The RPI women’s ice hockey team faced Union College in a non-league game held at the Houston Field House on Saturday, resulting in a disappointing loss. Courtney Turner led the Union College women’s hockey team with two goals and an assist on the game-winning tally to lead Union College to victory. This win allowed the Dutchwomen to improve to 2-2-0 overall, while the Engineers dropped to 1-3-1. Read more...

On Saturday, October 20, during RPI’s Family Weekend, the Union Student Activities Office and the Office of International Services for Students and Scholars hosted the 24th annual International Festival. Held in the McNeil Room of the Rensselaer Union, the Festival featured many of the cultural organizations on campus. Read more...

Student-run clubs at college can often act as microcosms of bigger, real-world organizations or companies. That makes them ideal practice grounds for challenges most students will face later in life. At RPI, it’s easy to join a club, and it takes very little effort to start a new one. Of course, many of these start-up clubs fall flat. Even relatively big organizations that have existed for a while on campus sometimes have trouble with new, inexperienced leaders when the older members graduate. Read more...

AKOUSMA was in no way an experience that I will ever forget. Read more...

I have been an undergraduate mentor for the past two semesters. It’s worth noting that my mentoring experience is limited to a small number of computer science classes, and the experience is probably different across other courses and departments. Read more...

I absolutely love horror movies. Something about testing my mettle against Hollywood’s attempts to induce fright has always been too enticing to resist. The problem is that, nowadays, it’s more about seeing whether or not Hollywood can even put something out that gets me on edge anymore. Over time, I’ve realized that I get more frightened when a movie has me really wound up; if the film can build enough suspense over time and finish strong, I’ll be pretty convinced of its power to scare. Because of this, I tend to enjoy the Paranormal Activity movies. Sure, the endings aren’t always the gut punch I want, and the sequels have gone for cheaper scares than the original, but they’re all pretty good at building up to the terror. For me, the build up is what makes those movies. What drew me to Sinister, however, was its interesting premise. Is an interesting premise enough to make this a good horror movie, though? Read more...

This weekend we had the pleasure (or pain) of seeing our parents here. Thousands of parents registered for Family Weekend 2012, a weekend for them to see how we, individually, are doing here and see the great things that our school is up to. The one thing that was a bummer this weekend was the weather. I hope your parents enjoyed the visit. The culminating event for the weekend was the GM/PU Brunch; Jon Stack ’13, President of the Union, and I got to meet parents. Parents also had the special treat of meeting President Shirley Ann Jackson, cabinet members, faculty, and deans. This event and the weekend in general went very well. A special thanks to everyone in Student Experience and all of the other people involved in making this weekend possible! Read more...

Like many from my generation, J.K. Rowling’s “wizarding world” will always hold a dear place in my heart. The Harry Potter series was a significant part of my childhood, and I look back on all of those childhood years spent with “Harry and friends” with nostalgia. That being said, Rowling’s most recent book, The Casual Vacancy, is a very different work of fiction. Therefore, I will try to separate my reactions to The Casual Vacancy from the Potter series as much as possible. Read more...

Hello, RPI! I hope that everyone enjoyed many of the events and activities held this past weekend in conjunction with Family Weekend. Special thanks to Lisa Trahan and her entire staff in the Student Experience Office for the hard work that went into making the weekend a success! Read more...

At this point in time, I wish I could say that Chasing Sarasota by Matt Mastrantuono was the stereotypical sports movie. In fact, I wish it were a standard sports story. For people who are a fan of sports movies like Chariots of Fire or Angels in the Outfield, the movie provides a new, refreshing perspective and pace compared to the standard sports story. Even for people who are not familiar with athletic movies in general, the film is well put together, easily swapping between gameplay clips and more personal interviews with the players. It is an overall solid film, but seems rather wonky in terms of plot pacing. Read more...

This week, the Interfraternity Council would like to highlight the Sigma Chi Fraternity. Sigma Chi has 48 members and resides on 58 Pinewoods Ave. One of the Pawling fraternities, Sigma Chi’s values include friendship, justice, and learning. The Delta Psi chapter at Rensselaer is one of 239 undergraduate Sigma Chi chapters nationwide, making Sigma Chi one of the largest national fraternities. Read more...

“What’s your major?” is a commonly asked question whenever people meet each other for the first time. “Sustainability Studies,” I always answer. Some people know what that is, but many ask me if it’s related to environmental science. “No, it’s in the Science, Technology and Society department. It’s more of the social science side of environmental problems and solutions.” Read more...

The refresh of The Rensselaer Plan, the document which serves as the guide for every action taken by the Institute, has gone through all four of its open review sessions scheduled by President Shirley Ann Jackson. Two student forums have also been held for students to provide input without the atmosphere of a formal open session. Read more...

In the years of the distant past, before almost any of RPI’s current crop of students were in attendance at the Institute, UPAC Concerts brought amazing shows to campus, much to the delight of all. Great acts such as The Who and Bon Jovi were common fare at these concerts, which were looked forward to with excitement. Read more...

The women’s hockey team headed east on I-90 this past weekend to take on two of Hockey East’s best. Rensselaer put up a valiant fight against two nationally-ranked opponents, the Boston University Terriers and the Northeastern University Huskies. Despite a strong performance from the Engineers on both Friday and Saturday, the No. 3 Terriers came away with a 3-2 win, while the No. 8 Huskies were named the victor in a 1-0 decision. The two losses put RPI at 1-2-1 on the season. Read more...

Over the past few weeks, the Rensselaer Union Executive Board has been looking into re-furnishing the Union and improving the overall student usage of the Union’s various resources and facilities. One of the E-Board’s tentative projects regarding this involves purchasing new furniture for the building. Read more...

Many students at RPI are not local students; they are not from anywhere close to Troy. I, myself, am from Michigan; I’ve made friends with people from all over the country—people who call far-off states like Alabama, Colorado, Texas, Washington, and even California home. Coming from somewhere so far away, I rarely get to visit home, which has led to a phenomenon in my mental state that I refer to as the “distance dichotomy.” Read more...

Last week, many students noticed that the Rathskeller was not offering its Dollar Days, a deal where customers could purchase a specific product for $1. This is due to Sodexo’s choice to stop offering the deal after seeing diminishing returns in sales. Read more...

Many people don’t know this, but in addition to being a Poly Features coordinator, I am also the staff coordinator and Maître d’ of Terra Café. Terra is a student-run volunteer restaurant with a focus on sustainable, local, and organic food. The café currently meets every Wednesday from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm on the fifth floor of EMPAC, though we used to meet on the top floor of Russell Sage Dining Hall. I have been with Terra since partway through my first semester of freshman year. I started as a waiter, like almost everyone else, and since then have handled parts of every position but one in Terra Café’s hierarchy. Needless to say, I’ve grown to be one of the most present members of the staff. Read more...