Roughly two weeks ago, the members of the Indian Students Association displayed patriotism to their roots by celebrating the festive yet religious Indian holiday, Diwali. Since 1987, ISA has aimed to increase awareness of Indian culture and traditions among the RPI student body. ISA throws a Diwali show annually, and it is said to be its most prominent event of the year. The club was rumored to have some pressure in throwing this year’s Diwali show as it had to follow up last year’s show, which was regarded to be a massive hit. However, with a lot of dedication from the members, the audience was indeed in for a treat. Each act highlighted principles of Indian music, dance, drama and comedy. Read more...

After a disappointing last few weekends, RPI women’s hockey is back on track following a 2-2 tie with the Brown University Bears and a 5-0 shutout of the Yale University Bulldogs. The win and tie now puts the Engineers at 3-7-4 overall, and 1-3-2 in ECAC play, while the Bears move to 2-2-3 overall with a 1-2-3 conference record. The Bulldogs currently sit at the bottom of the league standings with a 1-8 overall record, including a 1-5 mark within the ECAC. Leading the way for the Engineers was freshman Eleeza Cox, who netted a hat trick against Yale on Saturday. Read more...

Over the past few years, there has been growing concern regarding what many refer to as the “tuition gap.” This gap is due to a combination of a skyrocketing cost of attendance and faltering financial aid. As a result, students have been burdened with higher personal costs than they originally intended, and some are simply unable to keep up. Read more...

I was excited when I heard that a Moe’s was opening up next to campus. I truly was. I feel that I’m not alone in this excitement, but my reasons may be different than everybody else’s. I hope I’m not alone. Read more...

Probably best known for its dramatic dancing fight scenes and iconic songs such as “I Feel Pretty,” West Side Story celebrated its 50th anniversary this past Wednesday. To celebrate the event, Turner Classic Movies and select theaters around the country held showings of the movie for one night. Read more...

The first goal scored by the men’s hockey team in over 200 minutes of play proved to be all it needed as the Engineers rebounded from a 2-0 loss to No. 9 Yale University on Friday to earn the 1-0 victory over Brown University on Saturday. Rensselaer, snapping an eight-game losing streak, is now 2-9-0 overall with a 1-3-0 league record, while the Yale Bulldogs improved to 4-3-1 overall and 3-1-0 in ECAC play. The Brown Bears fall to 3-3-0 overall on the season and 2-2-0 in conference play. Read more...

In this day and age, it is almost impossible to get a job where you will be working exclusively with people of the same major as you. Companies employ teams of people with widely varied skill sets and these people must be able to communicate with each other. I assume this is the reason for requiring students to take a certain number of communication intensive courses (the motivation could be something else, of course, but I find that unlikely). Read more...

Last Wednesday, the RPI Ski & Snowboard Club, along with Red Bull, sponsored a screening of The Art of FLIGHT, a snowboarding movie produced by director Curt Morgan and pro boarder Travis Rice. The Art of FLIGHT is more than just a snowboarding movie, however. It showcases some of the most remote—and beautiful—uncharted areas on the planet, in addition to showing off the impressive skills of several of the best riders out there. Read more...

RPI closed out its final game of the season at home with a 31-24 loss to the United States Merchant Marine Academy. The win marks the first for the Mariners in Troy since 1960. The Engineers end the year with a 4-5 overall record, including a 3-3 Liberty League mark, while Merchant Marine moves to 3-7 overall and 2-4 in conference play. Read more...

Over the past few days, we’ve seen a huge increase in awareness of the Student Senate and its activities. I’m not going to get into the content of our meeting or the magnitude of the conversation—I’m sure that’s covered on the front page. Instead, I’d like to discuss a bit of work the Senate is doing behind the scenes that led to the motion and discussion last night. Read more...

Dave’s Take

I had actually heard of Sanctum for quite a while before we decided to do a group play through of it, and in my mind, before playing, it seemed like a fun, but dumb idea. The mixing of a first-person shooter with a tower defense game seems like it wouldn’t work, right? The two play styles are antithetical; one is very active and the other is mostly passive, attacking one’s enemies directly as opposed to setting defenses and waiting for the enemy to come to you. Read more...

Over the course of the last few weeks, I’ve had the privilege of writing about the differences between my own home and country and the one where I now live. There are many, many more than ever I could list, but perhaps one of the most notable is the celebration of Thanksgiving. We Brits don’t partake of that particular tradition, and we tend to look westward across the Atlantic at the “Colonials” and wonder just what it’s all about: turkey-with-all-the-trimmings is Christmas fare for us, and sitting down a month or often less before The Big Day Itself to feast on what appears to be a dry run for the Yuletide blow-out is peculiar indeed. It seems like just another holiday, just another day of the year but with another big feast to go with it—followed immediately by, we harrumph, a big shopping day. What nobody realises, because unless they have strong American connections, such as being in a relationship, is just how important Thanksgiving-tide is, how central to the American psyche and soul and heart. More so than Christmas, perhaps, this is the holiday, the celebration of the year, the time for family and friends to congregate and catch up. Read more...

This week I’d like to take an opportunity to talk about the Rensselaer Union’s approach to risk management and the variety of different systems to help students with it. Allowing students to participate in as many activities as possible and still remain safe is a top priority for the Union. It is the role of club student activities resource persons and the Union Executive Board to ensure that all our clubs are operating in a successful and safe manner. Also, each club is responsible for making sure it has both strong leadership and is using good judgment when it comes to safety. Read more...

This Monday, President Shirley Ann Jackson attended the Student Senate meeting. Generally, the President attends Senate meetings once a year to discuss matters of concern to the student body. Read more...

It has been a long year and a half, but we at The Poly would like to announce the reopening of our website at http://poly.rpi.edu/. The Poly has been hard at work to bring this service back to our readers, as we’ve received many requests for an online version of our weekly publication. We apologize for the long hiatus; over the past few semesters, The Poly has lacked the resources to maintain a proper website. Not only did we have to find the talent necessary to fix the interface, but we also had to build a new server to replace our rapidly deteriorating and obsolete infrastructure. As of now, we have not only managed to bring our website back up, but we have completely redesigned it. Read more...

Leading science journalist and popular New York Times blogger Andrew Revkin spoke and answered questions at the Heffner Alumni House last Thursday afternoon. Here is a brief description of his main talking points. Read more...

Backed by the spectacular performance of junior quarterback Mike Hermann, the Rensselaer football team rallied to a 29-28 victory over formerly nationally-ranked Hobart College. The Engineers are now 4-4 overall with a 3-2 Liberty League record, while then-No. 24 Hobart suffered its first loss of the season to fall to 6-1 overall and 4-1 in conference play. Read more...

On Saturday, the Alliance for Responsible Government held an event in Commons Circle to celebrate the 187th birthday of the Institute. Through the form of a birthday card for the Institute, they subtly described their overarching purpose by asking, “What’s your birthday wish for RPI?” Read more...