When you ask students of prospective changes they’d like to see at the Institute, I bet you’d get a whole slew of responses. Myself, I only dream about two things changing at RPI, one of which is the lights in the Houston Field House. Have you ever tried to take a photo in there? Impossible! You get a little spoiled traveling to other arenas like the Mullins Center in Amherst, Mass., or Magness Arena in Denver, Colo., where it’s practically bright as day inside, but you immediately feel queasy when you enter the dark dungeon that is the Field House, imagining how grainy today’s shots will turn out. At the most recent hockey game I watched, in which the women’s team took on Mercyhurst College, I noticed all the previously burnt-out lights were replaced with shiny new ones, making it slightly easier to take pictures; I guess I’ll change my dream to having strobes added to the rafters. But that’s another story. Read more...

Subsidy, support services, and recognition for over 175 clubs and organizations, which includes sponsorship of 23 varsity teams and over 50 intramural athletic clubs. Religious affairs, legal services, and an emergency loan program. A diverse selection of dining and food venues, ranging from breakfast, lunch, and dinner to late-night and anytime in between. Leadership, professional development, and educational opportunities in an organization among one of the few in the nation. Facilities ranging from a fitness center, bookstore, games room, post office, and performance and conference space. Most importantly, a building that welcomes all students and members of the Institute community; the Rensselaer Union has been the center of campus life since 1890 and in its current home since 1967. It is a student-managed union whose purpose is: “to unite all its members in a commitment to the ideals for which Rensselaer stands, to expand the extracurricular life at Rensselaer, to coordinate all student organizations, to act as a medium through which student opinion may be expressed, and to work with all other members of the Rensselaer community to encourage student initiative and to lead student action in all interests which will serve the welfare and the betterment of Rensselaer,” according to the Rensselaer Union Constitution. Read more...

College is a place where people go for an education. The idea is that you go to classes and perhaps get involved in research. A process called learning takes place, and as a nice little aside, you end up with a diploma. Some may argue that for many of us, the focus is on the diploma and the learning is the side effect. Nonetheless, in the typical case, both of these outcomes arise, and everybody ends up happy. Read more...

To the Editor:

I wanted to thank Kelly Lottman ’11 for beginning a discussion in the September 30 issue of The Poly on the appropriateness of the inclusion of the RIBS acronym in the “(Almost) All Inclusive Dictionary of Rensselaer Terms” in the mid-summer publication of The Poly. I applaud you for raising this issue and trying to make your readership more aware of the on-campus use of this term. I am in full agreement with your implicit suggestion that a wider understanding of the campus should be sought on the following two issues: A) what this term means, and B) does the RIBS term create a more positive impression of female students attending the Institute? I urge you to conduct a student-wide poll and find out more specifically whether your experience is representative of the entire campus viewpoint on this issue. If the RIBS term creates a more positive impression of our student body, then perhaps it should be championed as you have suggested in your editorial. Sigmund Freud was known to espouse the view that humor allows humans to release less than favorable judgments under the guise of comedy. Is there any possibility that this is the case with the “funny but harmless RIBS remarks” the editorial board has witnessed on campus? Read more...

The current debate on health care reform in the United States is one that is clearly very politically charged. One problem with the way the issue is currently viewed is that people who discuss it tend to fall back on party-line ideals, such as small government or social welfare. While being consistent with one’s ideals can be a strength, we must recognize that the issue of health care in the United States is one that transcends these types of views. With over 45 million uninsured Americans, we must recognize that there is a problem and address how to fix it. We cannot simply say that the free market will fix the problem, because that is clearly not the case—for too long we have let insurance companies take advantage of our citizens and let people die in waiting rooms because they couldn’t afford insurance. No one likes it when the government has to step in and fix a problem, but this is one instance where it is clear that this action is necessary. The real question is how to do so. Read more...

In March 2009, Provost Robert Palazzo announced that the Board of Trustees “modified the academic calendar of Rensselaer to enable significant new prospects for curricular, co-curricular, and personal growth programming,” or, in lay terms, made winter break longer at the expense of summer. At the time, there were rumors that a new semester would be offered, “J-semester,” but this does not appear to be the case. Read more...