On Monday, November 26, at 5 pm in the Fischbach Room in the Folsom Library, several members of the Student Senate, the Rensselaer Union Executive Board, and the Student Life Advisory Council met with RPI President Shirley Ann Jackson to discuss the finalization of the Rensselaer Plan Refresh. Read more...

In addition to their annual holiday sale occurring this Wednesday and Thursday, the Rensselaer Union Bookstore will be selling glasses featuring past musical artists in order to raise money for Hurricane Sandy relief. There will be two different designs: one will feature musical artists that performed at RPI during the 1960s and another will feature bands from the 1970s. In exchange for the glasses, the Bookstore will accept donations of any amount to the relief effort. This will allow for members of the RPI community to donate however much or little they can afford to, and still be recognized for their contributions with a cool throwback to RPI history. The Poly is pleased to see that the bookstore is providing a way—and an incentive—for people to help out with the hurricane relief efforts. Turn to page 1 for a look at the glasses. Read more...

On Saturday, September 17, the RPI Game Development Club hosted the Rensselaer Game Showcase in the McNeil Room. The attendees of this semester’s event, which included over 50 students, had the opportunity to play demos of a plethora of interesting console and computer games while competing for both prizes and bragging rights. Additionally, the Game Showcase had a philanthropic agenda, which was to raise money for the Children’s Center at Albany Medical Center. The event’s raffle was in fact successful, raising over $200 for this worthy cause. Read more...

It has become custom for the outgoing Editor in Chief to write a notebook in their last issue of The Poly. Presumably, the goal is to say “goodbye” and to be reflective or introspective or something like that. Now, clearly I am continuing the tradition by virtue of this notebook being here, but really, the customary content of these “farewells” doesn’t make much sense to me. Read more...

Ben’s Take

Wicked is usually a fantastic musical, and this season’s production at Proctor’s Theatre in Schenectady was no exception. Running from November 8–25, the show was performed by the company of Wicked’s second North American tour. The cast’s next stop is St. Louis, Mo., starting December 12 and going until January 6. Read more...

Every November finds thousands of people across the country (and the world) scrambling to write, write, write until their hands can’t take any more. Why? November is National Novel Writing Month—or NaNoWriMo for those of you who like to abbrev everything. Read more...

Recently, yet another Italian/pizza/wings/catering place opened in Troy. Basil City, located at 2304 15th Street, piqued my friends’ and my interest for its sudden appearance in the area. As off-campus college students, we threw around the idea of trying it, and then a flyer in the mail showed its interesting list of 40 flavors for wings, along with the various pizza and assortment of Italian subs and dinners. This list of flavors includes the standard hot options, then other interesting names including “Burning Human,” “Peanut Butter and Fluff,” and “Peanut Butter and Jelly.” Read more...

Recently, weR: The Spirit of Rensselaer Society developed an initiative to encourage Rensselaer Union-recognized clubs and organizations to create innovative projects and programs. The initiative, titled “weR Gold” essentially provides clubs with a means to acquire funding to expand their efforts. Read more...

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving break! After five days of eating, sitting around, being unproductive, it’s hard to kick the habit and get back in the groove of studying for finals and wrapping up the semester. Read more...

It was more like a homecoming than a movie premiere. Read more...

Hello, RPI! I hope that everyone’s Thanksgiving break was relaxing and productive and that everyone is ready to tackle the challenge presented by end-of-semester exams and projects. If I can offer a word of advice in surviving the last few weeks, it is to make a daily to-do list and to try and follow it. Being organized makes it easier to focus on projects and the material covered in classes! Read more...

Abraham Lincoln is widely considered one of, if not the greatest, president in American history. As such, there have been various attempts at capturing his life; many authors, historians, filmmakers, etcetera, have attempted to dissect this man in order to understand what made him the right person at just the right time in United States history. These attempts have met with varying success, although historians have been able to paint a fairly vivid picture of Lincoln the man and Lincoln the president. Recently, famed director Steven Spielberg decided to take a crack at Lincoln and the result is a sprawling biopic anchored by a stunning, singular performance by Daniel Day-Lewis. Read more...

Uncle Sam proves false

“Uncle Sam” turns 200 years old next month, and it’s time to celebrate the truth. Although the first citation of “Uncle Sam” was written by a “Federalist” in the December 23, 1812 Bennington News-Letter (available on http://GenealogyBank.com/), this person probably also traveled to Albany and Troy during the War of 1812. Troy must reach out to Bennington and correctly celebrate the birth of “Uncle Sam.” It sure would be nice if Troy’s mayor and Troy’s newspaper made these steps right now. Read more...

President Barack Obama was elected to a second four-year term Tuesday, securing, at the time of publishing, 303 out of 538 Electoral College votes. 270 votes are needed to win an election. At the time of publishing, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, Obama’s challenger, was down with 48.5 percent of the popular vote, compared to Obama’s 50.0 percent. Earlier, there had been concern that the situation would be similar to the 2000 Presidential Election, when Al Gore won the popular vote but lost the electoral vote to George W. Bush. The 0.1 percent popular vote difference totaled only about 130,000 votes nationwide. Read more...

Registration for spring semester classes began on Monday. While some students have adequately prepared themselves, many don’t know how to go about the registration process. We suggest that students talk to informed individuals, plan ahead, and know what to do if registering for classes doesn’t go according to plan. Read more...

Take a nice warm sip of your coffee (or tea) and forget the unrelenting issues of your life, because “Much Ado About Nothing” will most definitely soothe your soul. You will come away wishing you could see the play again and again. This delightful romantic comedy will grab your attention with its delicious, sweet story, poignant dialogue, and strong characters, and keep it until the very end. You’ll suddenly be transported to beautiful Messina, an Italian port city, as it was in the 1600s. The drama that envelops the lovebirds will clutch your emotions taut like guitar strings. You’ll cry, you’ll laugh, and you’ll cuddle yourself (or your significant other) when you see just how much the actors have invested themselves into their roles to give you a piece of theater you won’t soon forget. Attending a performance of this play is, without a doubt, one of the best ways to enjoy the magic of William Shakespeare on a chilly autumn night. Read more...

Imagine the following scene: two scientists sit down for lunch. The first one says, “Hey, I heard about this great new technique for treating cancer.” The other one cuts him off, remarking, “Whoa whoa whoa, hold on there, don’t you know? You never talk about scientific research!” The notion of such a thing as that happening is ridiculous. The reason is simple—progress is made because of people sharing their ideas and working together. This is why I not only dislike the popular phrase, “Never talk about religion or politics,” but think that such a stance can be harmful to society. Read more...

On October 10, Materials Advantage, a club in the materials engineering department, hosted a talk by Professor Robert W. Messler given on the topic of sustainable energy with emphasis on the materials involved in these processes. Read more...