth visiting if you’re looking for a late-night (or early-morning) meal on a budget. I wouldn’t plan on taking a date there, but if you’re looking for a place to hang out, check it out. Daily specials are usually announced on http://facebook.com/TheBrownBag/.
Posted in Features
Leave a comment
The women’s basketball team continued its scintillating form as it thoroughly outclassed Bard College at the East Campus Arena. Senior Hillary McKinley led all scorers with 15 points while sophomore Kyleigh Oliveira and freshman Meg Denison added 14 and 11 points, respectively. In total, 13 players scored points for RPI.
Three minutes into the game RPI was already up 10-0 and they continued to press. The Engineers dominated the entire first half in all phases of the game, shooting over 60 percent from the field and limiting Bard to just 10 points the entire half while racking up 50 of their own.
After the break, the pressure continued as RPI scored the first 18 points of the half. After a series of Bard possessions made the game 73-18 with 7:46 remaining, the Engineers stepped on the gas yet again and did not allow their opponents to score for the next six minutes. In that time the Engineers scored another 14 points. The game would finish 89-22 in favor of the home team.
Last night, the Engineers defeated Vassar College in a 65-59 decision in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Once again, Wetmore led all players with 19 points.
The team’s fourth win in a row brings RPI’s overall record to 13-7 while its Liberty League record stands at 7-4. Out of its final five games, the matchups against the Rochester Institute of Technology and Clarkson University should be the most challenging for the Engineers, as they are the only teams remaining that have beat Rensselaer this season. RPI hopes that it can continue its win streak until the end of the season and start with upcoming games against RIT and William Smith College.
Posted in Sports
Leave a comment
So! Funny story: I’m now the resident bald dude on staff here at The Poly. Slightly less funny story, it’s for a serious reason. My family is going through a bit of trouble right now, and a big part of it is my grandmother in California and her cancer. I’m shaving my head because I’m a couple thousand miles away, so the best I can do from here is give her the spiritual support of my bald head. I know it’s not a lot, it’s just hair and I didn’t have much to begin with, but it’s what I have and what I can do for her from here.
In many ways, she raised me when I was little, and I love her tremendously. So when she had chemotherapy and lost her hair, I cut mine off too, vowing I will not have hair until she does. She has given me a heck of a lot over the years, as much as if not more than anyone else in my life. I love her dearly, and I would love her dearly even if she hadn’t done all she has over the years for me.
That’s the thing about family; with very few exceptions, they all get the shirt off my back and my last dollar, with maybe a question asked if they have time. This is true for me because I love them, and because they are family. The thing is, like I mentioned a second ago, my grandmother is in California. In addition to that, I’m the staff’s resident Coloradoan, so best case scenario I’m a two day drive, a two day train ride, or a $400-plus flight from home. Last I checked (fairly recently mind you), that’s not exactly something I can do on a whim.
The reason I’m writing this is one: so when you folks see me on campus, you don’t think I’m insane and some sort of Nazi-type, and two: to urge y’all to keep in good contact with your folks back home. I’m not the only one who is a fair distance from home. It’s really easy to be at college, and get wrapped up in our lives out here. It’s really easy to forget your phone in a car, and to leave it on silent for a few days. It’s easy to do homework, go party, read The Poly (hint hint), and all that jazz. It’s hard to remember that your folks back home care about your day to day, and want to hear from you. I know it’s really hard for me sometimes. It’s worth the effort though, because frankly, you’ll never know if someone you love gets cancer, or ends up in the hospital. Just watch How I Met Your Mother; how crappy would it be if that last thing you heard from your folks was that Crocodile Dundee 3 was awesome. I can’t speak for you guys, but I know that’s not what I want.
Posted in Editorial/Opinion
Leave a comment